Does anyone who regularly reads New York Press (a tabloid weekly that is the arch-rival of the Village Voice) know the details of the fallout between the cartoonist Kaz and NYP? All I know is that, one week, his stuff was there, I missed a few issues, and when I started reading again, he was gone, they were soliciting for new cartoonists, and now there seems to be a huge feud going on that has also dragged back in cartoonists Danny Hellman and Ted Rall.
What the heck happened? Did Kaz piss someone off, or did the editors just decide it was time for a change and this feud is the backlash for letting him go?
Beats the heck out of me, but I’m not all that sorry to see him go. “Underworld” is one of the lamest strips that have ever existed.
Of course, with the exception of the photo-developer one, and (on occasion) the bottom strip of Tony Millionaire’s Maakies, its lameness is exceeded by all the other strips that are featured in that newspaper.
If it weren’t for the Straight Dope, I wouldn’t even bother picking it up, despite the fact that it’s free.
I believe Kaz was first published in R. Crumb’s magazine WEIRDO, back in the 1980s, although he may have had connections also with Art Spiegelman’s RAW.
In any case, Spiegie has snapped him up and has him doing panel illustrations for THE NEW YORKER, which I’m sure pays a good deal better, and has the added advantage of not running the risk of bumping into NYPRESS publisher/ignoramus/troll Russ Smith in the Executive John, with toilet paper hanging out the back of his pants.
Smith has a grand track record of syndicating fine cartoonists and then losing them, without printing a word of explanation or regret. It’s like they were never there at all. Whatever happened to Carol Lay and her wonderful “Story Minute,” or Alison Bechtel and her brilliant “Dykes to Watch Out For” ?
“Photo-developer one”…you mean Ben Katchor’s “Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer” ? That one’s long-gone too; Katchor is also working for THE NEW YORKER.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought such behavior was strange. It all seems very Stalinist. People “disappearing”…
READER #1: “Where’s Kaz?”
MUGGER: “Kaz who?”
READER #1: “You know…that cartoonist whose strips you ran every week for at least the past five years…”
[LATER]
READER #2: "Where’s Reader #1?
MUGGER: “Reader Number Who?..”
When I was searching Google for info. on Kaz, I did discover that Tony Millionaire had been offered a job at the Voice for $175 a week, which was “three times what NYPRESS paid him.” (he didn’t take the job)
Terrifyingly shabby treatment of a great talent, IMO.
Down here in DC, the City Paper runs not only Kaz’s “Underworld”, but also Katchor’s latest creation. Not bad, either of them, but I wouldn’t die if I didn’t read them.
Is that the one with the talking teddy bear and the balding guy whose face doesn’t change expression over all three panels, and they say a lot of gross stuff?
Jesus Christ, I could pull a better cartoon out of my ahhhhhh…AHHHY AY AY, wasn’t that GREAT, kids?
No, it’s a new one called “Shutterbug Follies,” credited to someone only identified as “Bee.” It seems pretty cute so far…with a little more, it could be up there with “Dykes to Watch Out For” (anyone know where I could read that one?).