Hear ye, Sambos. It's Paul Revere's favorite comix.
THIRD ISSUE FOUND. ARRIVED IN AN ENVELOPE SO STIFF AND REEKING OF CIGARETTE SMOKE THAT WE'RE CONCERNED IT'S FLAME RETARDED.
July 28, 2010: A trip to our mailbox has yielded a good catch. Or a foul odor, depending on your mood. Third issue of TEA PARTY COMIX has arrived, and we're putting up a few more images. First a recap:
Tea Party Comix, Issues one and two.
We liked this blurb that followed the initial post:
"Crude, bizarro, outsider, and yes, racist. These are classics."
— Robert Newman Design on Tea Party Comix
We agree.
So what is TEA PARTY COMIX? We first posted scans of the horrible (wonderful and insane) thing in March in our inaugural "This month in Race Baiting" column. It's one of the weirdest comics we have on the site.
Gavel clank! Batman and Tea Party Obama debate the law.
At the time we couldn't really believe the thing existed - an odd blend of Tijuana Bible styled drawing with some sharp satire, or bigotry. But instead of Tijuana-flavored cartoon characters having sex with distorted genitals, we had Obama attacking superheroes, with distorted ear lobes and floppy lips. Sort of resembling racist childhood fantasies. You can peruse a lengthy excerpt, of course, right here.
Either this is surely a joke OR, if it's real then the mix of confrontation, sincerity, bad drawing, and interesting theme accidentally evokes the best of outsider art: The aforementioned T Bibles, but also Mingering Mike, Daniel Johnston. A hatemongering Henry Darger or Hasil Adkins with a pen.
And now ... arriving in a stink-bomb envelope where if I hold it up to my ear I still hear the shortwave radio Turner Diaries, we have ... a third issue:
Cover to Issue Three of Tea Party Comix, apparently published in May.
To be honest, when we first posted these things the sheer insult of a comic depicting Obama in blackface with gigantic rubber ears and shucking and jiving was, to put it mildly, a bit of a distraction on the rest of the plausible merits of the comic. We still think it's repulsive -- but having mellowed to that we now think it's interesting as a piece of comics. Which is to say we hesitantly really like them. For example there's the strange level of parody that, even it it's suffocating, shows a clever head at work:
This is actually pretty good.
These comics essentially re-cast Obama as the villian in about fifty classic DC and Marvel superhero covers. And some of the results are genuinely interesting. Issue three happens to have my favorite so far. A subversion of Zap Comix #0:
And what the fuck on this one, really.
Really, after the Zap Comix one I have to wonder: Who is this person?
Short of being insanely terrible and depressing, it's not that bad.
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First Up: TEDDY FROM 1999 BACK ON-LINE
Going through some discs from the last 10-15 years, we were pleased to find our earliest website. This includes work going back as far as 1993, which is rough dork-speak for the beginning of the Internet (at least graphics-based). We'll be sifting through things and re-posting. First up is this TEDDY comic from 1999, Click to view.
FUSSY COMMENT: While we're happy to put this stuff back online, we'd prefer post sharper scans of the actual printed work from where it ended up, in this case Zero Zero and Comix 2000. If time permits I'll provide a link of larger scans. In the meantime, enjoy the javascript presentation. Different era sort of thing. Pretty classy and playful for that time, though, I have to admit.
AND NOW THIS MONTH'S UPDATE
July/August Update, 2010
Item 1: DIGNITY AND RESPECT
U.S. Army Comic Book!
Okay, not very often we begin on an epithet, but holy shit. In 2001, which can be considered peace-time before September, the U.S. Army added to their incredible comic book collection by producing "DIGNITY & RESPECT" a comic book subtitled "A Training Guide On Homosexual Conduct Policy". It seems to have been quickly discontinued and there's no real comment on its existence as an educational aid. But we have it all here for you. Have a look at the cover:
The title of the comic triggers a quick chuckle, but only because of the reference to a Mr. Natural comic:
Dignity & Respect ... as rendered by R.Crumb
So that's Robert Crumb's view of the phrase, but what about the U.S. military? One of the reasons we favor "real-situation" comics on this site (meaning: made by organizations) is because they enact behavior that's meant to be exchanged as a confidential conversation. It's one thing to read a standard procedure as a piece of text. It's a completely different animal to see it played out. So here's Don't Ask Don't Tell, as performed by the U.S. Army. A bit psychotic, if you ask me. It's also way too severe for a harmless game of pickle tickle between two privates. Check out how frightening this quickly becomes. Panels:
Scary witchhunt nonsense. Hell of a document, though.
Item No. 2 Realist Archive Update:
Now only three updates remaining until end of project
Yikes, THREE UPDATES remain until the complete 146 issue run of Paul Krassner's The Realist is completely archived and accessible online.
The quality of this magazine continues to impress. Less than a dozen random issues remaining and significant work continues to get excavated from the dusty newsprint. We try and not look ourselves until each new issue, so what fun this month with Issue 43. Cue the title:
Yup and Dang! Love Terry Southern. And from Robert Anton Wilson:
That's two of the best writers of the century right there.
