Fantagraphics Books is hosting a book release part and panel discussion for Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes at Brooklyn’s Desert Island on Friday 8 August. Panelists will include Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, and Geoffrey Hayes, with moderator Dan Nadel.
Admission is free, and the gathering starts at 7PM, with the discussion kicking off at 8. Desert Island is located at 540 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY (718-388-5087).
The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise (the latter from the likes of R. Crumb and Bill Griffith), Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again.
On 8 August, which would have been Hayes’ 59th birthday (he died of a drug overdose in 1983), Desert Island and Fantagraphics Books will celebrate the life and art of Rory Hayes with a special evening celebrating the release of Where Demented Wented, the first-ever collection of Hayes’ legendary comics and art. Editor Dan Nadel (Gary Panter, The Wilco Book) will moderate a discussion of Hayes’ work with three men who knew and worked with Hayes: Kim Deitch (creator of Waldo the Cat), Bill Griffith (creator of Zippy the Pinhead), and Geoffrey Hayes (brother of Rory and author of the recent Benny and Penny from Toon Books).
Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes is the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, and features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes—as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films. The book also serves as a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, Geoffrey, and a career-spanning essay by Edward Pouncey (a.k.a. Savage Pencil). Also included is a rare interview with Hayes himself.