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1970 cover art drawn on a ditto master by Art Spiegelman (Author/artist of a Pullitzer prize winning comic book holocaust allegory, MAUS) and Jay Lynch (BIJOU COMIX artist, creator of Nard 'n' Pat and Pro Junior). Art and Jay found a couple of my apa zines at the underground comix head shop where Rory Hayes, Jim Osborne, Simon Deitch and Roger Brand were hanging out. I was in school and wasn't there that day. When this ballpoint pen on ditto cover contribution arrived in the mail it was a complete surprise. A brief letter was enclosed that mentioned they enjoyed our weird stuff. I was the comix connection at my college prep school, Lowell High. I fell in with a mysterious club dedicated to all things weird and strange, and what first attracted me was their publication called The Private Papers of the Doppler Gang I came across by chance in my Journalism class. I thought I could fit right in, although my review of the Underground Comix scene wasn't a hit with the senior editor. I cited Crumb's "I'll Bet This Happened To You When You Were A Kid" back cover to ZAP #0 because it was the first comix I ever saw, slapped into my hands back cover up; and when I got to the expletive at the bottom of the piece I was shocked. I included the scat word used by Crumb in my review, and the editor was also shocked - "The Papers is not ZAP Comix", S.N. Dyer disclaimed over my article. I ignored the admonishment and kept flooding the Papers with my cartoons and histories of comic artists. When the Spiegelman & Lynch ditto master arrived several months later, there were no objections to using it for the front cover. S.N. Dyer (a.k.a. Sharon Farber) went on to become a published author for AMAZING.
click images to enlarge
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An all comix zine from 1970. Judging by the cover the title speaks for itself. It began from scratch on a Tuesday afternoon, and by Friday night was on sale at SF Comic Co. Comix artist Rory Hayes was among the contributors. Also in 1970, Rory traded me his finished art to Cunt Comix #2, the cover and 3 stories. I can't recall what happened to it. The art to Cunt is an acquired taste, but Rory has a cult following that continues. Cunt 2 remains unpublished, one of the great lost Underground Comix.
Rory inspired me to draw underground comix imitations such as the above. Note the logo lettering, inspired by Hayes as much as Crumb. The last time I saw Rory was really a shock, in 1983 at the Zoup Kitchen in the Haight. Hadn't seen him since '72. I said hello,+ I never saw him again. 3 years later I realized I lost a chance to help Rory.
A friend of Rory who will also be missed is Jim Osborne.
John Radice:
"I ran into him on the 38 Geary bus about three times not too long before his untimely death. He was low-keyed as I always knew him to be. He didn't seem too bad, but you can never really know. Sad, but he was a really cool guy - a true holy man. He was a great guy and will be missed, but not forgotten.
He had some of the greatest & rarest kinky books and erotic art ever. Whoever has them has some very valuable treasures - in more ways than one."
In the section below are more Osborne tributes.
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Who out there remembers the ERIC FROMM comic book price lists - usually single sheets mimeographed on parchment paper, the shipping terms copied verbatim from Claude Held catalogs. "Eric Fromm" was a pseudonym for Gary Arlington. None of the comic books (Fantastic Four #1-up, Action Comics #1-up, Spiderman #1-up) were ever actually in stock. The plan was to get kids to trade their rarest comic books for credit towards those dream books on the list - that were never in stock. "Eric Fromm" ran a few ads in the comic collector zines, and advance orders were sent to a Diamond Heights box number for full color reprints of EC Horror and Science Fiction comics - at $5 each - but other than one Wally Wood cover photo-copied in color on slick paper (Incredible Science Fiction #30), and a few stories xeroxed in b+w on blue paper ("A Kind of Justice", "Which Witch is Which") the whole (re)issues never materialized There are people such as James Van Hise (see his eBay postings of new and vintage issues of Rocket's Blast Comic Collector - RBCC) who paid Gary in advance $100 for the special subscription rate (a lot of scratch in 1969!) - but instead of 25 color photostat ECs the subscribers received... nada. Gary's EC reprint dream was then twisted into the "Nickle Library", one sheets drawn by local artists that cost a plug nickel a pop... imitation EC comic book covers in b+w on colored paper, with a number for each "issue" that continued where the EC titles had ended... Two-Fisted #52, etc, not a bad idea, and it gave Roger Brand and Jaxon something to do... and of course, it gave Jack Albert, Bill Gaines attorney, something to do too! Gary's mailings of the "library" to the Mad office were met with cease and desist letters, which Gary was very proud of! Eventually the Nickle Library settled down to more original one pager spin-offs of SKULL COMIX and the like by talents such as Rory Hayes and Simon Dietch.
