Kitchen Sink Press!

The Spirit was popular and well-remembered by fans of the 40's and 50's comic, but its place was cemented by the copious reprints over the decades. Many folks have reprinted Spirit stories, such as Harvey Comics, DC Comics, and Warren Magazines, but no publisher did more to promote the character and in doing so promote the work of Will Eisner than did Kitchen Sink Press operated by Denis Kitchen. Kitchen Sink produced the two "Underground Spirits" in the early 70's and later was on hand to pick up the reins after Warren let go, even maintaining the numbering of the magazine series. Eventually Kitchen Sink became the go-to place for old Eisner material as well as new, and even quite a bit of scholarship about the Spirit by Cat Yronwode. The Spirit was Kitchen Sink's best seller for many years and arguably made the other projects possible. 

But through it all, Kitchen Sink was a publisher of underground and just barely above ground comics such as Snarf, Bizarre Sex, and XYZ Comics among others. The company produced hits such as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and one of the sexiest comics ever in Omaha the Cat Dancer. It was the publisher of work by Don Simpson with his first hit Megaton Man and his later more personal Border Worlds. Kitchen Sink produced other vintage material such as Steve Canyon and Fearless Fosdick and Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book.  

Here is a brief cover gallery of some of the strange and wild stuff they produced. 

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A Compassionate Spirit!

Here's a great image of The Spirit by Will Eisner. It's from a collection of comics produced in the late 80's as an AIDS benefit book titled Strip AIDS U.S.A. The book features a lot of interesting pages by some dandy talents like Don Simpson, Tom Yeates, Frank Miller, William Meisner Loebs, Ken Steacy, Sergio Aragones, and other names from the decade's Indy crowd. Trina Robbins is credited with coloring this Eisner drawing which served as the back cover of the black and white collection.

(British Anthology)

The late Trina Robbins was in fact the organizing force on this book from Last Gasp and she was inspired by a similar British project. So many parts of mainstream America were quite ugly during the AIDS epidemic, but it's nice to remember there were positive aspects as well. 

(Bill Seinkiewicz)

To check out the complete contents of this collection check out this GCD link. 

The compassion demonstrated in this time for those suffering from any disease is contrasted with the callous and cruel decrees of the current American President who has cut off both food and medical aid to faraway lands that desperately need it. He lacks the soul to see the blood on his hands that is all too evident to the entire world. 

And in other news but not really, today is Harriet Tubman Day, which celebrates the brave and compassionate woman who was responsible for saving the lives of so many slaves with her contributions to the development of the "Underground Railroad". It's courage like hers which will see us through our current dangerous times. 

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The Compassionate Spirit!

Here's a great image of The Spirit by Will Eisner. I stumbled across this in my local shop yesterday on a collection of comics produced in the late 80's as an AIDS benefit book titled Strip AIDS U.S.A..

The book features a lot of interesting pages by some dandy talents like Don Simpson, Tom Yeates, Frank Miller, William Meisner Loebs, Ken Steacy, Sergio Aragones, and other names from the decade's Indy crowd. Trina Robbins is credited with coloring this Eisner drawing which served as the back cover of the black and white collection.


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Fat Fury!

John Byrne
I love this John Byrne cover featuring Herbie Popnecker as The Fat Fury. I have a bunch of the Herbie/Fat Fury comics in ACG and Dark Horse reprints. They are truly unusual comics by Richard "Shane O'Shea" Hughes the writer and Ogden Whitney the artist. Here a few key panels from the Fat Fury's origin story. Here's a link to the whole shebang.






Here's a Fat Fury cover gallery.


Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Kurt Schaffenberger

Kurt Schaffenberger

Kurt Schaffenberger

Trina Robbins

Howard Bender

Unknown
And to wrap it up, here's a link to an original John Byrne story featuring the Fat Fury.


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