Over at The Comics Journal Bob Harvey looks at Bill Griffith’s 25 years of doing Zippy the Pinhead.
“After a year of appearing daily in a large American newspaper,” Griffith said, “I thought that was as weird as things were going to get for me. Little did I know they were going to get even stranger. Priaulx came out. I remember going to the meeting with a little list of things that I would require in order to work for them. And I had thought of the list as a way of not working for them: I was certain that they would never agree to these things. I said I have to keep my copyright. And I have to keep the larger format. I draw the strip out of proportion: it’s taller than any other strip. It’s not just that I want it to appear bigger proportionally: it’s drawn so that it has more headroom [for dialogue]. And I said, I can’t change that.”
“You can’t censor it,” Griffith continued, recalling his list of requirements. “You can’t edit it. You have to guarantee me a certain amount of money weekly because I’d be giving up my exclusive deal with the Examiner. I gave them a long list. I felt like I was taking hostages. And this guy sat across from me and said ‘Yes’ instantly to everything.”
Love them accepting all his list requirements.