All Waldo Comics

by Kim Deitch

Deitch is one of the greatest first generation underground cartoonists along with R. Crumb and Justin Green, et. al., and today he is the most prolific and creatively fertile artist of his generation. His newest book is a hardcover collection from Pantheon and marks the company's big graphic novel follow-up to Jimmy Corrigan; these books collect the best of his classic, underground work from the 1960s to 1980s. Deitch shares with Crumb a fascination with the "lost America" of the 1920s and '30s, particularly the history of animation (his father was the legendary Gene Deitch of Terrytoons and jazz LP covers fame). Beyond the Pale collects Deitch's best from the '70s and '80s, while All Waldo Comics features the best of his most enduring character, Waldo the Cat. A Shroud for Waldo is a sacrilegious graphic novel about Jesus, Waldo, and Hollywood.

Genres: Comics, Comix

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1992

About the author

Kim Deitch has a reserved place at the first table of underground cartoonists. The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for the East Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. During this period he married fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins and had a daughter, Casey. “The Mishkin Saga” was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003. Deitch's recent acclaimed graphic novels include The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Shadowland, Alias the Cat and Deitch's Pictorama, done in collaboration with his brothers Simon and Seth. Deitch remains a true cartoonists’ cartoonist, adored by his peers as much as anyone in the history of the medium.

Reviews

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waldo is an unspade cartoon black cat who is always depicted with his penis in the appropriate spot. If you find that image distasteful, don't bother with the rest of this review. Waldo is a reprehensible, mean-spirited alcoholic, with a number one branded on his stomach. He is the result of genetic engineering...kind of. In each of the stories presented here he screws, drinks, shoots heroin, and murders people without hesitation or remorse. Very entertaining.
There are a few autobiographical pieces included in the volume. One if them defends Waldo’s appearance. Apparently many people over the decades have accused him of ripping off Felix the Cat. Deitch defends his creation, by pointing out in the 30s every animation unit had a black cat character and all of them looked similar. Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat, Julius the Cat from Disney, all looked very similar. And he has a point. Waldo is a unique character and acts like none of the others.