Goodbye Spain

Robert Boyd

Manual "Spain" Rodriguez, one of the artists who drew the seminal underground comic Zap Comix, has died. He was 72. The great chronicler of underground comics, Patrick Rosenkranz, wrote an excellent obituary. Justin Green, another of the great underground cartoonists and Spain's roommate for several years, posted a powerful remembrance of the artist. The Comics Reporter has been gathering obituaries and tributes. I feel pretty inadequate to add much to that, except to suggest that if you have never read Spain's work before, I personally recommend Cruisin' with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Toote. Back in 1999, The Comics Journal placed Spain's autobiographical stories at 89 of the top 100 English-language comics. They are, in my opinion, his greatest achievements as a cartoonist.



Spain had done comics at the East Village Other, an underground newspaper in the mid-60s, before moving out to San Francisco. He joined the Zap crew on the fourth issue.

Prior to Spain and his peers, there were, with a few eccentric exceptions, no art comics. The term "art comics" is used nowadays to refer to comics by artists who come out of a contemporary art tradition and who often exist in both the comics world and the art world simultaneously. But I like a more expansive definition--comics that exist primarily for artistic or expressive purposes, as opposed to comics that exist primarily to make money or to entertain. This is not to say that "entertainment comics" couldn't be art--there are many brilliant works of comics art that came along before the undergrounds (Krazy Kat, Little Nemo, etc., etc.). It's just that the underground cartoonists decided that doing highly personal, idiosyncratic comics was more important than drawing another issue of Richie Rich.

I admire Spain's comics very much. And at the same time, I admire him for being part of the movement that declared decisively that comics were art and not merely low-grade entertainment for subliterates.

The page reproduced below was from "Chicago 68", a story commissioned by the East Village Other. They sent Spain out to cover the scene around the '68 Democratic Convention. Spain ended up as a participant in the riots that occurred when the Chicago police went out of control. But unfortunately for his editor, he didn't finish the story until 1982! I edited a book in 1990 called Best Comics of the Decade (long out of print but not too difficult to find) and was proud to include "Chicago 68" in it.


Manuel "Spain" Rodriguez, Chicago 68 page 2, 1982

Pieced Together and the Tradition of Graffiti

Robert Boyd

I went to the opening of "Pieced Together" at the Aerosol Warfare Gallery, an exhibit of graffiti art by a variety of Texas artists. This show has been traveling around the country, and Aerosol Warfare is the final stop. Aerosol Warfare is a local gallery devoted to graffiti art and related items.



exterior of Aerosol Warfare



interior of Aerosol Warfare

The pieces on display are small, essentially acrylic versions of the type of large-scale wall pieces that typify the artform.



"Icons" by Reks and Worms



"Extended Release" by Dmise

The opening was not just a passive viewing experience for gallery goers. They had a wall of tiny canvases where you could make your own micro-graffiti piece for $5; it was very popular with the kids (and their parents). They set up a computer-controlled projection system that allowed people to create large scale graffiti pieces projected onto the wall of a building across the street. And they had car-hoods on easels with local artists creating pieces on them.













Even notorious local poster artist Give Up did one. I asked if Give Up was present, but the publicity-shy artist apparently stayed away, lest someone snap his photo. (Someone even asked me if I was Give Up.)

There was an amazing display in the store.

 

Commemorative Puma sneakers in honor of the late, great Vaughn Bode. This shows that the proprietors of Aerosol Warfare have an awareness of history.

Graffiti art is essentially ephemeral. Illegally put up on walls and concrete barriers, they get rapidly painted over by property owners, city workers, highway departments, transit agencies, etc. This situation would seem inimical to the formation of a tradition. And yet, in pre-literate societies, traditions like this of impermanent artforms (performed music, spoken poetry) have lasted for centuries.



"Michelle" by Sloke

So who was Vaughn Bode and what does he have to do with graffiti? Was he a graffiti artist? Nope. He was a cartoonist whose style informed a lot of the early New York City graffiti artists.




Early writers not only imitated Bode's art style. They included many of his figures in their pieces--Cheech Wizard, the lizards, the "Bode broads", etc.

What were some other non-graffiti sources? I think the psychedelic rock posters of the 60s had their effect. I also think these artists were looking at the artists from Heavy Metal magazine (which started publication in the U.S. in 1977). Specifically artists like Caza and Druillet.



"Supher" by Supher

But these artists who were covering subway cars in NYC in the 1970s have no relationship to an artist like "News" from the Rio Grande Valley--except that a tradition has been established and spread across the U.S. and indeed all over the world.



"Daily News" by News

This artform has been given a certain degree of respect from the fine arts world, analogous with its grudging embrace of comics art by the art world. Art critics respect its folkish traditions and seeming authenticity. But graffiti art has some problems as far as being a part of the art world. It's not a perfect fit. There is a basic truth about graffiti--it is a fundamentally adolescent artform. This is not to say its practitioners are teenagers (although many are), but graffiti, like so many adolescent activities, involves the thrill of petty crime. The colors and cartoonish origins also feel adolescent.

I am not trying to insult the art of graffiti. But I do wonder what it would mean to be an old graffiti artist. Maybe it would look something like this piece.



"Paper in the Wind" by Spain