November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

Reclaiming the Road

(Page 2 of 2)

July / August 2005
Leif Utne Utne magazine 
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Like the others, Singer praises bicycles with a religious fervor. One strip titled 'Da Vinci Revisited' shows the Renaissance artist's famous anatomical study 'The Vitruvian Man' riding a bicycle. The caption lauds the bike's beauty and ends with 'Fossil fuels come from death. Choose life, so that we may keep living.'

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Roger Lootine is the wild child of the bunch. His art is angrier, grittier, and raunchier, reminiscent of the psycho-sexual fantasies of cartoonist R. Crumb. While Avidor and Singer focus on the big picture, portraying futurist narratives or commenting on global politics, Lootine's Residue comic strip, which runs regularly in the Minneapolis weekly Pulse, 'comes from a more emotional place,' he says. Regular characters include Chump, a punkish bike-riding monkey; Crunchy, a homicidal cockroach; Jesus, a pot-smoking messiah; and The Man, a porcine cop who continually harasses Chump for riding on the road.

Many of Lootine's cartoons are autobiographical, depicting his run-ins with irate drivers and police. 'I get chased down by drivers a lot,' he says. Which might help explain why Lootine is fond of dropping leaflets about the legal rights of bicycles to share the road into drivers' open windows as he rides past them. Asked where his passion for cycling comes from, Lootine replies, 'It's the only time I feel free.'

Tell Me More

For additional work by these artists:

Ken Avidor
www.avidorstudios.com

Roger Lootine
P.O. Box 580848,
Minneapolis, MN 55458

Andy Singer
www.andysinger.com

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