The Unofficial Underground Comix thread... 14 14

[wpbooks]

This can be debated for years. The 1st two printings don't make sense logically which came first. I suggested to Fogel to put 1st/2nd? and then 2nd/1st? for those printings in the guide. I told him my feeling of what the 1st likely was and why I felt so and would let him decide. I believe he didn't want to confuse people with what I suggested and instead, I believe, just went with my opinion on what was likely the 1st (you can tell this version by the white line in the lower center above the pink piece of paper in the street of the cover of the "1st" and, if I recall correctly, there's a line on the "2nd print?" near the upper spine by the "F", this one has the FB#2 ad on the lower left of the IBC. I hope I'm recalling this all correctly as I haven't thought about it in a few years since I did all the research but it may be the other way around and this was one of the reasons against the order I had to consider). If you look at the 3rd printing's ads on the the IBC, you can see they look like copies and aren't very detailed, so that's a tell they aren't the 1st print. So the new guide has what I believe is correct, but it really doesn't make that much of a difference as all 3 of the first printings had rainbow variants and that's what most previously had considered where 1st prints before I came around and those fetch the most money. As I've stated before, they're rainbow VARIANTS because they are part of the same print run. They put in multiple colors on the printer to start and slowly just added more blue ink. So eventually the print run would become a blue interior only and that's why some have a large variety of different colors on the interior and some have just a green and blue or similar interior cover. I believe, years ago, you or someone else stated they bought theirs when it was first released and it matched my belief of what the 1st print was. You can see JK wasn't sure of which came out in which order from his guide. Now presented with this clear evidence, let's see if people update their info.

 

Hey 50, I just got another early FB #2 which caused me to pull out my original, bought when I was a wee lad, and I must admit I'm a bit confused. That old copy has the white line above the pink sheet on the FC, the Dealer McDope Game on pg. 49 and and the correct configuration of comic covers on the inside back cover. However the photos of the covers seem less defined, sort of less saturated than the ones on my newer copy which looks more 'professionally ' printed with greater detail, though it shows other details which make it a probable 3rd printing.

 

BTW, my original copy is with blue, rather than rainbow IFCs, actually a tad greenish blue towards the top, but just barely. Does that seem like a 1st to you? It was your description of the inside back cover photos of the comics covers that threw me off. I'm still pretty sure that based on when I bought it it's a first, but maybe it's another variation you haven't seen or perhaps your recollection is slightly off on that detail? I'd post a scan but I'm currently without reproduction abilities, so I'm attempting to go by descriptive text.....hope I succeeded!

 

EDIT: One other thing I noticed on my presumed 1st printing copy was on the IFC, at the indicia, there is a small drop out at Gilbert Shelton's name that does not happen on the presumed 3rd print copy. Can't really tell if that's unique to my copy or another point for determining where in the print run the copy fell. Has this been noted before?

Edited November 1, 2016 by wpbooks

[dannyboycheapyboy]

So on my quest to find both a 1st print and a "true" second print of Zap #2 it is apparent that I need to find a good micrometer to measure cover stock. Any recommendations on what model to buy?

 

Felix, you may not be aware that cover thickness is no longer considered to be the most important factor in determining "first printing" with Zap 2.

 

Unless something has changed again, instead confirm a first print via the "head miscut" tell as described by comixjoint:

 

http://comixjoint.com/zapcomix2-1st.html

 

A micrometer/caliper would be useful when distinguishing a "second printing" from other later runs.

Edited November 1, 2016 by dannyboycheapyboy

[erehwon]

Finally, a face and story to put with the name!!!

 

 

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this.

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by erehwon

[erehwon]

DiCaprio mentions his father and Underground Comix in the first couple minutes of his new documentary Before the Flood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing. That film is probably the most mainstream platform in which underground comix have ever been mentioned. Leo had to go all highbrow with the Hieronymus Bosch anecdote. A shame he couldn't be more up front about the fact that his life's work is actually inspired by an R Crumb Stoned Agin' black-light poster that hung across from his crib.

[wpbooks]

DiCaprio mentions his father and Underground Comix in the first couple minutes of his new documentary Before the Flood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing. That film is probably the most mainstream platform in which underground comix have ever been mentioned. Leo had to go all highbrow with the Hieronymus Bosch anecdote. A shame he couldn't be more up front about the fact that his life's work is actually inspired by an R Crumb Stoned Agin' black-light poster that hung across from his crib.

 

In my mind it was the Wallace Wood full color poster reprint of his infamous Disney centerspread from The Realist #74!

[wpbooks]

Finally, a face and story to put with the name!!!

 

 

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip and link. I really should meander over to the Heritage office to see if they have a Sack catalog available yet. I prefer to study these kinds of things in book form rather than via the web. Guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy. Hope to see much of this material up close and personal at the preview and reception in about 2 weeks!

[erehwon]

DiCaprio mentions his father and Underground Comix in the first couple minutes of his new documentary Before the Flood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing. That film is probably the most mainstream platform in which underground comix have ever been mentioned. Leo had to go all highbrow with the Hieronymus Bosch anecdote. A shame he couldn't be more up front about the fact that his life's work is actually inspired by an R Crumb Stoned Agin' black-light poster that hung across from his crib.

 

In my mind it was the Wallace Wood full color poster reprint of his infamous Disney centerspread from The Realist #74!

 

[erehwon]

Finally, a face and story to put with the name!!!

