Lawrence.com

As a medium for meaningful commentary, comics have often ranked somewhere between Bazooka Joe gum-wrappers and Larry Flynt's used tissues on the social respectability scale.

Despite inroads made by Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller and Alan Moore, comics largely remain something like the bastard offspring of more high falutin' art-forms.

"I think there's still a stigma with comics, that they're for illiterates or children," laments local filmmaker and comic artist David Daneman.

A cadre of unabashed cartoon enthusiasts from Lawrence and Kansas City are attempting to drag comics from that perception gutter.

"They're not a lower art," insists Andrew Hadle, a sculptor and KU Fine Arts graduate who feels just as comfortable emulating Rodin as he does R. Crumb.

"I would definitely consider them up there with anything else as an art form. They're more universal. They use a language of symbols that you can't have with just a book."

Enter "Larrytown Laffs," the first of an anthology series dedicated to area artists with a penchant for the graphic. The inaugural issue features the work of Daneman, Hadle, Chris Dickenson, Thayer Bray, Tom Avery, Dale Martin, Jacob Rhodes, David Butterfield and Wes Wedman-all artists with roots in Lawrence. "Humor" was the uniting theme for the collection, but the topics veer from exploding street Santas to traumatic Wii injuries and the artists' stylistic approaches are just as manically varied.

"Larrytown Laffs" is the long gestating loin fruit of Astrokitty Comics owner Joel Pfannenstiel, who wanted to harness the talent he saw congregating in his store and at Drink & Draw events.

"I guess Lawrence is a unique mixture and it always has been for creative endeavors," says Pfannenstiel. "I think, per capita, we have probably more talented cartoonists than you would expect in a city this size."

One of those cartoonists, Tom Avery, thinks it's about damn time this underground Lawrence art scene got the credit it's due.

"I don't think it gets the ink that the music scene does, but I think it's a bit more promising," says Avery. "Remember, the Lawrence music scene was supposed to be the next Athens, then it was supposed to be the next Seattle:but Lawrence was never the first Lawrence. I think that the Lawrence comic scene has a real shot at being the first Lawrence comic scene."

The contributors see "Larrytown Laffs" as a major step in developing the Lawrence comic community.

"This book, the Drink and Draw events, and then there's just recently the comic book convention which happens every year in Lawrence," (as well as an anime convention) says Andrew Hadle, are all mounting pieces of evidence that the comic cabal is gaining in force.

"Joel has been doing an awful lot to create a sort of supportive scene," says fellow strip artist Daneman of Pfannenstiel's comics crusading. "So it's becoming increasingly more supportive and more influential."

"Comics do everyting," says Pfannenstiel. "If a comic reaches the pinnacle of what comics can become, they are fine art, amazing literature, and escapism simultaneously. I don't know any other medium that claim all these things at once."

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," says Pfannenstiel of Lawrence's untapped ink reservoirs. "Some of the people in the next book are education majors, but they're doing cartooning on the side. They work as a bartender downtown, but they also like to draw funny animals. It's great."

Aspiring panel jockeys' work is being considered for issue No. 2. One to four page submissions on the theme of 'Villians' is being accepted through December at Astrokitty. Issue No. 1 is also available at Astrokitty.

Tom Avery urges Lawrencians with a creative bent to utilize the accessibility of the comics medium and get scribblin'.

"You may not have the most money and you may not have all of the technical resources available, but if you have a clever idea and a willingness to see it though, you're probably going to connect with somebody here."