Skip Williamson
| Skip Williamson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mervyn Williamson August 19, 1944 San Antonio, Texas |
| Occupation | cartoonist |
Mervyn "Skip" Williamson (born August 19, 1944) is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Williamson is known for being the most political and satirical cartoonist of the underground comix movement.
Williamson was born in San Antonio, Texas, but later moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, and then to Canton, Missouri. Williamson's real first name is Mervyn; however when he was a child, he was a bit of a troublemaker, so his Nana gave him the nickname "Skip" after Percy Crosby's comic strip character "Skippy".
Williamson's first published cartoon was in Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine in 1961. The cartoon was accepted by then Help! editor Gloria Steinem. The cartoon was of two New Orleans trash cans. One was labeled "Negro Trash" the other "White Trash". Subsequently, comedian Dick Gregory went on The Tonight Show and showed the cartoon on national television, launching Williamson into the mainstream.
Williamson moved to Chicago in 1967 to help long time friend Jay Lynch publish The Chicago Mirror. In 1968, Williamson, Lynch, and Robert Crumb rechristened the Chicago Mirror as Bijou Funnies, which became one of the earliest and longest running underground comix titles. Williamson’s character Snappy Sammy Smoot became popular enough to appear (played by Carl Reiner) on the 1960s television program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Some years later the Comix Journal said, "Skip Williamson is still the quintessential underground comix artist." and that "where (Robert) Crumb’s primary comix aim was introspective… Williamson took a broader look, skewering both left-wing trendiness and right-wing over-reaction at a time of much-publicized left-wing trendiness… Crumb’s approach may have been more…artistically "legitimate", but to those struggling to make sense of the socio-political chaos, Williamson was frequently the funnier."
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