In 1969 I began sneaking into the Lowell High School ditto machine office and feverishly published pounds of crude comix along with several pages by all and sundry oddballs hanging around on the comix fringe. Rory "NutsBoy" Hayes was one that no less than R. Crumb championed. I knew Rory personally in 1969 and really liked his clean lettering and detailed black inks, in spite of the poor anatomy - if he could do it, so could I! Rory contributed his crazed characters Granny Cracker and Major Stoz ("It's a matter of thoughts and decisions") to the non-stop ditto comix I was half-seriously piling up for Private Papers of the Doppler Gang, Shitty Comeex, Moutain Motors Comix,Your Mind Is Like A Bat Out Of... HELL Comix, and the covers for Jim Langdell's apa-zine The Indellible Spot. I drew stories and one-pagers starring Mr. Death, Commie-Stomper, Mr. Smarty Pants Socialist, Joe the Giant... alas poor Joe, he tried to befriend the little people but they rudely rejected him, leaving Joe no choice but to squish them! Inspired by photos in '63 I created my very first comic pages called Super-Bob... actually my Dad, whom I drew freehand from action stills of his college polevaulting, football and boxing feats.
Why did Pulitzer-prize cartoonist Art (Maus) Spiegleman and his associate Jay (Pro-Junior) Lynch dig back to their primitive publishing roots, the ditto ink impression limited run and send me a very detailed cover for my 1970 EC/Barks/Zap comics fan zine: The Private Papers of the Doppler Gang? They were tripped out by the sheer effort I and other contributing cohorts spent cramming "weird shit" (as they called it) onto ditto masters! I still have several original ditto copies of that excellent yet little known tiny footnote to the Do-it-yourself era of underground comix. Mighty Maus Spiegelman and Nard 'n' Pat Lynch found a Doppler Gang (the "How to Flunk Homeroom" issue) in the head at the back of Gary's S.F. Comics Company, located at 3rd and Palou St.in the heart of SF's Bayview district - a short walk from the Hunter's Point projects and within a few feet of colorful youth gatherings...
At the crack of noon the founder and former owner of the SF Comic Book Co. and as of 2003, part-time senior clerk Gary saunters down Mission Street to the same location where he has held court for over 35 years. Doors are usually locked immediately after school lets out -- no more than 100 kids are allowed in the 4 x 4 emporium at a time: the pre-schoolers heist anything below eye-level.
Also, there is a constant seige by second-graders who stage elaborate diversions to hassle the slow moving Contrary. He'd like to shed at least 5 lbs. of excema, bile and burrittos. Then maybe he'd catch one of the scamps, and put a lid on some of the loss. Meanwhile Scary takes revenge on the little pests by simply grousing about his unfulfilled sexual needs. The agony written all over the faces of the pronto pups as he goes on and on provides one of his few pleasures.
Now and then one of his mash notes or flashing gets back to a kiddies' parents, and he has to stop "selling hot dogs" until things cool off! The nickel and dimers put up with crazy Gary because they secretly plan to be first in line when the end comes and Gary's long bragged about comic books come up for sale... noted for having been frequently peed on by his 13 unspayed cats. Of course, to his credit, he still has the Rick Griffin art to Zap #2.
I can remember 35 years ago..when I helped him move from his first speck on the wall store to his better known hole in the wall down and across the street. He was the unbusted head comix provider, stocking titles like Semen Cumix, Tossed Salad Funnies and Rock Hard Hot Dog Tales into his breast pockets for those surprise visits to his favorite clients on their own turf: namely, unsupervised minors running imitation comic book companies in cramped East Bay warehouses (Dang gang) or dimly lit garages like our hangout, located in the Ocean View neighborhood notorious for purse thieves. I'll never forget Gary driving his two-tone all the way there just to get a laugh - or maybe some chump change -reaching deep into his raggedy-assed raincoat pockets, whippin' out a slew of Jiz and Snatch Comics to sell us minors, at Dean's Aunt Gerry's home. Well, we already had doubles & triples he'd sold us . I'll always think highly of Gary for selling sex comix to me at age 15!
Weirdest of all, Howard Rogofsky actually came to my Grandmother's house while I was at school, lookin' for my RBCC advertised "California Comic Center"!
Gramma gave Rogofsky the bum's rush, the "god of comic book dealers" as Gary called him: "Kenny's in school. No funny books here, you go away!"
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JIM OSBORNE 1943-2001
Jim died suddenly. He had serious athsma and kidney problems but gave no outward signs his health was failing. He had me get him an inhaler once.
He was a nice man, and an underrated comic artist.
