MindShaft's Next Issue Coming out in August

Giola has posted the new cover of the August Issue of Mindshaft on our Facebook. It looks like a must have issue. Cover art is stunning. Some of our favs are in this issue, good friends R. Crumb and Skip Williamson to name a few. We recommend you reserve a copy today, but we dont really know how you do that. Maybe if you Google it, you can email Giola with your order. Keep in mind Mindshaft does not come out every month and they use old school printing process I am told to great effect. Tell 'em we sent 'cha, okey dokey

Sorry Guy Comics hits the Fan.........

We recently got a link sent to us on Facebook for Skip Williamson's Open Salon blog post about Independent Film Maker John Kinhart, creator of Sorry Guy comics. John is working on an independent doc film project about the life and art of Skip Williamson. But it seems that John originally approached Art Spiegelman and was turned down. So in the tradition of great, self effacing, truthful, autobiographical, Comic stories, John did a great strip about meeting Mr. Speigelman at some Lecture Hall. You just need to click on Sorry Guy's link http://sorrycomics.blogspot.com/ and read it yourself, it is dated May 16th 2009. We have asked John if we could reprint it here along with some kind of news update on the Doc. In the meantime, you can read Skip Williamson's article @
http://open.salon.com/blog/snappy_sam/2009/05/23/sorry_comics
Sorry Comics - Skip Williamson - Open Salon

Screamin' Jay Hawkins in Airport lounge - Pearl Harbour '68

In fall of 1967, I was shipped out to Pearl Harbour on the island of Oahu, Hawaii to languish as a yeoman at ComPact Serv, a "wonderful" desk job that consisted mainly of getting the mail for the officers in my work station and an occasional 10 cent coke for the LT. Hawaii was great for the first two weeks, hanging out at Waikiki, going to the North Shore, watching them surf the big waves. But after 2 weeks, it all turned terribly boring and treadfully horrifying, to say the least. My friends back home were all envious as they were surfers that thought this was the dream job, being in Hawaii, no Viet Nam, surf every day etc.

Wrong, it was anything but that. As a matter of fact, it was Hell on earth as a young white dude from the mainland. They called us Howllies, I am sure it is spelled different than that, but that is how it sounded. It meant unwanted, white person, kind of like the word "nigger" is used as a racial slur, to be exact. It was the first time, I really felt racial prejudice as a white guy. Even though growing up in Brookfield/ La grange Il, one of the few western suburbs of Chicago that had integrated schools in the 50's, but nothing in life had prepared me for Hawaii 1967/68. The vibes were so intense everywhere you went, if you were white, that we, white sailors had few places to go. The black sailors fit in just about everywhere it seemed but not the white boys. So you had to pick and choose your spots as they say.

One friday night, I decided to go to the Airport Lounge near base with some "white guys" to have a few beers and listen to the jams of a top 40 California band. The Hondells, I believe they were called. So one of the sailors who was about my age, similar background and his friend, a "lifer" second class petty officer about 40,twice our age, pile into a cab. We were just 20 years old at the time but that was legal drinking age in Hawaii. I wondered why my friend Bill had asked the "Chief" to come along, but I never bothered to ask. We got to the bar, ordered drinks and sat back to listen to the band. "Chief" started to hustle this native chick right away. It was pretty uncomfortable at first, as there was not that many people in the bar. but then the band got up on stage, they were a "Beach Boy type band" a one hit wonder band, remember "Go little Honda? that was theirs, (of you dont remember it, that would be admitting your friggin' age). They ended up in Hawaii, playing this joint called the "Airport Lounge", next to, you guessed it The Airport. The keyboardist was a guy named Chuck Girard, who became better known as the singer/song writer of an early Christian Rock Group called "Love Song" about 5 years later.

