Weirdo #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWeirdo #9 (Winter 1983–84) is Robert Crumb's swan song as the anthology's editor — the final issue of his founding nine-issue run before handing the reins to Peter Bagge with issue #10. It also marks the debut of "Mode O'Day and Her Pals," the only sustained character-driven series Crumb developed during the entire Weirdo run, a satirical strip set in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist that became one of the most critically cited creative achievements of his mid-career. The issue further documents the first comics appearance of infant Sophie Crumb as a character in her parents' collaborative autobiographical work, a milestone in the long Crumb family auto-comics tradition. Taken together, these three facts make this the single densest first-appearance issue in Weirdo's twelve-year history.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Weirdo was conceived by Robert Crumb in 1980 as a deliberately lowbrow alternative to Art Spiegelman's contemporaneous RAW, and was published by Ron Turner's Last Gasp beginning in Spring 1981. Crumb personally edited and contributed cover art and comics to every issue during his tenure, with issue #9 (Winter 1983–84) being his ninth and final issue as editor; starting with issue #10 (Summer 1984) Peter Bagge took over editorial duties. The John Kricfalusi contribution — a Flintstones parody drawn and inked with Bill Wray while Kricfalusi was working at Hanna-Barbera — began as an act of studio rebellion: Kricfalusi pinned copies across the Hanna-Barbera producers' wing before the work found its way into print under the pseudonym 'Billy Bunting,' a name drawn from Kricfalusi's own earlier character concepts.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Mode O'Day and Doggo: Crumb's only sustained character series for Weirdo debuts here, running through at least issue #15 and later collected in The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 15 (Fantagraphics, 2001) and reprinted in R. Crumb The Weirdo Years: 1981–'93 (Last Gasp, 2013).
- Robert Crumb's final issue as editor: Crumb edited Weirdo #1–9; Peter Bagge assumed the editorial role beginning with issue #10 (Summer 1984).
- First appearance of Sophie Crumb as a comics character: infant Sophie appears in the collaborative 'Aline 'n' Bob' autobiographical strip co-drawn by Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, titled 'Arline 'n' Bob and That Thing In the Bedroom,' about the trials of having a new baby.
- John Kricfalusi (future creator of Ren & Stimpy) contributes the one-page Flintstones parody 'Cave Nudes,' inked by Bill Wray, under the pseudonym 'Billy Bunting' — his only known comics publication, created as an act of dissent while employed at Hanna-Barbera.
- Spain Rodriguez's 'Mission Nites' continues the Trashman saga, featuring Big Bitch in pursuit of Trashman to retrieve a serum; the story was later reprinted in Trashman Lives! (Fantagraphics, 1989) and Spain Vol. 1 (Fantagraphics, 2017).
- Terry Zwigoff — later the documentary filmmaker behind the 1994 film Crumb — appears in the issue via his recurring 'Prof. T. E. Zwigoff' letter-column persona, a comedic presence he maintained across multiple Weirdo issues.
- Peter Bagge contributes 'I Married A Jerk'; Dori Seda contributes 'The Artist Meets a Swinger or... Crabs Eating Raoul'; J.D. King contributes 'Elf Squelch,' a parody of the fantasy comic ElfQuest.
- The issue is 44 pages, magazine-sized (approximately 8 × 11 inches), black-and-white interior with color covers — standard format for Weirdo issues #1–14.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Epix #1/1986 (1986), Pox #4/1986 (1986), Endzeit Comics #[nn] (1986), Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental #[nn] (1986), Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental #[nn] [3rd & 4th printings] (1986), Trashman Lives!: The Collected Stories from 1968 to 1985 #[nn] (1989), Obras Completas Crumb #4 (1991), My Troubles with Women #[nn] (1992), The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics #[nn] (1993), Dori Stories #[nn] (1999), The Complete Crumb Comics #15 (2001), The R. Crumb Handbook #[nn] (2005), Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental: An Anthology of Comic Art 1979-1985 #[nn] (2012), Drawn Together #[nn] (2012), R. Crumb The Weirdo Years: 1981-'93 #[nn] (2013), Spain #1 (2017)
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