Jim Osborne loaned me his mort files, as he called them, to use in my CFA-APA articles. The files were clearvue sleeves in soft cover binders filled with work by one artist. Jim and Roger Brand gleefully eviscerated old comic books instead of keeping them airtight to sell for profit later. The boys enjoyed making dealers turn a whiter shade of pale as they neatly tore out pages & trimmed titles off the covers keeping only the art by the likes of Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, Graham Ingels, and Mac Raboy. They also selected unknowns (at the time) such as Toth. The hack discards were salvaged by shocked pack rats witness to the carnage, such as Gary Arlingtonnage. Within minutes after Roger Brand expired from a "green death" diet of Rainer Ale, Gary went rooting thru Brand's bits and pieces, absurdly taping issues back together as the real cadaver was being taken away.
Jim gave me permission to use his VKTMS pic sleeve art (based on a splash page from HAUNTED THRILLS #5) for the cover of my zine "The GOOD STUFF".
I really NEED a copy of the Mabuhay VKTMS handbill Jim drew in response to outrage over the pic sleeve. The poster depicts a gal holding a syringe near the cornea of the man from the 1st one. Ever the gentleman, Jim provided the "flipside" in the spirit of fair play!
The late Nyna Crawford, blonde lead singer of the VKTMS, was Jim's girlfriend. Quite the ladies' man!
In May /June 1998 I helped Jim sell 300 underground comix from his personal collection. I found a buyer in Ohio who paid $1,500. Though most were fairly common the 1st printings included Douglas, Gas #2, Zap #1 (Plymell) & #0. The sale gave Jim money for medicine and moving / living expenses. Although Jim needed to sell the comix, he held onto his own original art and an original S.Clay Wilson/Melinda Gebbie collaboration. Melinda Gebbie was Jim's girlfriend, and later S. Clay Wilson's girlfriend. She gave Jim a number of her comix and "juvenalia" - early work by Gebbie, a few of which Jim signed on the back when he a couple to me. A comix artist in her own right, her work with S. Clay Wilson was stunning, and very detailed.
Possessing a quiet yet rather mischievous sense of humor, Jim's cartoons were often quite the epitomy of depravity! Osborne's initial published artwork utilized a primitive thick line reminiscent of Jack Cole crime comic books and the Iger Studios house style of the late 1940's. By the mid 70s, Osborne's work showed more subtle lines and attention to detail. Painstaking use of stipple technique placed him squarely in the court of Virgil Finlay. Jim's finest art published during the mid-'70s appeared in Arcade. Osborne's beautifully rendered one page bios of historic fiends owed much to the series of "Weirdisms" done by Lee Brown Coye for Weird Tales in the late '40s. The Arcade work combined neat hand lettered text with detailed delineations. A privately respected scholar of obscure and popular dementia, Jim's friends will always refer to seriously twisted movies as Osbornian. During the hey day of underground comix, Osborne appeared in over 50 publications, including the Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, Arcade Comics Revue, Best of Bijou Funnies, Jiz, Snatch #3, Slow Death and Young Lust Reader. The most Osbornian thing I ever heard about Jim - and he told me himself - was... well, maybe I'll share it another time. Let him rest in piece a little while longer!
-KEN CRAWFORD KAFFKE
"Jim was born on October 30, 1943 in Monroe, Louisiana. He attended San Antonio Junior College for a short time where he studied art. He served in the Army in Europe. He moved to San Francisco sometime in 1967 and began drawing comics for the Yellow Dog tabloid in 1968. In December 1973 he was drawing Levi's and Clorox ads in Women's Wear Daily and designing movie posters for an independent distributor. In October 1998, he was working in a card shop in North Beach [and later he worked at the sister store on Haight St]."
-PATRICK ROSENCRANZ
"I remember Jim Osborne as a gentle soul who came into the Telegraph Ave Comics & Comix store for a number of years. He was slow producing his
meticulous pieces. His page in the 1973 Berkeley underground comix convention we hosted in 1973 remains one of my favorite pieces by him."
-BOB BEERBOHM
"I always believed that Jim never really got over his brother Dan's death. He overdosed on heroin in his seedy Oakland hotel room. Was dead for nearly a week before they found him.
That's most likely why Jim became so apathetic over his health. I used to get on him about it, but you know how reclusive Jim always was. Sad that we lost another fine holy man.
