KIM DEITCH

Kim Deitch

Fowlton Means (b. 1944, USA)   

Kim Deitch is generally held to be one of the greatest influences in American underground comix. As sixties comics were popular and under-exploited from an artistic point of view, they were the perfect medium for Kim Deitch, the son of illustrator/animator Gene Deitch.  He contributed to comical and psychedelical comix like The East Village Other, introducing characters like Sunshine Girl and The India Rubber Man, starting in 1967. He was co-editor of Gothic Blimp Works, and co-founder fo the Cartoonists Co-op Press. He has often collaborated with his brother, Simon and Seth Deitch.

Throughout the years, Deitch has published a number of solo comix, starting with Corn Fed Comics in 1972. Then followed The Stuff of Dreams, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Beyond the Pale, All Waldo Comics, A Shroud for Waldo, The Mishkin File, No Business Like Show Business, Shadowland and Hollywoodland, mainly dealing with themes like addiction, deception and delusion.

More recently, Deitch has been working on several projects, including the series The Search for Smilin' Ed, The Stuff of Dreams and a monthly kids comic called Nickelodeon, for which he makes Southern Fried Fugitives with his brother Simon. As this title indicates, much of Deitch's comix work is linked to animation, centering on animation as an industry and animation characters. Deitch regularly exhibits his originals in various galleries.