Occult & Esoterica
[CRUMB, R., et al] Weirdo (Magazine). Issues 1-20, plus Issues 22, 23, 26, and 27 (1981-1990)
[CRUMB, R., et al] Weirdo (Magazine). Issues 1-20, plus Issues 22, 23, 26, and 27 (1981-1990)
Berkeley: Last Gasp, 1981-1990. First Printings. Magazine. Quarto. 24 total issues (1-20, 22, 23, 26, 27). Illustrated throughout. All issues are pictured and all in near fine to fine condition.
A nearly complete run of this comics anthology, missing only issues 21, 24, 25, and the final issue (#28) which came out three years after issue 27. Weirdo was a magazine-sized comics anthology created by Robert Crumb and published by Last Gasp from 1981 to 1993. Featuring cartoonists both new and old, Weirdo served as a "low art" counterpoint to its contemporary highbrow Raw, co-edited by Art Spiegelman.
Crumb contributed cover art and comics to every issue of Weirdo; his wife, cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb, also had work in almost every issue. Crumb focused increasingly on autobiography in his stories in Weirdo. Many other autobiographical shorts would appear in Weirdo by other artists, including Kominsky-Crumb, Carol Tyler, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Dori Seda. David Collier, a Canadian ex-soldier, published autobiographical and historical comics in Weirdo. The anthology introduced artists such as Peter Bagge, Dori Seda, Dennis Worden, and Carol Tyler.
With issue #10, Crumb handed over the editing reins to Bagge; with issue #18, the reins went to Kominsky-Crumb (except for issue #25, which was again edited by Bagge). The three editorial tenures were known respectively as "Personal Confessions", the "Coming of the Bad Boys", and "Twisted Sisters".
Early issues of Weirdo reflect Crumb's interests at the time – outsider art, fumetti, Church of the SubGenius-type anti-propaganda and assorted "weirdness" (in fact, Crumb provided early publicity for the Church of the SubGenius by reprinting Sub Genius Pamphlet #1 in Weirdo #1).