Jim Woodring

The ever great Angoulême comics festival started today and with that in mind, here is one of my favourite ever cartoonists who is both touchstone and benchmark for a whole heap of comic artists working today. Jim Woodring, former bin man and merry-go-round operator, draws and paints brilliant and infinitely weird wordless comics featuring the anthropomorphic Frank, “whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling.” Jim’s style and output is that of a master craftsman and the psychedelic world he illustrates never fails to amuse or confuse. His biography tells us he lives in Seattle with his family and “residual phenomena.”