The Comic Biography of Underground Publisher & Political Writer, John Wilcock

in Books, Comics/Cartoons, e-books | September 11th, 2012

He describes him­self as a “peri­patet­ic patri­arch of the free press,” and so he may be. John Wilcock, a British ex-pat who helped found the Vil­lage Voice in 1955 went to work as the New York Times’ trav­el edi­tor. His Europe on $5 a Day was sem­i­nal in the trav­el guide­book pub­lish­ing world. His sub­se­quent Mex­i­co on $5 a Day was a trail­blaz­er.

Wilcock, who lives in Cal­i­for­nia and pub­lish­es the online Ojai Orange, was the ulti­mate gad­fly. His 1971 Auto­bi­og­ra­phy and Sex Life of Andy Warhol includ­ed inter­views with Nico, Lou Reed and oth­er asso­ciates of the enig­mat­ic artist. Wilcock was also a found­ing edi­tor, with Warhol, of Inter­view Mag­a­zine in 1969. He accom­pa­nied Warhol out the night that the Vel­vet Under­ground played its first gig and wrote lin­er notes for Nico.

Pub­lished online in graph­ic nov­el form, John Wilcock: The New York Years chron­i­cles this peri­od in Wilcock­’s life with an exten­sive inter­view and sump­tu­ous car­toon illus­tra­tions by artists Ethan Per­soff and Scott Mar­shall. Chap­ters one and two are deli­cious­ly fun read­ing, as Wilcock recounts his arrival in New York City from Eng­land and his ear­ly inter­views with Leonard Bern­stein, Rock Hud­son and Mil­ton Berle and launch­ing the Vil­lage Voice.

It’s an impres­sive site that cap­tures the Bohemi­an cir­cles Wilcock moved in. Per­soff and Mar­shall have just released chap­ter three, which includes Wilcock’s time edit­ing Nor­man Mail­er and his inter­views with actor Jean Shep­herd and Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe. Stay tuned for more. Chap­ter three brings us up to 1957 so there should be plen­ty more to share.

Kate Rix is free­lance writer. Find more of her work at

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Underground Cartoonist R. Crumb Introduces Us to His Rollicking Album Cover Designs

in Art, Books, Comics/Cartoons, Music | January 11th, 2012

Music and com­ic book art are the two pas­sions of Robert Crumb’s cre­ative life. In this video from W.W. Nor­ton, Crumb talks about his obses­sive inter­est in the old-time blues, folk and coun­try music of the 1920s and 1930s. “I think it’s neu­ro­log­i­cal,” he says. “Some quirky types of ner­vous sys­tems are just attract­ed to that old music.”

As one of the pio­neers of the under­ground comix move­ment in the late 1960s, Crum­b’s work often relat­ed in some way to his love of music. His famous “Keep on Truckin’ ” com­ic of 1968 was inspired by the lyrics of Blind Boy Fuller’s song, “Truckin’ My Blues Away.” That same year Janis Joplin, who was singing with Big Broth­er & the Hold­ing Com­pa­ny, asked Crumb to design the cov­er of the band’s album Cheap Thrills.

Since then, Crumb has designed hun­dreds of album cov­ers and music posters. His new book, R. Crumb: The Com­plete Record Cov­er Col­lec­tion, brings togeth­er all the cov­ers and many relat­ed works. The book con­tains por­traits of famous artists like Robert John­son and Woody Guthrie, along with works fea­tur­ing obscure artists with names like “Ukelele Ike” and “Big John Wrencher and his Maxwell Street Blues Boys.” There are also cov­ers and posters made for Crum­b’s own band, the Cheap Suit Ser­e­naders.

Crumb is a ban­jo and man­dolin play­er. One group he has sat in with in recent years is Eden & John’s East Riv­er String Band. This video was direct­ed by the group’s co-leader, John Heneghan, and includes appear­ances by him­self and his part­ner Eden Brow­er. The video fea­tures the fol­low­ing songs:

  1. “Sing Song Girl” by Leroy Sheild (1930)
  2. “Some of these Days” by Cab Cal­loway (1930)
  3. “Lind­berg Hop” by the Mem­phis Jug Band (1928)
  4. “Down On Me” by Eddie Head and His Fam­i­ly (1930)
  5. “Chasin’ Rain­bows” by R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Ser­e­naders (1976)
  6. “Singing in the Bath­tub” by R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Ser­e­naders (1978)
  7. “So Sor­ry Dear” by Eden & John’s East Riv­er String Band, fea­tur­ing R. Crumb

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Con­fes­sions of Robert Crumb: A Por­trait Script­ed by the Under­ground Comics Leg­end Him­self (1987)

Robert Crumb Illus­trates Philip K. Dick’s Infa­mous, Hal­lu­ci­na­to­ry Meet­ing with God (1974)

R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Coun­try Fea­tures 114 Illus­tra­tions of the Artist’s Favorite Musi­cians

A Short His­to­ry of Amer­i­ca, Accord­ing to the Irrev­er­ent Com­ic Satirist Robert Crumb

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