So they are doing their set when Chuck says,"ladies and gentlemen", he was quick to point out that the crowd was mostly sailors and then there was the one Hawaiian lady at our table. He says, "We got a special treat for you all tonight, we want to welcome and bringon stage, the one and only,..... Screamin' Jay Hawkins" lets have a big round of applause for Screamin'Jay "I PUT A SPELL ON YOU" Hawkins.............." I was stunned, I went slightly crazy, clapping real loud.....well, then I stopped as everyone in the bar turned around to see who was screaming for Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I thought holy sh*t Batman, no one knows who this is?????????? So they break into a raunchy version of "I Put a Spell on You" with Screamin' Jay at the Helm and I am transported, as in gone, I cant believe it. I am thinking to myself, no one is going to believe this back home, Chicago.

So after the number was finished, Mr Hawkins is walking by our table and I jumped up and said "Screamin Jay. can I buy you a drink Sir"? He said, "dont mind if I do son". I sat him down next to me at the end of the booth (away from the others) and ordered him some kind of cocktail with a strange name. Well, the lounge was really dark and Screamin' Jay was really dark and I can only remember the whites of his eyes and his big grinnin' white teeth. I was a little drunk and started a rather nervous conversation about Chicago Blues men which I had little real knowledge of at that time, outside of Rock and Rollers, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. My real understanding of Blues music, came not from Chicago Blues men themselves but from their White British counterparts, the rock groups like The Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds,who had all done covers of famous blues songs/artists. I used to read the labels of their records to see who wrote these killer tunes. So I was familiar with names like John Lee Hooker, Ellis Mc Daniels (Bo Diddley), Wille Dixon and Screamin Jay Hawkins but not their original versions.

Ok, so right about now the "Chief",this redneck salty old racist sailor, is really getting uptight with me because I brought this greasy Black guy to his table for a drink! I found later that The Chief was going to bash both of us right there. Well, I paid the Chief no mind as I knew this was huge, once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the one and only Screamin" Jay Hawkins. I bought the drinks and by God, I was going to get my money's worth. Finally, I think, Jay realized the situation was getting tenser by the moment and he excused himself, slipping away in to the night. I just sat there pondering how I would tell everyone back home, I just met and had a drink with the one and only Screamin Jay Hawkins, that they did not even know yet? I don't think my surfer friends, at that time, save Artist, Skip Williamson, even knew who Screamin' Jay Hawkins was. No one did believe it at JPUSA, till ten years later........

I was working for the infamous Cornerstone magazine (Jpusa newspaper) in Chicago, doing art and advertising and interviews for their music section when I met Chuck Girard of LoveSong at his hotel room before a gig in the suburbs. He was telling us his testimony how he played in a one hit wonder "Beach Boy" type band. I said wait a minute, did you say you had a hit record on top 40 then ended up in a bar near the Airport in Hawaii in the Fall of 1967? He said yeah..... I said dude, did you ever bring Screamin Jay Hawkins up on stage to do "I Put a Spell On You"? He said yeah I remember doing that, I said I was there that night, I bought Screamin Jay a drink and almost got my lights punched out for it!!!!! I said, "You were playing the Keyboards, right?" He said yeah. Jon Trot just rolled his eyes.

As Chuck Girard ( leader singer for Christian Rock Band, Love Song) can testify, both stories did happen. When Drew Friedman's "Screamin Jay Hawkins" Art print showed up on my Facebook Highlights the other day, I thought it was time to tell the tale. Drew gave me permission to post it here and below is a link to his website where you can see and purchase more of his fab work, and if you get stationed in Hawaii sometime, just be patient, you will get out alive, if you be cool.......
Fine Art Prints Available at http://drewfriedman.net/
Posted by Comic Book College Weeklies at 4:11 PM 0 comments
Labels: From the President's Desk
Wednesday, May 27, 2009


Fine Art Prints Available at http://drewfriedman.net/

Wacky Packs and The Underground

Just for Fun - Totally Pointless
Description:
Wacky Packages are a series of trading cards featuring parodies of American consumer products. The cards were produced by the Topps Company beginning in 1967, usually in a sticker format. The original series sold for two years, and the concept proved popular enough that it has been revived every few years since. Per trader legend, at one time the product outsold Topps baseball cards.

