Zippy: Welcome to Dingburg (detail): Bill Griffith, 2008 image by fantagraphics. 24 October 2008
Breaking News:
Autonomous University of Dingburg invaded by undocumented alien copper thieves!
Huge muffled explosions reported for miles around!
from Dal Tokyo (detail): Gary Panter, 1983; image via Fantagraphics Books, 2012
Smoke billowing from generator explosion on UC Berkeley Campus: photo by Kohar Minassian, 30 September 2013
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Students watch smoke from the East Asian Library after an explosion on UC Berkeley's campus: photo by Michael Drummond / The Daily Californian, 30 September 2013
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- Emergency crews at the scene of an explosion on the University of California Berkeley campus: photo by Alex Turney /The Daily Californian, 30 September 2013
from Dal Tokyo (detail): Gary Panter, 1983; image via Fantagraphics Books, 2012
An electrical explosion on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley forced the campus to be evacuated: photo by Kelley Fang / Daily Californian, 30 September 2013
Revere Copper and Brass Inc. ad for Revere Ware Cookware: Woman's Day, 1 February 1954 (Gallery of Graphic Design)
from Dal Tokyo (detail): Gary Panter, 1984; image via Fantagraphics Books, 2012
Undocumented Aliens -- the usual suspects
"All life is a blur of Republicans and meat!"
-- Zippy
Zippy: "I Am Muffler Man": Bill Griffith, 23 January 2004, via The Comics Journal, 21 March 2012
"In that case, let's go shopping!"
-- Zippy
from Invasion of the Elvis Zombies: Gary Panter, 1984; image by Artists' Books in the TNS Libraries, 11 July 2012
"All your base are belong to US" on US-50 south of Fallon, Nevada: photo by Gerd Badur, 13 August 2004
Tokyo Invasion: "All your base are belong to US". The Empire sent three Stormtroopers to invade Tokyo. One went off dancing and the other two decided to take some time off instead, seeing the sights at Akihabara, Shibuya, Asakusa and more: photo by Danny Choo, 25 January 2011
Hot dog! Everything's OK! It's Muffler Man! Let's not sweat the stupid documents!
This towering, fiberglass Paul Bunyan figure stood outside Hamlet Arthur Stephens' hot dog stand on Ogden in Cicero for decades: photo by Richard A. Chapman via Chicago Sun-Times, 4 June 2012
Hamlet Arthur Stephens, seen at age 81 in this 2003 photo with the giant Paul Bunyan figure that stood outside his hot dog stand on Ogden in Cicero for decades. The figure, which was moved downstate after Stephens retired, became a well-known bit of Americana: photo by Richard A. Chapman, 2003, via Chicago Sun-Times, 4 June 2012
Bunyan Muffler Man, named after Paul Bunyan. It is located in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on the west side of I-95 near Exit 145 Gold Rock and is visible from the highway. It was formerly located at the Stan the Tire Man facility in Salem, Illinois and was purportedly moved to the new location in Rocky Mount in 2007: photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 23 March 2009
Muffler Man at the May Cafe, 111 Louisiana Boulevard Southeast, Albuquerque, New Mexico. This muffler man can be seen from Route 66: photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 28 June 2013
Heyburn Elementary School Mascot Muffler Man, St Maries, Idaho: photo by Nils Peterson, 17 November 2010
Paul Bunyan Muffler Man in Bangor, Maine: photo by Dennis Jarvis, 4 September 2006
Casino Dude Muffler Man at the Fort Rockvale Restaurant and Casino, 101 Rockvale Road, Joliet, Montana: photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 23 June 2013
Advertising statue, nicknamed Big Mike, photographed on Mission Blvd in downtown Hayward, California. A classic Muffler man. Statue removed in late 2011. Fully restored and re-erected at Bell Plastics on National Ave. in Hayward, March 2013: photo by Mercurywoodrose, 2 October 20113
The Chincoteague Viking located on the north side of Ridge Road across from the end of Pony Swim Lane on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. The approximate address is 3376 Ridge Road. This hollow fiberglass statue is approximately 20 feet tall and is a Muffler Man: photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 23 June 2013
The Muffler Man in front of the Babes and Lightning muffler shop at 808 The Alameda in San José, California, USA. View is looking south across SR 82 ("The Alameda"): photo by Pedro Xing, 12 September 2012
Santa waves to passing freight trains on the Housatonic Railroad from an "auto recycling facility" on Vail Road in Brookfield, Connecticut. Perhaps this fiberglass Muffler Man Santa was originally used at the Danbury Fair: photo by Pedro Xing, 21 April 2012
Zippy: "What, Me Muffle?": Bill Griffith, 23 January 2004, via Th' Official Zippy the Pinhead Website Archive
Advertising statue, nicknamed Big Mike, photographed on Mission Blvd in downtown Hayward, California. A classic Muffler man. Statue removed in late 2011. Fully restored and re-erected at Bell Plastics on National Ave. in Hayward, March 2013: photo by Mercurywoodrose, 2 October 20113
The Chincoteague Viking located on the north side of Ridge Road across from the end of Pony Swim Lane on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. The approximate address is 3376 Ridge Road. This hollow fiberglass statue is approximately 20 feet tall and is a Muffler Man: photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 23 June 2013
Chicken Boy Muffler Man on Route 66 in Los Angeles, Highland Park, California: photo by Marilyn Nix, 1 January 2012
The Muffler Man in front of the Babes and Lightning muffler shop at 808 The Alameda in San José, California, USA. View is looking south across SR 82 ("The Alameda"): photo by Pedro Xing, 12 September 2012
Santa waves to passing freight trains on the Housatonic Railroad from an "auto recycling facility" on Vail Road in Brookfield, Connecticut. Perhaps this fiberglass Muffler Man Santa was originally used at the Danbury Fair: photo by Pedro Xing, 21 April 2012
"What, Me Undocumented?"
Zippy: "What, Me Muffle?": Bill Griffith, 23 January 2004, via Th' Official Zippy the Pinhead Website Archive
"Dingburg, the city inhabited entirely by pinheads": Bill Griffith, from Gary Panter: Questions for Griffy, in The Comics Journal, 21 March 2012
American Cyanimid ad for Industrial Chemicals: Saturday Evening Post, 4 June 1965 (Gallery of Graphic Design)
International Parts Corp. ad for International Parts Mufflers: Saturday Evening Post, 11 June 1960 (Gallery of Graphic Design)
4 comments:
It's the muffled explosions you really gotta watch!
Great post. We're certainly the aliens in the land of the giants.
-David
Ernst Mayr has suggested that intelligence in higher mammals is a fatal mutation; we Dingburgers are driving ourselves and all life on the planet to extinction; we have the Midas touch for sure; we muffle everything we lay our hands on.
And those things will stay muffled a long time, as well.
And still Muffler Man will stand tall, undaunted.
Ode to an American Icon
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