23 Facts About Bill Griffith

Bill Griffith is best known for his surreal daily comic strip Zippy.

Bill Griffith co-edited the notable comics anthologies Arcade and Young Lust, and has contributed comics and illustrations to a variety of publications, including National Lampoon, High Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice and The New York Times.

Bill Griffith is the great-grandson and namesake of the photographer and artist William Henry Jackson.

One of Bill Griffith's neighbors was science fiction illustrator Ed Emshwiller, whom Bill Griffith credits with pointing him toward the world of art.

Bill Griffith did and I loved the poetic, random dialog.

Bill Griffith graduated with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Graphic Design from Pratt in 1964.

Later, Bill Griffith drew new "Wacky Packages Old School Sketch Cards" for Topps.

In 1969, Bill Griffith began making underground comix, first in New York City.

Bill Griffith ventured to San Francisco, California in 1970 to join its burgeoning underground comix movement.

Bill Griffith quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to collaborate and organize: one of his first acts upon arriving in San Francisco was to help form the United Cartoon Workers of America, along with Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Art Spiegelman, Spain Rodriguez, Roger Brand, Michele Brand, and Griffith's sister Nancy.

Young Lust, an "X-rated parody of girl's romance comics" that Bill Griffith co-founded and edited with cartoonist Jay Kinney, was a huge hit upon its 1970 debut, with the first issue enjoying multiple printings.

In 1973, Bill Griffith was one of the founding members of Cartoonists' Co-op Press, along with Kim Deitch, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, and Spiegelman.

In 1979, Bill Griffith added his alter ego character, Griffy, to the strip.

In October 1994 Bill Griffith toured Cuba for two weeks, during a period of mass exodus, as thousands of Cubans took advantage of President Fidel Castro's decision to permit emigration for a limited time.

In early 1995, Bill Griffith published a six-week series of "comics journalism" stories about Cuban culture and politics in Zippy.

The Cuba series included transcripts of conversations Bill Griffith had conducted with various Cubans, including artists, government officials, and a Yoruba priestess.

Bill Griffith keeps the tradition alive by always centering a hand-lettered subtitle above each Zippy strip.

In 2007, Bill Griffith began to focus his daily strip on Zippy's "birthplace," Dingburg.

In 2008, Bill Griffith presented a talk on Zippy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Bill Griffith's wife was cartoonist Diane Noomin, whom he began dating in 1973 and married in 1980.

Invisible Ink depicts various other details and incidents involving Bill Griffith's family, including his father's physical and psychological abuse of his family members.

Bill Griffith revealed in the August 19,2020, Zippy strip that he was writing and drawing a graphic biography of Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller.

In 2023, Bill Griffith produced a comic book memoir of Diane Noomin and their marriage together, titled The Buildings Are Barking.