Underground Station – Column

Underground Station

by Bruce Sweeney

Wildwood Serigraphs (100 S Baldwin St. Madison, WI 55703) now has a new Robert Crumb poster available. It’s a reprint of Crumb’s famous 1968 book cover to Head Comix. This eighteen-color edition will be limited to 200 copies. Each print is numbered, dated, and signed by the artist in pencil. According to a friend of mine, these 13″ x 19″ items are beauts. You can place a MC or Visa order at 1-800-662-9453 for a piddly $160.

Fanzine entrepreneur John Kerschbaum has a new address if you went for his material from a previous reference. It’s now Fontanelle Press, PO Box 15 Corona, NY 11368) or better yet, chase his stuff out at thewigglyreader@yahoo.com. He has a new mini title out called Dumb Cluck. It’s cute, but I have no idea of the price.

I had a chance to talk with ex-underground great, Jaxon recently. His real name is Jack Jackson and with the underground comics, he was only getting started. He’s gone onto illustrating books, too many to mention, let alone collect, and has risen to be a true Texas historian. Drifting back into the graphic novel format in which he does so well, he’s really close to having The Alamo: An Epic Told from Both Sides completed. The cover is done by Sam Yeats and should be wrapped up by the time you read this. This will be a self-published venture, but at 166 pages, it’s one of the largest projects Jaxon has tackled. His stories are usually painstakingly-researched and extremely well-executed. I wouldn’t miss this one for all the poon in China. You can email Jaxon for additional updates at Jaxon41@Austin.RR.com.

Wordplay Publications (1 Sutter Street, Suite 205 San Francisco, CA 94104; or www.word-play.com) is up at the plate with another tasty book. Sherlock Holmes Strangest Cases by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is now out with five stories, 120 pages, illustrated by underground heavy-hitter Spain Rodriguez. Wordplay seems committed with its Cottage Classic line to unite intriguing classic writers like Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, and now the famed Sherlock creator with unusual artists who started in early underground comics along with Robert Crumb. The projects seem to work because Wordplay is adroitly linking separate generations of similar eccentricities, not unlike hooking Ray Charles up with King Curtis or Iggy Pop with Dead Kennedys (or something).

There’ll be a paperback, 7″ x 7″ for $17.98, but in this case, I recommend getting the $48 hardcover. It’s signed and numbered and a mere 200 to go into existence. The lettered runs up to $160 and includes a small unique original drawing by Spain. Believe me, I’m getting off at the station just before that one. After $50 a book, we’re all on our own…