Julius Knipl

Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer is one of the densest comic strips ever to run, even in alternative venues (where it appeared as a weekly). Creator Ben Katchor solidified his love of the fading small-business community of New York City in the character of a downtrodden schlep who wanders the streets taking pictures and being sidetracked into surrealistic escapades.

Knipl is so text-heavy it almost keels over on occasion, but the overall effect is enveloping and palpably real. The nearest equivalent, in its use of New York as a gritty urban foundation, is Will Eisner's The Spirit from the 1940s.

A collection of Knipl was published in 1991 by Penguin Books as Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay.