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John Porcellino
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King-Cat Classix Hardcover – May 1, 2007

by John Porcellino (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
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The definitive collection of the influential comic zine
John Porcellino has long been considered the greatest of all cartoonists coming from the self-publishing and zine movement of the early '90s. His spare approach with words and pictures focuses on the smallest of details, revealing a wealth of meaning and emotion in everyday events that most of us overlook in our daily hustle and bustle. Since 1989, he has released more than sixty-five issues of his self-published comic King-Cat Comics and Stories. This large collection focuses on the first fifty issues, with extensive endnotes and an index, along with selections of all the extra ephemera that makes an individual issue of King-Cat its own unique experience--essays, articles, stories, and letters from friends. Included are more than two hundred and fifty pages of comics, ranging from Porcellino's earliest scrawls to his later, perfectly minimalist delineations. The comics range through all of his concerns--family, family pets, the natural world, work, music, romance. This book presents an artist who always knew what he wanted to do. King-Cat Classix shows Porcellino's confidence and skill as it grows steadily through the past fifteen years.
Previous page
  1. Part of Series
    King-Cat Comics
  2. Print length
    320 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Drawn and Quarterly
  5. Publication date
    May 1, 2007
  6. Dimensions
    6.27 x 1.66 x 9.51 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1894937910
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1894937917
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

For 18 years, Porcellino has self-published King-Cat Comix. Two books of extracts, Perfect Example (1999), about his stressful eighteenth year, and Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man (2005), about a summer gig during college, vaulted him into the front ranks of autobiographical comics creators. Now here's a heaping helping of the rest of King-Cat, with 15 pages of annotations (including more comics) appended to make the book as impressively self-reflexive as Andrew Boyd and Ryan Yount's Scurvy Dogs (2005--hard to beat those notes). The book contains many more of Porcellino's dream stories, some of the most dreamlike in all comics (Rick Veitch develops his dreams much more elaborately--see Crypto Zoo, 2004--but they're much more diffuse). Porcellino started King-Cat intending never to censor himself or record things unimportant to him. He is as unabashedly unzipped as James Kochalka (American Elf, 2004), though not as often. Some stories are fictional, such as the adventures of Racky Raccoon, and all are drawn with a bold line and lots of white, like Peanuts drained of detail. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Punk rock was a revelation to the young John Porcellino, showing him that anyone could make art without formal education or technical virtuosity. However, unlike many people who have taken this lesson to heart, Porcellino is a born artist, someone whose nerve endings seem more sensitive to both the pain and the mystery at the center of this existence.” ―Baltimore City Paper

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Drawn and Quarterly; First Edition (May 1, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1894937910
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1894937917
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.27 x 1.66 x 9.51 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

About the author

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John Porcellino

John Porcellino

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John Porcellino was born in Chicago in 1968, and began drawing and writing at an early age, compiling his work into little hand-made booklets. His acclaimed self-published zine, King-Cat Comics and Stories, begun in 1989, has found a devoted worldwide audience, and is one of the most influential comics series of the past twenty years. In the words of cartoonist Chris Ware, "John Porcellino's comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive."

For more information, please visit www.king-cat.net.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
27 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tim Lukeman
5.0 out of 5 stars An American life unfolds in the smallest details
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2013
Verified Purchase
Since first discovering the work of John Porcellino, I've been an avid admirer of his oh-so-deceptively simple style -- but what depths there are in that simplicity! From his earliest, troubled, punk rock days to his growth into a more Zen existence, Porcellino tells direct, honest stories that lay bare his feelings, without any of it ever seeming self-indulgent or egocentric. He's just describing his life at the time, its frustrations & its unexpected joy It's a pleasure to accompany him through the years, from memories of childhood, to recounting his dreams, to an absolutely heartbreaking & moving tribute to his dog Sam, to his first steps into meditation & Buddhism.

It's fascinating the read the earliest stories, where his art style is rougher & more detailed. As time goes on, he begins to clarify it down to the fewest lines possible, which has the paradoxical result of becoming more richly detailed with its openness. It also reflects the shift in tone his life has taken over the years -- though I'll admit to a continuing delight in the drunken, foul-mouthed adventures of Racky Raccoon even now! Equally revealing are his Top 40 lists of whatever has captivated him at the time. These are eclectic & wide-ranging, offering an emotional snapshot of the man at that moment.

