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by Glenn Bray
photos: Peter Anderson & Glenn Bray
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My other obsession was collecting Weirdo and Roth monster
model kits. Painting and putting together these kits also
took up a lot of time and as my collection grew I began
to withdraw further into the imaginary world of Rat Finks
and comic books that I had pulled around me. My parents
were naturally concerned, although at the time I considered
their concern an intrusion into my world of monsters, hot
rods and comics. Parental searches of my room were sporadically
made and I would often return to find my secretly hoarded
stash of monster magazines and other restricted material
ripped up and dumped in an attempt to bring me to my senses.
Unfortunately, even this early in my development, I was
already too far-gone.
One morning I was helping my mother sort out the various
newspapers and magazines for delivery. One customer had
ordered an expensive contemporary art magazine called Art
And Artists that I felt obliged to flick through just to
see what it was all about. Art And Artists published on
a wide range of subjects, but what had attracted me to this
particular issue was the full color cartoon cover showing
a gang of pirates blowing each others' brains out by famed
"underground" cartoonist S. Clay Wilson. Inside
there was an article about the emerging underground comix
scene and the artists who were making it happen. These included
names like Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso and,
of course, S. Clay Wilson. I asked my mother if she would
order me a copy which (wishing to encourage me into studying
real art rather than drawing ugly cartoons) she duly did.
That magazine became my textbook on how to become an underground
cartoonist. The article itself was a scholarly rant that
I really didn't understand, but the accompanying illustrations
were a revelation to me. Underground comix were difficult
to track down in the North of England during the late 60s.
The UK underground press such as Oz and International Times
reprinted comix in their pages, but finding a copy of Zap
Comix for example was virtually impossible.
I would have to wait until 1970 when I left home and moved
to Essex in the South of England before I could buy my first
undergrounds. I had read about a store that carried American
imports called Dark They Were And Golden Eyed in Berwick
Street in the West End of London and since Essex was relatively
close by it wasn't long before I had made my way there.
At last I was able to procure a fistful of Zaps and other
comix, which I carried back to my lowly flat and studied
intently. Now more than ever I was convinced that my goal
in life was to become an underground cartoonist.
Q: Who were your favorite artists from
this period?
At the time I was completely unaware of which artists were
responsible for the images I was attracted to. Only later
would I learn who had drawn what.
In my childhood years I liked a British comic called The
Beezer, an otherwise unremarkable tabloid that contained
one particular strip, which became a personal favorite.
This was "The Gobbles", the weekly adventures
of a family of vultures called Ma Gobble, Pa Gobble and
Junior Gobble. Ma Gobble was the dominant character in this
group with a giant hob-nailed boot attached to one claw
which she used to kick her long-suffering husband out of
the nest with, uttering the demand "GIT SOME GRUB!"
The Gobbles' creator was Leo Baxendale who had also worked
for other UK comic titles such as The Beano (where his more
famous strip "The Three Bears", a prototype for
"The Goobles", appeared), Wham and Smash. His
style was instantly recognizable and he had a flair for
drawing monsters and strange creatures that few other UK
artists at the time could match.
By endlessly borrowing US comic titles from the racks in
my parents' shop, I was slowly educating myself as to how
the form worked and communicated with its readership. I
preferred Marvel to DC, and the cosmic adventures of the
Fantastic Four to the more earthbound exploits of Superman,
although Bob Kane's Batman and several Harvey Comics titles
continued to hold my attention. Marvel's "Bullpen"
totally captured my imagination, however, especially the
art of Jack Kirby whose rubble-hewn characters had a profound
effect on me that, to this day, I have never managed to
shake off.
Equally impressive was Kirby protege Jim Steranko's treatment
of Nick Fury Agent Of Shield where psychedelic and pop art
merged together to produce a truly unique comic book.London,
he started drawing the "Rock 'N Roll Zoo" strip
for Sounds Magazine (a selection of which were later published
under the title "Rock 'N' Roll Necronomicon").
His artwork and writings have also been seen in the likes
of NME, Loaded, Frieze, Juxtapoz, Mojo, Bizarre and Comic
Art. He now writes (as Edwin Pouncey) and draws illustrations
- together with a regular cartoon strip called "Trip
Or Squeek" - for experimental music magazine The Wire.
He continues to live in South London with Jill, surrounded
by an astounding collection of vinyl LPs, books, comix and
amazing eclectic artworks.
In the back pages of hot rod magazines I discovered Robert
Williams' mind tilting T-shirt and decal ads for Ed Roth.
Once again it wasn't until I found my first Zap Comix that
I realized who was really responsible for these astonishing
images. Robert Williams and Ed "Newt" Newton were
to Roth what Ub Iwerks was to Disney.
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