CDNComix

Essence of Tool #4 Published by: Essence of Tool Universal Mind Press; Contributor: Roach Gollum; Harold Young; Date: 1975; Price: no cover price $1.51 according to Kennedy; Page Count: 52 pages Size: magazine (8.75 x 11.0); Kennedy #: 675; Print information: 1000 copies I bought my very cheaply priced copy of Essence of Tool on-line from Milehigh comics. Chuck must have purchased 975 out of the 1000 initially produced copies from the basement inventory of one of the creators and is slowly releasing his horde into the marketplace, one copy at a time. This is because I have not personally seen another copy offered for sale anywhere else. There are a few other books that fall into this category of decent production but lack of distribution/sales/exposure to the marketplace: probably Jacques, Pipkin Papers and Quoz. Kennedy wondered in his guide, if whether Essence of Tool #1-3 ever existed or were merely skipped phantom issues. A wise collecting birdie has recently told and shown me that in fact these earlier issues were produced. But it's their prerogative whether if they wish to share more of these specifics. In addition, the Universal Mind Press published a number of ultra rare comics and posters after EoT #4, including the Kennedy listed Reason the Gnaw.

Pseudo Pstrips Published by: Crystal Egg Productions; Contributor: Art Vient; Date: 1972; Price: 50 cents; Page Count: 28 pages Size: comic (6.75 x 9.75) Kennedy #: 1592; Print information: unknown Everything about Pseudo Pstrips comes from the land of strange, including its: colour cover art, inner B&W art, stories and print stock. Perhaps not as rare as Kennedy's 1982 guide price of $25 would lead one to believe it to be, it's still a bit of a worthwhile chore to find in the marketplace.

Lab Rat Funnies (hand coloured cover version) Published by: Chimera Productions; Contributors: Steven F. Scharff; Date: 1981; Price: 75 cents for hand coloured version; Page Count: 8 pages; Size: mini (4.25 x 5.5); Kennedy #: 1133; Print information: one printing; 200 numbered copies; some copies have a hand coloured, signed front cover Steven Scharff has had a long involvement in furry fandom and anthropomorphic comics. Lab Rat may be his very first published effort with Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Funny Animals coming a close second. The copy shown is the hand coloured version with a personal dedication to Jay Kennedy. It took me some time to figure out the cryptic signature that appears lower front and back covers. At first I had thought it was vertically orientated Morse code, but its merely the creator's last name (Scharffe) print dashed out, like a dot matrix printer. I have independently heard from two other well-known, newave creators that Schraff was known to write to the creators of other anthropomorphic comix, only to "critter-cize" their efforts - like "that's not realistic porcupines cannot shoot their quills" etc. I guess there is a strict code of honour in the furry community, including to always ensure: the accuracy of animals characters and that rented furry costumes are hosed-off/boiled prior to return.

Alternative Media Comics and Stories Published by: Alternative Media Project; Contributors: Gilbert Shelton; Date: 1972; Price: free; Page Count: 8 pages; Size: comic (7.0 x 8.5); Kennedy #: 49; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies; some copies have an authenticity thumb print This all Shelton effort was given away along with copies of Saturday Mindf*ckee Funnies at a Goddard College conference. When I paid a lot of money for my copy, I actually had expected a copy of SMFF to be folded-in as part of its pages. That will teach me for not doing my research. The uncommon rarity of AMCS will probably give me the only opportunity to post a Freak Brothers within this thread, so enjoy.

Gooz! Comix Published by: Whizz Comix; Contributors: Larry Rippee; Greg Dominci; Tweedy Watts; Date: 1972; Price: 15 cents; Page Count: 12 pages; Size: small comic (5.5 x 8.5) Kennedy #: 880; Print information: one printing; unknown copies Gooz! was published under the same banner, Whizz Comix, as some of my other all time underground favourites: the four issues of Dirty Girdie's Comix and Boo!. It could be argued that either Gooz! or the very last issue of Dirty Girdie are the least difficult titles to find from the Whizz catalogue. But none the titles should ever be considered to be an easy find.

The Last Adventure of the Greatest Man on Earth Published by: Parachute Saloon Press; Contributors: Steve Schutzman; Mark Seidenberg; Date: 1975; Price: $1.50 (according Kennedy); Page Count: 9 single side pages and cardboard backer Size: Life magazine (11.0 x 14.15) Kennedy #: 1142; Print information: one printing; 300 signed copies A really well executed and unusual send-up story about "Superman". Its most interesting aspect (to me) is its format. Where else can you find a book that: uses 9 single sided Life magazine sized pages that are directly stapled onto an equally large brown cardboard backer?

