Skitzy: the Story of Floyd W. Skitzafroid
…the delightful tribute to creative and commercial impulses, Skitzy. This lightly comedic tale follows a day in the life of a man literally divided between life as an office worker and as an artist. Without the use of dialogue, Freeman’s fluid and economical illustrations create an engrossing and fully believable environment, seducing the reader into a familiar world where expressive, gestural drawings explore the possibility of striking a perfect balance between work and play.
From the back cover of the 2008 Skitzy reprint
By the way – one of the few happy stories in the wordless genre.
Skitzy – opening: Museum of the City of New York
Images courtesy of Don Freeman’s son, Roy Freeman.
Bibliographic description
- Binding: wire spiral
- 1 v. (unpaged): ill. ;
- 93 illustrated pages
- 13.8 x 10.5 cm. (5 1/2 x 4 1/8″)
- Self-published in 1955
Back cover “Published by Don Freeman at John D. Hooper Lithographers, 343 Front St., San Francisco, Calif.”.
At the end of the illustrations.”Copyright 1955 by Don Freeman”.
The schizophrenic nature of Skitzy is shown on the front cover where one side of his mouth is upturned in a smile while the other side is down-turned in a frown. It is the split between Skitzy as artist and Skitzy as office drudge.
Wordless??
WORDS??? Don Freeman in his introduction to Skitzy for the 1956 opening at the Museum of the City of New York called Skitzy a, “story without words”. I am going with his assessment and treating the reference to “blissfully sleeping” as a chapter heading or a prologue. Half way through there is another “chapter heading”. On the whole I view this as a wordless story.
The first half
The 2nd half – the office worker
More words (or a chapter heading). After 59 pages we see Skitzy at his desk job.
After brooding, Skitzy realizes he can use his creativity to make art and his administrative skills to run a gallery selling his art.
2008 Reprint with Afterword by Dave Kiersh
22.9 x 18.4 cm (9 x 7 1/4″)
