Category Archives: 60s
Teen-Age Love #61 (1968): Meet Jonnie L♥ve and the Hippies
Having received a cache of Psychedelic Romance Comics, a sub-genre that I appear to be inventing, I thought I’d post the best of the new acquisitions– Teen-Age Love #61: I don’t have a lot to say about this story; its … Continue reading
For Lovers Only #61: In Search of Love (1971)
After my last post, wherein I rambled about the slow bleed of counterculture imagery into Romance Comics, I thought it might behoove me to post an example. I’ve chosen a story from my own modest collection– Charlton’s For Lovers Only … Continue reading
Heart Throbs #92: The Nights That Never Ended (1964)
If 20th Century narrative taught us anything, it’s that people’s respectable facades are lies constructed to hide a bitter core of resentment, malice and disquieting interests. And hey, I’m no diff– I got my own weird kicks, and the one … Continue reading
kicking it with The King
Kicking it with The King of mid-century American Illustration. Covers by Robert McGinnis, a man who dominated an entirely unique type of smut.
a well regulated militia (bang bang shoot shoot)
Insanity from Above, Filth from Below: A Freaked-Out Report on the San Diego Comic Con 2008
Last summer, when I attended the San Diego Comic Con, I was struck by its blankness– there was literally nothing that required photography and nothing, after the cease of the spectacle, that was worth remembering. My sum total of purchases … Continue reading
European Psychedelic Art — Bob Dylan
From the Archives: Ted Serios & Thoughtography
The Thoughtography of Ted Serios was a phenomena of the 1960s– as credulous a decade as this country has ever seen– and it produced an excellent work of Fortean literature, The World of Ted Serios: “Thoughtographic” Studies of an Extraordinary … Continue reading
COMICS: An appreciation of Steve Ditko's Mr. A
The best writing on the web about Steve Ditko’s Mr. A are here, here, and here. If you have no idea who the hell Steve Ditko is, or what Mr. A is, these posts are the place to start. They’re … Continue reading
COMICS: If only Rick knew… it's him that I've loved all along! But how can I hurt Gary?
One of my more recent and disquieting obsessions has been a certain vintage of Romance Comics. I’m not going to bore anyone with a history of the genre, so let’s simply state that for three decades, comics publishers put out … Continue reading
Across your heart with your living bra
This cover of John Fred and his Playboy Band’s Judy in Disguise (In Glasses) is from the second printing of the LP; the titular song is pretty well done, and supposedly a parody of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky … Continue reading
Lyrics to Bob Dylan's "I'm Not There (1956)"
Each of the last few years has had a strange cycle of Bob Dylan frenzy, generally culminating in a Significant Fall release. 2007 is no different and November offers Todd Haynes’s gimmicky biopic I’m Not There. It’s hard to imagine … Continue reading
do you want to make a deal?
For reasons that I hope will become eventually obvious, for about six months I’ve had Bob Dylan’s song “Like a Rolling Stone” on the brain. In itself, Dylan on the brain is not unusual, but the song choice is odd– … Continue reading
French-Canadian Kerouac
For reasons bizarre & untold, I’ve been trying to make sacrifices to the Book God via the purchase of books at full cover, an almost unheard of sin. A few days ago, I acquired the newly released unexpurgated, unedited hardback … Continue reading
Giving Paddy his wacks
George W. Bush’s Andover old boy attitude with an Irish interviewer, and Todd C. Murray‘s comment upon it, reminded me of my second favorite piece of young Bush lore: the branding. When I first heard that Bush had defended, and … Continue reading
Glenn Danzig has Bob Dylan's Disease
Amongst those who dubiously self-identify as Dylanologists (a stupid term coined by the vile A.J. Weberman, arguably the most loathsome of all 60s counter-culture figures) it has been long recognized that Bob Dylan suffers from a rare form of mental … Continue reading
live, die, live again: rory hayes
Yesterday’s post reminded me that I’d read an article about Rory Hayes in The Comics Journal. This lead to digging through back issues and old books. Eventually I found it: issue 250, February 2003. I was living in a basement … Continue reading
Art Out of Time
A pleasure of returning home is the revisitation of old habits & things. Of particular interest is the book collection. As I’ve roughly 5-6,000 books stored in Rhode Island, I’m unable to bring them wherever I go. When I move, … Continue reading