Cataloging Comics Ephemera

Minis, Digests, Etc. #1-8 (Tanreth Press, April 2016 to December 2017, $4)
This infrequently but consistently published "iterative reference guide" edited and published by Scott Davis picks up where The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide and Fogel's Underground Price & Grading Guide leave off, bringing those two resources closer to review zines such as D. Blake Werts's Copy This! to catalog and document mini-comics and other comics ephemera. Each 32-page edition, limited to a first print run of 25, indexes mini-comics, digest-sized comics, and comics of other shapes and sizes—including material from the United Fanzine Organization and Small Press Syndicate. The first eight issues go up through D, to Brad Foster's The Dirty Old Lady Digest, which ran five issues between 1986 and 1993.



This zine might not be of interest to everybody—but it is an amazing and impressive project. If you've read mini-comics over the years, it'll be a fun read. And it's a crucial tool for zine and comics librarians, archivists, collectors, and scholars. Davis indexes titles, issue numbers, dates, contributors, price, and additional information for each item. The neatest part of the index zine, however, might be the reduced cover art at the foot of many pages. Just flipping through a few issues, some of the cover art highlights include Adventures of A-Girl, Amazing Cynicalman, Andy Nukes's BLDGS., Jeff Zenick's Destined, Max Traffic's Diary of Neo-Psychedelic Man, and others.



This zine is a labor of love that is much appreciated. I look forward to future issues!

Availability: Write Scott Davis at 114 Lesnyk Road, Goffstown, NH 03045, or email him. You can also order it from the Poopsheet Foundation.

Comix Index: Rip Off Comix #2

Publisher: Rip Off Press, Inc.
Publication year: 1977 (includes material created between 1974-1977)
Cover price: $1
Purchased: For $8 at Dreamworld Comics

Cover
Wonder Warthog takes a block of stone from the Great Wall of China. Promotional boxes for other material within. (color, art assumed to be by the respective artists)

Interiors are black and white.

Inside cover
Griffith Observatory: "Kids of Today (Tsk, Tsk)" by Bill Griffith
"There's a time and a place for everything -- but for the kids of today (tsk, tsk), the time is always now and the place is always here."

Pp. 1-5
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: "Phineas Goes to the Store" by Gilbert Shelton (story by Don Baumgart)
"Wow! My very own head shop!"

Pp. 6-13
Dorman's Doggie By Foolbert Sturgeon
"Live outside! I thought outside was just a big open air potty!"

P. 14
Rowdy Noody By Justin Green
"I'd play a warped record over n' over again, and I wouldn't give the dirty bastid anything 'cept egg water and halvah until he croaked!"

P. 15
Griffith Observatory: "Religious Nuts" by Bill Griffith
"Boss, I can't do no diggin' today -- my chart says my 'air' sign is dominant so I'm goin' to the track!!"

P. 16
Nerds by Dave Sheridan
"Ha! How do we do that? The UFO Society won't even recognize us!"

P. 17
The Forty Year Old Hippie: "The Rip" by Ted Richards
"Sure! Me him! You want buy autograph poem? Me just publish. Fifty dollar money."

P. 18
The Adventures of Fat Freddie's Cat by Gilbert Shelton (two six-panel strips)
"That's a neat stunt, but how do you know that the car will swerve like that?"

P. 19
Griffith Observatory: "The Doomsters" by Bill Griffith
"Your tofu and yeast sandwich is ready... anything in the paper today?"

Pp. 20-24
Terror Under the Bed by R. Diggs
"Get out in that kitchen an' rattle those pots an' pan's!"

Pp. 25-28
The Year Is... 3711 by Dave Sheridan
"We don't know, sir! It just sort of oozed up out of the sewer, sir!" (best panel in the issue)

P. 29
The Forty Year Old Hippie by Ted Richards
"I'm sorry, but I think you've had enough!"
Business name: The Catharsis Coffeehouse

P. 30
The Casebook of Doctor Feelgood by Foolbert Sturgeon
"Things used to be a lot easier for guys like me... you beat up the bad guys and everybody liked you!"

P. 31
Griffith Observatory: "The Geniuses" by Bill Griffith
"An artist, eh? And he rented number nine for the weekend?"

Pp. 32-48
Wonder Warthog: "Epidemic" by Gilbert Shelton
"Just enough to cause a few isolated cases! Our P.R. department will take it from there!"

Inside back cover
Advanced Motoring Tips #149 by Gilbert Shelton
"Radio signals would be sent to change the lights in the vehicle's path. The transmitter would take coins."

Back cover
On a Perfectly Clear Day by Gilbert Shelton (color, house ad)
"If you look long and hard enough, it is said, you can see the back of your own head."