Today in Comics History, April 30: Happy birthday, Reverend Gary Davis!

Born on this day in 1896: blues and gospel singer Reverend Gary Davis (also know as Blind Gary Davis), whose fingerpicking style influenced generations of blues performers.


from Heroes of the Blues trading cards; reprinted in The Complete Crumb Comics v.13: The Season of the Snoid (Fantagraphics, April 1998), by Robert Crumb
In the middle of the 1920s, Davis moved to Durham, North Carolina and recorded much classic work (later collected on the essential The Complete Early Recordings), and collaborated with many other Piedmont Blues musicians including Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red. I take especial note of that not merely because that guy's got a "Bull" in his name, but because it taught me that Durham was nicknamed the "Bull City" in the late 1800s when the Blackwell Tobacco Company named its product "Bull" Durham Tobacco. And now you know...the rest of the story. And spit that tobacco out; that's disgusting.


Happy birthday, Reverend!


"Samson and Delilah," performed by Reverend Gary Davis

Today in Comics History, April 1, 1991: Oh crumbs, they're moving

from The Complete Crumb Comics v.17: Cave Wimp (Fantagraphics, July 2005), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, February 5: Happy birthday, William S. Burroughs!

Born on this day in 1914: Beat writer and artist William S. Burroughs (Junkie, Queer, Naked Lunch (I can think of two things wrong with that title), The London Trilogy, The Red Night Trilogy and more), who, along with Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and others, built the tropes, literature, and ideas of the Beat Generation. Without which we wouldn't have had the Beatles. Reminder to myself: must double check this possible fact in my research.

Perhaps most notably, The Beat Generation battled Generation X! I mean literally! Burroughs is the rectangular-spectacled chap in the fourth and sixth panel. Guess his agent didn't deal with Marvel as well as Ginsberg's and Keruoac's!


from "Generation X vs. The Beat Generation" in Generation X Underground #1 one-shot (Marvel, May 1998), by Jim Mahfood

Today in Comics History, September 20: Happy birthday, Jelly Roll Morton!

Born on this date in 1890: Ferdinand Joseph Lemott, better known to the world as Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer ("King Porter Stomp," "Grandpa's Spells," "Wolverine Blues," "Black Bottom Stomp," "Jelly Roll Blues," "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say," "Wild Man Blues," and many more). He claimed to have invented the genre and called himself "The Inventor of Jazz," and even if it's possibly not 100% true, he's one of the greatest pioneer and innovators of jazz music. Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb, natch, were big fans, and here's the first page of Crumb's story on Jelly's Roll's belief that a voodoo curse caused his later decline in popularity:


from "Jelly Roll Morton's Voodoo Curse" in Raw (1980 series) #7 (Raw, May 1985), by Robert Crumb
Great musician and named after a great dessert? He's one of my favorites, too. Happy birthday, Jelly Roll, and keep on playin'.


"King Porter Stomp" by Jelly Roll Morton (Vocalion, 1926), written by Jelly Roll Morton

Today in Comics History, June 10: Happy birthday, Howlin' Wolf!

No, not this guy:


from "Watchdogged Wolf" in [Tex Avery's] Wolf & Red #2 (Dark Horse, May 1995), script by Henry Gilroy, pencils by Stephanie Gladden, inks and letters by Jim Massara, colors by Pamela Rambo
...but this man, born on this day in 1910: one of the greatest blues musicians of all time across his four-decade 20th century career, with blues classics like "How Many More Years," "Moanin' at Midnight," "Smokestack Lightning," "The Red Rooster," "Smokestack Lightnin'", "Killing Floor," "Spoonful" and many more.


from "Patton" in Zap Comix #11 (Last Gasp, February 1985), by Robert Crumb
Happy birthday. Mr. Wolf!

Today in Comics History, June 3: Happy Birthday, Allen Ginsberg!

Born on this date in 1925: Beat poet, essayist, and philosopher Allen Ginsberg (Howl, Kaddish, Cosmopolitan Greetings, The Fall of America and more)! He was (and still is) considered, along with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, one of the greatest voices of his generation, and one of the writers who put the renowned and vital City Lights Bookstore at the forefront of fifties' history when they published Howl and defended against obscenity.

You all are, I presume, familiar with getting together a list of famous people born on this day and then go researching their comic book appearances, but becomes suprised and disappointed that there are no appearances in comics of Larry McMurtry or Boots "Yakety Sax" Randolph. But then along comes Allen Ginsberg with a surprisingly large number of comic book guest-starring appearances, even if you don't count Marvel's 1968 Dr. Strange/Allen Ginsberg Team-Up #1-6!


from Meet the Beats (Water Row Press, 1985 series), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, February 13: Happy birthday, Kim Novak!

Born on this day: film and telvision actor Kim Novak (Picnic, The Man with the Golden Arm, Pal Joey, Vertigo, Bell, Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet, Of Human Bondage, and lots more!)

And now, Kim Novak as drawn by Wally Wood. Please do not drool on my blog.


from "Scenes We Never Got To See" in MAD #42 (November 1958), script by Albert Meglin, pencils and inks by Wally Wood

Today in Comics History, December 25, Christmas: Geez, they can't invent scary ghost stories fast enough

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, December 21, 1762: National Lampoon™'s James Boswell™'s Vacation™

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, December 17, 1762: In the eighteenth century this pretty much was sex

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, December 14, 1762: James Boswell: After Dark

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, October 29: Happy birthday, James Boswell!

Born on this day in 1740: James Boswell, writer, diarist, Scottish laird and biographer of his friend Samuel Johnson.



"Script Sleuths" from Batman (1940 series) #66 (DC, August 1951), text by Barbara Fairbanks, art by Raymond Perry
Happy birthday, Boz!



from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, July 28, 1763: Against all evidence in previous panels, Boswell disagrees with debauchery

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, July 20, 1763: Boswell would much rather be out wenching

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, May 20, 1763: Boswell and MacPherson find the Honeycomb Hideout

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, May 19, 1763: James Boswell cheaps out on floozies

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, March 30, 1763: I'm not at all certain what's happening here, because I'm a little bull and my brain censors everything naughty into the word 'pancakes.'

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, January 20, 1763: James Boswell regrets he's unable to do anything involving his penis today

from "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763" in Weirdo #3 (Last Gasp, Fall 1981), by Robert Crumb

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Janis Joplin!

Born today in 1943: singer, songwriter, and rock legend Janis Joplin! (I shall refrain from posting the doctored Angel Love panel here out of respect.) And yes, she's appeared in comic books and in comic art!


from Comic Book Comics #4 (Evil Twin, October 2009); script by Fred Van Lente; pencils, inks, and letters by Ryan Dunlavey
One of the weirdest, and probably the least seen, Janis cameos appears in this hallucinatory sequence from a Clive Barker-inspired comic book:




from Ectokid #6 (Marvel/Razorline, February 1994), script by Larry Wachowski, pencils by Steve Skroce, inks by Bob Dvorak, colors by Mike Thomas, letters by Gaspar Saladino
And of course, Janis's most famous comic art portrayal (I'm not gonna reproduce the whole cover; you've seen it before and you'll know why).


cover detail of Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company (Columbia, August 1968), by Robert Crumb
Singin' her own tune, gone far too soon. Happy birthday, Janis.