st(r)utter
by Frank Santoro
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Um, I’d, ah, really love to review this comic from the golden age of black and white alternative comics, but I, uh, think that this is enough. The pages inside are just painful. Funny, in a retarded comics way but… painful.
Found it today in the quarter bin at a store somewhere in Pennsylvania, driving back from NYC and the Kramers Ergot signing at Desert Island last Saturday. I’m trying to shape up my tour diary into something readable. Kevin Huizenga, Ron Regé, Sammy Harkham, Matthew Thurber, John Pham, and me all eating a late breakfast in a rural diner was a sight. Especially for the outfitted deer hunter a few booths away with one arm. He kept staring at us. Maybe he was a comics fan. Anyways, bear with me. Crazy week.
Labels: Eros, M. Scott Campbell, Scott Musgrove
That’s by Brian Sendelbach’s less-talented partner…the FAT DOG MENDOZA guy. Notably less good than Sendelbach’s BOX of the same time period. Folks have kind a forgotten the early days of Eros, when there were a lot of quality books by solid talents (most notably BIRDLAND and Dave Cooper’s SEX FRENZY), and also a fair number of books like this that seemed to be passive-aggressively saying “Just TRY to jerk off to THIS! I triple dog dare you!” THE PERVERSION RUG by Matthew Thurber also qualifies, but unlike BOX and SPANK, we couldn’t GIVE it away at our shop. And STILL can’t, apparently, now that I check our stock.
I don’t know why that reminded of this, but does anybody know what happened to Scott Russo? He did ten issues of a comic called Jizz for Fantagraphics back in the early 90’s. It was sort of a precursor to Johnny Ryan’s stuff. It was very funny and nasty…and then Russo just disappeared.
Hello!
Your work seems to me to be brilliant!your blog is one of the best on comics that I have read!
Be still like that!…
A strong embrace!
Inkwell:
Russo? I dunno maybe
he’s somewhere “doin the chester” –anyone remember that Peter Bagge cartoon of Stinky beating off while leaning on a chair a la “The Playboy”—?hahaa
PERVERSION RUG is by Matthew Guest, not me!!
Spank looks amazing.
-M. Thurber
Matthew, you just revealed your secret identity! I had no idea who IMA Pelican was!
That’s pretty unkind to Scott Musgrove. Yipes. There was a time when it seemed like him and Sendelbach were a beacon of unbelievable fresh greatness in indy comics. Which is my not too subtle, but I’m spelling it out anyway way of asking, what will be said about all of us 15 years from now?
No Prize to the commenter who can find the Eros comic with a pinup I drew in it. 20 bux, plus postage to anyone who has a copy of the Screw I did a cover for and have never seen a copy of (hand separated color at its finest in those, Frank!).
I had a friend that had never read Playboy and wanted me to ask Bagge about doin the Chester. He was shocked to find out the awkward truth.
Robin, maybe you can fill in the un-initiated… and patiently explain it… haha
Fuck you, Frank
don’t you have your own blog?
Dude, you are so off my xmas card list this year.
I love the bowl of cereal on the floor.
Love it. Wife.
Tell the diner story.
Tell you what Frank, i will give very vivid details on the show, so everyone can hear my subtle nuances when describing the 2 handed spit rub over the chair.
Wait, why is this tagged “M. Scott Campbell” if the comic was drawn by Scott Musgrove?
I liked the handful of Fat Dog Mendoza comics that I saw back in the nineties.
i dunno, the editor put that name up…Tim?
Don’t you remember me e-mailing you this morning about it, Frank? Saying that that’s the only author name I could find when I Googled the comic book, and offering to correct the label if I got it wrong? I don’t have the comic myself…
Oops! Sorry, Mr. Thurber…I realized that it was time to head for work– it’s New Comics Day!– and hit “publish” without proofreading. Apologies also to Mr. Guest, whose comic I actually had no problem with other than my inability to sell it. As for Musgrove, I liked his work okay (if less than his then-partner), but it seemed that his Dark horse work was noticeably weaker, and I have a dim recollection of his reinvention of his work for the Juxtapoz crowd annoying me. My opinion of him is also colored to some extent by Eric and Me. On the other hand, I have a customer who’s been buying Loose Teeth, Fat Dog Mendoza, and assorted other Musgrove kibbles and bits over the last few weeks, while not showing that much interest in Smell of Steve product. So Musgrove has at least been more profitable for me recently.
In other early Eros business, what do you fellows think of J. Michael McCarthy? I’m not all that enamored of his film work, but some of his comic work (particularly Bang Gang) was pretty interesting…kind of like Steranko crossed with Savage Pencil!
Last I knew, Scott Russo was at Doubleday designing covers and other things. I freelanced there for a week or so 5-6 years ago. My friend who hired me was showing me around the office and I read the nameplate on his cube and asked “Are you THE Scott Russo?” and he looked visibly scared. He was a super sweet guy them and was putting together some sort of vintage New York photos website. Here’s a link I just found if you want more info: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/b86/39b
Last I knew, Russo was in NYC. I had a chance to have dinner with him and Bob Fingerman once but when I went back to where I was staying to change shirts the place was filled with people that had been assembled to surprise me and take me out to dinner. Oh, well.
This was probably like 38 years ago, the way my memory works.
The early Eros comix are great if you like weird comics. In addition to the baffling ones like Spank and Box — I think those came on with Ryder Windham — they also had a subset of strange, semi-foul comics that weren’t arch at all but just working really, really strange sexual territory.
My favorite was Femosaur World.
wait, so Devlin Thompson is not a fake blogger name for Tom Devlin?
I know. We should not be allowed to post on the same thread.
Come on, Frank! I’m a famous comic book character! Read HATE #15 again, already! I have received his junk mail before, and he may well have gotten mine, but he and I are two unrelated individuals. I’ve been accused of being Mort Todd before as well, but I’m just me (and on occasion the late Myron Fass, but that’s another story).
To everyone who commented on Scott Russo’s current whereabouts: thanks.
(pssst Devlin…I was ribbing Devlin)
The credits on the inside cover read:
written and illustrated by M. Scott campbell
I was right!
yah, why is everyone saying Musgrove?
Campbell is Musgrove. Like so many early Eros authors, he used a pseudonym. “Anton Drek,” hello?
Thanks, Eric!
Don’t forget my favorite, “Simon DeBeaver”! I actually called Jessica (formerly Jeff) Johnson a few minutes ago to confirm that I wasn’t nuts, and she also backed me up.
who knew that EROS comics trivia would get this much traffic–