Company and Sons 1972
A fine example of a funny animal underground comic from the golden era. Ned Sonntag and Jay Kinney team up for a couple of “Smacky Duck” tales and Joey Epstein (aka Noah Escarole) gives us the hilarious Ronald Duck in “The Sex Maniquack.” Most of the stories are raunchy and still funny as hell. (more…)
Media & Graphic Creations February 1978 – March 1979
Graphixus was an alternative-type British magazine launched by Mal Burns in 1978 and ran for five issues. Burns started the mag as his other title, Brainstorm Comix (a Lee Harris publication that Burns edited), was just about done with its run. As Burns explained in his editorial in the first issue, “Even though Brainstorm was most certainly a success story in itself, publication was very irregular and the economics rather fragile…. Thus, although I have asperations [sic] that require an eventual mass-readership for Graphixus, I am launching it on a very small scale.” (more…)
Knockabout 1993
Not Quite Dead, “the world’s least famous rock band,” return once again to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting audience, this time in the remote kingdom of Shnagrlig.
Shelton, best know for his underground comix creations, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and the spin-off, Fat Freddy’s Cat, here displays the same satirical wit and sense of the absurd that made his name synonymous with the lighter side of counter-culture back in the sixties and seventies. (more…)
Cartoonists Co-op Press 1972-73
Kim Deitch is one of my favorite artists, and Corn Fed Comics is all Deitch. Kim’s father is Gene Deitch, who produced animated cartoons for studios such as UPA/Columbia and MGM (Tom and Jerry). Kim Deitch’s artwork is undergoing a bit of re-evaluation these days and he is finally getting some of the recognition he deserves. I still don’t understand why this two-issue series isn’t much more valuable than it is, but with Deitch’s latest accolades, perhaps demand will rise in the future. (more…)
INFAMOUS FUNNIES
Fantasy House (1973)
1st printing. Edited by Ken Krueger. Wraparound cover by Gerry Mooney. Underground humor and fantasy comics with stories and art by John Pound (probably best known for his art on the Garbage Pail Kids trading stickers), David Weiss, Vincent Marchesano, Arthur J. Barks (pulp fantasy writer), Charles Momberger, David Coulson, Joe Benintende, and Ed Romero. 8 1/2-in. x 11-in., 44 pages, BW/PC. Mature Readers. Cover price $1.50. (more…)
D.B. Features 1972
The title and EC Comics-inspired front cover art of Lair of Madness seems to promise some intense horror comics inside, but instead most of the content is pretty flaccid sword and sorcery fantasy. The 13-page feature story by Ellen Balliet, “Rippensnourt,” is formulaic and doesn’t deliver a single interesting plot twist. The illustrations for the story are competent but unimaginative. (more…)
Grove Press 1968
The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist is an American comics series, written by Michael O’Donoghue and drawn by Frank Springer. From January 1965, it was serialized in the magazine Evergreen Review, and later published in book form as a Grove Press hardcover in 1968 and trade paperback in 1969. It was reissued as a trade paperback in 1986 (Ken Pierce Books). The comic details the adventures of debutante Phoebe Zeit-Geist as she was variously kidnapped and rescued by a series of bizarre characters, such as Nazis, Chinese foot fetishists, and lesbian assassins. (more…)
Comic Art Gallery March 1978
This is a fun, EC Comics-inspired comic with plenty of gruesome stories and adventures about farmyard animals. (more…)
cozmic comics 1973
Half Assed Funnies arrived amidst a flurry of underground comics published in Britain by H. Bunch and Cozmic Comics in 1973 and 1974. Half Assed includes a few pages by American creators, but mostly stories by Britains Bill Sanderson, Edward Barker, Rod Beddall, Chris Tyler and Angus McKie, along with Canadian Brent Boates, a charming front cover by Jim Leon and a back cover by American Jim Franklin. (more…)
Pooo Bear Productions 1972-73
All of the stories in Good Jive Comix are by Richard “Grass” Green, who is one of my favorite underground artists. Green broke ground in the comics industry as one of the first black comic illustrators. His underground work was daring, sexy and funny, and so are these comic books.
Richard Edward “Grass” Green (May 7, 1939 – August 5, 2002) was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. In the 1960s, Green’s Harvey Kurtzman-like zany, action-packed, humorous comics parodies appeared in numerous fanzines. His “outrageous” 1970s and 1980s underground work used searing humor to expose America’s racism and bigotry. (more…)