One of the most notorious of the underground comics produced in the late 1960's and early 1970's was GARY ARLINGTON'S THRILLING MURDER COMICS. Arlington (October 7, 1938 – January 16, 2014) was the owner of one of the country's first comic book retail stores, the San Francisco Comic Book Company, located in S.F.'s famed Mission District. The SFCBC was established in April, 1968 and soon became the genius loci for local cartoonists who soon found that Arlington would be publishing his own comics, but not of the mainstream type. He called his company the same as his store and the rest is underground comics history. In 2012, comic artist Robert Crumb stated: ""Gary made a cultural contribution in San Francisco in the late 1960's, through the '70's, '80's & '90's that was more significant than he realizes."
Arlington published a number of seminal of the new genre's books including Robert Crumb's MR. NATURAL, Rory Hayes' BOGEYMAN COMICS, Rick Griffin's MAN FROM UTOPIA, Nicola Cuti's MOONCHILD, and his own anthology title named none other than SAN FRANCISCO COMIC BOOK.
Before he went into the business of publishing magazines and mini-comics, he published THRILLING MURDER COMICS in January 1971. Introduced by himself on the cover and the title pages (accompanied by a gruesomely bloody -- the blood was printed in red ink -- Greg Irons). It quickly become infamous for its unapologetic (what underground comic ever was?) depictions of shooting, stabbings, raw sex including fellatio, misogyny (that crazy Crumb again!), including a scene of evisceration and ripping out a baby from a woman's womb.
Shown here today are three stories from the issue as they were originally drawn by the artist. While the comic book itself can be fetched for around $50, the original art is a different story.
"Kid Kill" by Jim Osborne (ink over pencil on lightweight Bristol board; image area of 8" x 12") Sold at auction on November, 2023 for $52,800.
"The Loser" by Jim Osborne (ink over pencil on lightweight Bristol board; image area 10" x 15"). Sold at auction on May, 2017 for $43,460.
Read the entire issue of THRILLING MURDER COMICS right here, tomorrow!
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