2020 Levittown School District Hall of Fame Inductees

William Griffith

Alumni Award

General Douglas MacArthur

"Are we having fun yet?" If you have heard that catchphrase, then you are already acquainted with the work of William Griffith, who is credited in Bartlett's Quotations for the phrase. A prolific cartoonist and author, Mr. Griffith published his first comic strips in the East Village Other, featuring an angry amphibian named Mr. The Toad.

A part of the underground comic movement, Mr. Griffith is best known for his character, Zippy the Pinhead, who appeared in 1971, but went weekly in 1976. Zippy became quite popular, and in 1982 was the subject of a song by the B52's Fred Schneider and the Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel called "Zippy Theme Song." The daily Zippy strip was started in 1986 and went into syndication by King Features in over 200 newspapers worldwide. In 2008 Mr Griffith presented a talk on Zippy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In it, he laid out his "Top 40 List on Comics and their Creation," which has since been reposted on numerous comics websites.

In October 1994 Griffith toured Cuba for two weeks, during a period of mass exodus, as thousands of Cubans took advantage of President Fidel Castro's decision to permit emigration for a limited time. In early 1995, Griffith published a six-week series of "comics journalism" stories about Cuban culture and politics in Zippy . The Cuba series included transcripts of conversations Griffith had conducted with various Cubans, including artists, government officials, and a Yoruba priestess.

In addition to his work as a syndicated cartoonist, Mr. Griffith was one of a handful of noted artists who designed Wacky Packages trading cards for the Topps Company. He was called back into service by Topps for a new issue of that product called Wacky Packages Old School Sketch Cards.

In 2015 Bill had his memoir, Invisible Ink: My Mother's Secret Love Affair With a Famous Cartoonist ," published by Fantagraphics. His most recent graphic biography, Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead is a sensitive look at the life of Schlitzie Surtees, an American sideshow performer. This account of Schlitzie will be featured in a new documentary, titled Schlitzie: One of Us , which is currently in production.