VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch
Partch was perhaps the most distinctive and prolific of the hundreds of gag cartoonists whose work rounded out the pages of the nation’s magazines in the mid-twentieth century. His drawings (under his famous “VIP” signature) stood out not just for their immediately recognizable, wildly peculiar look (once described as “pleasantly grotesque”) but also for their insouciant treatment of such matters as sex, booze, and death. Partch’s irreverent approach, in line with the era’s “sick” comedians, served as a (mild by today’s standards) rebuff to the staid cultural atmosphere that then prevailed. Partch’s cultural pervasiveness was also evinced by the countless books, advertisements, and cocktail napkins that his illustrations adorned. As the magazine industry withered in the 1960s, Partch launched a newspaper comic, Big George, that offered a domesticated version of the VIP sensibility. Barli’s well-researched biographical text will fascinate cartooning aficionados, but for most readers, the volume’s appeal lies solely in the wealth of rare VIP work he’s assembled, much of it printed from the original art. --Gordon Flagg