Relying on the talents of such comics artists as Kim Deitch, George Evans, Drew Friedman, Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, Norman Saunders, Art Spiegelman, Bob Stewart and Tom Sutton, the cards spoofed well-known brands and packaging, such as "Crust" (instead of Crest) toothpaste, "Blisterine" (instead of Listerine), and "Neveready" batteries (for Eveready Industries batteries). The initial series was followed by a somewhat different Wacky Ads line in 1969, featuring gags and roughs by Lynch and Deitch with finished paintings by Sutton. These cards were designed more like miniature billboards with a die-cut around the parodied product, so it could pop out of the horizontal billboard scene.

Wacky Packages returned in 1973 for a highly successful run. According to trader legend, these cards were then the only Topps product to achieve higher sales than its flagship line of baseball cards. They continued until 1977 through a total of 16 series. Some cards were sold in reprinted editions beginning in 1979 to 1980. (4 series with puzzle/checklist backs)

Newly designed series were produced in 1985 and 1991, but these strayed from the original concept and were not as successful. A new series of stickers was released in 2004, and continued into a sixth set in 2007. These series have been very successful with the return of cartoonist Jay Lynch, plus newcomers David Gross, Strephon Taylor, George Wright, Adam Harris and Neil Camera. This series also marks a return to the use of underground comix artists including M. Wartella. In 2007, Topps released its series 5 and 6 in the Wacky Package Series.

In February 2008, Topps released a series of Wacky Packages called Flashbacks. This series contained artwork from previously released cards as well as unreleased artwork to make a set of 72 base cards. Moving towards the trend with other types of trading cards, this set also featured a number of rare chase cards. Article reprinted from Facebook's Wacky Packages Group copyright 2009. Join this Group at Facebook and join the FUN

R. Crumb and The Heroes of The Blues

Robert did a series of trading cards several years ago. They were masterfully done in bright colors. Kitchen Sink Press has them for sale on their website www.deniskitchen.com. Go there then click into the gift shoppe area, you should find them easily enough. If you order a set please tell em I sent ya, enjoy this little video and preview the cards Crumb did for free.

Fine Art of Baseball, R.Crumb, Anime, and The Collapse of Western Civilization

Ok so what does this Title mean? Actually, nothing. But maybe we can make it mean something for our current purposes. It seems that back in the day there was a real American Anime Scene. By that I mean there were enough artists around to actually create a Revolution in Pop Culture Media that could have actually spawned something like what there is in Japan. But it did not happen. Even though many would have welcomed the change from Elmer Fudd to Hentai in a heart beat. Dont know what Hentai is? Do your little Wikipedia search now then come back to read more fully informed, kind of.

Anyway, what does www.fineartofbaseball.com have to do with all of this? Not much except we are conducting a little experiment to see who and who is not viewing and or reading our little Blog Spot Here. Not that we can actually figure that out but we want to see what could happen by mixing and matching the above subjects. Basically the American Cartoonist got screwed. While the Japanese dove into American Culture head long, we were not allowed to dive into their Culture. Why was this? They love Elvis, we love Elvis, they like the Marlboro Man, we like the Marlboro Man. They love motorcycles and slick back greasy Hair dos, we liked slick back greaser Hair too. They like Star Wars. We still like Star Wars, go figure? So what's the Point? SEX and VIOLENCE IS DESTROYING THE CHILDREN, we don't condone voyeurism though we are all voyeuristic to some extent, some more than others. But in Japan they don't make it against the Law to be Voyeuristic.

