SCREW #754, art by Tim Johnson

SCREW #754, art by Tim Johnson, 

dated January 7, 1983

SCREW #401, cover art by ironmountain

SCREW #401, cover art by ironmountain, 

dated November 8, 1976

SCREW #735, art by Burt Koppi

SCREW #735, art by Burt Koppi, dated April 1, 1983

(special thanks to Walter Dickinson) 

Cover Art for SCREW #514, by Mary Wagner

Cover Art for SCREW #514, by Mary Wagner, dated January 8, 1979
(special thanks to Walter Dickinson) 

SCREW #358, art by Bob Dunker

SCREW #358, art by Bob Dunker, dated January 12, 1976

SCREW #463, art by Mary Wilshire

SCREW #463, art by Mary Wilshire
dated January 16, 1978

SCREW #473, art by Woltuh Gallup

SCREW #473, art by Woltuh Gallup
dated March 27, 1978

Charles Keating: Dead at 90; Cover art for SCREW #1,129 by Yours Truly

Anti-porn crusader and convicted S&L scamster Charles H. Keating is dead at Age 90.

Here's Keating on the cover of SCREW #1,129, (issue dated October 22, 1990) with like-minded  sleazeballs Jimmy Swaggart, Jim & Tammy Bakker, Jesse Helms, & Father Bruce Ritter. SCREW publisher Al Goldstein was pleased to see the pious "Perversion for Profit" producer thrown in the slammer for fraud, and I'm pretty sure this cover concept came directly from Goldstein.

SCREW promotional coaster, featuring art by WAYNO

Here's something a little different: I spent this past weekend at the PIX show in Pittsburgh, hob-nobbing with talented titans of cartoondom like Mark Zingarelli, Don Simpson, Jim Rugg, and of course, veteran illustrator Wayno! While chatting with me about SCREW, Wayno mentioned a promo coaster he'd drawn for the paper's art director Kevin Hein in 1996. Upon hearing this news, much like the man pictured in Wayno's drawing, my eyes immediately bugged out, and I begged to see a scan of this fascinating bit of ephemera. The always-gracious Wayno was quick to comply, and here it is! 

Apparently, the thinking behind this object was that the coasters would be scattered liberally throughout NYC watering holes, where inebriates would first see the coaster, then feel compelled to subscribe to the World's Greatest Newspaper, and thus seal their own doom. Did the plan work? Were the coasters distributed as planned? Was there a bump in SCREW subscriptions? Does there remain somewhere a secret stash of these coasters, to be made available one day at a fittingly-obscene price? Dear reader, I'm afraid I have no answers for you at this time. 

NATIONAL SCREW Vol.1, No.3, with a four page comics feature by WILL EISNER

 Will Eisner in SCREW?!? Yes, it's true. 

In the late Seventies, Al Goldstein partnered with Lyle Stuart to publish a slick, national version of SCREW magazine titled, (what else?) NATIONAL SCREW. I suspect the mag was Goldstein's attempt to claw back some of the success enjoyed by HUSTLER, (publisher Larry Flynt notoriously rehashed many of SCREW's best gimmicks and served them up to his national readership of meth-crazed truck drivers and toothless hillbillies). 

I don't know how many issues of NATIONAL SCREW were published; my feeling is the mag didn't last long. The contents are a mixed bag; there's some lively '70s hipster content (features on Lou Reed and Television, short fiction by the likes of Wm. S. Burroughs and Harlan Ellison, and smutty parody comics presented in full color). However, the mag's actual porn content, (unappealing photo layouts and hacked-out sex reviews) are unlikely to have given the competition any sleepless nights.

Dropped inexplicably into the middle of this mid-70s countercultural mishmash was one of the founding fathers of comics, Will Eisner.  Since I don't own a complete run of NATIONAL SCREW, I can't say whether this odd comics feature is a one-off, or part of a longer series. I also can't tell if this strip is something Eisner drew specifically for this mag, or if it's merely some unsold inventory pulled from Eisner's flat files to turn a quick buck. 

I can say that while the art resembles what we see in Eisner's groundbreaking 1978 graphic novel "A CONTRACT WITH GOD," the writing isn't nearly as inspired. I'm generally an Eisner fan, but I think this creaky strip is enough to make all but the most fanatical Eisner worshippers cringe. 

SCREW #147 featuring cover art by YOSSARIAN, plus a tasteless Vietnam-era house ad!