California Cockroach Comix Published by: Cockroach Comix; Contributors: Danny Rozell; Ray King; Debra Rolls; Bruce Duncan; Miron Mercury; Mark Roland; Sam Glucklin; Melissa Sativa; Date: 1980; Price: 50 cents; Page Count: 12 pages Size: comic (7.0 x 8.5) Kennedy #: 471; Print information: one printing; unknown copies Probably the most that I ever paid for a straight photocopy. Something about the cover that compelled me to hunt down a copy. I only seen maybe two other copies offered for sale in the past five years, but my gut tells me it is not that rare and more will pop out the woodwork.

Hash-Slinger Comix Published by: Third Coast Printing; Contributors: Scarlett Moon; Date: 1978; Price: 45 cents; Page Count: 8 pages Size: pamphlet (4.5 x 8.5) Kennedy #: 956; Print information: one printing; 200 copies A sex-menu comix from the female perspective. It's a relief to see to guys are not the only ones making juvenile double entendres for the sake of their art. Anyone up for a mouthful of hot cherry pie or a stiff cocktail?

New Adventures of Arrowman Published by: Cin-Tzy Comix; Contributors: Don Chin; Date: 1980; Price: 35 cents; Page Count: 12 pages Size: digest (5.5 x 7.12) Kennedy #: 118; Print information: one printing; 100 signed and numbered copies Comix and superhero comic enthusiast Don Chin, produced this DYI superhero parody before editing the better-known, five issue Overload series. On the inner front cover, he drops a clue to collectors about an earlier magazine called "Strip Tease" which was "a rough draft for Overload".

WEARD Comix Published by: The-Beat Goes-Off-Comix; Contributors: Mike Baron; David and Lornalu Bieber; Ruby Razorblade; J. Gordon; Date: 1974; Price: free newspaper supplement; Page Count: 32 pages Size: magazine (9.0 x 11.0) Kennedy #: 2166; Print information: one printing; unknown copies A record promotional that was given away as a supplement in the Boston Phoenix newspaper. My copy is has a print smudge in the upper front cover and I probably am not smart enough to realize that WEARD stands for Warner-Electra-Atlantic-Record-Distribution without the Kennedy citation. A great idea to promote your company, its artists and their records. My favourite part are the numerous spoofs of well known comic ads.

Tales of Raven #1: No Tankers, Tanks (first printing) Published by: C.O.A.S.T.; Contributors: Mike Nicholl (Yakgulanaas); John Broadhead; Date: 1977; Price: 50 cents; Page Count: 12 pages Size: magazine (8.5 x 10.75) Kennedy #: not listed; Print information: two printings; first printing copies 3,000 (see posting below) Twelve years prior to the Exxon Valdez oil spill that released over one million barrels of oil into the pristine waters and coastline of Prince William Sound, the Coalition Against Supertankers (C.O.A.S.T.) produced Tales of Raven #1 to help raise funds to fight tanker intrusion into channels of the Queen Charlotte Islands (British Columbia). Thank goodness for their efforts and those of the revived campaign that is currently fighting new industrial projects in the region. I was lucky enough to notice of the striking cover of Tales of Raven #1 at an eBay auction about two years ago and stumbled upon one of the least talked about underground/anti-establishment comix within the Canadian canon. It definitely is one of my favourites and deserves greater recognition within the collecting community. In 1987, native artist Mike Nicholl (Yakgulanaas), produced a sequel to Tales of Raven that I have yet to locate.

Red Horse Animation Published by: self published; Contributors: Lee Breuner; Ann Horton; Date: 1976; Price: no cover price, but $5 according to Kennedy; Page Count: 36 pages Size: comic (6.0 x 9.0) Kennedy #: 1673; Print information: one printing; unknown copies An illustrated version of an experimental theatre production that was staged in 1970 and again in 1972. I wish I knew more about New York theatre and the people involved in the production of both the play and illustrated book. The inner front cover of this edition announces the publication of an another edition by the Drama Book Specialists of New York. Whether that project was completed and how it differs from this one is also unknown to me.

Weird Love Published by: Richard Mozek; Contributors: Bill Dickman; Dominic Albanese; Albert Einstein; Jim McGreal; Rick Mozek; Jerry Tiritilli; Ralph Luchene; Charles Young; Gary Luchene; Kevin frank; Jeff Darrow; Rob Green; Tom Gianni; Marty McGreal; Date: 1982; Price: 75 cents; Page Count: 72 pages Size: comic (7.0 x 8.5) Kennedy #: 2173; Print information: one printing; 500 copies (see post below) One of the better bargains in the underground world, 75 cents for 72 densely packed pages. I personally would have went for a little less with a little more focus. Maybe production of this publication suffered from the too many cooks syndrome.

