George Hansen + Adam's Apple

gump · January 31, 2008, 11:51:23 PM

Does anybody have links to sites that have more info about Hansen's work? or Adam's Apple Publishing in Chicago? Did Hansen and Lynch colloborate?

Rick Bradford · February 01, 2008, 10:33:38 PM

Here's one, not a whole lot of info though.

http://lambiek.net/artists/h/hansen_george.htm

gump · February 02, 2008, 12:16:39 AM

thanks Rick, I have seen this... I really like Judy Tunafish, it reminds me of Crumb, and some other stuff has echoes of Moscoso. Just wondering where he fits in with the pantheon (don't know what that word means) of UG artists.

Sir Real · February 02, 2008, 04:41:11 AM

Hansen always struck me as a Crumb wanna-be. IMHO.

Rick Bradford · February 02, 2008, 05:50:09 PM

Hansen isn't too popular with the general UG crowd, it seems. I know in some of his later work he went even more "primitive" with his style which probably pushes some of the UG fans even further away. I like the stuff myself though.

He occasionally lists some of his old work on eBay and it seems like it's been a hard sell but if I had the extra dough I'd probably snap it up.

gump · February 04, 2008, 10:10:53 PM

I see that Lynch did the cover for Purple Cat No. 1, 1973, from Adam's Apple.

jaylynch · February 05, 2008, 02:55:53 PM

And one of Hansen's books contains a strip by me and Spiegelman called SALLY THE ACTRESS, which was one of the funniest things we ever did. But it was so crazy that we had to put it in one of George's books...on account of it works better in that context.

over40artist · February 06, 2008, 02:43:01 AM

Purple Cat: One of the great comic book covers.

Purple Cat: a mediocre underground comic book, IMO. There are a few good one-pagers (including an awesome one by Jay), but the comic is a bit too fractured for my tastes. Still, check it out if you want to see the nastiest drawing that I've ever seen from Justin Green!

over40artist · February 06, 2008, 02:47:52 AM

As for George Hansen, he did one book that I really loved: Hard Times. It was an all-Hansen book from Adam's Apple. The comic includes a long story called "Mr. Bomdiddy", which features a stereotypical black man who escapes from prison and keeps getting chased by the cops. The writing and art is as politically incorrect as anything by R. Crumb, and nearly as funny.

I believe Adam's Apple publishing was a head shop in Chicago. There is an ad for their distributing company on the inside back cover of Hard Times.

50Cent #II (1st print) · February 06, 2008, 02:59:37 AM

He's got some nice stuff...
http://stores.ebay.com/gitfiddle-georges-music-store_Underground-comix_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ7246601QQftidZ2QQtZkm

jaylynch · February 06, 2008, 04:29:41 AM

There was Bijou, Roxy and Purple Cat. Bijou was the "a" stuff. Roxy was the "c" stuff and Purple Cat (the opposite of Yellow Dog) was the "d minus" stuff. All this stuff was rejected from Bijou...But some artists argued that it was good enough for Bijou. I didn't think so...so I put out these two other titles to prove it. And they sold accordingly. Roxy sold better than Purple Cat...But neither sold anywhere near Bijou,
Some of the Purple Cat stuff was so crazy, though...that it actually made me laugh.
Hide the Doody Time ("Where will they hid it today?") was a strip that we quoted for decades following its publication. It was a classic...Like the Fred the Duck Take a S--t t-shirt.

I also enjoyed the origin of George Hansen's Hoony Harf. George meant to call the strip Horney Hare...but the lettering he did for the first one was unreadable...and people thought it said Hoony Harf. So after that....George just took to calling the character Hoony Harf.

50Cent #II (1st print) · February 06, 2008, 05:12:10 AM

gump · February 06, 2008, 11:51:27 PM

Quote from: 50Cent #II (1st print) on February 06, 2008, 02:59:37 AM
He's got some nice stuff...
http://stores.ebay.com/gitfiddle-georges-music-store_Underground-comix_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ7246601QQftidZ2QQtZkm

I'm thinking the starting bids are too high...

gump · February 07, 2008, 12:08:24 AM

oops. please move my last post if inapprioate for this topic.

jaylynch · February 08, 2008, 04:54:07 AM

Let's set the record straight on George Hansen. George met Crumb in '68 or thereabouts...and for the next few decades these two guys traded 78 rpm records regularly and hung out with the same '78 collectors ....and Crumb and me and all the early underground guys who weren't snots enjoyed Geroge's work on account of it was actually FUNNY! Gary Panter and Matt Groening were two heavy fans of George's stuff back then. George's stuff was totally unrestrained and over the top. But Adam's Apple only paid half of what all the other publishers did then. So if there was any resentment among the cartoonists...it was because of the rates that the publisher was paying. George did what...something like a dozen books in a few years? That was a fantastic output. Nobody else did so many books in so short a time. Of the stuff that I remember from that time...The stuff that the wife and I quote to each other to this day...Probably half of the stuff we REMEMBER and quote is Hansen stuff. "CRIME...That Evil Little Bastard!".....Was one of the greatest comic strips ever done . It is the only piece of underground comix art that hangs in my house (aside from a nifty Javi Soler drawing). A cel-vinyl painted color cel of CRIME proudly hangs in my kitchen to this day. Every time we eat dinner, we laugh at Crime, that evil little bastard. The humor never gets stale! Hansen was the Johnny Ryan of his day!
In recent years, he has been doing fine art paintings of exploding dogs. And he started a record company that does some kind of avant garde jazz or something. Bloody Murder Records is the name of his label.