Wolfgang, Kurt

PERSONAL:

Born in NJ.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—14 Allen Place, Collinsville, CT 06022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Comic artist, writer, editor. Founder and editor, Noe Fie Monomedia.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Xeric grant; Ignatz Award for LowJinx 2: Understanding Minicomics; Ignatz Award nomination for LowJinx 3: The Big Rip-Off.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor) LowJinx 2: Understanding Minicomics, Noe Fie Monomedia (Collinsville, CT), 2000.

(Editor and contributor) LowJinx 3: The Big Rip-Off!, Noe Fie Monomedia (Collinsville, CT), 2001.

Where Hats Go (graphic novel), Noe Fie Monomedia (Collinsville, CT), 2001.

Creator of numerous minicomics, including Has Been Funnies, Autobile, and Rantin Boy Jones.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kurt Wolfgang has earned a name in the independent comics field for his LowJinx books and other self-produced work that loosely fits into a maverick niche called minicomics. In an era dominated by electronic media and giant publishing houses, comics writers can still assert their creativity with little more needed than ideas, access to a copy machine, and a stapler. A common sight at independent comic conventions are those who make and sell their own minicomics, and Wolfgang is one of the best known of these creators. According to Lee Atchison on the Sequential Tart Web site, Wolfgang and his fellow minicomic artists "are pushing the envelope of the comics industry."

In LowJinx 2: Understanding Minicomics, Wolfgang collects panels from a variety of artists that, in brazen postmodernist fashion, deconstruct the minicomic form using the form itself as a medium. In his icomics review, Greg McElhatton called the work "nothing short of hysterical" and "a really sharp book." Wolfgang's Where Hats Go is a 160-page wordless graphic novel in which a young boy searches for his beloved hat that has been snatched away by a wicked wind.

In an interview with Sequential Tart, Wolfgang defined himself and his art in terms readily understandable to those who appreciate the artistic license found in mini- comics. "LowJinx is not a book that I'd try to push through Barnes and Noble, it's not a book I'd hand to the uninitiated, it's clearly a book for the already converted alterna-nerd," he explained. "LowJinx is a sloppy, slapped together wise-ass collection of smugfaced punks that are wiping their noses on their sleeves, chewing with their mouths open and not wiping their feet on the mat. LowJinx doesn't define anything or raise any bars or revolutionize anything. We're just sorta being jerks."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

icomics,http://www.icomics.com/ (May 5, 2000), Greg McElhatton, review of LowJinx 2: Understanding Minicomics.

Kurt Wolfgang, http://www.mysmallwebpage.com/ Wolfgang.html (March 9, 2004), author's home page.

Sequential Tart,http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/ (October, 2001), Lee Atchison, "De-ghetto-izing Comics"; Lee Atchison, "To Create without Boundaries: Mini-Comics."