By Guy Colwell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-0-60699-813-7 (TPB)
Please pay careful attention: this book contains stories and images of an explicit nature, specifically designed for adult consumption, as well as the kind of vulgar language most kids are fluent in by age ten.
If reading about such material is likely to offend you stop now and go away. Tomorrow I’ll write about something more socially acceptable, with mindless violence and big explosions, so come back then if you want.
Guy Colwell is an artist, activist and occasional cartoonist whose works are deeply personal and immensely passionate. As such they have often been controversial. An early stalwart of Underground Commix, his output at that time was graphically sexual, ferociously pro-change and subtly anti-establishment.
A conscious objector and political activist during the time of the Vietnam War (the US government preferred the creepily draconian term “Non Co-operatorâ€) he was prepared to serve two years at McNeil Island Federal prison rather than compromise his principles. Already tenuously starting a long and prestigious career as a gallery painter, Colwell’s incarceration was the spark for a second creative path as a cartoon journalist and comics creator. His later works are mostly political paintings including Litter Beach and The Abuse, and wildlife murals, such as a monumental rainforest wall for the Oakland Zoo.
It’s important in today’s world to plainly point out he is not African-American …
Inner City Blues re-presents a seminal 5 issue underground classic he crafted between 1971 and 1978, blending open minded exploration of alternative lifestyles with keen observation of the life of the nation’s disenfranchised and marginalised underclasses, all thoughtfully argued through beguiling depictions of sex, drugs, crime, socio-political rebellion and ecological radicalism.
They’re compelling and beautiful to look at too…
Lavishly augmented by more than 30 of Colwell’s gallery paintings; candid photos; a selection of his magazine illustrations and even historically significant examples of his time as a courtroom sketch artist, the commemorative paperback celebration (also available digitally) opens with a little history and philosophy in ‘Good Times and Bad: The Evolution of Revolution’ by Patrick Rosenkranz – who also provided the ‘Epilogue’ and an effusive overview of ‘The Artist’ at the end of the book.
The monochrome cartoon blasts from the past open with the epochal ‘Choices’ from Inner City Romance #1 as three convicts are released on the same day…
Marvin and token white guy Paddy can think of nothing more than getting high, getting laid and making money the way they used to, but for black power activist James – who’s leaving the joint even more radicalised than when he went in – all that is secondary to reuniting with his political brothers and sisters to resume taking the war to “The Manâ€â€¦
Driving to San Francisco in a stolen car the trio rave on about what they’re going to do and all too soon Marvin and Paddy are indulging in an orgy of sex and drugs. After touching base with a most willing soulmate at the Street Defense Committee, James eventually rejoins his debauched jail buddies. However, as he watches their excesses, he realises he’s come to a crossroads in his life…
For many readers the political message was electrically clear, and the astoundingly explicit sexual antics serve here as a nothing more than powerfully distracting sleight of hand…
The comic was a huge counter culture hit (going through four printings and selling thousands of copies) so the saga notionally continued a year later in issue #2 with ‘Radical Rock’…
As Rosenkranz explains in a brief introduction, in the intervening time Colwell had been drawing a strip for the San Francisco Good Times newspaper, but when that organ of infinitely free expression folded, he recycled his paean to peace and anti-war sentiment into a new comic book, adding in powerful overtones highlighting the increasingly oppressive nature of policing in the city.
The result was a strangely intoxicating brew akin to a rock opera with dialogue delivered in scintillating rhyming couplets and quatrains as The People combat authoritarian excesses and illegal imprisonment of activists by attempting to hold a benefit concert in the park.
The “Powers That Be†have their own agenda of course and plan a major bust, but when James is gunned down in the street all bets are off…
The same issue also contained ‘Part Two (Adagio)’ which deftly shifts scene to carnally explore the reactions of the previous generation of poor folks. Colwell has viewed sex as something joyous to be indulged in by young and old, pretty or plain, and this moving affirmation that “everybody does it†acts as a powerful counterpoint to the unfolding drama as the creaky lovers are interrupted by news that their son has been arrested and mercilessly beaten.
By the time they get to the police station the drama is set to escalate into horrific tragedy…
Inner City Romance #3 was released in 1977 and is the artist’s personal favourite. Largely devoid of dialogue, it thematically returns to the prison system: following the escape into dreams of three very different inmates, resulting in some of Colwell’s most inventive, erotic and phantasmagorical artwork…
Released the same year, #4 and returned to real-world activism by fictionalising the scandal surrounding the abandonment and eventual eviction of the elderly, handicapped, ethnic minorities and just plain poor residing in the International Hotel, San Francisco (go google it, Maa-aaan…).
Colwell’s sensitive take on the Humans vs. Money affair is an intensely evocative and surprisingly even-handed affair, highlighting need for change and the ultimate price of life as a young boy perishes due to the short-sighted addition of ‘Ramps’ to a rickety, ramshackle ghetto complex local government is just too mean to fix…
With Vietnam over and social crusading giving way to an era of sexual liberation, Colwell’s final Inner City Romance explored the liberation of libido in a quintet of short tales which still found space and time to question the effects of freedom and progress on different strata of society. It begins with the unabashed joy of loving in ‘Good for You’ before a different stroke focuses on recreational drug-taking and the budding Punk Scene in ‘DownUp’…
Arson and deprivation mark the experiences of a loose association of urban youngsters in ‘Interkids’, whilst the unluckiest woman in town experiences three different kinds of hellish horror when she becomes the victim of ‘Sex Crime’ before the fables conclude with sheer exuberance and impassioned release for two young lovers ‘All Over the Clover’…
Still crusading, Colwell ends the festival of life in this magnificent tome with a stunning gallery of his best paintings proving that old campaigners never die, they just get sharper…
For decades the publicity-shy Colwell was thought by his fans and contemporaries to be a black artist, so strident, effective and authentic was his narrative voice. Even today his ethnicity is unimportant; what counts is that he’s human and urgently begs us all to be human too. Why not dabble in a little Inner City Romance of your own and see for yourself?
Inner City Romance © 2015 Fantagraphics Books Inc. All contents © 2015 Fantagraphics Books Inc unless otherwise noted. All comics stories, illustrations and paintings © 2015 Guy Colwell. All rights reserved.