Michael Kupperman
Encyclopedia
Michael Kupperman, also known by the pseudonym P. Revess, is an American
cartoonist
and illustrator
. He created the comic strip
s Up All Night and Found in the Street, and has written scripts for DC Comics
. His work often dwells in surrealism
and absurdity
"played as seriously as possible."
His work has appeared in The New Yorker
, The New York Times
, LA Weekly
, The Wall Street Journal
, Screw, Fortune
, The Independent on Sunday, Libération
, Nickelodeon Magazine, The Believer
, and Heavy Metal
, as well as in comics anthologies
such as Hotwire
, Snake Eyes
, Zero Zero, Hyena, Hodags and Hodaddies, Blood Orange
, Rosetta, 106U, and Legal Action Comics
. He has also worked on many books and projects for McSweeney's
.
. Later on, back in the United States, his parents became professors at the University of Connecticut
. His father is Joel J. Kupperman
, the most famous of the original 1940s Quiz Kids
. When Michael was young, between ages ten and twelve, he was fascinated with editorial cartoon
s, particularly the work of Pat Oliphant
. As a young man, Kupperman did a political strip for the Washington City Paper
.
HarperCollins
published Kupperman's book, Snake 'n' Bacon
's Cartoon Cabaret, in 2000. Parts of his work were animated
later that year for the Comedy Central
show TV Funhouse
, produced by Robert Smigel
and Dino Stamatopoulos
. In 2005, he started a comic book
series called Tales Designed To Thrizzle, published by Fantagraphics. Currently Kupperman is writing sketches for a new comedy series starring Peter Serafinowicz
, and he created a one-off pilot called Snake 'N' Bacon
for the Adult Swim
network.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. He created the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s Up All Night and Found in the Street, and has written scripts for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. His work often dwells in surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and absurdity
Absurdity
An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., “this encyclopedia article is absurd”. It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence...
"played as seriously as possible."
His work has appeared in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, Screw, Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
, The Independent on Sunday, Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
, Nickelodeon Magazine, The Believer
The Believer (magazine)
The Believer is a United States literary magazine that also covers other arts and general culture. Founded and designed in 2003 by the writer and publisher Dave Eggers, it is edited by Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits and Ed Park...
, and Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (magazine)
Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...
, as well as in comics anthologies
Comics anthology
Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...
such as Hotwire
Hotwire
Hotwire or hot wire can mean one of several things:* Hotwiring, a method of starting a car without a key* Hotwire.com, an Internet-based travel agency* Hotwire * Hot Wire * Hot Wire...
, Snake Eyes
Snake eyes
In gambling, snake eyes is the outcome of rolling the dice in a game and getting only one pip on each die. The pair of pips resembles a pair of eyes, which is appended to the term 'snake' because of the long-standing association of this word with treachery and betrayal...
, Zero Zero, Hyena, Hodags and Hodaddies, Blood Orange
Blood orange
The blood orange is a variety of orange with crimson, blood-colored flesh. The fruit is smaller than an average orange; its skin is usually pitted, but can be smooth. The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of pigments common to many flowers and fruit, but...
, Rosetta, 106U, and Legal Action Comics
Legal Action Comics
Legal Action Comics is a series of comics anthologies edited by illustrator Danny Hellman which features work from many alternative comics artists.The first volume in the series was published in 2001, and the second followed in 2003...
. He has also worked on many books and projects for McSweeney's
McSweeney's
McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers.Apart from its book list, McSweeney's is responsible for four regular publications: the quarterly literary journal,...
.
Biography
Kupperman spent part of his childhood in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Later on, back in the United States, his parents became professors at the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
. His father is Joel J. Kupperman
Joel J. Kupperman
Joel J. Kupperman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, most renowned for his Six Myths about the Good Life, a popular philosophical volume centering on those values most worth engaging in human life...
, the most famous of the original 1940s Quiz Kids
Quiz Kids
Quiz Kids, a popular radio-TV series of the 1940s and 1950s, was created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan . Originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, the series was first broadcast on NBC from Chicago, June 28, 1940, airing as a summer replacement show for Alec Templeton...
. When Michael was young, between ages ten and twelve, he was fascinated with editorial cartoon
Editorial cartoon
An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities....
s, particularly the work of Pat Oliphant
Pat Oliphant
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant is the most widely syndicated political cartoonist in the world, described by the New York Times as "the most influential cartoonist now working"...
. As a young man, Kupperman did a political strip for the Washington City Paper
Washington City Paper
The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
.
HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
published Kupperman's book, Snake 'n' Bacon
Snake 'n' Bacon
Snake 'n' Bacon is a comic book and cartoon duo created by American cartoonist and illustrator Michael Kupperman . Originally only in print comics, the characters were brought to television on May 10, 2009, when they were broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim channel in a Snake 'n' Bacon...
's Cartoon Cabaret, in 2000. Parts of his work were animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
later that year for the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
show TV Funhouse
TV Funhouse
Saturday TV Funhouse is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central...
, produced by Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.-Early life:...
and Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos is an American television comedy writer, actor and producer who has worked on Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien...
. In 2005, he started a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series called Tales Designed To Thrizzle, published by Fantagraphics. Currently Kupperman is writing sketches for a new comedy series starring Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist and occasional director.-Early life:Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, England. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School...
, and he created a one-off pilot called Snake 'N' Bacon
Snake 'n' Bacon
Snake 'n' Bacon is a comic book and cartoon duo created by American cartoonist and illustrator Michael Kupperman . Originally only in print comics, the characters were brought to television on May 10, 2009, when they were broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim channel in a Snake 'n' Bacon...
for the Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
network.
Recurring characters, objects, and comics
- Snake 'n' BaconSnake 'n' BaconSnake 'n' Bacon is a comic book and cartoon duo created by American cartoonist and illustrator Michael Kupperman . Originally only in print comics, the characters were brought to television on May 10, 2009, when they were broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim channel in a Snake 'n' Bacon...
— A film duo composed of a snake and a strip of bacon. Snake only hisses and Bacon only makes comments about bacon, such as "Pat me with a paper towel to remove excess grease". Aired as a pilot on Cartoon Network May 10, 2009. - Underpants-On-His-Head Man — A costumed crimefighter who wears underpants on his head
- HerculesHerculesHercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
— "the public domain superhero" who often smashes things. - Wonder Book Junior, Boy Detective
- The Mannister — A man who can transform himself into the shape of a banister
- Cousin Grandpa
- Mister Bossman
- Pagus — JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
's half-brother - Long John SilverLong John SilverLong John Silver is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Silver is also known by the nicknames "Barbecue" and the "Sea-Cook".- Profile :...
- Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
and Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
(as a duo) - Sex Blimps, and their logical inverse, Sex Holes
- Remembering the Thirties
- Citobor — An invisible and silent robot ("robotic" spelled backwards)
External links
- Fantagraphics author page
- Michael Kupperman on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- Entry at This Might Be A Wiki
Interviews
- The Comics Journal excerpt
- The Onion A.V. Club
- The Daily Cross Hatch, part 1, part 2, part 3