#09 Venus de Mouso
#09 Venus de Mouso
Kitchen Sink February 1981
Snarf finally moves into the 1980s with issue #9, though it took two-and-a-half years since the last issue came out to get there. The indicia has gone from saying the title is published “sporadically” to saying it’s published “irregularly.”
#9 gets off to another strong start with Howard Cruse’s “Hell Isn’t All That Bad!” Rick Geary contributes “Farewell to Charlie Chaplin,” a three-page story based in Switzerland in which the author chronicles how he and his friend dig up and steal Charlie Chaplin’s corpse (and coffin) from the local cemetary and then demand a ransom from the town’s government for the body.
Steve Stiles, who a few pages back contributed a flat one-pager about the dead Elvis Presley, comes back for the autobiographic “Yes, It’s Me!” It’s a five-page summary of Stiles’ personal beliefs, milestones, ravings and quirks, presented one at a time in high-action panels. Kim Deitch contributes “Going to the Dogs,” a two-pager that illustrates how an alcoholic’s nightmare of going to Hell turned out to be a dog’s life, which might not be much worse than the life he’s already leading.
Joel Beck follows that with “The Trials and Travels of Bert the Penguin,” which describes how an eccentric penguin at the South Pole came to feel victimized by humans and decides to venture to America to assimilate with human society. The one- and two-pagers fill out the rest of the book. It would be quite a while before we’d see the next edition of this anthology.
#09 Venus de Mouso