Garbage Comix Published by: Gary MacDonald and Yuri Krus; Contributors:Gary MacDonald; Yuri Krus; K. Combee; Date: 1973; Price: 45 cents; Page Count: 36 pages Size: comic (8.0 x 10.0) Kennedy #: 814; Print information: one printing; unknown copies Until recently, Garbage Comix was considered by many to be a bit of a rarity. However, a couple of recentish "finds" with the last being about two years ago caused a dramatic price shift. I believe the last seller of a find of about a half a dozen copies was asking only $20. Closer to goofy than underground, Garbage Comix only warrants its promised "adults only" rating by showing some nipples here-and-there. In my city (Ottawa, Ontario), women currently have the right to go topless anywhere in public - times have changed.

Comic Book Published by: Extension and Community Relations, University of Saskatchewan; Contributors: Dave Geary; Linda Mathews; Llyod Garnet; Huw Evans; Antoinette Martens; Date: 1982; Price: no cover price; Page Count: 40 pages (including cover) Size: comic (7.0 x 8.5) Kennedy #: not listed; Print information: one printing; 50 numbered copies This is the rarest of Dave Geary comix efforts that was produced in/around the time of Kennedy that I know of. The plain generic yellow cover was intended to be exactly that: a spoof of the no-name grocery products that began appearing on Canadian shelves around the same time. Geary led the effort to produce a studentzine with four students, where the final copies were split amongst the contributors and were never intended for sale. I was tipped-off about the existence of Comic Book by Canadian comic historian John Bell, but never actually was able to see one until a friend and I visited his collection at the National Archives in Ottawa. The plain name certainly does not help its cause with promotion. Jay Kennedy definitely knew of its existence since there are two copies maintained in his collection - probably produced post publication of his guide.

Adventures of FUB Published by: Free University of Berkeley (FUB); Contributors: Frank Carson; Cheester Arthur; Tom Morris; Ben Blackguard; Bob Crawford; L. Hall; Jack Davis; Date: 1969; Price: free; Page Count: 52 pages Size: magazine (7.5 x 10.50) Kennedy #: 22; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies Son of FUB Published by: Free University of Berkeley (FUB); Contributors: Frank Carson; Cheester Arthur; Tom Morris; M.L.; Leo Lane; Bob Crawford; L. Hall; Ray Nelson; George; J. Wuest; Date: 1970; Price: free; Page Count: 52 pages Size: magazine (7.5 x 10.75) Kennedy #: 1855; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies Solid idea from the FUB to publish their annual course calendars using the underground comix format. Adventures of FUB was published in the spring of 1969 and would have been conceptualized and laid-out even earlier, which could make it the earliest known spoof/borrowing of the underground genre.

Hidden Noise #2 and #3 Published by: #2 (The Three Pipe Press of Graphics); #3 (James Vukos); Contributors: James Vukos; Denis Doonan; Steve Sikora; George Papoon; Date: 1979; Price: no cover price; Page Count: #2 (8 pages); #3 (16 pages) Size: mini (4.25 x 5.50); Kennedy #: not listed; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies Kennedy lists and describes Hidden Noise #5 through #8 as being "dadazine-ish" (it's a real word I swear). He does not list issues #1-4 in his guide, probably because the first four issues of Hidden Noise are described by him as being "dadazines". I do not have any of the latter issues, but I am really curious about what line has to be crossed to qualify as being a dadazine instead of dadazine-ish.

Look, It's C*M From Outerspace Published by: Roving Eye; Contributors: L. Simulian; Phloto; Date: 1976; Price: no cover price; Page Count: 12 pages Size: mini (3.50 x 4.25); Kennedy #: 1051; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies I wish more underground minis took their cue from Look, It's C*M From Outerspace. Well drawn, hilarious and lewd to the point of being gross by even today's standards. On top of that, to my eye (at least), it appears that the book was actually printed and not produced via photocopier.

Vomix #6 Published by: Vomix Comets Ltd.; Contributors: see image of inner front page credits; Date: 1973; Price: no cover price; Page Count: 52 pages Size: comic (7.25 x 9.25); Kennedy #: 2151; Print information: one printing; unknown number of copies This is issue 6 of a series of at least 12 studentzines that were produced by Antioch College from the early 70s to 80s. Other than its extreme rarity (Kennedy could not provide specific details for most issues) and poorer condition, there is nothing else really remarkable about the one issue I was fortunate enough to track down.

