Beginnings episode 21: Ben Katchor

For our first foray outside the world of comedy, we talked to Ben Katchor, the super-thoughtful, world-weary cartoonist, author of such comics as Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Running in publications like The New Yorker and The Village Voice, among many others, his comics have also been collected in books including The Jew of New York and his latest, The Cardboard Valise, and in 2000, he won the MacArthur Genius Award for his work. Ben's work is both surreal and grounded - odd worlds, odd people and often tragicomic narratives exist in a fully-realized universe, one that resembles our own but is just slightly off. Ben also teaches at Parsons, and in May, we sat down in his office to discuss Google's shoddy lecture series, subsidized art, art and business, art as a craft, the weekly deadline, editors and audiences and in-jokes as the ultimate comedy.