Gary Panter
Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950 in Durant, Oklahoma) is an American painter and graphic artist. Panter's work is strongly influenced by Cal Schenkel and he's a Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart fan too. Interviewed by Eric Davidson (19 August 2019), Panter said: "The Mothers and Invention and Captain Beefheart blew my mind. They were idea music to me.". [1]. From the late 1970s on, he started making punk-style illustrations and comics, combining trashy art and pop culture influences with surreal stories and images. His best-known comic series is Jimbo.
Panter later made contributions to RAW magazine and made illustrations for books, clothing companies, set designs for Pee-Wee Herman's children's TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse (1986-1990). Matt Groening said about Panter that he "applied his fine-art training to the casualness of the comic strip, and the result was an explosive series of graphic experiments that are imitated in small doses all over the world today".
Gary Panter and Frank Zappa
In 1978, Panter was commissioned by Warner Brothers to create album covers for Zappa's albums Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. Since Zappa was sueing Warners at the time, Panter never met him and only found out about all these legal issues afterwards. Though years later, Matt Groening did assure him that Zappa liked his album cover designs for the most part. [2].
Panter also made supportive illustrations for Zappa-related material, such as A Definitive Tribute to Frank Zappa (Best of Guitar Player, 1994).
In Panter's comic strip Jimbo in Purgatory, Zappa and Captain Beefheart both have guest appearances. [3]
