Button 003-A: Strickly Uppa Crust head shop (1973) Kitchen Art

3-A. Strickly Uppa Crust (1973).

Drawn by Denis Kitchen. Kitchen and partner Tyler Lantzy owned and operated a head shop called Strickly Uppa Crust at 1234 E. Brady Street in the heart of Milwaukee's hip east side. The store carried the usual bongs and rolling papers but prided itself on having the largest selection of underground comix in the midwest. An entire wall was filled with current and backlist comix titles which attracted clientele as varied as John Mayall and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The selection was advertised regularly in Milwaukee's alternative newspaper The Bugle-American, which Kitchen co-founded.

The "Strickly Uppa Crust" name was borrowed from Angelfood McSpade's ironic quote on the cover of Your Hytone Comix, as she watches a Crumb character pee into a toilet. The store's trademark, a horrified gray-haired lady, typified the shock-the-elders attitude of the youth-oriented counter-culture. Kitchen's full image (cropped severely for the button space) used on the store's bags, etc. shows the lady holding an open underground comic book.

2.25 inch diameter. $6.00

One note, for serious button collectors, you may want to read the KSP BUTTON TEXT which explains the numbering systems for identifying the various buttons produced over the last 30 years, or see the COMPLETE KSP BUTTON LIST. The list is VERY long, so be patient while it loads.