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 #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

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. 

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!

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 #1,414, 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)

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.

SCREW #1,349, cover art by Kim Deitch

Collector Thomas Stein recently put in a request to see the one and only SCREW cover drawn by underground comix legend Kim Deitch. It just so happens I have a copy, and here it is! 

I chatted with Kim Deitch about SCREW a few years back. A frequent contributor to '60s hippie papers like the East Village Other, Kim told me that the secret to the success of those publications was that they generally included one or two photos of nude hippie gals. Such photos were guaranteed to pique the prurient interest of curious straights. When Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley launched SCREW in 1968, their strategy was to outdo the hippie papers by cramming the pages of their nascent sex tabloid with oodles of naked hippies in full filthy frolic. SCREW would remain a going concern for nearly four decades, while the East Village Other and its psychedelic brethren evaporated almost as quickly as a DMT trip.

The issue is dated January 9th, 1995. 

Where have you gone, Rodney King?

SCREW’s take on the 1991 roadside beating: 

a hot guy-on-guy S/M session gone bad, 

(I guess Rodney forgot his safe word).