Beavis & Butt-Head #1

History

The series grew out of Marvel's mid-1990s licensing push with Viacom properties, riding momentum from the publisher's earlier success with a Ren & Stimpy comic. Editor Glenn Herdling tapped his longtime friend Mike Lackey — a Marvel staff editor — to write, while veteran Bullpen letterer Rick Parker, who had drawn cartoon strips in the Bullpen Bulletins for years, was assigned as artist; Parker drew inspiration from Mad Magazine's density of background gags. The creative team met with Mike Judge at MTV's headquarters during pre-production on issue #1, though Judge's participation in the comic's development was minimal — accounts from both Lackey and Parker describe him as largely disengaged from the licensing deal. Lackey's script for the debut issue was famously loose: facing his deadline with nothing written, he handed Parker freeform napkin-style sketches rather than a formal script, and the resulting 'Dental Hygiene Dilemma' story introduced the yam joke that would recur as a running gag across all 28 issues.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First comic-book appearances of Beavis, Butt-Head, Daria Morgendorffer, Coach Buzzcut, Mr. Van Driessen, Stewart Stevenson, Todd Ianuzzi, and Tom Anderson.
• Written by Mike Lackey, drawn/inked/lettered by Rick Parker, colored by Bob Sharen, and edited by Glenn Herdling; Mike Judge is credited as creator but had negligible hands-on involvement.
• Cover date March 1994 (on-sale January 18, 1994); published in two editions — Direct Market and Newsstand — both featuring silver ink on the dentist tools depicted on the cover.
• The issue contains six distinct story/feature segments: 'Dental Hygiene Dilemma – Fart One' and 'Part Two' (the split main story), a Punisher parody, a Devil Dinosaur parody credited as 'Ricko th' Sicko after Jack "King" Kirby,' a Stewart Stevenson activity page, and a Mr. Van Driessen/Todd bathroom-cleanup strip.
• The comic's signature structural device debuts here: instead of riffing on music videos as in the TV show, Beavis and Butt-Head read and mock actual Marvel Comics pages — in this issue, The Punisher and Devil Dinosaur serve as the targets.
• The yam joke — introduced in the Maxi-Mart sequence of this issue — became a recurring gag threaded throughout the entire 28-issue run.
• The series ran monthly for 28 issues from March 1994 to June 1996, later published under the Marvel Absurd imprint, and was also reprinted by Marvel UK.
• Lackey was removed from the book after issue #5, reportedly due to a royalty dispute with Viacom; writers from the actual TV series eventually took over scripting duties.

Cast · 16 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Beavis & Butt-Head

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#5 1st appearance — Todd Ianuzzi

Variants (1)