It Came From The Beanworld Archives!

"Late 1970s ~ 20" x 11" ~ Xerography, pen, colored paper, colored markers on cheap copy paper

So I was spending part of my day today thinking about the presentation I'm giving at Stumptown Comics Fest 2011 on Saturday April 16th at noon. (Mouch more on Stumptown in posts over the weekend). I was going through the Beanworld Archives looking for something else and lo & behold, the illo above appeared.

This is from the time I was doing a lot of exploration of how-to-abuse-the-Xerox-machine-at-work. I loved investigating the boundaries of 1970s xerography (a semi-lost art due to digital copying) using photographs I found in the dead files at the ad agency I worked at. Actually at this point, in the late '70s I was in charge of the dead files and for me it was a treasure trove of cornball model photography from the 60s and photos of crops and insects. I rescued all sorts of oddities from the going in the dumpster.

In that day of (analog?) photocopy machines you could really push things in weird directions by copying copies over and over and over again and all sorts of magical things would happen. Now that I think of it, maybe that still can happen, but in this world of digital accuracy I kinda doubt it. Not like back then anyway.

In this primitive world of Magic Tape, Spra-Mount and rubber cement I cobbled together this composition--most likely just seeing-what-I-could-see as I went along. There is are pre-versions of Beanish & Mr. Spook. There is a hint of the Chowdown Pool stairs. There is a more-or-less fully fleshed out Chow Sol'jer.

I don't know why the Madmen-era advertising models people are green. Relatives of J'onn J'onzz maybe.

It doesn't seem finished at all. But I find it interesting. Thought I'd share.