page_title: Rubber Blanket
section_title: Publication history
hierarchical_section_title: Rubber Blanket / Publication history
caption_attribution_description: English: Comic book creator David Mazzucchelli at a June 28, 2012 signing for Daredevil Born Again: Artist's Edition at Midtown Comics Downtown in Manhattan. In the photo, Mazzucchelli is signing a a copy of his 1991 - 1993 comics anthology series, Rubber Blanket. This photo was created by Luigi Novi. It is not in the public domain, and use of this file outside of the licensing terms is a copyright violation. If you would like to use this image outside of the Wikimedia projects, you may do so, only if I am properly credited, either by linking the photograph to this page, or with an easily visible credit placed near the photo in each instance in which it is used. Please credit authorship as follows: &#160;© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Please maintain the original file name in all uses. You can see a gallery of some of my other photos here. If you have any questions, you can contact me by sending me an email or leaving a note at the bottom of my talk page.
context_page_description: Rubber Blanket was an alternative comics anthology magazine edited by the husband/wife team of cartoonist David Mazzucchelli and painter/colorist Richmond Lewis. It was self-published under the banner of Rubber Blanket Press in a deluxe, oversized format from 1991 to 1993.
  While an anthology of different artists, Rubber Blanket is mostly a showcase for Mazzucchelli's work. In it, he largely turns his back on the superhero work that had made him a fan-favorite, and moved towards a personal storytelling style with bold and more expressionistic artwork. These stories earned Mazzucchelli the 72nd position on The Comics Journal's list of the best comics of the 20th century.
context_section_description: Mazzucchelli had achieved success working on a number of popular titles, including Batman: Year One  for DC Comics and Daredevil for Marvel, when he abruptly left the world of superheroes (supposedly giving up an offer to draw the popular X-Men series) to make more personal works.  He didn't produce any commercial work for a year, and studied underground comix and children's books, and took printmaking classes.
  In 1991 he published the first issue of the anthology Rubber Blanket in a deluxe, oversized format.  Each issue was 9"x12", and was self-published by Mazzucchelli and Lewis under the imprint of Rubber Blanket Press, based in Hoboken, New Jersey.  The name was taken from the rubber blanket used to transfer ink from the printing plates to the printing surface in offset printing.  The title was meant to indicate that the printing process was integral to the work published therein.
  Rubber Blanket was mainly a vehicle for Mazzucchelli to publish his more adventurous work, but it also showcased a few other artists' work: Ted Stearn's "Fuzz and Pluck", works by David Hornung, some work by Mazzucchelli's wife Richmond Lewis, and the beginning of a translation of the Italian "Happy Birthday, Signora" by Massimo Semerano and Francesca Ghermandi.
  "Happy Birthday, Signora" was later continued in the Kim Thompson-edited Zero Zero from Fantagraphics, starting in issue #19, and renamed "Pop. 666".  The chapter that was printed in Rubber Blanket #3 was reprinted in a new translation in Zero Zero #20, sometimes referring to the translation Mazzucchelli was involved with.
  
  A fourth issue was never published, as Mazzucchelli had notices that his stories were getting longer—from 9 pages to 24 and ultimately to 34 pages for "Big Man" in issue #3.  Mazzucchelli wanted more space and wanted to dedicate the fourth issue to one long story.  That story ended up being Asterios Polyp, which was published as a hardcover graphic novel by Pantheon Books in 2009.
caption: Mazzucchelli autographing copies of the series at a June 28, 2012 signing at Midtown Comics in Manhattan.
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