Empanelled — Loose Life Stories is largely autobiographical, full of colour and stories of Lindsay Arnold’s eventful life as an eminently sedulous comicular practitioner, painter and renowned jazz drummer.
Frivolous Fables is Book Two of Empanelled, the collected comicular works of Linzee Arnold.
This book continues the Tasmanian weirdness with a strong dash of fantasy.
It’s packed with impropriety. It’s vulgar and downright odd, funny and serious.
Celebrity Comments:
Linzee Arnold was a multi-disciplinary Hobart artist decades before anyone there had heard the term. Born in 1939, he was active in the creative worlds of theatre, radio, film, music and particularly visual art before the 1960s dawned.
Linzee is primarily known as a progenitor of ‘Underground Comix.’ counter-cultural mutations of the popular comic books of the mid to late 20th century. Improbably, he was mining this field of expression as early as the 1950s in Tasmania.
His obsessive, dense and highly detailed comics are considered by some to be the origin of autobiographical underground comics, eventually being published with the work of better-known artists in the genre such as R Crumb and Denis Kitchen.
He is also a highly accomplished jazz drummer and has performed and recorded with top Australian jazzers as well as pop stars the Bee Gees and The Foundations.
His preoccupation with jazz yielded a successful ABC comedy series, Dr. Gumbo, and a famous comic based on the obscene and scatological rants of jazz drum legend Buddy Rich.*
Brian Ritchie, music curator, MONA, (from his introduction to the catalogue of Linzee Arnold’s one-man exhibition ‘Music — Sound Paintings’, Hobart 2013)
* Buddy’s rant and the full Dr. Gumbo comic will feature in Linzee’s second book, Empanelled — Frivolous Fables.
‘Linz R. Nold is a Jazz Drummer/Comic Freak who knows how to paradiddle and pack mad whimsy into every panel — his Pulse is dangerously infectious… just feel it!’
Geoffrey Rush AC
‘I am delighted to have been introduced to Linzee’s work. I derive much pleasure from his painting, and am greatly amused by the comics.’
Janet Holmes a Court AC, art collector
‘Linzee speaks softly but carries a big (drum) stick. For fans of self-deprecating narrative of a photographic memory sort.’
Brian Ritchie of Violent Femmes, music curator at MONA, Tasmania
‘He led the Life of an Artist, and led me there as well.’
Lindy Morrison OAM, GoBetweens drummer
‘Hey Linz, Your drawings are at the pinnacle of comicular art. As a youngster in London I pawed over ‘The Adventures of Barry McKenzie’ in Private Eye. I thought I was him… Chug a lug!!! He existed, as do your epic muso characters. I think I am them now. What a conundrum. Keep it up, we love it and you. Thanks mate. Drop in. Al’.
Allan Browne, legendary poet and drumnambulist supreme
‘A Veritable Master Class in Inscrutability.’
Dr. Morgan J. R. ‘Jay’ Nold, CEO sprokkit.com
‘I love your visual humor.’
Robert Crumb
‘I love all the little details.’
Aline Kominsky Crumb
‘I think you’re an excellent cartoonist.’
Gary Groth, Publisher, Fantagraphics
‘You’re a genius.’
Ron Turner, Publisher, Last Gasp
‘You’re no Rembrandt.’
Kathe Todd, Rip Off Press
‘Keep on artworkin’
Peter Bagge
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were so famous?’
David Lasky
‘I always liked your stuff.’
Eddie Campbell
‘You have to get in someone’s face!’
Harvey Pekar
‘It’s funny. It’s sad. I love it!’
Geoff Dyer, Archibald Prize winning painter.
‘Brilliantly done in Linz’s unique style. Laugh or sob hysterically, you will have your own reaction to these wonderful comedic tales.’
John Pochée OAM, Drummer, author of the legendary jazz memoir I’ll Start Tomorrow
‘He’s a part of Jazz History.’
Joe ‘Bop’ Lane
ISBN 978 098054827 3 (paperback)
Size 215 x 290mm
288 pages
Limp sewn, laminated cover with flaps
Colour throughout
Weight 1.5kg
linzee is an artist in the true sense of the word