Duplex Planet
Cover of issue #126 of The Duplex Planet, published in 1993.
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| Managing Editor | Barbara Price |
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| Categories | zine |
| Frequency | monthly |
| Format | digest |
| Founder | David Greenberger |
| Year founded | 1979 |
| First issue | 1979 |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Based in | Saratoga Springs, New York |
| Language | English |
| Website | DuplexPlanet.com |
| ISSN | 0882-2549 |
| Duplex Planet Illustrated | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fantagraphics Books |
| Schedule | bimonthly (approximately) |
| Format | standard |
| Genre | alternative comics |
| Publication date | Jan. 1993 – Apr. 1996 |
| No. of issues | 15 |
| Main character(s) | Residents of Duplex Nursing Home |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | David Greenberger |
| Written by | David Greenberger |
| Artist(s) | Doug Allen, Gary Leib, Rick Altergott, Terry LaBan, Peter Bagge, J. R. Williams, Archer Prewitt, Drew Friedman, Dan Clowes, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware, Dame Darcy, James Kochalka, Jason Lutes, Joe Zabel, Gary Dumm, Ellen Forney, Peter Kuper, Roberta Gregory, Tim Hensley, Dave Cooper, Sam Henderson, Andy Hartzell, Ron Regé, Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, Eric Reynolds, David Collier, Jessica Abel, Matt Madden, David Lasky, Pete Sickman-Garner, Darryl Vance, Wayno, Dean Rohrer, Pat Moriarity, Mike Schafer, Matthew Guest |
| Editor(s) | David Greenberger |
| Collected editions | |
| No More Shaves: A Duplex Planet Collection | ISBN |
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 focused on the residents of the Duplex Nursing Home, located in Boston.
The Duplex Planet has subsequently found larger audiences in other forms — which are all derived from the original template — including book collections, spoken-word recordings, and a series of concerts. A series of personal commentaries drawn from Greenberger's experiences with this body of work has aired regularly on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered".
Some of the Duplex Nursing Home residents, all identified by name, became recurring characters in the zine and its various offshoots and adaptations.
In 1979, having just completed a degree in fine arts as a painter, Greenberger took a job as activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home. On his first day, he met the residents of the nursing home and abandoned painting in favor of conversation. "This is my art," he said. In this unexpected setting, Greenberger found an unusual medium and a desire to portray the people he met as living human beings instead of "just repositories of their memories or the wisdom of the ages." Instead of collecting oral history about significant events, Greenberger focused on talking one-on-one with ordinary people about ordinary things — the joy of a close shave or answers to questions like "Can you fight city hall?"
Many of the elderly people interviewed in Duplex Planet appeared regularly in the pages of the zine, and collaborated directly with Greenberger. They include:
A series of CDs titled Lyrics by Ernest Noyes Brookings (1989–present) continues to be issued, featuring a wide variety of notable musical acts (XTC, Brave Combo, Morphine, Ben Vaughn, Peter Holsapple, The Young Fresh Fellows, Robyn Hitchcock, Dave Alvin, Yo La Tengo and over a hundred others) performing songs set to the poems of Duplex Planet regular Brookings.
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