Zippy the Pinhead

Zippy the Pinhead burst onto the comics scene in the Underground comic Real Pulp #1, March 1971. Zippy is not just a comic; it's an experience; a way of thinking and interacting with the world.

Zippy, based on the freak show performer Zip the Pinhead, is a free spirited, free thinking simpleton who gets himself in and out of all kinds of crazy trouble.

He started off as a character that often appeared in Underground Comix of the 70's but in 1985 graduated into a full syndicated strip and has been entertaining and confusing people ever since with his non-sequester Zippy-isms like "Are we having fun yet?"

Bill Griffith talked about the creation of Zippy, "I first saw the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks in 1963 at a screening at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where I was attending art school. I was fascinated by the pinheads in the introductory scene and asked the projectionist (who I knew) if he could slow down the film so I could hear what they were saying better. He did and I loved the poetic, random dialog. Little did I know that Zippy was being planted in my fevered brain. Later, in San Francisco in 1970, I was asked to contribute a few pages to Real Pulp Comics #1, edited by cartoonist Roger Brand. His only guideline was to say "Maybe do some kind of love story, but with really weird people." I never imagined I'd still be putting words into Zippy's fast-moving mouth some 38 years later."

Check out Zippy in "A Fool's Paradise Revisited" from Arcade #3, Fall 1975 with the gracious permission of Bill Griffith.

for all Zippy books and Pinhead paraphernalia check out Zippy the Pinhead.com

Or you can also check out Bill Griffith on Facebook