Whatever Happened To…
by Dan Nadel
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The best psych artists of the underground?
Whither Barney Steel? Wherefore John Thompson? Anyone seen Jim Evans? What about Susan Morris? Wherefore are thou, oh great ones. Come back!
Labels: undergrounds
Hey, I noticed that you labeled that jpeg “Kukawy”—but the title’s actually “Kyklops Comics.” The first word’s written in Greek letters.
Nice catch. Anymore info?
No — I’ve never seen more than the cover of that comic, and don’t know anything about its creator. Sorry.
This looks amazing
i heard they transformed into young french guys
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonas_france/sets/72157604480952690/
Dan,
If you’re looking to get in touch with Jim Thompson I recommend you contact the “Hippy Comix” guy. Also, let me know if you need to find Barney Steele. I might be able to help.
JTM.
I trade emails with Jim Pinkoski every once in a while.
Does anyone have Thompson’s “Dr. Strenge” comic? I’ve never seen a copy – what kind of stuff was in it? His essay in Blab #3 was innaresting cuz he describes in it how difficult those years were for him personally, while his work suggests more of a lighter-than-air kid of guy.
There were a bunch of way-out psychedelic cartoonists in Yellow Dog that I’ve always been curious about. Did they even think of themselves as cartoonists, or just heads who drew. Gaccione, Gil Smitherman, Andy Martin, Buckwheat Florida Jr., and even the guys who were directly derivative of Griffin really interest me, like Ronald Lipking, Robert Dougherty, Carse, etc.
Yeah, there’s a whole raft of them. I sometimes wonder if our (meaning me and like 3 other people) view of them is tempered now — I get the feeling that back then they were regarded as hacks of a sort. George Hansen, whose work looks great to me now, must’ve caught a lot of shit back then for the Crumb-isms. Now he looks to me like someone channeling Crumb and Wolverton and whatever else through his own idiosyncratic filters.
I wonder the same thing about Fletcher Hanks? Did those comics read as hysterical in 1939 as they do in 2008?
Been rereading the (still awesome) run of ‘Arcade’ and there’s a whole bunch of artists in there I want to know more about.
So many of ’em never seemed to make the leap to Raw, Weirdo, Fantagraphics etc. – what happened to them? Was it the ‘punk’ thing pushing them aside?
@ JTM. If you have a look at Hanks’ work within its original context, it screams out next to the other Fox / Fiction House etc artists. When a different artist does “Stardust” (under Hanks’ name) it’s pretty much entirely generic. Which may partially answer yr question.
-W.E
You can meet John Thompson at my booth at SuperCon in May. He will have limited, signed and numbered, editions of eyez, cyclops, and a couple of posters. These will be editions of 100 only.
While John isn’t a recluse, he teaches and doesn’t travel. This will be his first convention appearence in over 30 years!
Hope to see you all there~
Jim Pitts ~ Surf City Comix (formerly part of Hippy Comix)
This appears to be the same Barney Steel:
http://www.sdbeachlife.com/barneysteel/index.html
It’s a five-year old page, but it’s worth a shot.
I've been a fan of John Thompson's since I discovered his stuff in the late sixties. I have 8 or nine of his comics and am constantly looking for more. I'd love to know what he's been doing all these years, but I can't find anything. And as far as I know, the comic copywrited by susan Morris is actually John Thompson's. I have no idea why it was done that way, but I am sure of it. Any help from anyone would be appreciated. myst66kowboy@yahoo.com . Thanks.