Panel Borders: Ben Katchor, architectural strips

By John Freeman on March 31, 2014

Art by and © Ben Katchor

Concluding a month of shows about comics and graphic novels drawn from elements of real life on British comics radio show Panel Borders, Alex Fitch talks to award winning American cartoonist Ben Katchor about his weekly newspaper strips on tourism and architecture.

Ben Katchor’s picture-stories appear in Metropolis magazine. His most recent collection of monthly strips, Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories, was published in March 2013 by Pantheon Books.

Up From the Stacks, his most recent music-theatre collaboration with Mark Mulcahy, was commissioned in 2011 by the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library and Lincoln Center and was performed at both venues.

He is an Associate Professor at Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City.

Fitch and Katchor discuss the latter’s weekly strip from The Village Voice – Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer – and how it was part of a wave of underground cartoonists in periodicals, collecting his absurdist cartoons on tourism – The Cardboard Valise – and his oversized monthly graphic short story for Metropolis magazine, collected as Hand Drying in America and other stories.

• Panel Borders: Ben Katchor, architectural strips 4.30pm, Monday 31st March, repeated 11.00am, Thursday 3rd April on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

• For more information on Ben Katchor visit www.katchor.com

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.