For anyone who thinks all autobiographical independent comics are drearily alike, you're in for a real surprise here: this is not only wonderfully readable, it's constantly re-readable. I find that I get something new out of this book each time I pick it up. It's very much in a particular American vein that's been tapped by the Beats & other marginal artists, in that it allows the reader to feel what it's like to be a young man in this country at this time, told in an utterly real & meaningful way. Porcellino has his finger on the pulse of life itself, and this is his report. Most highly recommended!
6 people found this helpful
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David Crumm
5.0 out of 5 stars Proving that Comics Continue to be a Dynamic Medium
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2017
Verified Purchase
I've been a fan of comics for more than half a century, from newspaper comic strips to comic books. I worked in newspapers for more than 30 years and now am very supportive of preserving classics like  LOAC Essentials Volume 4: Alley Oop 1939  and  LOAC Essentials Presents King Features Volume 1: Krazy Kat 1934

If you're a lifelong comics fan, too, I also urge you to look at the relatively newer artists who have transformed this creative field in fresh ways. John Porcellino certainly is one of them! For example, if you're looking over this book page in Amazon and you're reading these reviews—I also recommend you look at the "annual" series of innovative comics. Here's the latest volume as I write this review: https://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Comics-2016/dp/0544750357/

The genius of comics as an artform and media "voice" is that this doorway is open to so many men, women and kids, too. For nearly three decades, Porcellino has been proving this point—self-publishing his own stuff, then building an audience and eventually resulting in a big, wonderful, hardback collection like this one. He came out of "nowhere," in publishing terms; published exactly what he wanted to publish; and he succeeded in finding a loyal following and, now, lots of folks "get" the storytelling creativity that blossoms from King-Cat.

If you love comics, even if you really love the classics, keep looking outward at all the new creators keeping this medium alive. Folks like Porcellino are a gift to the comics realm.
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Esther
5.0 out of 5 stars Zen, exhilirating, intimate--the everyman's story
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2007
Verified Purchase
King Cat Classix is a "selected works" of John P's past ten years' of work, and it is a hefty book! I couldn't wait for it to come out and read other reviewers, but now I'm honored to be the first. This tome is full of comics ranging from dreams, childhood memories, Zen parables, elegies to his dog Sam, animals.... a collection of mini-memoirs that add up the life of an ordinary working class man brought up in the midwest and is now in Colorado. I called his previous book, Mosquito Abatement Man, a bizarre slice of midwestern life, but the Classix is a gentler work, thoughtful, inquisitive and passionate about the woods, mountains, lakes. His earlier work is rendered in scrawling, cruder line, but full of energy and rage, and his later work calms to minimalism and simple elegance.

Reading Porcellino, you truly get a feeling you know the man. Or better yet, you ARE the man, working through daily life, writing Top-40 lists, watching autumn leaves fall--getting totally drunk. The intimacy to his work is a rare and exceptional thing. There are shades of Harvey Pekar here, but also the Beats, Hemingway, the early modern greats of American lit. The Classix is such an expansive book that you can dip in at any point and read a lyric about winter, or about adolescent Porcellino experiencing the first anxieties about girls. Yet everything is done with sincerity, honesty and a painful sort of clarity. Real life doesn't get realer.
9 people found this helpful
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Keglan
5.0 out of 5 stars Do Your Book Shelf a Favor and Buy This Book
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017
Occasionally I get lucky and stumble across an artist who is truly original with something to say. John Porcellino fits that to a tee. His sparse style hastily drawn on sheets of paper without the labored rendering to make each line perfect has the result of a stream of consciousness feel that is more real. A collection of short stories, dreams, a day in the life of John, top 40 lists, snippets of wisdom he's come across combine to make this a book your bookshelf has been crying for. And I can't forget about Marshmallow, Dakota, Sam and other assorted cat tales.
2 people found this helpful
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Mfragin
5.0 out of 5 stars I agree--this is excellent!
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2008
Picked up this book because I like how brutally honest comix can be. This is no exception. Porcellino's minimalist drawings really convey a touching story.

Included in here is the entire all-Sam issue, which he created to pay tribute to his childhood yellow lab. If you can read that section without crying, you're tougher than I am--what a touching tribute.

