Zippy the Pinhead

Zippy the Pinhead, created by Bill Griffith, debuted in the underground comix scene as a microcephalic everyman whose stream-of-consciousness non-sequiturs and pop-culture obsessions skewered American consumerism and absurdity. No superhero origin exists — Zippy simply is.

Few comics characters have burrowed quite so gleefully into the American underground as Zippy the Pinhead, who burst onto the scene in 1975's Arcade the Comics Revue #1 — a Bronze Age debut courtesy of Fowlton Means and Kim Deitch that planted a flag squarely in the countercultural soil. Over an extraordinary 42-year run, Zippy became a fixture of publications like High Times Magazine, Zippy Quarterly, and Zippy Annual, keeping wild company with the likes of Griffy, Fat Freddy Freekowtski, Freewheelin' Franklin Freek, Mr. Toad, and even Ronald Reagan across 79 catalog appearances. He's a genuine underground comics institution — irreverent, surreal, and utterly singular — with a key issue to his name that collectors have long circled. If you're tracing the weird, wonderful margins of American comics history, Zippy is absolutely essential.