Print Mint 1971
Bodies bodies and more bodies…ick!! • Pud • He’s Just a Nutty Little Nobody From Newark, N.J. • Bo Bo Bolinski • Burrheaded Barfly • Bo Bo Bolinski • Drunk as a Skunk • Bo Bo the Great Lover • He’s the No. 1 Human Zero – He’s No Big Deal • Mr. Natural Goes to a Meeting of the Minds • Mr. Natural • Chuck you Farley! • Simp and the Gimp • Dora Zockman • It’s a Workaday World • Flakey Foont • She’s Leaving Home • Honeybunch Kaminski (more…)
Head Press/Family Fun (1973-74)
Short Order Comix is a two-issue anthology edited by Art Spiegelman, featuring plenty of his own work and lots of Bill Griffith and Joe Schenkman, the latter of whom was featured in many East Village Other and Gothic Blimp Works issues. Short Order is an ambitious title with comics that make you think as well as laugh, much like Arcade (which was edited by Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith) would do a year after this series ended. (more…)
The First Kingdom is Jack Katz’s epic graphic novel, which spans 24 issues over the course of 12 years. The complex plot begins shortly after a worldwide disaster, leaving nothing more than a charred planet inhabited by small bands of human survivors, mutant monsters and dinosaur-like beasts.
Kitchen Sink 1980
William Stout provides a great cover for 50’s Funnies, and the stories inside try to live up to it…but don’t quite make it. Maybe there were too many cooks stirring up this bland soup, but the writing is rather flat in places. There are certainly highlights to be found, but not enough. (more…)
Kitchen Sink February 1977
Dutch Treat is a terrific Kitchen Sink compilation of comics from the Dutch comic magazine Tante Leny Presenteert! Features terrific art and stories from Evert Geradts, Joost Swarte and Peter Pontiac, among others. Dutch Treat is one of the first American comics to feature European underground creators.
Last Gasp November 1977
This Trina Robbins comic was inspired by the notorious feminist Margo St. James, who fought to improve prostitutes’ rights and organized 1960s sex parties and orgies. Little wonder that this epic tale is about a beautiful, heroic prostitute who travels halfway around the world to help out a friend and becomes trapped in international politics, a sting operation and sex with old bald men. (more…)
W. W. Norton & Company 2009
Book of Genesis is illustrated by American cartoonist Robert Crumb, that purports to be a faithful, literal illustration of the Book of Genesis. It reached #1 the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list and on the Christian books list at Amazon.com.
Given Crumb’s past body of work, and his professed rejection of religion, many assumed when the book was announced that it would be a satire or otherwise profane or subversive send-up, and were surprised or disappointed to find it “straight-faced”. Crumb “resisted the temptation to go all-out Crumb on us and exaggerate the sordidness, the primitivism and the outright strangeness” found in the Bible—the depictions of sex are explicit, but not gratuitous. In his introduction to the book, Crumb writes he has “faithfully reproduced every word of the original text,” each word hand-lettered. The book’s cover contains the warning, “Adult Supervision Recommended for Minors”.
Golden Gate Publishing Company September 1972
This all-Robert Crumb book is famous among underground comic fans for the story about Fritz the Cat getting murdered with an ice pick. Crumb had created Fritz as a young boy and the character became wildly popular after Fritz the Cat was published in 1968, but he was keenly disappointed by Ralph Bakshi’s X-rated film Fritz the Cat in 1972, and quickly killed the character to prevent any additional films (it didn’t work). (more…)
