Welcome. Currently on the site:

Monday, May 21, 2012 — 12:18 pm

New item on the site:

The EDUCATIONAL ABC's of INDUSTRY (from August of last year) felt lonely on the site, so we thought we'd find some additional early corporate literature to give it some company.

Here's a great ad mailer from around 1968:

The Businessman's Guide to Practical Politics is one peculiar book. Published in the 1960s, its author J.J. Wuerthner proposes a new tactic for businessmen. In order to survive the social revolution of hippies, drugs, activism - then business must itself become a part of the grass roots! (Check out the chapter summaries below)

In the era of Super PACs, Corporate Citizenship and all kinds of premeditated subversion by way of marketers, advertisers, this sort of thing is really weird to look at. Here's the full advertising sheet, click each image for a larger scan:

LEADERS OF INDUSTRY ARE UNANIMOUS IN URGING BUSINESSMEN TO GREATER ACTIVITY IN POLITICS

Also, be sure to look at the Chapter Summary:

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Thursday, April 5, 2012 — 7:18 am

New item on the site:  In our BOOKS SECTION
Review of "Everyday Graces" — Karen Santorum's children's book on manners. Yes, it's a real book. Click for a full review.

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Also, COMICS WITH PROBLEMS #49:
Mike and Tom (new heroes of the site) talk to us about Binge Drinking and Decisions in 1978. Incredible drawings in this one. Click to read.

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Monday, March 12, 2012 — 1:15 pm

SXSW Card Giveaway:
Marilyn Cards

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Made a few Marilyn booklets for SXSW this year. They're pretty nice giveaways: Six page booklets with matte stock cover, ivory paper interior, and rounded corners. Contains excerpts and hand-lettered information about the John Wilcock comic.

Look for them around the city, or email me if you'd like a copy mailed to you. Only about 500 made (or at most 1000, if I end up making more.)

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Monday, March 5, 2012 — 2:42 pm

"John Wilcock: New York Years, 1954-1971" — Issue Number Two

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Pleased (very much so) to present the second issue of the John Wilcock New York Years comic book.

Readers of the site will recognize this comic as our current main project. It's a pretty entertaining "unheard" history piece, as well as a good collaboration between me and longtime friend Scott Marshall.

Wilcock's story is an interesting one. I first started noticing his name in a mix of publications from the time period, but all sorts of DIFFERENT publications. They add up to him being kind of an invisible or unnoted person (at least in the eyes of history) who was all over the place in the 50s and 60s during one of the more entertaining political moments in this country's history. During that time he helped co-found The Village Voice, edit and publish about 15 other publications, was a member of Andy Warhol's Factory, many other surprises.

I've been interviewing John for about two years now, and this comic is a resulting sort of documentary on his life in New York, from 1954 through 1971.

So, new issue!
Here's what we have for you to read right now. Click on Marilyn for issue number two:

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NEW! Issue #2 | Year: 1955
"Co-Founding the Village Voice"
with Norman Mailer, Marlene Dietrich, Ammon Hennacy, Moondog, and Steve Allen, and the women of the NYC Women's House of Detention.

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And click on John for issue number one:

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Issue #1 | Year: 1954
"Beginnings"
John moving to New York as a reporter from England, lampooning Billy Graham, arriving in Greenwich Village, interviewing Marilyn Monroe, and pushing out the idea of a community paper for New York on day five.

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Monday, March 5, 2012 — 3:18 pm

List of Items added to the site that we haven't listed on this front page, Whoops.

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Many of these items deserved their own front page treatment, but it's been a busy year (a good year, but busy.) So here are the items as they originally appeared on our RSS Feed (which is still, ten years later, the best way to keep track of anything that's posted on this site) - many email programs will deliver an RSS to you as a message in your inbox.

Here's some of the titles that have not been included on the front page but have been RSS posted. Click each cover to read the item in full, and for free:

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Comics with Problems:

Comics with Problems #45: DAFFY QADDAFI (1986) Posted: October 2011 Vintage Insane-o U.S. Propaganda "Daffy Qaddafi" (1986) Anonymously credited U.S. agitprop where it's alluded Qaddafi has sex with livestock, is jackshit insane, and attends a "Tea Party" with Ronald Reagan. Featuring Tattoo from Fantasy Island, and Daffy Duck.

Comics with Problems #46: GET TOUGH! How to win in hand-to-hand fighting (1942) Posted: November 2011 Oh this one is fun. 130 page manual on self-defense! From World War 2. Includes assaulting others with a chair, foot stomping, tree hugging, other means of assault.

Note: Comics with Problems #47: Fear of a Dead Newspaper, a three part Holiday issue, was posted and discussed on this page on December 5.

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Miscellaneous RARE COMICS:

Radiation and Man (1970s) Posted: October 2011 Very cool nuclear energy comic from early 70s. Features a time travelling Dr Manhattan from The Watchmen on the cover, fourteen years before the comic was even drawn. Possible source material for Dave Gibbons?

Adventure in Turkey (1965) Posted: January 2012 Oh, I love travel comics. Here's a nice one from the Turkish Information Office in New York City, 1965. Meet Tommy and his dad — a newspaper reporter. And enjoy their ADVENTURE IN TURKEY. (Apologies in advance to any Turkish readers.)

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Random somber or sad item: Here is the world's one and only OFFICIAL Alzheimer's Association comic book "What's Happening to Grandpa" (2005) Pdf link (October 2011)

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Laugh item:
Great illustrated propaganda bookcover, asks:
"CAN MITT ROMNEY SERVE TWO MASTERS?: Mormon Church vs Presidency of USA" (January 2012)

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Pro-Pot NORML comic book ad from 1975:
THE INSULT THAT MADE A NORML MAN OUT OF MICK! (1975 NORML comic book advertisement) (January 2012)

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AND FINALLY, Something new:

WRETCHED TYPOGRAPHY AWARD goes to
Desert Storm: Send Hussein to HELL! (1991)

COMICS WITH PROBLEMS #48
DESERT STORM: SEND HUSSEIN TO HELL!
Oh, this one is pretty terrible. Thoroughly awful anti-arab comic from Persian Gulf War-era, United States. Boy is this comic bad. However, includes THE ADVENTURES OF IRAQI AND ABDULWINKLE parody on back page, which is absolutely racist but a high-water mark in terms of clever xenophobic puns. (Funny but still awful):

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Okay, that catches us up. More later, Thanks, Ethan

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Featured work:

Teddy
Love story (see also

LIVE AT HARRY'S LOFT
Music, Now available in the U.S.

JOHN WILCOCK: New York Years, 1954-1971
By Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall

1957 atomic revolution comic book
Lucky find