Comix Book No. 1

COMIX BOOK No. 1 (1974). First printing. This was an odd beast, Comix Book. Smilin' Stan Lee persuaded a starving Denis Kitchen to work for Marvel Comics in 1974. Lee wanted to capitalize on the "energy" and cutting-edge style of the underground cartoonists. Equally eager to broaden underground comix exposure via newsstands ---and to earn a decent wage--- Kitchen conditionally agreed to create and edit a "hybrid" magazine. Kitchen wrested unprecedented concessions from Marvel: they agreed to return all artwork, to run no advertising in the mag, to throw out the "Comics Code Authority" restrictions, and to eventually allow artists to keep their copyrights ---all policies unheard of from mainstream comics publishers at that time. The result was a short-lived experimental comic magazine that failed to find its audience, was mishandled by baffled newsstand distributors and/or opened a Pandora's box at Marvel. Lee quickly canceled the series as the third issue hit newsstands. But Kitchen had editorially assembled five issues. After a year back and forth, he persuaded Marvel to let his own Kitchen Sink Press publish the final two issues of Comix Book. (If you'd like a more detailed history of this, see Kitchen's interview in Comic Book Artist No. 9, August 2000, TwoMorrows Publishing).

This debut issue featured a front cover by Peter Poplaski (which was misprinted ---the knife's shadow was not supposed to obliterate the line art). The sterling opening line-up: An introductory comix page by editor Kitchen ("The Birth of Comix Book"); Trina Robbins (serialized "Panthea" begins); Art Spiegelman ("Ace Hole, Midget Detective"); editorial cartoonist Bill Sanders ("Alice in Wonderland"); Basil Wolverton ("Calvin"); Vince Davis; Evert Geradts ("Marion McKay's All-Animal Orchestra"); Howard Cruse (two "Barefootz" stories); Skip Williamson (two "Snappy Sammy Smoot" stories); Kim Deitch ("Bestial Passions"); John Pound ("Flip the Bird); Mike Baron & Peter Loft ("Modifying the Park Luger Squirtgun"); Ted Richards & Justin Green ("Two Fools"); Tim Boxell; Steve Stiles; and Justin Green (part one of "We Fellow Traveleers"). Bonuses: a great subscription ad by Poplaski, a nice Williamson back cover, a comix gossip column by rock writer R. Meltzer, scratchboard logos by Don Glassford, and the debut of "Shortshrift" (newspaper style strips) by Scott Shaw ("Doonesbury" parody), Boxell, Cruse and Kitchen. 64-page magazine. Marvel Comics. NM / slightly scuffed condition.