Hey y'all, i just got gary panter's new book and what a book it is (actually two books!). one volume examines gary's paintings and drawings while the other covers his comics work, light shows, work with pee wee herman, toys, record covers for everyone from frank zappa to the dead kennedys and numerous sketchbooks. the man has produced an absolutely overwhelming body of work and is one of the grreat unsung genius' of our time. this book is highly recommeneded! and it's HUGE! all you old school punks should really be digging on this but everyone here i thought would find the few pages about gary's toy collection of interest. oh, and i almost forgot to mention that the second volume also contains gary's biography, from th eearly formative years all the way to now in his own words! i've only gleaned bits and pieces of it so far but it makes for a very good read. here are the toys and after that, i had to include a picture of a painting that he was working on when i visited him in his studio. it was awesome then and really cool to see it finished in this book!
For a while I corresponded with his ex - Nicole (former manager of the Germs if you've ever seen the film The Decline of Western Civilization) - she told me how Gary was into Japanese vinyl back in the early or mid-80's, I believe. I think she said that he/they used to visit that LA japanese toy store that Coop talks about in his online video interview (was it called Pony Toys?). Nicole also published a book or two of poetry/short stories and if I recall correctly, one of the s.s. talks about some Japanese Godzilla vinyls laying around the house. Yet another example of the punk rock-artist-japanese vinyl toy nexus.