Southern's Faggot Male Nurse made it into his Red Dirt Marijuana anthology. We also wrote about Southern performing it on his Paris Records album for Evergreen. (Read the article here, also covering albums by Burroughs, Ginsberg and others) but Faggot Male Nurse first appeared in The Realist, and it's a fun bit to have here on the site.
Remainder of the update does not disappoint. A bevvy of sex topics, from wives dealing with their transvestite husbands, J Edgar Hoover dealing with his transvestite urgings, and children bypassing the problem completely by being born without genitals.
Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit.
And keeping things topical to current environmental catastrophe, here's this terrific image from 1993, "Let Them Drink Oil":
Captions: "Separate Oil and State" ... "Follow the Oil Money" ... "This is your U.S. Capitol on Oil"
Anti-Oil Funny Money from 2008
Speaking of interesting anti-oil art, we'd be irresponsible if we didn't address the BP oil spill (day 400 or whatever, and counting) ... Here's a fake dollar bill to add to our fake money category (see drop-down menu below) :
The pertinent quotes:
House Democrats who vote against clean energy and climate initiatives take almost 7 times more oil money than those who vote for clean energy ... Join the movement to address the cycle of high gas prices, wars over resources, and climate disasters.
We received these in trade for a Bush McCain Tijuana Bible during the 2008 DNC. Click each for a larger view. Produced by www.oilchangeusa.org - a damn good website, still functioning.
Additional Problems for July:
We decided to double up on Problems for you. So here's a bonus issue: Xmen Burn Victims and Popeye PTSD.
XMEN HELPS THE BURN VICTIM
Wow, not bad. Give Nightcrawler hell, kid.
Despite our glee in snark, this is a pretty awesome comic for a kid, and we don't want to belittle this one too much. A very decent organization, the Starlight Children's Foundation, worked with Marvel on a little-known comic in 2001. Starlight helps children with significant burn injuries. We applaud the effort here, and include a pdf from the Starlight organization as a low sarcasm issue No. 39 or Comics with Problems.
As an addendum though, to sort of merge issue 38's military concern with issue 39, we have one of the funnier bits of Popeye history: employment advice for becoming a military psychologist, which we're entitling "Popeye PTSD" Here's a few panels on that:
Later, Talking to a veteran:
Wow, way to sneak that into a kid's book on choosing a career. From Popeye PTSD, Comics with Problems #39
L.M. Links:
Our friend and occasional correspondent for this site, Laura M sends in the following pieces of Internet media:
1) Jesus the Fetus:
Jesus the Fetus
The linked article claims the image is not pro-life, but rather pro-Jesus. We're without an opinion, but think it was a little tacky to place a Nuva ring on the little kicker's head right there where a halo might go.
The pencilled message "Hoping to hear from you soon", scribbled with what looks like the name George Hamadlsfmsfomrle...
ACADEMIC DISCUSSION: Not sure of the origins of this postcard, except that it showed up in our EP.TC paper bin. Seems 820 of a series. Does anyone know if Blowing Myself meant the same thing in 1905 that it might today. Otherwise I'm not sure of the joke. Well, enjoy it!
Alright — Much more below — Thanks, Ethan
Previously on the site:
June 7, 2010 New Issue of Evergreen Review:
Pleased to contribute design for another issue of Evergreen Review. Issue Number 123. Barney Rosset on the cover, with a vintage piece on Billie Holiday, some very entertaining filthy poems, other work. click to read
June 4, 2010 Update to Realist Archive:
Four Updates remaining until our project to digitally preserve Krassner's entire run of The Realist is finished. Now with 131 Issues in the archive. This month: An Impolite Interview with an Abortionist, Lenny's Bruce's faked obituary, Robert Anton Wilson on the Fatal Cumberland Snowball Fight, and Susie Bright's Book Tour Diary.click to read
June 3, 2010 Update to the We Are the World Collection:
A new item added to our We Are the World set of kooks and racists. See drop-down menu below for Stop the Madness, Fight the Fight, and God Hates the World. This one hurts a little, because as a proud Jew I hate to see right-wing Israelis put such an effort into tattooing the word asshole onto their foreheads. But here you are:
The video premiered on Latma. Here's the announcement from Caroline Glick:
This week at Latma – the Hebrew-language media satire website I edit, we decided to do something new. We produced a clip in English. There we feature the Turkish-Hamas “love boat” captain, crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world ... We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events and we hope you distribute it far and wide ... All the best, Caroline
(Democracy Now indicates this was largely distributed by Israeli journalists.)
Note: Original posted version was pulled by Youtube. Shown above is a mirror.
April 30, 2010 New Writing: ONE NIGHT IN PALIN
YOU, READER! Subject yourself to the brain-rotting powerpoint of wealthy hateful dullards ... Mingling with Austin's pro-life counterculture ... with Governor Rick Perry ... and Governor Drop-out Sarah Palin ... During a $500,000 anti-abortion fundraiser. click to read.
