| Bob Fingerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Fingerman (1964-08-25)August 25, 1964 (age 60) Queens,New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Minimum Wage /Beg the Question |
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Bob Fingerman (born August 25, 1964) is an American comic book writer/artist born inQueens,New York, who is best known for his comic seriesMinimum Wage (Fantagraphics Books).[1]
In 1984, while still a student atNew York City’sSchool of Visual Arts, he produced work forHarvey Kurtzman's short-lived young readers anthologyNuts! and signed a contract to produce a series of comical parodies of the Italian comic seriesRanXerox exclusively for the European market, including France’sL'Écho des savanes andComics USA and Spain’sEl Vibora. After he made friends with guys working at Forbidden Planet who were forming a ska band,The Toasters, he drew the front and back cover for their first LP in 1985.Fingerman worked in the disparate fields of children's satire, pornography and illustration, producing work regularly forCracked magazine,Screw,Penthouse,Hot Talk,Heavy Metal,National Lampoon,High Times, theVillage Voice and other periodicals.
In 1990, he decided to focus on comics. He did a year-long stint on theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as several titles for theEros Comix line of adult comics, includingSkinheads in Love (which drew praise fromThe Village Voice Literary Supplement) andBloodsucker, a collaboration with punk iconLydia Lunch. He also created covers and short stories forDark Horse Comics andDC Comics’Vertigo imprint.[2]
In 1993, Fingerman wrote and drew his firstgraphic novel,White Like She, a science fiction social satire about a middle-aged black man whose brain is transplanted into a white teenage girl's head.[3]
Upon completion of this purely fictional work, Fingerman decided to turn his attention inward. The result was the semi-autobiographical series,Minimum Wage (Fantagraphics Books), which in 2002 was collected and extensively reworked as the Fantagraphics graphic novel,Beg the Question (and which was nominated for both anIgnatz Award as well as twoEisner Awards).[4]Minimum Wage Book 2: Tales of Hoffman won the 1998Firecracker Alternative Book Award in the Graphic Novel category.[5]
Fingerman has broadened his palette, turning to prose, and continuing to work in comics.[6] His books include the humor collectionYou Deserved It;Zombie World: Winter’s Dregs & Other Stories, the zombie graphic novel;Recess Pieces (described onFangoria'swebsite as "The Little Rascals meetsDawn of the Dead"); and his debut prose novel,Bottomfeeder.[7] In 2009, his releases included the trippy illustrated novellaConnective Tissue.
In March 2010, his satirical post-apocalyptic "speculative memoir"From the Ashes was released as agraphic novel. In August 2010,Pariah, a dark comedic look at people surviving a zombie onslaught, was published byTor Books.[8]Pariah is the second of Fingerman's prose novels. In April 2013, the definitive "Maximum Minimum Wage" was released fromImage Comics. Work on that collection reignited Fingerman's desire to continue that story. In 2014, after a fifteen-year hiatus, two new arcs of Minimum Wage were published by Image Comics, "Focus on the Strange" and "So Many Bad Decisions". Both were collected in trade paperbacks. 2014 also saw the release of the 20th anniversary edition of Fingerman's first graphic novel,White Like She.
In 2018 Fingerman started working forMAD magazine, creating two character-driven strips for their new Potrzebie Comics section. The first was "Boonies Burbs and Burgs," which featured three cousins' adventures. The second,MAD's first serial strip, was "Lukey and Mukey," about a dimwitted child and his errant mucus-based clone. In 2020,Heavy Metal releasedDotty's Inferno, through their new Virus imprint.
In January 2022, a heavily revised edition of the novelPariah was released asPariah: Redux, also through Heavy Metal.
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