Went home for lunch and Brad Radina was there trying to fit the new screen door to our existing doorway. My neighbor J.D. ("Mad Dog" Nelson) was also there. He came down to see if the little Silkie chickens could co-mingle with the two big hens. The door won't fit the jam, and the two hens tried to kill the one chicken that we experimented with. Had to go in and save the little booger. I'll tell you, chickens are, well, not chicken, when it comes to pecking order. Ha.
Ate lunch then went out into the garage to sort and file some more of my old artwork. Found a couple of gems. Here's part of a submission I sent to National Lampoon magazine in the summer of 1977. The article was rejected, but I think it still stands:
Meanwhile, here's an early cartoon strip attempt from 1973. It's the opening page of The Doperoper (later styled as Doper Roper). Here it is 34 years later and I'm still trying to integrate saguaros and two-lane shimmering blacktop into my stories and art.
The Doperoper ran from 1973 to 1977 in The Razz Revue, a humor magazine (or magazomic as Dan Harshberger styled it). Here's an end page, in color, from near the end of the run:
Nice progress, if I do say so myself. If you are from the West you no doubt recognize the trailer culture of that era, with the wrecked car and dirt bike (it's a 441 BSA Victor). Yes, growing up among all my Kingman Kowboy Kousins, I became privvy to a certain style of liviing and dressing. Here's a couple I'm related to, I mean, I happened to spot at the annual Andy Devine Days Rodeo in about 1971:
"Heiffer Dust!"
—The Doperoper's signature line
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