Celebrated cartoonist explores new venues

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, November 5, 2005

BY BILL VAN SICLEN
Journal Arts Writer

PROVIDENCE -- They don't have X-ray vision, can't leap tall buildings at a single bound and don't look good in tights. But among fans of contemporary comics, Julius Knipl, star of the visionary comic-strip saga Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, and his creator, Ben Katchor, are genuine superheroes.

Indeed, no less an authority than The New York Times dubbed Katchor "the most poetic, deeply layered artist ever to draw a comic strip."

"Frankly, that's a pretty big exaggeration, although it's always nice to be recognized," says Katchor, who will discuss his work Monday night at the John Nicholas Brown Center on Benefit Street. The free 6 p.m. event kicks off an exhibit of Katchor's drawings at the center's Carriage House Gallery.

Actually, despite glowing reviews from the Times, the New Yorker and other publications, as well as a coveted MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," Katchor comes across in conversation as a pretty humble guy. In fact, he says, he's just happy to be able to make a living drawing comics.

"It's something I grew up with," he explains during a brief phone interview from his Manhattan studio. "As a kid growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, I didn't have much exposure to the kind of fine art you find in museums. Instead, I had to rely on the illustrations I found in comic books."

Yet when Katchor began publishing strips in the early 1980s, he avoided the superhero-versus-supervillain format favored by most mainstream comics. Instead, he delved into areas that few cartoonists had dared explore -- things like Jewish mysticism, Jewish-American history and the history of architecture and urban design.

"Basically, those were the things that interested me at the time -- and still interest me," he says. "It wasn't that I tried to do something different just to be different. These were things that I found personally absorbing."

Katchor's first big success came in the late 80s, when the alternative weekly The New York Press picked up his Julius Knipl strips, about the adventures of a roving real estate photographer. Despite the strip's odd-sounding premise, Katchor turned it into a kind of illustrated picaresque novel, filled with offbeat characters, quirky plot twists and tragic-comic ruminations on everything from elevators and ceiling fans to religious faith and radical politics.

The results, which have since been collected into three books -- Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay (1991), Julius Knipl: Stories (1996) and Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District (2000) -- have drawn comparisons with the likes of James Joyce and Franz Kafka.

Asked why he chose such an unusual profession for his hero, Katchor says the decision was mostly a matter of chance.

"Somewhere along the line, I guess I'd seen an advertisement for a real estate photographer," he says. "It was just one of those odd things that sticks with you. But more importantly, it seemed like a good way to get the character out on the street. Basically, it was just a plot device."

Over the past few years, Katchor's career has really taken off.

In 2000, he received a so-called "genius grant" from the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation -- the first comics artist to be accorded such an honor. He's also the subject of a film documentary, Pleasures of Urban Decay, and the author of two works of musical theater, The Rosbach Company: A Tragicomedy and The SlugBearers of Kayrol Island or The Friends of Dr. Rushower, both written with former Miracle Legion singer-songwriter Mark Mulcahy.

In addition to his Knipl books, Katchor is the author of The Jew of New York (1999), based on a real-life attempt to establish a Jewish homeland in upstate New York in 1830s. He also contributes weekly strips to about a dozen newspapers, and pens a monthly strip for Metropolis magazine.

Asked what he plans to talk about Monday night, Katchor says he'll probably show a few slides, then take questions from the audience. "I'm not much of a public speaker," he says.

Monday's appearance will also be something of a homecoming for Katchor: he and his family lived in Providence for several years in the mid-1980s.

"At the time, my wife and I thought Providence was a good place to live while our daughter was in school," he says. "Unfortunately, I spent most of my time cooped up in the studio drawing, so I didn't see much of the city."

What does Katchor remember most about the Rhode Island capital?

"I think my clearest memory, if you can call it that, is of taking the late-night Bonanza bus between New York and Providence," he says. "Otherwise, my Providence years seem pretty hazy."

The John Nicholas Brown Center is located at 357 Benefit Street in Providence. The exhibit of Ben Katchor's work, "The Insomniac's Mansion and Other Picture-Stories by Ben Katchor" runs through Feb. 7 at the center's Carriage House Gallery (entrance at 47 Power St.). Gallery hours are daily 2-4 p.m. For more information call (401) 863-1177.