 

 

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip and link. I really should meander over to the Heritage office to see if they have a Sack catalog available yet. I prefer to study these kinds of things in book form rather than via the web. Guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy. Hope to see much of this material up close and personal at the preview and reception in about 2 weeks!

 

Wish I could fly over to share in the bombast of that reception... Sounds like it's going to be a black tie affair.

[wpbooks]

Finally, a face and story to put with the name!!!

 

 

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip and link. I really should meander over to the Heritage office to see if they have a Sack catalog available yet. I prefer to study these kinds of things in book form rather than via the web. Guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy. Hope to see much of this material up close and personal at the preview and reception in about 2 weeks!

 

Wish I could fly over to share in the bombast of that reception... Sounds like it's going to be a black tie affair.

 

More like a Tie-Dye affair actually!

 

I went over to the office yesterday and had a delightful encounter with the two ladies working there. About 10 pieces had just shown up and were in varied states of unpacking, so I got to hold and examine closely the splash page to Jumping Jack Flash, Leonore Goldberg, as well as the cover to Snarf #7 and a couple other pages, including the cover to the History Of Underground Comics! Amazing stuff!

 

They had no catalogs yet, but I was told to come back and they also wanted to know if I was a beer drinker! Apparently this is the first fete of it's sort being held in the office and they weren't sure if UG fans are wine or beer drinkers! I should have told them to have some random tabs of blotter acid lying about the room, but I didn't think fast enough when pondering the question about my beer preference!

 

They also seemed excited that Todd Hignite was going to be present at the reception, but weren't sure if Mr. Sack would be there. If there are new developments, I'll be sure to report them here!!!

[dannyboycheapyboy]

Thanks with helping attach a face to that superb collection. I would have thought that he would have been a lot older and frailer! How could part with those items with what (appears to be) still so many years left on the clock?

 

I am going avoid the heartbreak of an auction and have decided to be buried with my fourth rate UG collection instead.

Edited November 3, 2016 by dannyboycheapyboy

[wpbooks]

Went back to the Heritage office in San Francisco this morning where I was more than amazed at the walls of the place which were decorated with choice specimens from the upcoming Eric Sack Collection auction. Rick Griffin, Rory Hayes, Art Spiegelman, Rand Holmes, Zap Jams, and a ton o'Crumb were lining the walls from one side of the room all the way around the perimeter to the other!

 

Best of all the catalog was thrust into my hand, and boy oh boy it is a UG collectible in and of itself. About 125 pages of nicely reproduced art, books, posters and other ephemera with thorough, descriptive captions, a fine couple of intros by Denis Kitchen and Mr. Sack himself, and even a cool brown band circling the catalog warning of the subversive and demented content to be found within.

 

Inside a companion catalog of more mainstream material but with a taste of the Sack collection, a lot of the images have been censored. Not so in the actual Sack catalog, so if you are attempting to snag one, go for the one actually titled "The Eric Sack Collection". It's also smaller dimension-wise so it's easy to tell the two apart.

 

A nice addition to any collection of books on UG, to be sure, and even if I walk away from the sale without a win, this book itself is a very nice consolation prize, indeed!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2016 by wpbooks

[felixthecat]

Very cool. Do you know if they have enough catalogs onsite for all attending? The only Heritage catalog they ever sent me in the mail was for the Howard Greber Collection last November.

[wpbooks]

I didn't ask but it looked like they had quite a few of them on the wall racks and I noticed a large box of them behind a desk when I was inspecting the page from Griffin's Man From Utopia, which was behind said desk.

 

My guess is that they don't get a lot of stragglers like myself coming into the office except perhaps to consign material, which I saw an example of while I was there.

 

It's really more of an office than a showroom like, say Bonhams, is. It's on a street with a lot of small galleries in the North Beach-Barbary Coast neighborhood, and aside from the walls, the place is rows of desks.

 

I don't think you have to worry, in other words!!!

 

Is the catalog you mention the one that had the Adams GL/GA #76 on the cover? or was there a separate Greber catalog ala Sack?

[felixthecat]

The one they sent me was the GL cover.

[erehwon]

Awesome, thanks for sharing your journeys to the Heritage offices with us WP. Wish I could swing by there and take a quick gander at some Man From Utopia pages!!

[wpbooks]

Awesome, thanks for sharing your journeys to the Heritage offices with us WP. Wish I could swing by there and take a quick gander at some Man From Utopia pages!!

 

It's just the one, as shown, but it's a dilly and looks quite majestic in poison!!!!

[erehwon]

Awesome, thanks for sharing your journeys to the Heritage offices with us WP. Wish I could swing by there and take a quick gander at some Man From Utopia pages!!

 

It's just the one, as shown, but it's a dilly and looks quite majestic in poison!!!!

 

She's a beaut!

[oldmilwaukee6er]

 

Amazing you guys... be sure to share your stories so we can live vicariously.

 

About once or twice a year Heritage will send me a catalog out of the blue. Just last week I received two for the Contempory Art aution (morning / afternoon).

 

Boy did they have me pegged wrong

[oldmilwaukee6er]

 

[wpbooks]

 

 

Also from the Eric Sack Collection, but featured in the main catalog along with a lot more pages from his collection not found in the UG catalog. He has some amazing taste and a collection that would be nigh on impossible to replicate today. According to his intro in the UG catalog, all the stuff for sale in this series of Heritage auctions are just a part of his vast holdings!!