LENNY OF LAREDO
Berkeley, CA: Sunbury Productions, 1965. Second Printing. Staplebound Pamphlet. This 2nd printing (1965): 8.5 inches x 6.5 inches. Saddle-stitched pamphlet. Yellow (Goldenrod) cover with black printing/graphics. Small, neat hand printed ".50" price in ink to top left corner of cover, and previous owner’s name to top of verso, neatly printed. Staples clean. Corners slightly nudged. 12 pp...
Lenny of Laredo is considered the second underground comic published for financial gain, and Joel Beck is widely considered one of the often-overloooked forefathers of the underground revolution. Beck (1943-1999) was one of the earliest artists of the underground comix and is considered the earliest genuine underground comics artists. 'Lenny of Laredo' (1965) [is] a thinly-veiled satire about a potty-mouthed standup comic obviously modeled after comedian Lenny Bruce. In addition “Lenny” is a lampoon of the 1964 Free Speech Movement on the Berkeley campus (where Beck lived at the time as a non-student with his girlfriend. But poking fun or not, Beck was all about free speech, and the right to same. Other [subsequent] comics of Joel Beck are 'The Profit' (1966) and 'Marching Marvin, the Red Watcher' (1966) .
All of Beck's comics were groundbreaking and anti-establishment in nature. in 1977,Kitchen Sink Press reprinted his three primary works in an edition of 10,000, under the title 'Joel Beck's Comics & Stories'. ...Beck's work also appeared in several underground comix magazines (Snarf, Comix Book and others) until the late 1970s, when his work disappeared from the scene. Beck grew up in a small town north of Oakland, California. As a young boy, he was bedridden with spinal meningitis for three years, during which time he was constantly drawing and cartooning. Beck never graduated from high school, but as a teenager in the early ‘60s had a job with Roth Greeting Cards and later, publishing his cartoon in the University of California campus newspaper, The Pelican.
Beck went on to work on his own comics as well as doing some work for others. After 15 years of producing some of what are historically considered the best comics ever, Beck's productivity dropped significantly in the '80s and '90s as he suffered bouts with alcoholism and homelessness, living in obscurity in Point Richmond, California, managing occasional advertising commissions and being looked after by friends. He died in 1999 at the age of 56 due to complications from alcoholism and tuberculosis.
There were three printings of this comic book, of which this is a 2nd printing. The first two printings, both now considerably rare, were printed by Sunbury Productions in Richmond, California, while the 3rd printing was produced by the Print Mint. None of the printings included a cover price. Disagreement remains over how many copies of the first edition were issued — some say 100, and the artist is said to have said 500. The number of copies of the second printing, perhaps as rare as the first, is yet unknown.
Notes synthesized from Wiki, Comixjoint, and the late Kees Kousemaker's Galerie Lambick. Very Good. Item #100557
Price: $750.00