Historical Underground Back in Print: Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary
- Posted by Johanna on October 27, 2009 at 12:33 pm
- Category: Graphic Novel News
We truly are living in a Golden Age, where almost any important comic work of the past century is easily available.
Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, credited as the first autobiographical underground comic, is coming back into print 35+ years after its original publication. A hardcover reprint edition is due out next month from McSweeney’s. It’s described as
… Justin Green’s autobiographical portrayal of his struggle with religion and his own neuroses. Binky Brown is a young Catholic battling all the usual problems of adolescence — puberty, parents, and the fear that the strange ray of energy emanating from his private parts will strike a picture of the Virgin Mary. Deeply confessional, with artwork that veers wildly between formalist and hallucinogenic.
It turns out that he’s suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Seminal creators, including R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman, have credited this work as influential to their art.
If the hardcover with gold inlay seems a bit much for this bit of comic history, there was a mid-90s paperback collection from Last Gasp that also contains the story.
2 Responses to “Historical Underground Back in Print: Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”
Leave a Comment
Subscribe to comment feed.

October 29, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] I think I mentioned this before, but just in case I haven't: McSweeney's is releasing a fancy hardcover reprint of the Justin Green classic Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. You'll probably want to get [...]
November 6, 2009 at 9:34 pm
[...] 2 Nov, 2009 R. Crumb Historical Underground Back In Print: Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary [...]