The Unofficial Underground Comix thread... 14 14

[OtherEric]

On 9/30/2023 at 7:05 AM, ug18 said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256237544992

comments?

It's a dumb way to sell that particular batch of comics, that's for sure.  Whoever wins it can probably keep the handful of books they want and make back their money or more selling the rest without too much difficulty.

[wpbooks01]

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) d. McQuarrie

 

 

 

[Shazbot]

It’d be fabulous if you all could help a brother out with a freaky sitch.

A while back I picked up this FFFB #1 with a 75cent candy shell and chewy pink filling. Presumably a 13th print, as per CGC and GCD consensus.

Oddly it’s numbered “1014” out of what I understand to be a limited run of 1,000.

Also my Letter of Authenticity, with matching stamp, appears to be inauthentic as it has no raised seal and the letterhead does not match one currently displayed on eBay that does have a seal, which is also stamped somewhat differently than a third LoA example found at CBR.

I can wrap my head around the printed LoA, but the book itself appears perfectly norml other than the out of sequence stamp. Would there have been 13th prints with no number stamp, that someone stamped and printed a letter to accompany… for …some… weird reason? Were the folks at ROP mixing work with pleasure and let the press run a few extra copies? Book isn’t really worth shenanigans.

what am I missing? Appreciate any dank thoughts passed.

Edited October 7, 2023 by Shazbot

[ug18]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:36 PM, wpbooks01 said:

This massive and delightful tome arrived in the mail today, in surprisingly nice condition considering it's voyage from overseas! A catalog for an exhibition in Spain that happily includes English text along with Spanish! Crazy book that I stumbled onto a couple of weeks ago, totally unaware of it's existence!

 

 I got it. Very rich tome. Recommended.

Edited October 13, 2023 by ug18

[wpbooks01]

On 10/7/2023 at 1:40 PM, Shazbot said:

It’d be fabulous if you all could help a brother out with a freaky sitch.

A while back I picked up this FFFB #1 with a 75cent candy shell and chewy pink filling. Presumably a 13th print, as per CGC and GCD consensus.

Oddly it’s numbered “1014” out of what I understand to be a limited run of 1,000.

Also my Letter of Authenticity, with matching stamp, appears to be inauthentic as it has no raised seal and the letterhead does not match one currently displayed on eBay that does have a seal, which is also stamped somewhat differently than a third LoA example found at CBR.

I can wrap my head around the printed LoA, but the book itself appears perfectly norml other than the out of sequence stamp. Would there have been 13th prints with no number stamp, that someone stamped and printed a letter to accompany… for …some… weird reason? Were the folks at ROP mixing work with pleasure and let the press run a few extra copies? Book isn’t really worth shenanigans.

what am I missing? Appreciate any dank thoughts passed.

I have one of those pink paper editions, but it could be #2 as I don't have it at hand currently, and I bought it when I was 11 or 12 at a head shop in Columbus, Ohio.  Was not numbered or limited in any kind of obvious way.

[Darwination]

Picked up a neat book from Jack Jackson, not a comic but full of neat art (and history)

 

[wpbooks01]

The Holdovers (2023) d. Payne

 

[wpbooks01]

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD DEPT: (Mainly because I finally found one) Re: Thrilling Murder

 

Many years ago I asked Gary Arlington about the identification points for a true 1st print of TM. The issue with the cover stock was well known, but he told me that a REAL 1st could be identified by the blood color that had been added to the interiors.

 

Apparently the printer did not mix the ink well at first, and the original batch came out with purple colored blood/juices! This made S. Clay Wilson angry and he attempted to get ugly with the printer. He felt the purple color made his centerspread look stupid, so most of that run was supposed to have been destroyed, but like everything, there are always some that get out.

 

The ink was corrected quickly and the large percentage of issues do sport the bright red coloring. Tonight I finally stumbled onto one of the purple issues and could not have been more thrilled! This 'point' was backed up in a post on the Fogel Underground Facebook page when either Ron Turner or his son Colin posted about this rarity and basically told a similar story to the one Gary had told me, but with a little more details...names of the printer, or locations or both....I forget.

 

But anyways, here are a couple of photos I took in my crappy lit living room with an old tablet camera. I still think you can see the difference....In the first scan, the cover on the left is the first print. You can even see a discrepancy there, as well, but I'm pretty sure the one on the right is also a confirmed second print with the more matte cover! Hopefully one can discern the top specimen has the purple coloring in the two following pics.

[wpbooks01]

On 1/4/2024 at 7:26 PM, wpbooks01 said:

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD DEPT: (Mainly because I finally found one) Re: Thrilling Murder

 

Many years ago I asked Gary Arlington about the identification points for a true 1st print of TM. The issue with the cover stock was well known, but he told me that a REAL 1st could be identified by the blood color that had been added to the interiors.

 

Apparently the printer did not mix the ink well at first, and the original batch came out with purple colored blood/juices! This made S. Clay Wilson angry and he attempted to get ugly with the printer. He felt the purple color made his centerspread look stupid, so most of that run was supposed to have been destroyed, but like everything, there are always some that get out.

 

The ink was corrected quickly and the large percentage of issues do sport the bright red coloring. Tonight I finally stumbled onto one of the purple issues and could not have been more thrilled! This 'point' was backed up in a post on the Fogel Underground Facebook page when either Ron Turner or his son Colin posted about this rarity and basically told a similar story to the one Gary had told me, but with a little more details...names of the printer, or locations or both....I forget.

