Pynchon & Comics

[Robin Landseadel]

Excellent article by Sean Rogers concerning Comic Books and Pynchon:

	In his new novel, Inherent Vice, released last week and
	reportedly self-promotedhere (though I have my doubts), there’s
	a part where Thomas Pynchon has a character say, “I am aware
	of the Freak Brothers’ dictum that dope will get you through
	times of no money better than vice versa….” Later, another
	says, “Listen, I came up in Temecula, which is Krazy Kat
	Kountry, where you always root for Ignatz and not Offisa Pup.”
	Now, I haven’t finished the book just yet, but still I got to
	thinking about Pynchon and comics.

	Ever attuned to the lower frequencies of American culture, the
	wavelengths where rock and roll and monster movies and The
	Tube all play out, Pynchon is an author who can ably salt away
	a few references to comics, too, throughout his works. The guy
	hips himself to so many things—from 18th century naval battles
	to Jacobean revenge drama to the intricacies of rhinoplasty—
	that to happen across nods to underground comics, or moral
	outlooks articulated by way of classic cartooning like George
	Herriman’s comic strip Kat, is simply par for a very wide-ranging
	course. . .


http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/08/12/pynchon-and-comics/