Late-period Roy Krenkel

 

It doesn't get any better than this. These images from Squa Tront #7 represent what Roy Krenkel was doing, un-commissioned, later in his life. In Squa Tront #7 they accompany several fantastic cover sketches for CREEPY and EERIE, but I wanted these images to stand alone. Since I first saw them I've felt strongly inspired by them; for me they contain a hint of anger and woe, though used quite positively. Somehow in these images I see Krenkel's awareness of his own history, his awareness of his then-current place in life, and lastly the rare and powerful ability to use this combination of introspection and realism with a fully unhinged and nightmarishly terrifying attention to pure, unbridled, dreamlike horror.  The absolute understanding of Horror and the Unknown is exemplified with ease by one of EC's finest, enjoy ...

This one in particular strikes a chord in me.  Remarkable.

More from WITZEND #7 1970

Since it was out and the scanner was all warmed up anyhow ...

YIKES, great hyper-violent Vaughn Bode cover!

Indeed.  Art by ???  Love this one, look closely for subliminal detail ...

Wonderful back cover by Kenneth Smith.

GRAY MORROW'S "THE JOURNEY" WITZEND #7, 1970

 For those of you unfamiliar with WITZEND, it was a publication edited by Wally Wood that saw print sporadically from the mid ‘60s to the mid ‘80s.  The Wood-edited issues often begin with a short editorial diatribe, usually with a surprisingly uncensored feel, in which Wood would decry the major comics publishers and bash away at the notion of shying from “obscene“ content. 

One could easily imagine Wood speaking with his fellow comic artist friends, saying things like “If we all just contribute to this, and we all don’t censor ourselves, we could actually change how these things are seen and done.”  In many ways that idealism paid off, and in fact that imagined statement did turn out in many ways to be true, in part solely for the art that was created.

Wood was friends with artist Gray Morrow and respected his work greatly.  Wood seemingly requested something without limits from Morrow, and Morrow replied with intensity.  Part of the fun of Witzend was that the likes of Gray Morrow, Frank Frazetta, Wood himself, and more, would try and impress each other, and I can only imagine the impact this piece had on Morrow's contemporaries - a sublime slice of inter-dimensional sorcery and witch-hunts, titled “The Journey” …

 

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism.

Jesus "Jess" Franco

1930 - 2013

When I was 15 years old, I wanted to place an order for VHS dubs of some rare Exploitation films.  I had been reading Psychotronic for a while at that point, and what was once an unidentifiable urge had manifested itself in the realization that there was indeed a universe out there of bizarre cinema, the likes of which I had not yet known.  There were these mystifying ads in Psychotronic, packed densely with way-too-small text and emitting an air of actual and genuine sleaziness. 

I had seen “Evil Dead” and “Day of the Dead” about a billion times, I had made all of my friends suffer through whichever silent German Expressionist film I could get a tape of, but I still felt there was … something else out there.  Something sicker, something more.  The unsavory titles that crammed the ads full were particularly indicative of this “other world” of film.  I only knew of a director named Jess Franco through the elegant, dreamy Vampyros Lesbos and his less popular Count Dracula with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, but these ads seemed to have literally dozens of different Franco films. 

Curiosity had reached its breaking point and I needed to order some of these tapes … “Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun” what the fuck was this stuff?

In any case, in 1995 when you wanted something mailorder, you needed a check.  I filled out a sheet of paper with the films I wanted, got a little cash together and before leaving for school one day I asked my father for a check in exchange for the cash,  so I could get some videos. 

My father had been supportive of film fandom in the past, but after I left for school that day he opened that letter to see exactly what kinds of films I was going to be ordering - needless to say, that letter never got sent and I was scolded pretty hard when I got home.  I guess the ads in Psychotronic seem somewhat unwholesome to the uninitiated.  The memory of my defense is still clear in my mind: “This movie is by a guy who directed a Dracula movie with Christopher Lee, how 'bad' could it be!?”

As the years went by and I got old enough to make my own pilgrimages to Kim’s in the city, I saw dozens of Franco films.  Then dozens more.  My adoration for him grew - this filmmaker could hit notes of artful composition, powerful sexuality, deep introspection and bawdy humor in the span of a minute - yet these notes were merely by-products.  Clearly Franco was a rare man who was actually using filmmaking the way a Jazz musician improvises.  There’s a part of the infrastructure of a “song”, it has the melody sometimes, there’s echoes of a familiar riff, you hear the hook now and again, but these elements are just part of that big dizzying swirl of emotion being poured out from the soul through a horn.

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism.

The feelings that are involved in my absolute love for Franco’s work are not only hard to explain, but also somehow too personal to externally identify.

