Good Times

Photo by Brant Hinrich

This past weekend, I went with some friends to St. Louis to see a show of paintings by one of my favorite artists, Gary Panter. If you don't know, Panter is an underground comic artist who came to fame as a punk artist in the 70's but gained real notoriety as the designer of the sets on Pee Wee's Playhouse. His work is frentic and poignant and funny to boot. Gary was kind enough to correspond a couple of times with me while I was a frustrated grad student. It was his do what you want and screw the rest approach that helped me to develop what I am currently working on. We then went to the Star Clipper, one of the best comic shops ever to meet Gary and a briliant art historian / editor Todd Hignite. They were promoting the new book "In the Studio." They both signed. It was a good time had by all. I spent most of my allowance for the month in three hours. It was great. Thank you Gary and Todd for being swell guys.