-JOHN RADICE
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Another of my ditto comix with contributions from friends, including a page by Rory Hayes. I met a wildly spoiled maniacal kid in 1965, it seemed like he had everything an 11 year could want yet he could go completely out of control at any moment. He'd show up laughing with a mouthful of red-hot cinnamon gum and a wild look in his eyes, ready to pull his latest prank - like running past me into my room and locking me out. Or we'd team up and shower people with waterballoons from his 3rd story window. His Mother was a member of the Hitler Jugend, and she had a photo album with candid snap shots of rallies, she even had a couple pix of Hitler stirring up pandemonium among the little schweinhunds by making one of his entrances right through the middle of the assembly. Then again, when my well-fed friend and I combed through the Tenderloin used book stores, those creaky pine wood 2 story libraries from hell fascinated us kids in search of any old comic strip related stuff. We'd examine anything odd hailing from bygone eras way in the back in those dives such as McDonald's. There were stacks of pamphlets from 4th party candidates (?) that were so dated I never made sense of them. Why were they there... did anyone ever buy them? I stirred dust that had been settled for decades looking through that stuff, hoping to uncover an early Life or Judge, hoping I'd find a few war time era Superman comics. I did finally strike gold- as in golden age comics marked up as high as New york prices of the day by those unsmiling unbending
book dealers. Somehow my plump little Kraut spawn was favored by a few of the cantankerous old Jewish guys behind the counter at McDonald's et. al. during the mid-60s. This dying breed of used bookstore owners put aside any good stuff for this little butterball who got all the breaks. Disgusting... but I was hoping some of the pulp riches would slide my way. Indeed, Cyril Jordan and I first crossed paths scooping up a box of MAD comics and early MAD magazines in a dingy little hole called the Book Exchange. Cyril still apologizes, 35+ years later, for grabbing the lion's share before I could. get more than a small handful from the mintos stack. By 1967 there were a handful of unlikely stores with back rooms selling small quanties of old comics, and my fat friend managed to scope them out before anyone halfway sane stolled in. Eric didn't walk in, he lunged and lurched. It was Eric who introduced me to the San Francisco Comic Book Co. in early '68, when the store had fewer than 100 comics, but 23 of them were the first MAD comics hanging on the walls in a row, something to see even in dim light! In '68 I had to move to Boulder for a year with my family and any news from my native City was welcome, and one of Eric's sarcastic letters told me to watch out for "Whiteman" and... ZAP! Something was going on back there...Air was nice and clean in Colorado, but within a year I left a secure family life and was soon breathing in the intoxicating vapors of off-set printing solvents and purple ditto carbons.
"...At Lowell High School, Ken Kaffke and I first met as members of the SFFWWTC (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Witchcraft and Weird Things Club). Even at this time, Ken was well into all manner of comics, but was particularly focused on ECs and the new undergrounds. Frankly, up until this time, I had found undergrounds shocking and well-nigh incomprehensible. Ken helped me to understand where the artists were coming from, how to appreciate and revel in the artistic technique and blatant sexuality. Family Life (Lowell's euphemistic course title for Sex Education) was augmented for me off-campus by Crumb's gritty and seemingly realer-than-accurate depictions of female anatomy.
I'll never forget the first time I walked onto a totally Moscoso-fied "L" car and drank in the glorious black-and-whiteness that transformed a normally humiliating, stinky, depressing mode of transportation into an art gallery--more than that, an art gallery dedicated to our kind of art! It made me feel like the Revolution could succeed. The black and white printing of the undergrounds also served to evoke a sense of the freedom and accessibility of the form. You didn't need to be a corporation to publish, and publish we did, in The Private Papers of the Doppler Gang, the SFFWWTC's club magazine. Rapidograph pens became standard school fashion gear...."
-Mark Ungar
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Comic Book Vid-Zine is a VHS video zine ($25) centered on the horror, humor and crime comic books that ruined the minds of several generations! Vintage footage is deftly juxtaposed with recent interviews capturing creators at conventions, at home working at easels or in some cases making what would be their last public appearances. The Vid-zine, aka VID-SCENE, is 2 hours in length. It is indexed in Grant Geissman's Mad Collectibles Guide. Cyril Jordan's full color box art is collectible in and of itself. Contents include Scenes of Kefauver's comic book hearings includes previously unreleased Bill Gaines testimony. Additional footage reveals the Senators barely listening while a speaker describes decapitations, blood drainage and other such comic book depictions of perversion (examples pinned up on easels are shown in close-up) in monotone. Then Dr. Wertham takes the stand, and his voice jolts the committee from their torpor with his thick German accent.
Footage of Sen. Estes Kefauver's later investigation of pornography shows Irving Klaw, publisher of Bettie Page pin-ups, testifying. Vid-zine includes clips from movies with dramatizations of the comic controversy: Jerry Lewis (Artists and Models) is selected by a panel of experts as a case study of the harmful effects caused by comic books. Dana Andrews (While the City Sleeps) is a tireless TV crusader: "You read the so-called comic books..." he warns, as one viewer nervously drops his crime comic book onto the floor. Oscar Homolka (The Seven Year Itch) is the analyst who believes lurid cover art is the cause of Tom Ewell's sex fantasies. Real interviews capture Bill Gaines' bemusement at the comic code's apparent lack of impact on juvenile delinquency. Gaines tells the inside story of the demise of horror comics, and why distributors choked sales of the new EC comic magazines. There's so much good stuff you'll want to watch it more than once!
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