SIGNING BONUS

Speaking of fine documentaries, this one appealed enormously to my inner type nerd.
Both it and the accompanying book contain appearances by landmark underground cartoonist Justin Green (Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, Sacred and Profane). Oddly, he is better represented in the book than in the film, all the better to show off his comic strip about his occupation, Sign Game (which itself is also collected in a standalone volume).

Green has another terrific collection called Musical Legends. The strips are biographies of greats in that field, most originally done under the auspices of the magazine founded by the late, great Tower Records. Ah, but that's another documentary now, isn't it?

Sign Painters led me to try to photograph what little I see left in Manhattan, on 23rd Street, the unofficial Ben Katchor district, and the equally Katchoresque Murray Hill neighborhood just a little uptown from it.

They don't quite approach the artistry represented in the film, but they are the final reminder of a certain level of craftsmanship that was prevalent and available to anyone who bothered to look up.