Ok, only in America do we have a Legal Defense Fund for Cartoonists, what is up with that? In Japan they don't even understand the reasoning behind such an Org. Here, it is like, EXTREMELY necessary to have a Legal Defense Team for Comic Artists. In Japan, anything goes, Free Market Economy, you like Violence and real Blood spray in your comics, great, you like Hentai? Great, whatever and everyone reads the Comics, 8 to 80 and beyond. They probably thought everyone in America does too. Wrong, no one reads the comics IN AMERICA they put them in baggies in a box in a closet or vault or on Ebay but no one actually reads them, GOD FORBID YOU ACTUALLY READ THE DAMN THINGS!!!!!, what kind of a Moron are you that you actually read the stupid stuff? ( Well some of us do actually still read them, but you get the drift)

In America as long as it is worth money then you are smart for buying it. In Japan they buy it to actually read it and they buy it in droves. Legal Defense Fund for Comics is like the Obama administration trying to design a CAR, it does n't have to be this way, but oh yeah it is, and oh yeah Uneeda good Lawyer son and Uneeda good battery operated car that can go all of 100 miles before having to pull over and recharge the batteries for 8 to 12 hours. Kind of makes going to the Beach suck just to think about it.

But back to the original idea or experiment for this post, www.fineartofbaseball.com has your duty free Japanese Anime Comics and related stuff. Check it out when you get an hour of free time? So let's hoist this little jewel up there and see what happens? Oh yeah, about reading comics online? It actually is rather difficult to see the words, comics not on paper maybe something all together different. But how do we get money for it, is the question. I will say that I read Sorry Guy's Blue Toon the other day and had no problems reading it and it was really good too, but some others are hard to read, maybe you guys could blow this up a little, as in nuking this blog with comments, LOL. On second thought nevermind.

The Leningrad Cowboys are the Greatest Hair Band of All time

In case you were getting bored, I thought you might like this Finnish Rock Band calling themselves the Leningrad Cowboys. They often perform in concert with the Russian Federation Red Army Choir doing back up vocals and various instrutments. I am going to try to post a video of the Leningrad Cowboys with the world famous Red Army Choir and some B 52's look alike go go dancers doing Sweet Home Alabama to a crowd of thousands. Check it out, they are fab, use more hair gel than all the Do Wop Groups of the 1950s combined and are just plain more fun than the Obama Administration, something that is missing in music today, fun that is (not the current Adminstration) as in humor, side splitting, gut bustin' laughter, joy and whatever else liberates the soul of Man. There is a possibility that this will not actually work on the blog here. So in case that be the situation, go to www.youtube.com and search for the Leningrad Cowboys doing Sweet Home Alabama with the Red Army Choir and then turn it UP!!!!! This is the greatest Hair Band of All Time.

Bijou Funnies #1with 'Nard n Pat Cover by Jay Lynch

Well if we are going to do #2 Bijou, then it is only fitting to do the original #1 with Jay Lynch's Nard and Pat cover. We found this one at Comix Bazaar.com on sale for $129.95. Jay told last year that some Bijous in perfect condition are as high as $800. Rather amazing for a 50 cent comic book. I think I had an original copy, but dont recall what happened to it. Or maybe I was just hanging around when it came out but never bought one? I don't remember if I had one or not but I do remember the excitement we all shared at the time of it's publication.

Bijou Funnies with Snappy Sammy Smoot Cover by Skip Williamson

Well, now here is a Classic, Bijou Funnies #2 with Skip Williamson's Snappy Sammy Smoot cover. We found it online for only $19.95 at Comix Bazaar.com. Bijou Funnies was a Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson combined effort that Jay published under the name of Bijou Publishing Empire. Skip and Jay had been getting published by a number of smaller offbeat publications as well as Harvey Kurtzman's Help Magazine. When Help folded the two just decided to go for it. The comic was published out of Chicago, and featured Jay Lynch, Skip Williamson, R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Kinney, and Dave Herring in 1968. Skip did the second issue cover with Snappy Sammy Smoot.

Air Pirates and Rebel Dog Comics

King Adbeck of Rebel Dog comics sent me an email about the Underground Comix scene today. I will post some of it here to start the dialog. Anyone with insight or first hand knowledge is invited to speak out on the subject going forward. Here goes.........

R.

