Nasty Tales/R. Crumb

In the late 1960s England's major underground newspaper, International Times (IT), began including more cartoons into their content, mixing in some British comics with quite a few American underground comics. It was a popular move that drove up their circulation numbers. In 1970, one of their photographers, Graham Keen, left the paper to launch Cyclops, the first major British underground comic with national distribution. Cyclops folded after four issues, probably because it featured mostly British comics, which at the time were of significantly poorer quality than American comics. But Bloom Publications (publisher of IT) saw the potential in the comic book format and launched its own underground comic book, Nasty Tales, the following year. Unlike Cyclops, Nasty Tales focused on reprinted American underground comics. That may sound old hat to Americans, but people in Great Britain had never seen a comic book that delivered page after page of Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Greg Irons, S. Clay Wilson and Spain Rodriguez. Nasty Tales was 52 pages thick and every issue featured at least 32 pages of American underground comics (as much as most American comic books). It was easily the most popular British underground of its time, helped pave the way for undergrounds that would follow (in more ways than one), and inspired many British cartoonists to pursue work in underground comics. The first issue of Nasty Tales reprinted one of Robert Crumb's cartoons from Snatch Comics #1, "Grand Opening of the Great Intercontinental Fuck-in and Orgy Riot," which looked every bit as raunchy as it sounds. Though this same cartoon had previously been published in IT without a problem, this time an eight-year-old boy picked up Nasty Tales #1 at a news stand and took it home. When his mother found the comic book and perused it, she tore it to pieces and took the shredded book down to the local police station. This incident led to Bloom Publications and the staff at Nasty Tales being indicted in 1971 for possessing obscenity with the intent to distribute. The Nasty Tales trial at the Old Bailey (the most important criminal court in Great Britain) in January, 1973 was a national event and contentious affair. While the trial resulted in a not guilty verdict for Bloom Publications and the comic book's staff, the costs of the trial derailed the publication (the judge denied a motion to reimburse the defendants for their legal expenses). In fact, the seventh and final issue of Nasty Tales came out before the trial even began. After the series folded, the trial was memorialized in 1973 in the comic book The Trials of Nasty Tales, which was copublished by Bloom and H. Bunch Associates and, somewhat ironically, featured all British creators. While its run may not have lasted long, Nasty Tales was a vitally important publication in the history of British undergrounds. The notorious trial that it engendered (and the resulting not guilty verdict) would embolden British publishers to produce hundreds of other underground comics in the coming years. And despite the emphasis on American comics, Nasty Tales also gave Britains Chris Welch and Edward Barker (who was one of the defendants in the trial) considerable exposure. From Comixjoint.com

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Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West: "The Diamond Wager" by Samuel Dashiell (Hammett?) ...

Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West: "The Diamond Wager" by Samuel Dashiell (Hammett?) ...: Editor's Note: This story appeared in the October 19, 1929 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly , and is believed to have been written by...

Fantagraphics and Love and Rockets

In the fall of 1982, Fantagraphics published its first issue of Love and Rockets, a black-and-white magazine featuring stories and art by the brothers Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez, a.k.a. Los Bros. Hernandez. These early comics, informed by the brothers’ love of Archie comics, science fiction, punk rock and their own SoCal Latino heritage, laid the foundation for one of the most ambitious, influential and acclaimed indie comic series of all time. “We didn’t think it would last more than a few years,” said Mario. ”They thought they’d do this for a while, then head off to Marvel or DC.” Instead, while Mario scaled back his involvement with the series after the early issues, Jaime and Gilbert went on to produce thousands of pages of comics, earning more than 20 major comic industry awards along the way, including the Harvey, Kirby and Ignatz Awards. It’s hard to overstate the impact that Love and Rockets has had on independent comics over the past three decades. Small-press comics began with the underground comix boom of the 1960s and gained traction in comic book specialty shops in the 1970s with the success of Dave Sim’s Cerebus and Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest. In the 1980s, Love and Rockets kicked off an entirely new alternative comics scene. Los Bros. blended high comedy with high drama, juxtaposed magical realism with stark reality, and explored interpersonal relationships with rare sensitivity and insight. Love and Rockets also highlighted people who’d rarely been seen in comics before. Up to that point, Latino characters had rarely appeared in comic books, but Los Bros.’ comics were populated by a largely, and sometimes exclusively, Latino cast of characters. In the 1980s, Love and Rockets was also unusual for its strong female lead characters, extensive female supporting cast, and positive portrayal of LGBT relationships. Over the years, Love and Rockets has been widely praised by Latino cultural associations, and Jaime Hernandez has been praised by GLAAD for tackling gay and lesbian issues. Over the years, Love and Rockets has covered many storylines, with each brother developing his own densely-populated fictional universe. Gilbert’s stories, set in a small Latin American village called Palomar, form a sprawling multi-generational epic evocative of the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez. Jaime’s Locas stories follow a group of friends in the southern California punk scene, focusing on best friends and sometime lovers Margarita Luisa “Maggie” Chascarrillo and Esperanza “Hopey” Leticia Glass. The Cartoon Art Museum’s exhibition follows Love and Rockets from 1982 until 1996, when Los Bros. concluded the magazine-formatted series with its 50th issue through its revival in 2001 for a 20-issue comic book series and its current incarnation as an ongoing series of annual publications from Fantagraphics called Love and Rockets: The New Stories. Posted: September 26th, 2012 under Current Exhibitions, Events, Exhibitions, Now Featuring @ CAM, Past Events.

Comic Art & Graffix Gallery - History of Sequential Art

Comic Art & Graffix Gallery - History of Sequential Art

Short, yet interesting bit on the progression of art all the way up to Spiderman. If you have a few moments, it's worth the entertaining read!
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10 Best Animated Comic Book Series of All Time

OK, here's another one, boys and girls! It's taken from Newsarama who also posted the sad news about CBG closing their doors...S-A-D...but maybe some animation will cheer you up! Here we go!