Today though, a part of my feelings for Franco’s work has made itself clear.  If Franco’s uncountable contributions had to be boiled down to one singular notion, if we're to name one lone factor for which his work is valuable, it would be this -

In a world where we’re told to walk the line or fail; in a world where we can literally lose our livelihood, our comfort, and even our lives if we don’t adhere to the status quo, we are given strict guidelines for what “success” is.  The acceptable parameters of “success” are dictated around us with no room to experiment, and in desperate confusion so many of us lose the ability to ignore these suffocating lines of distraction, the daily battering rams that drive us into bleak repetition.  So many of us are so mesmerized that those among us who shout out are the “crazy ones”.
 
The thing I realized this morning, the thing I realized just now, is that when faced with of all this, despite these enormous and complicated pressures to conform; Jesus Franco Manera simply chuckled, turned his back, and made another film.  And then another film.  And then another film …  With his incredible history of ups and downs, deaths of loved ones and soul mates, studios and producers, money and no money and NO money, Franco never saw the option to give in.  I’d have to guess that that idea never even occurred to him.  He had his own terms for “success”.   His success was not born of spite, desire for recognition, for fortune - it was never about anything besides making that next film.  Finding that new place on celluloid, no matter what other people would think or say. 

Though it goes against our deeply ingrained idea of “success”, I’d like to offer a personal opinion that I will hold dearly for the rest of my time here, and that is that there is no artist more successful than Jesus Franco Manera.  And even more gloriously, to emulate his success means to permanently enter the terrorizing, blissful, un-ending battle of being true to yourself.  No matter what, always.

The ART of SQUA TRONT Part 1

The late Jerry Weist's original "SQUA TRONT" is the the ultimate EC Fanzine, and is probably one of the most legendary fanzines to ever be published. Part of its success was rooted in that it pooled efforts country-wide from very talented fans that had spent the ten-plus years after the EC comics' demise getting deeper into the comics world, and deeper into the world of EC itself. The other part of SQUA TRONT's success can be attributed to Weist himself, whose fanatical passion is evident throughout the issues he edited (and even after he left). The lay out was tight, meticulously designed; and the days of the mimeograph were almost distant in the past.

The cover for the first issue was drawn by the talented young Roger Hill, who's name, like Weist's, still comes up frequently when people talk about EC Fandom and Fanzines (both, as well as most connected to SQUA TRONT, have gone on to create and contribute work in the field of comics and beyond). It's Hill's take on Wally Wood's style, natch.

Another great illustration from Roger Hill.

Excellent depictions of the GhouLunatics by Rick Showalter, with neat psychedelic lettering.

Wonderful EC SF border by Roger Hill.

Al Williamson is one of my favorites. He looks particularly cool in this photo.

From Al Williamson's sketchbook.

All three illustrations by Roger Hill for a Graham Ingles article.

Superb Al Williamson cover to SQUA TRONT #2.

I LOVE this back cover illustration for SQUA TRONT #2 by Reed Crandall.

By George Metzger.

Fascinating tale of two young fans visiting some EC celebrities! Great photos ...

By Lance de Lipski.

This painting of the Vault Keeper by Johnny Craig hung in Gaines' office. It was also used as the cover for SQUA TRONT #5

Wow! Another painting by Johnny Craig; used as the back cover of SQUA TRONT #5.

Really cool, early "Ghastly" Graham Ingles.

No one can ever accuse the EC gang of not having a sense of humor! The photos were taken by young Paul Kast in 1951 while Al Feldstein was applying make-up and costume to Johnny Craig for some EC mail order glossies of the GhouLunatics!

Great bio piece by Roger Hill.

Killer post 50's Crypt-Keeper by Jack Davis of course. This and the back cover of SQUA TRONT #8 were gifts from Davis to Gaines. They can be seen hanging in his office in certain photos!

Awesome example of what many of the early EC Fanzines looked like. Art by Bill Spicer, who also contributed to Bhob Stewart's "EC Fan Bulletin" the very first comics Fanzine (and certainly the first devoted to EC).

This one makes me laugh out loud!

Just a couple of photos from a 1972 convention. The transcriptions of these discussions are some of the juiciest reading an EC fan will find. Photos of the EC gang from the 70's really get me. This above photo features Gaines, Feldstein, Davis, Wood and Marie Severin.

This is art that got Feldstein hired; Peggy's wild physique certainly would have sold some comics. Peggy was an Archie-style knock-off.

Breathtaking, early (still a teen!) art by Al Williamson. It's easy to see why he was working professionally at such an early age.

Another beautiful Al Williamson illustration.

Seek out SQUA TRONT. It's a masterful example of how information was culled and distributed by those involved with Fandom years before the internet.