As* Backwards Comix Published by: Self Published; Contributors: Peter "Ace Backwards" LaBriola; Bruce Duncan; Date: 1981; Price: $1.50; Page Count: 32 pages Size: small comic (7.0 x 8.5); Kennedy #: 151; Print information: one printing; 200 copies For most of my collecting life (which is not long), I had wrongly assumed that "Ace Backwards" was Bruce Duncan because of this comic Reason number one: Bruce Duncan's name appears as the publishing contact on the inner, third page imprint. Reason number two: I mildly disagree with Kennedy's assertion that Peter LaBriola is responsible for all of the artwork. Have a look (cursor over image and clink to enlarge) at the Mike Gonad story below. To me that's Duncan's work, but of course you can decide for yourself.

Doomsday Comix Published by: Black Cat Publishing; Contributors: Ralph Reese; George Metzger; Hector Tellez; Tom Gasparotti; Ted Trollman; Roger Boyce; Date: 1973; Price: 50 cents; Page Count: 40 pages Size: magazine (7.5 x 10.75) Kennedy #: 609; Print information: one printing; about 100 copies The stuff of legend. According to Kennedy, all but about 100 copies were destroyed by the printer of Doomsday because of a payment dispute. I have also read (for whatever it is worth) that the: surviving copies were recovered out of the printer's trash in a night time recue raid; maybe closer to 200 copies survived and that the printer destroyed the copies because of moral reasons rather than financial ones. I tend to believe that there was a dispute about money and perhaps over the quality of the final product, because my copy (which is in great condition) contains a number of production defects.

Holey --script (first and second printings) Published by: Jack D. Zastre; Contributors: Jack D. Zastre; Martina; Roldo; Frank McTruck; Kenny Moran; Basil Hatte; Bobby Star Date: 1981; Price: no cover price; Page Count: 8 pages Size: mini (4.25 x 5.50) Kennedy #: 992; Print information: first printing (very few survivors); second printing, 200 copies Kennedy was quite correct with his description of the different printings of Holey --script, but it took me a long time to find an example of both printings to confirm it. Yes, there was a mistake with the enlargement of the first printing, which caused the artwork to be reduced to a size that was too small for the pages of the book. According to Frank McTruck, via a friend of mine (B. Campbell), copies of the incorrect first printing were not intended for release and McTruck was surprised that some copies managed to make it to the marketplace. Besides the size of the artwork, other differences between the first and second printings include: as Kennedy mentioned, the first printing had numbered pages; my copy of the first has staples while my second does not and there is a difference between the order/rotation of the artwork on some of the pages.

Bill Griffith Original Comic Art Published by: Jehu Gallery; Contributors: Bill Griffith; Date: 1980; Price: three dollars; Page Count: 20 pages Size: mini (3.0 x 4.13) Kennedy #: 274; Print information: between 100 to 200 copies (according to Bill Griffith) A souvenir produced for a showing of Bill Griffith's work at the Jehu Gallery in April to May 1980. The colour card covers of the book were folded/repurposed postcards that were bound to the black and white guts. In comparison, many postcard covers were produced to invite potential attendees to the showing, while only 100 to 200 finished books were produced/available for some actual and lucky attendees.

Strawberries from Mars, vol. 1 #1 Published by: Self Published; Contributors: Robert Melhorn; Tom Foster; Date: 1975; Price: 35 cents; Page Count: single folded sheet Size: newspaper (unfolded 22.5 x 30.0) Kennedy #: not listed; Print information: unknown I do not think that Strawberries from Mars went any further then this maiden issue, even though it advertises a ten issue subscription price. It essentially is a vehicle for some drawn art, photographic art, advertising and a Tom Foster one page cartoon strip (not shown below).

Saga of Yukon Pete Published by: Dedicated Fool; Contributors: S. Clay Wilson; Date: 1974; Price: $2.25 with record; 20 cents without Page Count: 12 pages  Size: mini (3.5 x 4.5) Kennedy #: 1715; Print information: unknown I believe that the Saga of Yukon Pete would be the only example of a mini that Wilson produced as the sole contributor. Produced as a giveaway with the purchase of a 45 rpm record by the Son of Pete and the M*ffdivers. For whatever reason, I had to buy my copy as a sealed package with the record. Kennedy cites a 1982 guide price of $12 and I have seen copies sell for over $120 with the record, but do not be fooled - hold out for a more realistic $20 example.