Another batch of attic finds from this weekend in CT. Comic Strips and shitloads of them. Not the books – but actual clippings that I meticulously sliced with an Xacto back when I did nothing good as a teen.

I clipped comic strips because I hated waiting for the tradebooks to be published at the end of the year (which compiled a years worth of strips). Comic books were meant to be read, saved, and traded. Why the fuck could I not do the same with comic strips.

I found this box in the attic.

I opened it and discovered my stash of Matt Groening’s “Life is Hell” strips from 1990-92. I loved the uncommon square read flow of “Life is Hell.” Like “The Far Side” (which I found to be boring), this odd shape of the comic strip made it a bitch to place in the comics’ section. So youre paper either buried it with the classified, of in the case of “Life is Hell” you just got picked up by the alternative papers.

I think this is the strip that summed up the strip nicely. For those that know Groening’s work on this front, this will be familiar. Blinky in ropes.

Akbar & Jeff – the gay boys.

The craziest part for me was that “Life is Hell” and the Hartford Advocate taught me what trannies were. Flipping over some of the clippings, you’ll discover that they were only a short phone call away… if you’re into that.

I found these red envelopes as well. I fashioned them out of Hallmark envelope remainders from my days working at CVS. “Calvin & Hobbes” all labelled, dated, and spliced in my outstanding obsessive way. Again, I hated waiting for the trades to be printed. I wanted to pull them out and check out Watterson’s pen and ink work whenever I wanted. I think I have about 15 of these little envelopes labelled C&H. Ridiculous.

I love this one. Calvin was the master of torture without shedding blood. “Home Sweet Home.”

Oh yeah, I got more coming….

I went to my parent’s house today and they made me clean out the attic – well at least a box worth. I found a stash of old self-published comics and fanzines – a shitload of them. I was inspired to find them after visiting the Boston Zine Fair back in September. It took me a while to find them. 

I’ll probably end up writing something on The Social Consumer shortly on my life as a minicomic and zine publisher back when I was 16, but for now, I wanted to share with you some looks into the weirdo shit I collected over the year. I have to thank FactSheet Five – the original print version – for opening the door to this world for me. I fucking miss that mag.

Above are three examples of some localized comic newspapers from the early 90’s.

1. Manhattan Comic News 2. The Boston Comic News 3. Seattle Star. 

Out of the three, Seattle Star was the banger. It was published during the height of the Seattle rock explosion and includes some of the best alternative comics I’ve seen to date and Sub Pop was a frequent advertiser on the back cover. Dope!

Going farther into fringe was Comic Release, which was also out of Seattle. A much more edgy publication, it was also shot on newsprint for cheap shipping and handling – which was very important back then. Published in 1992.

Here are some examples of half sized mini comics. A true mini-comic was the size of a 8.5×11 sheet of paper folder into fours. These were folded down the center and, of course, printed off of Xerox machines. As much as the artwork in these was very amateurish, there was a certain mentality that came from them. 

I will go back home and grab my box of mini-comics soon enough. Some amazing shit in there. Circa 1988-1991.

A much much better half sized mini-comic was Dead Head Comix from Helsinki, Finland. This was my first dip into the world of European independent, self-published books. This was was printed on very high quality glossy thick stock and had some of the best ink work I had seen at the time. Really dope shit in this issue. If anyone knows where these guys landed, please fill me in. Published in 1990.

One of my favorite full sized, self published books was Wandering Star. Here’s an example of a book that came out of the death of a independent comic publisher. Teri S. Wood had been inking and writing books for Silverwolf Comics, when they quickly went under. Rather than sitting back, Teri started a new book and published it out. I remember dropping about $2.25 per issue via mail and getting these stock with a mailer back cover. The only full sized self published book I bought. Published in 1988-1989.

I have tons more of this shit. I’ll put more up soon.