Altergott, Rick

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Altergott, Rick

PERSONAL:

Married Ariel Bordeaux (a cartoonist).

ADDRESSES:

Home—Providence, RI. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Comic book creator and illustrator.

WRITINGS:

The Doofus Omnibus, edited by Kim Thompson, introduction by Daniel Clowes, Fantagraphics Books (Seattle, WA), 2002.

Creator of the comic book series "Hate," 1990—, "Doofus," 1994—, "Raisin Pie," with wife, Ariel Bordeaux, 2002—, and "Funny Book," 2005—, all published by Fantagraphics Books; also cocreator of "Private Stash" comic series for Buenaventura Press (Oakland, CA), 2006.

Illustrator for interactive games and periodicals, including Screw, Hustler, New York Press, Nickelodeon, and the Stranger; penciller for "Monsters Attack" comic book series; letterer for "The Spirit: The New Adventures" comic book series; penciller, inker, and letterer for "Duplex Planet Illustrated" comic book series; cover artist for "Curse of the Weird" comic book series; creator of comic strip Sleep in the Grave; work also represented in various anthologies, including No More Shaves, by David Greenberger, Fantagraphics Books (Seattle, WA), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Rick Altergott is an illustrator and the creator of several comic book series. One of these series, "Raisin Pie," is written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Bordeaux. Altergott's most successful series, however, is "Doofus." Doofus and his friend, Henry Hotchkiss, are perverts and hopeless morons who can do no right while living in the fictional Flowertown, U.S.A. An interviewer on the Two-Handed Man Web site described Doofus as "a creepy loser," yet "a little charming, somehow." In the same interview, Altergott explained how he developed his comic form, saying: "I've been lucky to always have been around funny people, my friends, mostly…. Studying why something is funny and analyzing it can come awfully close to killing it, if you ask me. As far as literature goes, I was always a big fan of MAD magazine, and the National Lampoon of the '70s."

In 2002 Fantagraphics Books published most of Altergott's collection of "Doofus" comics in The Doofus Omnibus. The omnibus combines a range of Doofus's adventures, including hosting a panty-sniffing party at Ms. Juniper's house. A contributor to Publishers Weekly called the collection "a fantastic compendium of American marginalia and degradation." The same critic suggested that "Doofus" is "one of the country's funniest and most inventive comics." Ray Olson, writing in Booklist, noted that "despite its sophomoric streak, consider Altergott's stuff for adults only." Concluding a Comic Book Galaxy Web site review, Alan David Doane wrote: "The Doofus Omnibus is well worth reading, filled with irony and satire and as easy to grasp as a wisp of smoke."