Pete Loveday | |
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Born | Peter Loveday c1944 |
Died | 16/04/2024 Devon |
Nationality | British |
Area(s) |
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Notable works |
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bigtripcomics |
Pete Loveday was a British underground cartoonist. He is best known for his series of comics charting the adventures of hippie character Russell, including Big Bang Comics, Big Trip Travel Agency and Plain Rapper Comix printed by AK Press. [1]
Since its initial publication in 1981, Big Bang Comics is Britain's most successful underground comic book series. [2] His style is reminiscent of US underground comic creators Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, with a similar use of cross-hatching. [3] Recurring themes in Loveday's comics are drugs, Rock festivals, and environmentalism. Plain Rapper Comix #2 is Loveday's pamphlet in comic book form on a history of hemp and why it would be beneficial for the environment to replace tree paper with hemp paper. This was the first publication in modern times to be printed on such paper. The Russell comics have been collected in book form, Russell, The Saga of a peaceful man [4] published by John Brown Publishing.
The character of Russell reappeared in the Big Trip Travel Agency series published by AK Press in six volumes released between 1995 and 2012. Issue 2 notably featured The Levellers. After Big Trip 5 (1999), Russell's story was to be continued in Volume 6, which it seemed would never appear. Then in 2012, to many fan's delight, AKPress made Big Trip 6 available through their website [5] and through a mainstream Internet retailer [6] where some reviews of Loveday's classic comics can also be read. [7]
As a champion of British small press comics, he drew many multi-artist jam strips in B. Patston's Psychopia . He drew a Russell comic in Danny King's Blah, Blah, Blah! [8]
He used to have a stall at Glastonbury Festival, selling his comics and other items and now, after a gap of more than a decade, has a stall at the Secret Garden Party and Beautiful Days, both festivals for which he produces artwork.
He has experienced some problems with his eyesight although has remained prolific, producing a wide range of artwork including advertising posters (including an unlikely 1998 campaign for Nike [9] ) through greetings cards, postcards, CD and record sleeve designs, book illustrations to flyers, and T-shirt designs.
In July 2018, Freedom Seeds, a UK based seed bank, named a cannabis strain ‘Big Trip’ in tribute to Loveday. Pete created a logo for the product. [10] [11]
Loveday attributes his black sense of humour to having spent the 1969 Summer of Love disembowelling chickens in a poultry processing factory, a traumatic experience that left him with a morbid fear of eggs.
His death was confirmed on 17/04/2024 by his son Mark. [12]
Robert Dennis Crumb is an American cartoonist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American culture.
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Jack Herer, sometimes called the "Emperor of Hemp", was an American cannabis rights activist and the author of the 1985 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Herer founded and served as the director of the organization Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP).
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, and Wonder Wart-Hog.
Richard Alden "Rick" Griffin was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in Zap Comix. Griffin was closely identified with the Grateful Dead, designing some of their best-known posters and album covers such as Aoxomoxoa. His work within the surfing subculture included both film posters and his comic strip, Murphy.
Hunt Emerson is an English cartoonist. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His many comic strips and graphic novels have been translated into numerous languages.
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. They're comparable to similar movements internationally, such as American minicomics and Japanese doujinshi. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to distinguish them from zines about comics. Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell, Paul Grist, Rian Hughes, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, Philip Bond and Andi Watson.
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Florence Steinberg was an American publisher of one of the first independent comic books, the underground/alternative comics hybrid Big Apple Comix, in 1975. Additionally, as the secretary for Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee and the fledgling company's receptionist and fan liaison during the 1960s Silver Age of Comic Books, she was a key participant of and witness to Marvel's expansion from a two-person staff to a pop culture conglomerate.
Psychopia is a small press zine featuring reviews and articles on British comic books and small press comics and interviews with cartoonists. Unusually for comix zines it focussed almost entirely on British comics such as The Beano and The Dandy ignoring American superhero comics.
Randolph Holton Holmes was a Canadian artist and illustrator probably best known for his work in underground comix. His work was of a higher level of quality than was seen elsewhere in the field, and is considered comparable to such creations as Gilbert Shelton's The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Robert Crumb's Mr. Natural.
Dave Sheridan was an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He was the creator of Dealer McDope and collaborated with Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. As creative partner with fellow underground creator Fred Schrier, using the name "Overland Vegetable Stagecoach," they worked on Mother's Oats Funnies, published by Rip Off Press from 1970 to 1976.
Larry Fuller is an African-American underground comix writer, publisher, and promoter. Along with other such notables as Richard "Grass" Green, Guy Colwell, and Fuller's long-time business partner and friend, Raye Horne, Fuller made sure that the voices of black comic book creators were heard in a time when their artistic efforts were largely ignored. On the topics of race and sexuality, Fuller mastered the art of delivering social commentary in humorous form.
Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski.
Lee Harris, is a South African writer, musician, and activist who has lived and worked primarily in the United Kingdom since 1956.
Starhead Comix was an alternative/underground comics publisher that operated from 1984–c. 1999. Founded by Michael Dowers, Starhead was based in Seattle, Washington. Mostly known for limited-edition minicomics, Starhead also published standard-sized, black-and-white comics in the early 1990s.
J. R. Williams is an American cartoonist, animator, and fine artist best known for his late 1980s/early 1990s work in alternative comics. Known for his manic, exaggerated cartooning style, Williams brought an underground comix edge to his work during this period. Williams' characters Skinboy and the Bad Boys made recurring appearances in many of his stories.
Michele Wrightson, also known as Michele Brand, was an American artist who worked in the comic book industry. The former wife of underground cartoonist Roger Brand, she started out as an underground comix cartoonist. Later, when she was married to comics artist Bernie Wrightson, she made her name as a colorist. She was a key contributor to the first all-female underground comic, It Ain't Me, Babe, as well as its follow-up series, Wimmen's Comix.
Terms related to cannabis include:
The Snoid, occasionally referred to as Mr. Snoid, is an American underground comix character created by Robert Crumb in the mid-1960s. A diminutive sex fiend and irritating presence, the Snoid often appears with other Crumb characters, particularly Angelfood McSpade, Mr. Natural, and Crumb's own self-caricature.
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