One thing that my Comics Archeology expeditions can frequently generate is odd looks. When i start pulling out old fanzines, APAs and garage press publications, hand printed and stapled together, the looks start. Especially when the title is something like Man's Guts.
Friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike respond in the same way - "Dude! WTF?" (Yes, i spent a lot of time frequenting conventions and shops in California) "Why are you even looking at that crap? And, seriously - that title? What kind of pervo are you?"
Well, skipping past trying to categorize or classify, i'll merely acknowledge without labels and move on to the primary question. My answer is typically along the lines of "I've never seen it before, don't know what it is. It's got drawings and it's cheap."
Seriously, that's more than reason enough. Sure, plenty of it turns out to be crap - that's to be expected as per Sturgeon's Revelation. But then you mine those little gems that so vastly tip the balance and make it very worthwhile. By this point, you've probably figured that this is one of those occasions. Let's look at the table of contents and see what we've got here:
Kamikaze Nudes of the Secret Pacific Empire?
Lesbian Mudwrestlers Behind Bars?
Bayou Kingdom of Undead Cuties?!?
Okay, maybe the titles are a bit misleading for the intent of the zine, hm? Let's listen to what the Editor has to say for the introduction to this new publication:
I included the North Carolina address as a point of reference, in case you were inclined to debate how heartfelt the editorial might or might not be.
As for overall quality, in these pre-computer days of xerox or mimeograph printing, options were quite limited for an amateur press. Mimeographs allows no photographs, and any images were typically hand drawn - backwards. So it's no surprise that the book's text is strictly two column type-written pages...
So - what the frell are we doing here?
I don't know if you clicked for the bigger view of that cover above, but let's take a closer look now...
That's Bruce By God Timm's signature hiding there.
I've been a big fan of his work since a few years before this, when he and Neal Hansen (Spyder) were working together on Whisper. But you're far more likely to be familiar with him from his style setting design work on the Batman cartoons...
...sorry. I meant the Batman Animated shows...
...and the follow-up Superman animated series...
NOTE: This image contains nudity and has
Oops. Pardon us, Lois.
Obviously, there's a Blue Monday feature on Timm down the road a piece, as likely implied on our previous peeks at his Naughty And Nice side. But today, we not only get a Bruce Timm cover, we also get a full page illustration for each story!
Kamikaze Nudes of the Secret Pacific Empire
Lesbian Mudwrestlers Behind Bars
NOTE: This image contains nudity and has
Bayou Kingdom of Undead Cuties
Menace of the Mail Order Brides
Change from Your Dollar
And that, fellowbabies, is why i dig through those unknown piles so eagerly while others are trying to find what they already know is there.
all art by Bruce Timm, pages from Man's Guts #1 (1989)
