Uncomics 002 - Nationally Screwed

I've mentioned that part of my Comic Archeology projects is mining through old men's magazines. Some may think this an odd choice of place to look. So let's take a look at National Screw magazine, launched by ... shall we say carnally-infamous publisher Al Goldstein back in 1976.

Right there on the cover - an interview with Bill Gaines - the father of EC comics and Mad Magazine - and an all new comic from comics legend Wally Wood! Turning to the table of contents, the comic art sensibility is immediately evident, with artwork outweighing photos for the article images.

Flip through the magazine and you'll find abundant levels of art illustrations (including Don Martin!) and comic strips...

 

...the beginning of a four issue serialization of Wally Wood's new (at the time) Malice In Wonderland...

...and even photo layouts in comic book form...

...closing with a Norml ad featuring art by B. Kliban. (another day)

 

Comics are right there in the magazine's DNA every bit as much as flesh, fetish, and assorted filth.

But enough of all that. We'll come back to some of that later, but that's not why we're here today, let's jump to issue #3 for today's feature comic. In the turbulent 70s, everyone needed a little help to completely grok the ever-changing world around them.

Boundaries were falling, horizons were expanding, and there were no maps to this strange new social territory. Where could people turn for guidance? Who could teach us how to live in these times?

The even more legendary Will Eisner steps up to help with his all too brief guide to The Quality Of Life:

Will Eisner's work from National Screw #3 (1977) all other art from National Screw #1 (1976)

Art Mysteries - or WhoTF? - first in an endless series

Simple question:

Whose work is this?

The signature reads rogers, but that's less helpful than one might hope. These illustrations were published in Knight magazine, cover dated September 1966, book-ending an unrelated Harlan Ellison story.
That's too early for a then-16 years old Marshall Rogers, rather late and/or stylistically wrong for Hubert Rogers, Alva Rogers, Howard Rogers, or Julie Homberger Rogers - all of whom have been known to do illustration work - and the signature is all wrong any of them.

For the intellectually curious, the upper illustration is for an article entitled That Old Sex Magic (on dark arts used to lure lovers) and The Night Is For Running, a story by Allan Nixon.
Knight was a California based publication, so his (her?) work could have appeared in a variety of magazines from the period. Unfortunately, that issue was grabbed simply because i had not encountered the magazine before - so no more on hand to go digging through.
I'm definitely curious to see more. Perhaps even some sequential art and not just single story snapshots, but i'll take what i can find.

Any clues who this is?

I'll be sure to update if i find more.

Illustrations from Knight v.5 #8 (1966)

Duck, Duck, Goosed

We all know Carl Barks, right?
You know...  the guy who taught us all about capitalism when we were growing up:

The Man who brought us those great adventures with Scrooge, Donald, and the family...

...and all those other wonderful ducks...

... what...the...  ducks?

Duckin' A!
It must be another..

This  week featuring (pretty obviously) the great Carl Barks!

Long before he became famous for his work with the Disney characters, Barks enjoyed drawing women and bawdy humor. Early cartoon work for magazines like Calgary EyeOpener provided a playground for the budding artist.

In 1939 he released a Nude Lithograph with work reminiscent of great modern European erotic artists:

Throughout his highly prolific career he continued to use the female form as a way to get away from the ducks and enjoy his art.

 

My favorite works (though i love those simple figure studies above) come from a period when Disney revoked his license to paint the Duck family and he humorously responded with a series of commissions entitled Famous Figures Of History As They Might Have Looked Had Their Genes Gotten Mixed With Waterfowl, such as this delightful piece, Mountain Man:

 

(Yes, that's Myron Moose in the background)

I believe Disney restored his license fairly swiftly after learning of these paintings.

Everything but the logo by the great Carl Barks (spread over half a century or more)

Sunday Morning Funnies - Intermedia Romance

When i go mining through the lost archives on my Comics Archeology jaunts, comic books are not the only focus of the digs. I'm also tapping veins of pre-comicbook magazines going back to the old half-dimes of the 19th century, and men's magazines of the 20th century. There's a  lot of interesting art to be found in the story illustrations, advertising, comics and cartoons hiding in some of those pages.
Sometimes Comics and Cartoons cross-pollinate.
45 years ago...