Here's SCREW #147, dated December 27, 1971. This is from the era when Steven Heller was art director, and Jim Buckley, (SCREW's co-founder) was still on the masthead). Another interesting tidbit from this issue's masthead: in addition to his position as Executive Editor, Al Goldstein is also listed as "Food Editor."

Cover art is by Alan Shenker, (aka YOSSARIAN). Shenker, (a talented contemporary of underground comix titans like R. Crumb and Spain Rodriguez) was also SCREW's art director for a bit. Remembrances of Shenker, (who died in 2013) can be found here and here. 

I've also included a scan of SCREW #147's back cover, which features a typically tasteless house ad that references heroic Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, who had famously set himself on fire to protest the Vietnam War in June 1963.  

Five SCREW Covers by Sophie Cossette!

July 8, 1996

December 9, 1996

July 28, 1997

January 26, 1998

August 30, 1999

Toronto-based cartoonist Sophie Cossette was kind enough to send me a care package stuffed with her excellent SCREW covers a few months back, and I'm only just getting around to posting them now. How lame is that? 

These beautifully-drawn covers all date from the mid-to-late 1990s, and if there's a common theme, I'd say it's lovely ladies doing nasty things with shellfish, (ten extra points for the severed head of Ron Jeremy!).

Be sure to pick up Sophie's recent book SINEMANIA here!

SCREW 1,228, cover art by Danny Hellman

Seemed like the right time to dust this one off.
Issue dated Sept. 14, 1992

Will this be my final Goldstein? Cover art for XPOSE Magazine, 2/7/14

Will this be my final Goldstein? 

Cover art for XPOSE Magazine, 2/7/14, art direction by Kevin Hein.

SCREW #478, cover art by Nicola Cuti

SCREW #478, cover art by Nicola Cuti

SCREW #1,370, cover art by Scott Cunningham

Drawn when TV series "The X Files" was at the apex of its popularity, UFO afficionado Scott Cunningham shows us what agents Mulder & Scully get up to in their off hours. 

Issue dated June 5, 1995

SCREW #1,402, cover art by Sam Henderson

Continuing with my hypothetical list of the ten all-time best SCREW covers, 

Sam Henderson's clever commentary on the excesses of the Me Generation would come in at #27. What it lacks in raw sexuality, it makes up for by mocking hippies. 

Issue date is January 15, 1996.

SCREW #1,414, cover art by Tim Johnson

If I had to make a list of the ten all-time best SCREW covers, this Ten Commandments riff by Tim Johnson would be on it. Great composition, great colors, great Goldstein caricature, all working in service of a killer concept. Issue date is April 8th, 1996.

FARE THEE WELL, SMUT PEDDLER: Al Goldstein RIP (1936-2013)

Al Goldstein has taken the elevator to the big edit meeting in the sky. 

I'll leave the obit-writing to the professionals.

You'll find those here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/nyregion/al-goldstein-pioneering-pornographer-dies-at-77.html?pagewanted=all

And here: http://observer.com/2013/12/al-goldstein-founder-of-screw-magazine-has-died/

All I have to add is this: Some people rear up in horror at the sight of pornography, and there's not much to be done about that. When considering porn, I think it's important to keep this in mind: some of our greatest artists and writers, (along with countless hacks) have turned to porn in the interest of scraping together a living. What they may have been surprised to discover in porn, (along with a modest paycheck) was artistic freedom. And THAT'S what I owe Al Goldstein.

For the last time: AL GOLDSTEIN IS NOT DEAD.

12/16/13: Confusion erupted early this morning when readers of magician Penn Jillette's Twitter feed read the following: "I'm in NYC. Today I visited my hero and friend Al Goldstein as he dies in the hospital, 

and tomorrow night I celebrate Lou Reed's Life. NYC"

Some readers, (including websites The RawStory.com and RealPornWikiLeaks) took this as a death announcement, which prompted Jillette to issue the following correction: "My buddy and hero, Al Goldstein is NOT dead.  He is unresponsive and not doing well, but he is alive. Try to stop the rumors. Thanks."

I now have a picture in my head left over from my old St Vincent's Hospital paper route: a type of patient the hospital personnel call a "gomer." These are bedridden old guys, mouths generally hanging slack, hovering unconscious in the twilight zone between life and death. They never bought any newspapers. Sobering and saddening to imagine one of humanity's most vociferous specimens reduced to this state. Think about it 

while you watch some vintage Midnight Blue clips: http://www.youtube.com/user/MBVids

(art by yours truly for the cover of SCREW #1,804, December 2006, art direction by Kevin Hein)