hh01 cat’s rescue
hh01 cat’s rescue
Georgia Straight 1972
The Collected Adventures of Harold Hedd is a very large (10.5 x 14″) comic book featuring 34 one-page Harold Hedd comic strips by Rand Holmes that originally appeared in The Georgia Straight, a Vancouver underground newspaper with a fairly radical heritage (it is still a popular free weekly). Harold Hedd is a pothead character who became the everyman hero of the emerging counterculture in Vancouver in the early ’70s. Hedd demonstrated much wit and ingenuity as he continually battled with the Vancouver government and police, especially its mayor, Tom Campbell, who was strongly anti-pot and anti-hippie.
In the course of the comics in this book, we are introduced to Harold’s cousin Elmo, who Harold hasn’t seen since grade school. Elmo shows up at Hedd’s delapidated apartment dragging his motorcycle and a boisterous dog into the living room, and a lifetime friendship with Harold is born. Most of the rest of this book and all of the rest of Harold Hedd comics include cousin Elmo in panoramic adventures.
In many ways, The Collected Adventures of Harold Hedd is a great primer for the future exploits of Harold Hedd and Elmo, but it also stands as a document of Rand Holmes’ fierce independence and anti-establishment nature during the dawn of the counterculture in Canada.
Rand H. Holmes – 1-36
2 – Cat’s Rescue • 3 – Corporal Leroy Finds The Shit • 4 – Extra Thick Creamy Chocolate Milkshake • 5 – The Incredible Stinking Blob of Crud From Galaxy X • 6 – Kerry Dork • 7 – Harold Builds A Teepee • 8 – Sherlock Holmes • 10 – A Dangling Object • 11 – Abbie Hoffman Is Right-On • 12 – Camping On The Beach • 13 – Bedtime Story • 14 – Yeah, Its A Narc • 15 – MK III Simulated Dildo Stash Bag • 16 – The Education System • 17 – Shoplifting • 18 – Scab Cops • 19 – Another Harold Hedd Story • 20 – Undercover • 21 – Brucie The Ferret • 22 – Meet Cousin Elmo • 25 – Harold Goes A Visiting • 27 – Elmo Makes Popcorn • 28 – The Mayor Goes Nuts • 29 – Granny Comes A Visiting • 30 – Elmo Goes Ape • 31 – Harold Gets A Hobby • 32 – The Commie-Pinko Takeover • 33 – Harold Makes A Run • 34 – Bar Tricks • 35 – Taking An Interest In Your Appearance • 36 – Like To Get Away From It All?