Cars, Alex Toth, and Punk Rock
by Frank Santoro
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
My good friend Mike LaVella was visiting from Oakland, CA and had me cracking up down at the comics shop tellin’ tall tales. Long ago and far away my favorite record store was actually housed in Pittsburgh’s other great comics shoppe, Phantom of the Attic, and Mike would dish out Punk Rock history while we all browsed comics and records. Anyways, Mike moved out to SF back in ’88 and soon started Gearhead Magazine, the first magazine to bring custom car culture and music together. People thought he was crazy. Fifteen years later, people are wishing they thought of it first.
Anyways, Mike was saying his mag needed comics, car comics, and I reminded him of those crazy Alex Toth car comics from the ’70s. So it looks like we’re going to do a big crossover Comics Comics/Gearhead article on Toth’s car comics and get all the grease monkeys out there excited by Toth’s economy and feeling and, uh, drive.
Economy, feeling and drive? Why, that sounds like a description of The Professionals, Steve Jones’ band AFTER the Pistols. Mike still does his Punk Rock history lessons, but now everyone can listen in. Check out Mike’s riff on Jones and co. and the video from ’80 here. And check out Mike’s “New Wave Wednesdays” on the older posts column. Great stuff!
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two pager above from Drag Cartoons #8, 1964
Labels: Alex Toth, comics vs. music, LaVella
