SCREW #1,280, cover art by Danny Hellman

A recent cover illo of mine for New Mexico alt weekly SANTA FE REPORTER seems to have ticked off some local Catholics, (as reported on ABC affiliate KOAT: http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/our-lady-of-guadalupe-in-bikini/-/9153728/20701882/-/15nvur2/-/index.html). In the interest of letting no wound go unsalted, I thought this might be the appropriate time to post one of my blasphemous SCREW covers. 

The Catholic Church and SCREW, (whose pages were, after all, dedicated in large part to hooker ads) would seem to be natural enemies, and cover art razzing the church was always welcome at the World's Greatest Newspaper. In the Fall of '93, Pope John Paul II was on a world tour, which prompted publisher Al Goldstein to call for a cover and two page comic strip depicting the pontiff as "Pope Man," a Catholic caped crusader. As would happen on countless occasions, the task of translating Goldstein's inspiration into lines on paper fell upon my humble shoulders, and in this instance at least, revisiting the drawing two decades later is not so terribly painful for me.

SCREW #1,280 is dated September 13th, 1993. Art direction by Kevin Hein.