 

But anyways, here are a couple of photos I took in my crappy lit living room with an old tablet camera. I still think you can see the difference....In the first scan, the cover on the left is the first print. You can even see a discrepancy there, as well, but I'm pretty sure the one on the right is also a confirmed second print with the more matte cover! Hopefully one can discern the top specimen has the purple coloring in the two following pics.

Though his son Colin refers to it as a 'magenta' sort of variant, here is the tale, cut and pasted from a Facebook post by Ron Turner (6/21/23), by way of Colin in the previously mentioned Fogel UG group. Pretty much the same way Gary told it to me at his home, probably while we were watching the bootleg copy of The Jolson Story (1946) that I had just laid on him!

 

Dot Communist

by Ron Turner

-----

A Day at the Office: Thrilling Murder

-----

The phone is for me. Gary Arlington who never calls is on the line.

 

“Wilson is on something. He’s screaming at the pressmen,” Gary says. “Come down here, quick.”

"Gary, where are you?"

 

He is at Howard Quinn, the printing company at the corner of Alabama and 16th Streets. I drive over and S. Clay Wilson, who is an imposing figure, is yelling at a short man from Fiji of Indian extraction: Indar. They are standing next to a long series of Goss web presses, and all the pressmen are in blue work uniforms. The noise is deafening, but Wilson can be heard over it. Indar looks like he is about to drop a one-ton roll of newsprint on S. Clay.

 

Gary has agreed to publish Thrilling Murder, an underground comic that will have a signature printed with both red and black ink, instead of the usual black on white newsprint.

“It's f-cking Kool-Aid! It has to be blood," bellows the famous Zap artist, creator of the Checkered Demon, Captain Pissgums, Ruby the Dyke, and the Perverted Pirates.

 

Indar is trying to explain that to get the blood-red color, equal amounts of the red ink must be mixed with yellow ink and the work order didn't say anything except red ink. The presses are shut down and everything goes silent. The workers are all on the clock and observing the conflict.

 

I talk to the company manager, Don Sanchez, and we work it out. Gary will be charged a fee for the "make ready" blood-red ink. He will accept the small number of already-printed copies with the Kool-Aid blood, and all will go back to normal.

 

Sanchez should have a footnote in the history books for using a split font to make the rainbow color on the original “Oracle” that Allan Cohen produced around 1966, one of the first ever Psychedelic Underground papers in the world. Don couldn’t have cared less about that. He was into ’50s Chevys with convertible tops and fins.

 

That printing press is long gone, and today in that same building the Dandelion Chocolate Factory is now rather busy next to the SPCA who's animals can smell the desirable chocolate but must not eat the deadly (to them) treat.

 

I go back to my office to see what Gordian Knot awaits untying. Wilson goes back to ’s Bar at Sanchez and 16th for his morning cocktails. Gary goes back to his comic book store on 23rd and Mission. And if you are lucky, you may someday find one of the rarest of underground comix – pinkish-red blood inside.

[Darwination]

I friggin love this story, WP, thanks for posting.  S. Clay Wilson is one of my favorite underground artists even if I don't normally migrate towards the macabre. 

I scanned the issue which must have been the later part of the printing, definitely very red.  I hope S. Clay was happy ><

I stuck the scan up at the Internet Archive just now and put some images up on my Flickr thread, definitely a super-cool issue.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/ij9iv9atnp0lhgx/Thrilling_Murder_Comics_01_%281971.San_Francisco_Comic_Book_Company%29_%28Charlie-DREGS%29.cbr/file

https://archive.org/details/thrilling-murder-comics-01-1971.-san-francisco-comic-book-company-darwin-ia

Edited January 5 by Darwination

[Darwination]

I grabbed this cover from the stash for Christmas but never posted, as it never seemed appropriate.  But inappropriate is OK on the UG thread

[MR SigS]

 

[RedRaven]

On 11/6/2023 at 1:22 PM, Darwination said:

Picked up a neat book from Jack Jackson, not a comic but full of neat art (and history)

 

 

 

 

 

This is absolutely one of the coolest posts (IMO) in the mag thread for a very long time. It put Jack Jackson on my radar and has inspired me to purchase some items related to his historical works. Thank's so much for sharing.

 

[OtherEric]

On 1/28/2024 at 11:00 AM, RedRaven said:

 

This is absolutely one of the coolest posts (IMO) in the mag thread for a very long time. It put Jack Jackson on my radar and has inspired me to purchase some items related to his historical works. Thank's so much for sharing.

 

 

[RedRaven]

[Darwination]

Ooh, that's nice. I've got the trade, but I'd much rather have a hardcover.

[Qalyar]

On 1/28/2024 at 11:13 PM, OtherEric said:

 

Just missing Blood on the Moon for the whole mini series. Pretty nice copies there, too. Obviously some spine ticks on Red Rider especially, but a lot of times these show up as pretty serious beaters.

[OtherEric]

On 2/1/2024 at 8:54 PM, Qalyar said:

Just missing Blood on the Moon for the whole mini series. Pretty nice copies there, too. Obviously some spine ticks on Red Rider especially, but a lot of times these show up as pretty serious beaters.

Actually a case of not having a scan handy rather than not having the book.  I may try to dig it out later this weekend.

Jaxon was really an amazing artist.

[Darwination]

I love a lot of his landscapes and maps, and some of the pages are just full of detail.

I think the History is really good, too, though.  You get the the main actors but then there's all of the players to the side giving their takes, so it's usually a pretty even-handed approach to to telling the stories.

[SCAPEGOAT666]

Anyone know Mike Diana? Ever seen this?