Artcore

The first issue of Maximum Rock 'n' Roll fanzine (always more of a "magazine," let's be honest) I bought was number 19, which hit the stands back in November 1984 - but technically, the first ish that I ever read was 17, since some kid (remaining unnamed) brought it with him to 9th grade art class and let me have a gander at it. The cover feature for that particular issue was "Artcore," a six-page spread written and assembled by Brian "Pushead" Schroeder, already an established Scenester Artist and columnist in places like MRR and Thrasher (also the frontman of Boise-to-San Francisco psychodrama Septic Death).

The aim of the article was to provide aspiring "punk artist" types some elementary basics to the "illustration" game, a introduction to then-current techniques including Zipatone and Rapidograph, methods of photo reproduction, and the like. As part of the feature, he highlighted several up-and-coming or established artists that were involved in the mini-comics scene of the day, making gig flyers or tape covers for local bands, or quietly drafting pictures of skulls and tortured band logos in their bedrooms. The entire issue is up on Archive.org if you're eager to check out the piece in its original context.

To flash forward to the modern day - some of these people remained active through the 1980s and 1990s (R.K. Sloane and Jim Blanchard among them), some of them moved with their lives and abandonded their Flair pens, and some have probably died (and are now themselves rotting skeletons). Of the selection here, I probably bear the strongest affinity with Chet Darmstaedter, who had a relatively high-profile painting career throughout the Juxtapoz 1990s and produced many amusing Frankenstein / Flintstones mashups. Marc Rude is probably the best-known, having drawn covers for the Misfits' Earth AD and Battalion of Saints' Second Coming LPs, and been the subject of a low-budget documentary.

Here are the artists featured in that piece (minus their 1984 street addresses, as included in the original article). After I moved away from big-two Superhero comics and before I discovered Charles Burns, Dan Clowes and Jaime / Gilbert Hernandez, these were the creators that really inspired me.

Note: I didn't spend much time attempting to "improve" the look of these crudely-reproduced images, scanned from yellowing newsprint. It seemed to run counter to the slightly-cruddy presenation of the original work, and the reality that these drawings were originally meant to be ephemeral and fleeting little moths that existed briefly and then unceremoniously dropped to the ground, dead.