The Art of S. Clay Wilson (Hardcover)

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Product Description

THE ART OF S. CLAY WILSON is the long-awaited career retrospective of the most extreme of the Zap cartoonists of the late 1960s. A self-described "graphic agoraphobe," Wilson draws manically dense scenes of lurid mayhem that rank among the seminal works of underground, counterculture American art. It’s all here, from the classic chronicles of the Checkered Demon to salacious stories about the pirates, prostitutes, and poets that inhabit Wilson’s divinely depraved world.

From the Publisher

* The definitive collection of the art of legendary Zap comic artist S. Clay Wilson. * Features 200 full-color images, including new work and previously unpublished prints commissioned for private collections. * Introduction by R. Crumb touts Wilson’s role as one of the originators of underground comix. "Wilson was the strongest, most original artist of my generation that I had yet met. . . . There was something very familiar about the drawings, yet something entirely new, never before seen! It looked like folk art, like old-time tattoos, like some high school hotrodder’s notebook drawings. They were rough, crazy, coarse, deeply American."

—from R. Crumb’s introduction

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580087531
• ISBN-13: 978-1580087537
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #579,273 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nice day for somethin', August 12, 2006

By	JAS (Fort Collins, CO USA) - See all my reviews

The ART of S. CLAY WILSON is one hundred fifty-four pages of non-stop art. As always, Wilson's art is wild, visceral, violent, sexual, sincere, and enormously playful. The work is arranged chronologically, 1961 through 2006, and it's a helluva freewheeling ride.
This book opens with six short (1-3 pages) introductory pieces written by R. Crumb, Mark Pascale (Associate Curator of Pints & Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago), John Francis Putnam (writing in The Realist), Charles Plymell (Wilson's first publisher), Geoffrey Young (Curator, The Geoffrey Young Gallery), and Bob Levin (author - his "Outlaws, Rebels, Free-Thinkers and Pirates" includes a chapter on Wilson). Most are funny, revealing, or sentimental (!), all provide some background information for the work that follows.
The book itself is a beauty, surprisingly understated in design and layout. The clean presentation complements the relentlessly detailed art. There are nice touches throughout, including checkered endpapers and a title page self-portrait.
You'll find very few pages of comics or stories in this volume. The ART of S. CLAY WILSON is a life-spanning collection of mostly full-page drawings and illustrations. If you're looking for Wilson comics, try Last Gasp's THE COLLECTED CHECKERED DEMON.
If you're a Wilson fan, snatch this book up. It's a good one.