Rick Altergott (born 1961)"Artists,"
''Raw, Boiled, and Cooked: Comics on the Verge'', edited by Paul Candler (Last Gasp, 2004), p. 86. is an American alternative

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary an ...

and illustrator. Altergott is best known for ''

Doofus Doofus or dufus is slang for a person prone to stupidity or foolishness, and may refer to *Dufus (band), an American anti-folk band * ''Doofus'' (comics), an alternative comic by Rick Altergott and the title character *Doofus Drake, a character on ...

'', a long-running low-brow, scatological series of strips which chronicle the misadventures of two small-town weirdos, Doofus and Henry Hotchkiss.

Life and career

Altergott got his BFA in film from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He met and befriended fellow cartoonist and Pratt student Daniel Clowes during his college years. During this period, Altergott and Clowes formed the small press comics publisher Look Mom Comics (inspired by Look Mom Carrots). Altergott's first published work was in the early 1980s, but he didn't really settle into the comics world until late in the decade, when he contributed regularly to the humor magazine '' Cracked''. Throughout the 1990s Altergott published the small-press comic ''Douche Bag Dougan'' (the titular hero of which later made an appearance in Fantagraphics Books' '' Zero Zero'' anthology.) Altergott's work has also appeared in Fantagraphics' ''

Duplex Planet Illustrated ''The Duplex Planet'' is a zine edited and published by David Greenberger since 1979. It contains transcriptions of his interviews with elderly residents of senior centers and "meal sites" in the Massachusetts area. For many years, the zine focus ...

'' and '' Hate'', where ''

'' was a long-running backup feature repeatedly promoted by Peter Bagge. Altergott resides in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Fa ...

,Altergott page on Fantagraphics website.
Accessed Nov. 26, 2008. with his wife, fellow cartoonist

Ariel Bordeaux Ariel Bordeaux is an American alternative cartoonist, painter, and writer. She is known for the confessional autobiographical minicomics series ''Deep Girl'' and the two-person title (with her husband Rick Altergott) '' Raisin Pie''. Life ...

. Their collaborative comic book ''

Raisin Pie ''Raisin Pie'' is an American alternative comics series by husband-and-wife duo Rick Altergott and Ariel Bordeaux. Fantagraphics, which marketed the series as "gosh-darned good comics by the domesticated duo of ... Bordeaux ndAltergott", ...

'' was published by Fantagraphics Books from 2002 to 2007. In September 2006, Altergott released a serious biblical minicomic based on the life of Saint Matthias. In 2008, Altergott and Bordeaux contributed to the anthology '' Kramers Ergot'' 7. In April 2014, Altergott began work on a weekly comic for '' Vice'' named " Flowertown USA." (the home town of Doofus). The series lasted through the year. Altergott lived in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

for a period when Daniel Clowes also lived there. Due to the similarities in their drawing styles, some observers have suggested that Altergott is a pseudonym for Clowes, allowing Clowes to draw in a different, Wally Wood-inspired style. This is untrue. Altergott is also friends with Jaime Hernandez."Sex Advice From Cartoonists"
Accessed Dec. 24, 2011 .

Quotes

Daniel Clowes: Gilbert Hernandez:

Bibliography

* ''

'' (2 issues, Fantagraphics, December 1994–Spring 1997) * ''The Doofus Omnibus'' (Fantagraphics, 2002) * (with

) ''

'' (5 issues, Fantagraphics, October 2002–July 2007)

Notes

External links

*
Lambiek.net's Comiclopledia entry

Comic Art Collective page

Comics for Vice magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altergott, Rick 1961 births Living people American comics artists American comics writers Underground cartoonists