Huh? Magazine
HUH? Magazine: The Journal of Neo-Confusionism was first penned, cut, pasted, glued, stapled folded and issued by me: David St. Albans in 1993 in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a select group of people. It was never on any comic book stands nor sold via mail or direct marketing. In the period of 1990-1998 there was a "Golden Age" of 'zines and alternative media popping up all over the U.S. and England. At the time Xerox was king and Kinkos was the go-to place for printing out alternative press materials. At this time few computers had the print or graphics capabilities to put together and store graphical information on a large scale. Some Mac users did have some pretty heavy-duty interfaces going on for making graphics. However cut & Paste, collage, hand drawing and copier technologies were still faster and cheaper. Many young creatives were putting out reams of interesting, dark, provocative artwork and editorials.
From the days of Underground Comix (UG){Zap, Skull, Wonder Warthog, et al.) to the time of the Independents (Cedric(?) the Aardvark, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.) artists had been utilizing the presses to make interesting and outrageous materials. However the ability for artists and writers to mass market anything was always dependent on the owners and operators of the big presses who always wanted to do big "press-runs," and the distributors who delivered the goods to comic shops. This meant an artist might have to make an outlay of up to ten thousand dollars for ten thousand copies of their comic or magazine. It was not until the late 80's when copier technology improved and the Kinkos Print shops began to appear that the time for Alternative Press writers and artists had arrived. Once it was shown how quickly and simply a small press magazine could be put together the world of Alternative Small Press literally exploded. Many cooler university area comic shops stocked up on the zany, weird and bizarre 'zines that were flooding the print market. People like Matt Groenig, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, actually started with self-published, home stapled comics like "Life In Hell" that caught on so rapidly that he was able to proceed to make distribution deals. The time seemed ripe for producing artwork may way instead of some "publisher's" way.
At this time in the Albuquerque area I had become a player in the local area art scene. Coming from such august groups as "Guerilla Artists" (I believe we had 2 newsletters.) and "NuMoon Illustratons" (this had one newsletter/marketing issue for each artist involved and was mostly put together on a friend's professional grade Mac graphics computer)...and SWAC (Southwest Writers And Cartoonists); I had made some serious leaps in the field of producing my own graphic arts and magazines.
I began my artistic pursuits at the age of four, drawing in the end papers of my father's precious Encyclopedia Britannica. I drew monsters, dragons, tanks, planes, and lots of weird things. After he gave me a sketch pad I proceeded to fill one after another with my dreams and visions. However along the way certain authority figures turned me away from my campaign to legitimize cartoon art and bkier, surfer and hot-rodder art with Modern Art, saying that such things simply "were not right." Instead of me people like Robt. Williams in California were going to make that dream come true. When I was 13 (1969)I moved from Chicago, IL to South Pasadena, California. There I saw the the true culmination of the Hippie-Psychedelic art renaissance. (Only a part of which I was able to view in some headshops in Chicago's Old Town, where I procured my first "head comix" in the Chicago Seed and East Village Other...)
I had began my quest for getting into this field in 1970 when, after going insane for the works of R. Crumb and Robt. Williams in Zap comix which I bought at the "Free Press Bookstore" in Pasadena. At age 14 I quickly produced "Dick Steel...the man with the Steel Dick!" in high school. (South Pasadena, Senior High, So. Pas. CA.) My UG art career began in earnest as I produced reams of material, including some of the first "Scary Clown" drawings ever done. Of course being a high school kid it took me years of practice with regulation pen and ink techniques (didn't even have a Rapidograph pen then...)to become even amateurishly acceptable. After high school I wandered the country for six months as a homeless vagabond, gaining incredible experiences. When I returned to California to attend Pasadena City College I quickly became involved with another artist who wanted to put out his own comic. It was called "Fantastic Comics No. 1." I did several J.R.R. Tolkien illustrations in my hypnotically detailed pen and ink, and produced a Conan the Barbarian knock-off...well homage really, since my character was supposed to be Conan's son...called Drakonak: Adventurer in the Western World!" This was my first officially printed, bound and distributed piece. My fellow artist had literally suck about $500.00 of his own money into the project. Unfortunately he didn't realize the distributors would demand much more than that. So the comic never did fly.
This even however made me go searching for alternate venues to publish my work. I fell upon the Fantasy/Science Fiction and Horror world, which was doing a lot of self-published and small press magazines, some of which included the now famous Etchings and Odysseys. I made a great deal of headway doing spot illustrations and even cover work for these magazines. the list is too long to enter here. I also discovered the art of Scrimshaw at this time and became a professional ivory engraver for over 13 years, perfecting my drawing talents as I went. I put out two or three poetry chapbooks with my "illos" (as I called my illustrations)as well as doing some short stories in the fantasy/horror market. My wayward life got me involved with people like Harry O. Morris (who was the first person I ever knew to do any sort of computer graphics), R. A. Everts, and Rick Baker (?) who actually got me in touch with my hero from the 60's Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I also finally got to meet Robt. Williams and even Timothy Leary because of these connections. Eventually, seeking a Western style life I wound up in Albuquerque where Harry O. Morris lived and fell in with the science fiction and fantasy crowd there.
By 1993 I had decided to come up with my own 'zine and see if I could get it in some people's hands. this was the birth of HUH? Magazine, dedicated to the weirdos I had been meeting throughout my life. People who were anti-Semites who invented anti-gravity machines, crystal waving UFO nuts, alternative street artists who had already gone "over the edge" on drugs and shamanism. I had met so many of these odd balls that I felt a 'zine dedicated to them would be very cool, following along with the trend of "Outsider Art." (Which again Robt. Crumb did with WEIRDO and Robt. Williams did so much better with Juxtapoz.) I decided to make it a combination of cut & paste Surreal/Dadaist text with artwork by myself and other locals, some of whom were on my "odd-ball" list.
HUH? The Journal of Neo-Confusionism started with Vol1. No.0 under the "Dead Horse Comic Publishers" Logo. This was a black and white, 7.5 X 10.0 format 'zine that included 11 pages plus cover. It is highly detailed and features a lot of ideas that were far ahead of their time. I produced five (?) of these 'zines from #0 - #4. Each one had a cover drawn by me. The last one; The Depression Issue, came out after I had suffered a nervous breakdown 1n 1995. All these were published under my "Baked Trilobite Publishers" label. Hopefully I will be able to post these issues here for people to enjoy. During this time, which seemed enormously fruitful for me as a creative artist, I also put out several other comics. "Coyotero: All Southwest Comics" "Comics for Aliens On Earth" "Aliens In The House" and "Illegal Aliens: JIVE." I was also putting out the SWAC newsletter as well.
I may add to this page on occasion and welcome all comment,critiques, changes, etc.
