Even if you don't know Jim Woodring's name, there's a decent chance you've seen his work somewhere in the past 30 years or so of comics. His character Frank was one of the pivotal indie comics characters of the mid-to-late '90s, and Woodring has written Star Wars and Aliens comics for Dark Horse.

Woodring's most personal work, however, has been in the series simply titled Jim, which ran in the late '80s and mid '90s, and which took a surreal look at the day-to-day life of Woodring (or at least a fictionalized version of him). Fantagraphics will be releasing the first-ever collection of Jim's 10 issues next month, and has released a 21-page preview, which you can check out below.

Warning: Some of the material may be considered NSFW.

 

 

It's clear that Woodring has had considerable influence on creators such as Michael Kupperman (just look at those fake ads) and Chris Ware (whose characters are also often self-abusive). Though perhaps only Woodring could take a story about retrieving a lost pad and make it into a dreamscape journey into a land of confusion.

For more, check out Jim when it's released in July. It will retail for $29.99.

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