The name "Paul Kirchner" will be familiar to those of us who read HEAVY METAL during the 1980's, where his surreal, immaculately-drawn strip "The Bus" ran for what seemed like forever. A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that Kirchner also drew a strip for HIGH TIMES titled "Dope Rider," and also that he worked for Wally Wood as an assistant. What Wikipedia fails to mention is that Kirchner, (using the flimsy pseudonym "Kurt Schnurr") drew a shitload of SCREW covers, (quite possibly more SCREW covers than anyone else).
Fortunately for us, his SCREW covers are very good, displaying excellent draftsmanship, masterful use of SCREW's limited color palette, clever concepts, and lovely ladies. I have quite a few Paul Kirchner SCREW covers in my archive, and I hope to post them all in time, but here's a nice one to get us started.
You know Kirchner invented The Masters of the Universe toy line (and I guess character-designed the cartoon) and got rich, put out one Zen graphic novel (with Dutch mystery writer / Zen monk Janwillem van der Wetering)and then quit comix, right? He rocks, thanks for reprinting these (unseen by me) covers.
ReplyDeleteSadly I gather Paul lost it all in the Bernie Madoff scandal. Long story but it seems that Madoff, after acquiring a large number of MofU collectibles, finally met Paul and offered to manage his money.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly some of the Madoff collection was snapped up during the recent auction by Wally Wood's widow.
so great
ReplyDeleteMore Kirchner's screw covers here :
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