#24 San Diego Postcard
#24 San Diego Postcard
Only Printing / Fall 1989 / 52 pages / Rip Off Press
A Visit from Uncle Walt • Uncle Joe • Slug Fest • San Diego Postcard • It’s Fun to Live in Manhattan • Fat Freddy’s Cat • In a Perfect World • Looking for Jim • Orange Sunshine at Disneyland • Kangaroo High • Little Greta Garbage • Bonzo in LA • Fat Freddy’s Cat ad- full color poster
#24 San Diego Postcard
about this issue
It was exciting to see Rip Off Comix #24 feature the San Diego Comic-Con on their front cover, as I thought there would be all manner of convention comics featured inside. But no, this is not the case. There is but one story, a mere four-page article with some brief descriptions of the Rip Off Press contingent in San Diego, accompanied by several photo collages. Entertaining for sure, and evidence of how the Comic-Con has changed over the past two-plus decades (attendance of 10,000 in 1989, over 120,000 each of the past several years), but I was hoping for more.
Fortunately, there is still much to love about issue #24. Chris Harmon, who will have a one-shot solo book (Rimshot) from Rip Off the following year, leads off the mag with "A Visit from Uncle Walt." It features a frustrated cartoonist whose comics are too political (or crappy, can't be sure) to get published getting a midnight visit from Walt Disney, who offers him some sage advice about the cartoon industry. This is Harmon's last appearance in the series until the final issue, and he's been a fresh voice for the past year.
Joshua Quagmire brings back his "Uncle Joe's Commie Strip" for another episode, this time a spoof of The Wizard of Oz, which Joe thinks is "Leedle Reed Roosky Hood." The Oz lampoon is excellent because, like every Uncle Joe strip, it fuses Russian traditions and (exaggerated) dialect with American society in a very burlesque manner. I'm turning into a big fan of Quag's and look forward to seeking out some other stuff from his long career in comics. Of course, Quagmire has his own website, but it doesn't dwell much on Uncle Joe stories, however there's plenty of Cutey Bunny and Bronco Bunny (yay!).
Another cartoonist I've warmed up to in a significant way is Mary Fleener, who follows "Uncle Joe" with her four-page "Slug Fest!" It's very revealing to see how Mary reacts to an infestation of slugs and rodents in and around her house, and I must say she's a stronger man than I am. YUK!
Kevin Atkinson ridicules the popularity of vampires and the daytime talk-show industry in one punch with "In a Perfect World." There are some funny lines even as Atkinson goes over the top; overall it's still a bit trite. A couple pages later, Dennis Worden recalls his trip to Disneyland on acid some 20 years prior. Worden is one of the funniest writers in modern comics and one can see how he became afflicted like that from this tale.
Wayne Honath (Wayno) continues his every-other-issue appearance pattern with "Kangaroo High!" This is a different type of comic for Wayno, though, as he reminisces on the underground high-school newspaper he put together with a couple buddies back in the '70s. It's funny stuff, and I'm betting that every word in this story is true. "Kangaroo High!" is still relevant today, showing how society's powerful factions react with abject fear and damnation of anything different...but that's changing a little bit now, though, isn't it?
Another solid issue from Rip Off, despite the lack of a cohesive theme. Looking back at the stories, I do sort of see a theme emerging though. It's like this is the "Square Pegs Don't Fit in Round Holes" theme. There seems to be a lot of individuals or groups who just don't fit in with normality in this issue, whether that's in cartooning, at a comic convention, in high school, at Disneyland, or even following "the red tcheka road" in the Emerald City.
HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES
It is currently unknown how many copies of this comic book were printed. It has not been reprinted. Like other magazine-format comics with numbered pages, the index of comic creators below follows the page numbers defined in the magazine instead of counting the covers as additional numbered pages.
COMIC CREATORS
Kathe Todd editor, (not stated, but assumed), inside front cover (introduction), inside back cover (replies to letters)
R.L. Crabb front cover, 17-20 (art), 43-44
Chris Harmon 1-6
Joshua Quagmire 7-12
Mary Fleener 13-16
Kate Crabb 17-20 (photo collage)
Pete Friedrich 21-23
Gilbert Shelton 24, back cover (ad)
Kevin Atkinson 25-31
Trina Robbins 32-33
Dennis Worden 34-35
Wayne Honath (aka Wayno) 36-42
Gavin Wood 45-48
Hal Robins inside back cover (spot illo for letters page)