Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Forgotten SCREW Cover Art of Tony Millionaire, Part Two: Issue #1,312, or "Holy Cow, That's Creepy!"

Part Two of our long, reluctant march through the forgotten SCREW cover art of Tony Millionaire brings us within view of SCREW #1,312, dated April 25, 1994. 

Compare this cover with the one from my previous post, (SCREW #1,416) and a common theme begins to emerge, one that we'll see Tony Millionaire obsessively explore in nearly all of his SCREW outings: sexuality in the animal kingdom. This is risky territory, given SCREW Magazine's policy forbidding the depiction of human/animal relations, but Tony Millionaire is not the type to let rules or community standards stifle the exorcism of his personal demons.

In this instance, we see Millionaire's familiar Maakies characters, (Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby) stumbling upon some divine, bovine incarnation of fecundity. The crow and the monkey seem delighted at the prospect of gorging themselves at the overfilled teats of this fantastic figure of farmland fertility. 


It's an amusingly silly image, but what deeper statement is Millionaire reaching for in this picture? Does he ask us to ponder the dark nature of our own bestial procreative drives by blurring the line between human and animal sexuality? Or is Millionaire attempting to tap into that niche contingent of comics fans who become excited at the sight of a nude human female body topped by a cartoon animal head? Is Millionaire himself a pioneer in the furry fandom movement? 

In this drawing, (as with his other covers) I have difficulty grasping Tony Millionaire's true intent, but one thing is clear to me: this is no way to sell stroke mags.