#25 Workin’ for a Livin’
#25 Workin’ for a Livin’
Only Printing / Winter 1989 / 52 pages / Rip Off Press
My Life as a Clown • Playing for a Living • Notes from the LA Music Scene • Not Quite Dead • Bearman in Straighten Up and Fly Left • Work a Daze • Floyd Handle, the World’s Most Misunderstood Employee • Alabama • Fangs McCoy Job Hunter • My Helpful Sister • Urbana vs. Santa Cruz and the R-Word • Dream of a Dog • Uncle Joe • Fat Freddy’s Cat
#25 Workin' for a Livin'
about this issue
The theme in Rip Off Comix #25 is "Workin' For a Living," but Paul Mavrides introduces the issue with an article about how he gets away with doing as little actual work as possible and how he highly recommends we do the same, if we could just stop buying into status quo bullshit. Fuck, works for me! But then...why do I work 12 hours a day, seven days a week?
Well, we all can't be Paul Mavrides, as idemonstrated by the comics in this issue. After the first story about "My Life As a Clown" by Joe Lee (visually arresting, but not quite as charming as his last story about a space academy in issue #23), the next several tales are about working as a musician, including three solid two-pagers by Mary Fleener. They're followed by "Bearman in 'Straighten Up and Fly Left'" by Seattle-based Holly Tuttle, who didn't do much in comics (bits in Real Stuff, Real Smut! and a cartoon recipe book), but delivers a deft two-pager here about the illusory appearances of corporate employees trying to beat the rat race.
A few forgettable pages later, William Neff's "Alabama!" details what it was like for a relatively normal Ohio-born guy to live and work at a local paper in Montgomery, Alabama. Harrowing, yet true! Neff now works in a creative capacity at Cleveland's The Plain Dealer.
A few more pages brings us to Pete Friedrich's four-page "My Helpful Sister!" This is the issue's first story that looks at the life of a career cartoonist, albeit one with a very loud, obnoxious sister. But as it turns out, being a cartoonist means being blessed with a certain public persona that can be worked to your advantage! "We buy if you fly!" I think this issue would have been improved if more of the contributors had focused on life as a cartoonist (whether struggling or successful).
Nina Haley follows with a couple of funny one-pagers, succeeded by Paul Ollswang and another "Dream of a Dog" story, which I still can't get into. But Joshua Quagmire rescues the mag just as I was losing interest with another episode of "Uncle Joe," this time telling us how Christmas is celebrated in Russia and throwing in cameos by George H. Bush, Santa Clause and Elvis Presley. "Uncle Joe" is likely an acquired taste for most, but I'm on the bandwagon because of the funny writing.
There's too much weaker material to elevate Rip Off Comix #25 to a higher score, but there are nuggets of joy to be found!
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, 1 (introduction), inside back cover (reply to letter)
Gilbert Shelton front cover, 15, 48
Paul Mavrides inside front cover (article)
Joe Lee 2-6
Lindsay Arnold 7-8
Mary Fleener 9-14
Holly Tuttle 16-17
Lee Binswanger 18-19
John Mulligan 20-23
William Neff 24-26
J.A. Short 27-31
Pete Friedrich 32-35
Nina Paley 36-37
Paul Ollswang 38-41
Joshua Quagmire 42-47
Guy Colwell back cover