Speakers Ben Katchor: Cartoonist
The first MacArthur-winning cartoonist, Ben Katchor has collected both cult and mainstream hat tips for his wry, poetic creations that find uncanny humor (and color) in the commonplace deeds of a bygone New York City.
Why you should listen to him:
In the antique buildings of New York City now overgrown with tawdry fixtures and the modernized hopes of its denizens, Ben Katchor listens for the stories that fill his wry, perceptive (and slightly surreal) comic strips of urban life. Downtrodden characters and objects get equal time in a slant spotlight, and while their interplay is often pathetic, it points to profound truths about history, memory and human hopes.
Katchor is author of several comics collections, including Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay, The Jew of New York, and Julius Knipl: Real Estate Photographer. He's been a Guggenheim Fellow and has also written for the stage works such as The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island. In May, he premieres A Check-room Romance, a musical tragicomedy co-written with Mark Mulcahy
"Ben Katchor ... is the most poetic, deeply layered artist ever to draw a comic strip."New York Times Book Review
Quotes by Ben Katchor
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“The click [of a light switch] is the modern triumphal clarion proceeding us through life, announcing our entry into every lightless room.”
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“The temporary building is a triumph of modern industrial organization, a healthy sublimation of the urge to build, and proof that not every architectural idea need be set in stone.”
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Ben Katchor's comics of bygone New York
- 11:11 Posted: Apr 2009
Ben Katchor on the Web
Related Speakers
Conferences
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- TED2002