LEGION OF CHARLIES (LAST GASP)

LEGION OF CHARLIES
One-shot
1971
Publisher: Last Gasp Eco-Funnies
Editor: Ron Turner
Cover: Greg Irons
Pages: 36
Cover price: 50 cents

CONTENTS
"The Legion of Charlies"
Script: Tom Veitch
Art: Greg Irons

"The Conversion of President Nixnerk"
Script: Dave Sheridan
Art: Dave Sheridan

During their heyday, or as R. Crumb would put it, Hytone days, underground comix were the creative outlet for hippie writers and artists who wanted to express their counter-culture, subversive and often perverse visions on the printed page when no mainstream publisher would touch them with a 10-foot pole. Found only in head shops (they're known as "Smoke Shops" now, and only carry drug paraphernalia sans black light posters and the rest) and through the mail, underground comix were unabashed in their political, satirical and sexual themes.

One of the most extreme of the satirical titles that was ever concocted on a drawing board was the story of the "Legion of Charlies". The dope-enhanced brain child of writer Tom Veitch (Slow Death Funnies) and Greg Irons (Skull Comix), "Charlies" opens with the comic version of a split screen movie that concurrently shows two American tragedies: The Mai Lai Massacre in Vietnam and Manson's Tate-La Bianca killings.

The story progresses as the spirit of Manson (the "Charlie" of the story) takes over the bodies of returning Vietnam veterans who go on a bloody mission to remove "the Establishment" from power.

A powerful critique of "The Man" in all his deviant glory, "Charlies" is a social commentary that will stick to you like an alien face-hugger, especially if you were around during these times. The paradox that was the Vietnam war will forever a divisive topic. This comic exploits the contradiction in the most disturbing of ways.