Porcellino comes from a Do It Yourself generation. It's no wonder he was inspired by the Minutemen, as another title for this could have been "This Book Could Be Your Life." There are a lot of memories packed into this book.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Riyad Salhi
4.0 out of 5 stars Ein unspektakuläres Leben in ein paar Strichen
Reviewed in Germany on March 21, 2008
Verified Purchase
John Porcellino hat das getan, was viele Jungs und Mittzwanziger in aller Welt gerne gemacht hätten, aber sich nie getraut haben: Mit sehr wenig Zeichentalent, aber einem Willen sich mitzuteilen (vor allem Fragmentarisches aus dem eigenen stinknormalen Leben, Geträumtes, C-Movie-Superhelden-Quark, Betrachtungen über Intimes, Beobachtungen aus der Nachbarschaft), hat er all die Geschichtchen und in Striche verwandelten Nicht-Ereignisse in Panels gepfercht, das alles mehrfach kopiert und gegen ein Entgelt in alle Welt verschickt. 1989 begann er mit diesem Heft, und "das Beste" aus den ersten 50 Ausgaben ist für diese Publikation zusammengetragen worden. Es findet sich darin vollendeter Blödsinn, die Leere eines unnütz verbrachten Regentages, das Wegdämmern bei längeren Autofahrten, eine Bergtour mit Höhenkoller, völlig Enigmatisches, das sich mir kaum erschließt, aber auch Haiku-artige Miniaturen, die selten länger als eine Seite sind und Porcellinos ganz besondere Qualitäten für die Sichtbarmachung des fragilen Augenblicks offenbaren: Er kann einen kleinen Gedanken äußern, ihn mit einer Befindlichkeit kontrastieren, dazu seine einfachen Bilder stellen, und die Gesamtwirkung berührt je nach der Laune des Lesers "in gewisser Weise" bis "relativ stark". Das hat nicht wenig mit den Zeichnungen zu tun, die in den ersten Ausgaben von King-Cat noch äußerst ungeschickt waren, um mit der Zeit einer gewollten Ungelenkigkeit zu weichen, was nicht heißt, dass das nur im mindesten auf Perfektion zulaufen würde.

Das Buch hat sich mich über längere Zeit nicht erschlossen, erschien mir zu privat, bis ich dann auf Seite 67 stieß. Hier entwickelt der Autor eine Vision der eigenen Existenz in Schlaglichtern, sieht sich im Jahr 1995, später als Vater, als älteren Mann, und landet im Jahr 2037, ein Eichhörnchen fütternd. An der Oberfläche geschieht nichts. Gezeigt werden banale Vorgänge. Trotzdem liegt da eine unerklärliche Tiefe darin, eine eigentümliche Alltags-Poesie, die Porcellino eher widerfährt und unterläuft, wie zufällig geschieht, und von Ausgabe zu Ausgabe mehren sich diese nahezu magischen Momente, immer wieder (leider) auch Profanes wie ein Konzert in irgendeinem Haus, und dann kommen die Cops und beschlagnahmen die Instrumente, aber so schlecht erzählt, dass man sich fragt: Was soll das alles? Handelt es sich am Ende um ein Tagebuch nur zum Zwecke der Erinnerungsauffrischung des Autors? Man kann manchmal an ihm zweifeln und alles für Schmonzes halten.

Auf Seite 116 listet er alle Katzen auf, die er kennt, und in einer zweiten Spalte ihre jeweiligen Reaktionen auf Seifenblasen. Später schreibt er an ihn adressierte Briefe von Lesern ab. Es gibt Erinnerungen an Haustiere, an ein verlegtes Taschenmesser (sehr beliebt, so was), und plötzlich fängt jemand an, im Auto eine Geschichte anzukündigen, die dann nicht mehr ist als eine Momentaufnahme ohne doppelten Boden, ohne Entwicklung, also gänzlich ohne "und dann... und danach...", Porcellino reicht es aus zu zeigen, dass ein Arbeitskollege etwas Lustiges sagt, das war`s. Mehr nicht. Eher weniger. Das ist für ihn schon eine Story. Das Buch ist voller solcher Einzeleindrücke, kurzen Begegnungen mit Menschen, ohne das Material zwangsläufig darauf abzuklopfen, ob da noch etwas Größeres dahinter oder darunter ist. Nur weniges überschreitet drei oder vier Seiten.
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