Art Lutner having fun in bed from Gallery #2 (December 1972)

The Japanese get all the blame

Oh, sure - they may have given Hentai a name, popularized it, and ... well, let's just say they added the in-womb cameras and leave at that, eh?

But, the basic elements were around before that happened. Urotsukidoji and La Blue Girl were at the tip of the cultural tentacle that so wetly slithered into our national consciousness and wrapped tight around the fap centers of some. That was back in 1989 - 40 years in just a couple more. By that point, however, it was somewhat familiar territory for me. Often as not, that territory was mapped by comics.
Let's go back a decade & a half before that tentacle came oozing on over - back to 1975.

Vampirella #40:

Our chapter in the ongoing tale of the Dame from Draculon this issue, with the full-on hentai splash:

Previously, Vampi killed an evil bastard, because that's what happens to evil bastards in horror comics. However, even evil bastards can have family (half family?). Sometimes evil family. This time, old hag witches, pissed off and seeking revenge.
So, cut to the naked demon summoning...

Not long after, the attacks, and double-entendres, begin:

"Fortunately, the door opens outward..."

In fine hentai tradition, a passing pervert wants to get him some...

...only to offer up a distraction for the demon, and the chase continues...

...climaxing in a tentacle scene that pushed (and kicked) against the limits of what could be published in newstand magazine of the day:

After being briefly violated by plant tentacles, Vampi had pretty much had enough of this shit. Fuck that no drink blood rule, let's kill this thing. After having its body destroyed, the pissed of demon uses the dead evil bastard to kill the family, and nobody lives happily ever after.

Yeah, 42 year ago me didn't know what to call it, but he was looking for more.

And now you know - Adult rated content isn't limited to Blue Monday, that's merely a regularly scheduled dose.

The Nameless Ravager by Flaxman Loew & Leopold Sanchez, from Vampirella #40(1975)

What phase is the moon?

At one point while growing up, we lived in a 'blue' county, so called because it was subject to old Blue Laws. Blue Laws was a term used to refer to attempts to legislate morality, usually by the highly unmoral seeking power or feeling guilty. On Sundays where we lived, the alcohol cabinets in the stores were chained shut, and bars closed. It was illegal to sell alcohol anywhere in the county on Sunday, so you tried to stock up friday or saturday, and hope your friends did, too, so they wouldn't drink you dry before Monday came around.
This was Blue Sunday.

In general, this worked out for most folks with only minor grousing about the situation. But for the hard drinkers, the young partiers who get cut off halfway through the weekend, it was ... well, agonizing - according to them. This led to savagely overdrinking and hard partying on Monday - the kind that leaves you waking up naked and not being able to identify the naked person(s) next to you.
This was Blue Monday.

And so we have a name for our latest feature:

Here we'll take a look at what we'll call 'Blue' comics & art for the sake of the feature.
Sometimes we'll look at various 'adult' comics from around the globe, other times we'll just look at the pretty pictures. Like today.
Here's a news flash - many artists often draw naked things. From learning experiences to expressions of passion to desperate need, the reasons vary widely. Some hide it, some flaunt it. Some do it for pleasure, some for attention, some only for money or to please others. Sometimes, it's the most obvious artists whose work is nearly erotica anyway, other times it's the last artist you might expect. (See our next Blue Monday for a potential example)

For our inaugural episode, let's not focus on any one artist - let's go with a theme. Superman Artists. I'm sure there's lots more out there. It's a new feature on a new blog, so no lengthy research is involved. Just 3x3 pics from 10 Superman Artists, ranging from Joe Shuster to Bruce Timm - the artists who brought us the first Superman, and the modern animated Superman. These are two of the most famous blue art creators among the comics pros - Joe Shuster due to publication of a book not long back calling attention to his fetish art, and Bruce Timm due to the publication of his own collection of paintings and drawings. I'm only using one example from each artist here, and zero context information for this quick review.


Joe Shuster:

Al Williamson:

Jim Mooney:

Curt Swan:

Neal Adams:

Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (Two Superman Artists for the price of One!):

John Byrne:

Jon Bogdanove:

Bruce Timm:

I was all set to start typing about Bruce Timm, but-  He's a feature, not a comment.
Another day...