Vaughn Bodé (1941–1975)

This volume of Vaugn Bodē comix is pretty purely miscellany, featuring the plotless five-page "Lizard Zen" as its centerpiece. Bodē was a pioneer of underground comix, and as editor Marc Arsenault notes, Bodē's work (coming to a too-early end in 1975) has been an enduring influence on the entire medium of art graffiti.

The presence of human titties and lizard peckers is strictly for yucks here; there's nothing arousing about them. The art is vigorous while the stories tend toward the show more futilitarian absurd. I couldn't make heads or tails out of the gobbledigook-scripted "Gline." I felt like many of the topical references passed me by, especially in the Douglas Recording advertisements. But the science fiction parable "The Rudolf" was quite chilling in light of our 2014 "lone wolf" mass shootings.

All in all, this isn't the cream of Bodē's work, but it is representative and highly varied. show less

This is a collection of very strange underground style comics from the '70s. They are episodic strips amounting to three "stories" which are Sunpot, Machines, and Zooks. The art is interesting and the characters are manic, confused, but proceeding in whatever random task they have determined for themselves till the bitter end. In fact, the stories are less story than a series of situations caused by the random actions of the hyper and incompetent characters against a cluttered unexplained show more and peculiarly detailed background.
The humor is a little dated in certain places especially in Robots, the best part of the book in my opinion. Not because of the humor but because of the premise of intelligent war machines carrying out their programming to the very end with little capability to do otherwise. Also, two of the sections have curiously sad endings when juxtaposed with the crude humor.
Overall, I like it, I'm glad I read it if for nothing more than the desire for something a little different. I can recommend this to those familiar with 1970s underground comics and those looking for a little injection of something weird in their reading/comix diet. show less

Weird comix from the early 70s that originally appeared in Cavalier men's magazine. One-page strips about the inhabitants of a mountain from before time, mostly lizards and naked broads. Generally amusing, occasionally baffling. My biggest laugh came from "Rape!", in which a stocky, topless amazon cuts the protagonist to pieces while hurling imaginative insults; at the end, what remains of him thinks sagely, "I shoulda' masturbated." I feel ya, little lizard dude. It just ain't worth it.

A hilarious and chock-full of erotic absurdism collection of Bode's lizard characters and mute buxom women. Sexist as hell, but funny as all-get-out. The reproductions in this paperback sized paperback are a little muddy, though.