I actually did see that post about Jay and the Ramones, but what really occurred to me was how little is known about a lot of the underground work of the era. I mean, most people know Crumb and have maybe some sort of passing acquaintance with some other names like Spain Rodriguez or Vaughn Bode, but the majority of the whole 'comix' scene has gone largely unrecognized and uncelebrated. A lot of this work, by its very nature, has never been reprinted or seen any kind of large-scale distribution and most of these young cats don't have a freakin' clue. I'm no slouch when it comes to comics and consider myself an avid student of its history, but I'll admit to not knowing too terribly much about the underground scene. Like, Skip Williamson is a name not unknown to me, but I couldn't necessarily point to anything specific. The internet offers the possibility of rectifying that. I was always keen to see a copy of like, say, Air Pirates Funnies, but those kind of things will probably never see the light of day again. Obviously.

My real point, if indeed I have one, is that as someone who was there and directly involved, you're in a great position to give some insight to all of us young turks about what went down. And maybe champion the cause and reacquaint people with names they should know. So I hope you will keep posting and remember that there are a bunch of folks out there that are genuinely interested - though they may have a hard time finding you. What may seem like old news to you is probably all-new territory to a whole new generation of cartoonists and upstarts.

AdBeck

Well, here is where the rubber meets the road, as they say, and yes I was there, and yes I have this blog and yes I will keep on posting but there will need to be others willing to speak their minds on the subject who were either doing it themselves or knew those doing it personally or something because my connection was in Chicago with Skip Williamson and Jay Lynch. I met several artists that came through Chicago at the Chicago Comic Con or I met them at Skip's apartment on the North Side. So for the West Coast School we will need some help. I met Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press out of Wisconsin at the Conrad Hilton version of the Chicago Comic Con as well as Will Eisner but I was never formally introduced. Denis was there in the Dealer's room selling Kitchen Sink and a whole host of Underground Comix even after the bubble had burst. Denis is currently doing fabulous work promoting and publishing major Artists and Books as well as handling several Artist Estates. I hope he would connect up here or start his own blog, he has so much more to say then I on more things related. But he is very busy as well. You can go to his website and follow the links to the store to make purchases at www.deniskitchen.com. R. Crumb's family has a website as well, that is another good place. I am not sure of the exact url but you could do a search and find it easy enough.
Skip Williamson has a blog called My Bitter Agenda which is in fact his autobiography that is a wealth of stories, episodes, adventures and just plain fun you can check out. There are a number of comic dealers specializing in Underground Comix, that one can access through a Google search. Some things are very expensive some works are not. I saw a number of Vaugh Bode's stuff that seemed affordable. Air Pirates (No.1 $199) are probably there. Spain Rodriguez comics are online, and anyone truly interested needs to check out Spain's work. S. Clay Wilson OMG...........I saw Robert Williams on TV last fall at some big Custom Car show on the Speed channel, they interviewed him, but never said who he really was. I am sitting on thc couch and Robert Williams (Zap Comics), comes on TV being asked what he thought of the World's Biggest Classic Car Show on Earth, I am thinking what kind of dumb question is that? Robert says "Awesome, fabulous machines" and walks off.......Duh? What was that? I am guessing, one of the producers must be a friend of Williams and says let's put Robert Williams on, famous for soft porn art in Zap Comics but we wont mention that, AND see if anyone gets it? Yeah I got it Man............you need to check out Robert Williams, it was all in brush. Throw away your art pens and get a brush and a bottle of India Ink, it will change the way you have sex.
Of course there is Art Spiegelman who actually got his "Maus" comic into the public schools in South Carolina? Probably everywhere. My daughter read it in 5th grade, she was not even born yet when we were getting every new issue of RAW magazine that had the comic Maus insert inside. RAW, brainchild of Art's wife, Francoise Mouly, was just the real Avant Garde in the 1980's America, hands down. Artists like Gary Panter and a whole host of folks that went on from there. That will have to be another post. All great seminal work, all in our Cornerstone Staff resource library that I should have taken when I left Chicago, but would never have made it out the door with, I was fortunate to be able to just take my own works out.
Ok the cows are out of the barn so let all start celebrating this uniquely American Heritage of American Art, before we die, thanks King, you know as an artist you just want someone to read your work, if they arent going to pay you, then at least read the stuff, we know they are collecting it.