Drew Friedman

SHEMP! THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE THREE STOOGES' SHEMP HOWARD, THE FACE OF FILM COMEDY

For years, acclaimed artist Drew Friedman has chronicled an oddball, alternate history of American pop culture, where forgotten character actors, old Jewish comedians, comic book artists, and liver-spotted elevator operators are afforded the spotlight over Hollywood starlets and heartthrobs. This latest collection showcases a wide range of recent color and black-and-white portraits of comedians (Gilbert Gottfried, Groucho Marx, Selma Diamond, Moms Mabley, Brother Theodore), writers (Kurt Vonnegut, Alan Zwiebel, Bruce Jay Friedman, Arnie Kogan), musicians (B. B. King, Bob Dylan, Al Kooper, Sammy Davis, Jr., Weird Al), directors (Buster Keaton, Elaine May, Terry Zwigoff), comic book legends (Max Gaines, Bill Gaines, Kelly Freas, Ron Turner), actors (Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr, Rondo Hatton, Peter Falk) and other famous, infamous, and not-so-famous human beings that Friedman has drawn inspiration from over his lifetime. In addition to over 100 full-page images, this collection features a foreword by historian of comedy Kliph Nesteroff, a glossary of brief biographical information on each subject by the author, as well as the never-before-collected eight-page comic strip, "R. Crumb and Me," detailing Friedman's intense relationship to the work of the cartoonist he cites as his greatest inspiration of all. Shtick Figures is a must have for fans of Friedman's inimitable talent and sharp curatorial eye for preserving lesser known but worthy tributaries of all aspects of American culture, high and low.

With the publication of R. Crumb's debut issue of Zap in 1968, the Underground Comix revolution exploded, creating a major paradigm shift and blowing the lid off the traditional comic book. Maverix and Lunatix features 101 full page portraits (and more) by a cartooning icon in his own right, Drew Friedman, spotlighting the essential artists, writers, and editors who defined one of the great art and countercultural movements of the 20th century. Featuring R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, S. Clay Wilson, Melinda Gebbie, Art Spiegelman, Vaughn Bode, Trina Robbins, Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, Sharon Rudahl, Larry Gonick, Rick Veitch, Joyce Farmer, Justin Green, Grass Green, George DiCaprio, Diane Noomin, Harvey Pekar, Robert Williams, Howard Cruse, Dan O'Neill, Spain Rodriguez, Shary Flenniken, Richard Corben, and so many others... all of whom helped to reinvent an entire artistic medium and became icons of underground comix. Featuring a foreword by Marc Maron (WTF with Marc Maron) and an afterword by historian Patrick Rosenkranz (Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975), each portrait in Maverix and Lunatix is also accompanied by a short biography of its subject by Friedman, making the book both a gorgeous art book and a valuable historical resource.

All The Presidents is created by the caricaturist of the Barack Obama/George Washington mash-up inauguration cover for The New Yorker in 2009. It features everyone from George Washington to Donald Trump, accompanied by presidential factoids. It includes a foreword by Kurt Andersen, the author and host of public radio's Studio 360,

Spanning the birth of the industry to its first few decades, this book has approximately 100 full-color portraits of the legends of American comic books--publishers, editors, and artists. Its subjects are popular and obscure, men and women, and it includes several pioneering artists of color.

Melvin Burkhart the Anatomical Wonder; Zip the Pinhead; Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins; Johnny Eck, the King of the Freaks; Koo Koo the Birdgirl; and 45 more fascinating sideshow freaks both famous and obscure are immortalized in Drew Friedman’s delightful portraits. Before the politically correct impulses of the 1970s squelched the grand American tradition of the sideshow ? people born with abnormalities and others, like Jolly Jere the Fat Man, who created their oddity ? exhibited themselves to the shock and thrill of millions in sideshows nationwide. As a youth in the late 60s and early 70s, Drew Friedman often visited Coney Island with his family, and he and his brothers always insisted on seeing the "Freak Show." Drew Friedman’s Sideshow Freaks presents 50 of his favorite historic human oddities ? famous and obscure ? in mesmerizing full-color portraits. As in Warts and All, Old Jewish Comedians, and More Old Jewish Comedians, Drew Friedman once again meticulously, brilliantly, and affectionately brings to life people in the show business, this time focusing on America’s oddest performers.