The Perry Bible Fellowship enters semi-retirement
By David Cassel
Nicholas Gurewitch has just announced that he’s retiring his Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip.
Sort of.
“It’s really not as big a deal as it might seem,” Nicholas said today. “I’ll simply be producing comics at a pace I’m more comfortable with.” Monday newspapers publishing his strip received the surprising announcement from the cartoonist. “I’m making this decision for a variety of reasons,” Nicholas told them in an email, “but mainly because I want to do other things besides be a cartoonist.”
The comic strip will still continue, Nicholas said today. “There are actually a number of papers and magazines still interested in publishing at undetermined intervals.” And he had a suggestion for any newspapers that are announcing his reduced publishing schedule or his departure from their pages. “I would encourage you to mention the existence of the Perry Bible Fellowship book that is on sale!”
“I feel I owe it to myself and the Perry Bible Fellowship not to turn a joyful diversion into a long career,” Nicholas explained today. For now 25-year-old Nicholas plans to live off proceeds from his recent collection, and prints of the strip.
“His book did really, really well through Amazon,” said Dark Horse’s Krystin Overstreet, and the book actually pre-sold more than 27,000 copies before its official release date in November.
But Nicholas says he’s looking forward to “dedicating my thoughts to new books, scripts, movies, or whatever else comes my way. ”
Fox News meets The Perry Bible Fellowship
Nicholas’s announcement comes at the height of his success, and immediately after what may be the most surreal interview ever recorded. Earlier this month Fox News interviewed him about the first collection of his comic strips. And at one point, Fox’s intense host asked “Would it harm a child to actually read it?”
“Visiting Fox News in New York felt like journeying into Mordor,” Gurewitch confided later. “Pretty exciting. And a lot more pleasant, probably.”
The interviewer was Greg Gutfeld, whose past columns on Fox’s site include “Waterboarding: It’s a Good Thing” and “Who deserves to be tasered.” Nicholas has done many interviews over the years, but the strangest moment on Fox News came when Greg, a former Stuff magazine editor, announced that he and Nicholas would demonstrate how funny the cartoons were — by acting out one of the strips.
Nicholas Gurewitch reacts to Fox News interviewer Greg Gutfeld
“I recommended that he do that,” Gurewitch admits. “He was originally planning to show the four frames of the comic. But I thought it would lead to an even more uncomfortable silence than the one we provided.”
The strip Fox’s host had chosen to re-enact was called “No Survivors.”
Fox News: “Deborah, I found no survivors. Especially not over there….”
Nicholas: “No, Frank, not now.”
“Any time you are presenting information that is best seen in a book on TV, it’s not going to go over well,” Nicholas acknowledged. But the re-enactment lead to yet-another strange exchange.
NG: That’s where you laugh.
Fox News …Every time I look at that it makes me laugh! Now see, that I think is upbeat. It’s about love. It’s not about death.
NG: Well… It’s about failed love.
Fox News: And death.
NG: The death of the love.
Fox News Co-host: I feel like you couldn’t have gotten that more wrong.
[Nicholas pats Greg's shoulder consolingly.]
“I thought that was interesting,” Gurewitch says, “because Greg was close when he said it was about love and that guy was close when he said it’s about death. I’m pretty sure the correct interpretation of that strip is definitely somewhere in between.”
Over the years Nicholas has drawn many strange scenes for his comic strip. (The inside cover of his newest collection includes a picture of a chocolate bunny detonating dynamite.) But braving the bizarre is ultimately what’s made him a success — especially with his fans online.
Now the cartoonist has finally reached a crossroads. “At this point we’re selling off what remains of the second printing,” Nicholas says. But what lies in the future? “I think we’re looking at something larger for the next book. Dark Horse Publishing said they were down for doing a 256-pager, which is great by me. Maybe something to the effect of the Perry Bible Fellowship Almanac.”
Nicholas is starting a new phase of his life, and says he’s already feeling great about the decision. “After three years of non-stop drawing, I want to relax certain muscles in my arm. Relax certain parts of my brain. Or maybe just relax. Make sure things don’t get too serious. I want to paint something that’s pretty. I’d like to make a film or two. Finish my feature film script. Exercise more.
