Weirdo (comics)

For other uses, see Weirdo (disambiguation).
Weirdo
Weirdo #1 (March 1981), art by Robert Crumb.
Publication information
PublisherLast Gasp
Schedule(mostly) Quarterly
FormatOngoing series
GenreUnderground/alternative
Publication dateMarch 1981 – Summer 1993
No. of issues28
Creative team
Written byTerry Zwigoff, Josh Alan Friedman, Dennis Eichhorn, Harvey Pekar, et al.
Artist(s)Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Peter Bagge, Robert Armstrong, Kim Deitch, Mary Fleener, Drew Friedman, Justin Green, Kaz, J. D. King, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Spain Rodriguez, Dori Seda, Carol Tyler, S. Clay Wilson, Dennis Worden
Editor(s)Robert Crumb (issues #1–10)
Peter Bagge (issues #11–17, 25)
Aline Kominsky-Crumb (issues #18–24, 26–28)

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[1] to its contemporary highbrow Raw, co-edited by Art Spiegelman.[2]

Crumb contributed cover art and comics to every issue of Weirdo;[3] 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".[4]

Overall, the magazine had a mixed response from audiences;[5][6][7][8] Crumb's fumetti contributions, for instance, were so unpopular that they have never appeared in Crumb collections.[9]

  1. ^ Heer 2013, pp. 71–72.
  2. ^ Kartalopoulos, Bill. "GETTING WEIRDO AT THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS", The Comics Journal (June 19, 2019).
  3. ^ Cwiklik, Greg. "R. Crumb in Weirdo, 1981-1993", The Comics Journal #210 (Feb. 1999), pp. 88-89.
  4. ^ Weirdo page at Last Gasp website. Archived 2010-01-06 at the Wayback Machine Accessed Dec. 14, 2008.
  5. ^ "The Other Weirdo", The Comics Journal #69 (Dec. 1981), p. 55.
  6. ^ "Turning In On Yourself", The Comics Journal #69 (Dec. 1981), pp. 104-105.
  7. ^ Scholz, Carter. "Apostles of Junk", The Comics Journal #109 (July 1986), pp. 59-64.
  8. ^ Woodring, Jim. "The Weirdo Difference", The Comics Journal #139 (Dec. 1990), pp. 115-119.
  9. ^ Holm 2005, pp. 83–85.