Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2016 October 05 • Wednesday

Winsor McCay was the undisputed genius of surreality during the golden age of newspaper comics. But dream-like narratives and images, as well as consciousness-expanding uses of the medium's form were common enough. The artists and writers of the day had to produce a large quantity of material and it had to be good. Really good and eye-catching and worth the ink and the paper.

It's a different story today. But there are always glimmers, always artists who carry the torch.

In the late 1970s and early '80s, for example, there was Paul Kirchner.

Kirchner continues to work as a professional illustrator, freelance and mostly in advertising. But during the time period mentioned above, he created a comic strip called The Bus, which ran in Heavy Metal magazine.

I wasn't aware of him until my last visit to Desert Island, where I came across these two reprints of his work.