“My friend and I saw 20 deer today while jogging. I need to see more deer.”
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February 20th, 2008
[...] post info By juannavarro Categories: Brutality, Drums, Fanboy, Funny, Funny shit, Jedi, Links, Movies, Premiere, Sneak Peek, Star Wars, Today and comics + Knowing when to walk away and when when your fucking BADASS to stay is everything , ask this guy [...]
February 20th, 2008
The PBF is hands down my favorite comic strip of all time, while I understand that Nicholas wants to move on and do other things, I’m sad that it means less new strips for the world to enjoy. I hope he does not fully retire the series eventually.
February 20th, 2008
[...] The Perry Bible Fellowship enters semi-retirement If that is what it takes to keep making them wonderful cartoons, please do! (tags: comics) [...]
February 20th, 2008
[...] Nicholas Gurewitch is slowing the pace of his comic, but not putting it on the shelf altogether. This interview contains some interesting tidbits, including the fact that the print version of PBF pre-sold 27,000 [...]
February 21st, 2008
[...] probably seen it, but Nick Gurewitch is stepping back from regular PBF updates to pursue other endeavors. This is why God invented RSS feeds, [...]
February 22nd, 2008
Anyone have a link to the FOX video?
February 29th, 2008
It’s been awesome to see his rise to prominence over the past few years. I’m curious how much money he’s raking in
I wish him luck, and hope that he continues providing us fans with hysterical material.
March 6th, 2008
I hope he makes a feature film, that would be amazing. May it lead to many deer.
March 12th, 2008
SELL OUT SELL OUT SELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUTSELL OUT
March 13th, 2008
Hmm… so you take the thing that’s made you successful, the web comic, and, at the peak of your success, you bring it to a grinding near halt?
Not fun.
March 16th, 2008
[...] same thing can also be said about MySpace or YouTube. In some places onlinwww.thatpoliticalblog.comThe Perry Bible Fellowship enters semi-retirement Nicholas Gurewitch has just announced that he’s retiring his Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip. [...]
March 16th, 2008
[...] Bible Foundation gaat het iets rustiger aan doen, maar zijn erfenis wordt voortgezet in soortgelijke comics. Waar Truck Bearing Kibble de mosterd [...]
March 18th, 2008
Every Friday, I thought “I must write to the Guardian and thank them for printing this once a week”; it never failed to be an early highlight of the day. But of course, distracting things got in the way and so I never got round to it until I read it was no longer going to be there. Bah. So I’m pleased to have been able to purchase your book as a gift-that-goes-on-giving-to-my-own-bad-self. Thanks a lot and good luck with having fun doing thigns other than just doing comic strips.
March 22nd, 2008
[...] was saddened to find out that one of my favorite webcomics Perry Bible Fellowship entered semi-retirement. I noticed that the rate that the strips were coming out was getting slow (not as slow as this [...]
April 2nd, 2008
It’s admirable to stop producing something that’s creative when it starts to seem as though it will become a chore rather than a genuinely creative activity. I hope that I’ll know similarly when to stop writing poetry, although I doubt that I will. I’m glad that there will still be an occasional occurrence of P. B. F., however.
April 10th, 2008
Haters, calm down… this man has a life of his own. Besides, there will always be something new.
April 12th, 2008
Great decision.
April 14th, 2008
During Nicholas’s one-comic-a-week run, every so often he would produce a full-color technicolor hallucinatory landscape. And when that happened, I always thought, “There’s just no way he’s going to keep this thing up forever.” I figured life was just passing him by, and it turns out I was right. So I think, with all the impressive work he’s done, no one should begrudge him his (semi-)retirement and his briskly selling book.
April 14th, 2008
Make more comics damnit!
April 24th, 2008
Ahk! How could I miss this blog article? I too thought the frequency had dropped.
These comics will be missed from my regular rotation although I hope they continue as I will still check the site from time to time for a gem.
July 31st, 2008
everyone calm down. i’ve spoke to god through my dreams…he says it’s not the end….not yet anyway…. ; )
December 19th, 2008
Did the site completely die? That’s too bad.