SCREW #1,370, cover art by Scott Cunningham

Drawn when TV series "The X Files" was at the apex of its popularity, UFO afficionado Scott Cunningham shows us what agents Mulder & Scully get up to in their off hours. 

Issue dated June 5, 1995

SCREW #1,402, cover art by Sam Henderson

Continuing with my hypothetical list of the ten all-time best SCREW covers, 

Sam Henderson's clever commentary on the excesses of the Me Generation would come in at #27. What it lacks in raw sexuality, it makes up for by mocking hippies. 

Issue date is January 15, 1996.

SCREW #1,414, cover art by Tim Johnson

If I had to make a list of the ten all-time best SCREW covers, this Ten Commandments riff by Tim Johnson would be on it. Great composition, great colors, great Goldstein caricature, all working in service of a killer concept. Issue date is April 8th, 1996.

FARE THEE WELL, SMUT PEDDLER: Al Goldstein RIP (1936-2013)

Al Goldstein has taken the elevator to the big edit meeting in the sky. 

I'll leave the obit-writing to the professionals.

You'll find those here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/nyregion/al-goldstein-pioneering-pornographer-dies-at-77.html?pagewanted=all

And here: http://observer.com/2013/12/al-goldstein-founder-of-screw-magazine-has-died/

All I have to add is this: Some people rear up in horror at the sight of pornography, and there's not much to be done about that. When considering porn, I think it's important to keep this in mind: some of our greatest artists and writers, (along with countless hacks) have turned to porn in the interest of scraping together a living. What they may have been surprised to discover in porn, (along with a modest paycheck) was artistic freedom. And THAT'S what I owe Al Goldstein.

For the last time: AL GOLDSTEIN IS NOT DEAD.

12/16/13: Confusion erupted early this morning when readers of magician Penn Jillette's Twitter feed read the following: "I'm in NYC. Today I visited my hero and friend Al Goldstein as he dies in the hospital, 

and tomorrow night I celebrate Lou Reed's Life. NYC"

Some readers, (including websites The RawStory.com and RealPornWikiLeaks) took this as a death announcement, which prompted Jillette to issue the following correction: "My buddy and hero, Al Goldstein is NOT dead.  He is unresponsive and not doing well, but he is alive. Try to stop the rumors. Thanks."

I now have a picture in my head left over from my old St Vincent's Hospital paper route: a type of patient the hospital personnel call a "gomer." These are bedridden old guys, mouths generally hanging slack, hovering unconscious in the twilight zone between life and death. They never bought any newspapers. Sobering and saddening to imagine one of humanity's most vociferous specimens reduced to this state. Think about it 

while you watch some vintage Midnight Blue clips: http://www.youtube.com/user/MBVids

(art by yours truly for the cover of SCREW #1,804, December 2006, art direction by Kevin Hein)

SCREW #1,280, cover art by Danny Hellman

A recent cover illo of mine for New Mexico alt weekly SANTA FE REPORTER seems to have ticked off some local Catholics, (as reported on ABC affiliate KOAT: http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/our-lady-of-guadalupe-in-bikini/-/9153728/20701882/-/15nvur2/-/index.html). In the interest of letting no wound go unsalted, I thought this might be the appropriate time to post one of my blasphemous SCREW covers. 

The Catholic Church and SCREW, (whose pages were, after all, dedicated in large part to hooker ads) would seem to be natural enemies, and cover art razzing the church was always welcome at the World's Greatest Newspaper. In the Fall of '93, Pope John Paul II was on a world tour, which prompted publisher Al Goldstein to call for a cover and two page comic strip depicting the pontiff as "Pope Man," a Catholic caped crusader. As would happen on countless occasions, the task of translating Goldstein's inspiration into lines on paper fell upon my humble shoulders, and in this instance at least, revisiting the drawing two decades later is not so terribly painful for me.

SCREW #1,280 is dated September 13th, 1993. Art direction by Kevin Hein.

SCREW #1,349, cover art by Kim Deitch

Collector Thomas Stein recently put in a request to see the one and only SCREW cover drawn by underground comix legend Kim Deitch. It just so happens I have a copy, and here it is! 

I chatted with Kim Deitch about SCREW a few years back. A frequent contributor to '60s hippie papers like the East Village Other, Kim told me that the secret to the success of those publications was that they generally included one or two photos of nude hippie gals. Such photos were guaranteed to pique the prurient interest of curious straights. When Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley launched SCREW in 1968, their strategy was to outdo the hippie papers by cramming the pages of their nascent sex tabloid with oodles of naked hippies in full filthy frolic. SCREW would remain a going concern for nearly four decades, while the East Village Other and its psychedelic brethren evaporated almost as quickly as a DMT trip.

The issue is dated January 9th, 1995. 

SCREW #398, cover art by Wallace Wood

Recently, collector Thomas Stein told me that he'd acquired an issue of SCREW from the mid 70s with cover art by Wally Wood. I started salivating as soon as he described the drawing to me, since this was clearly a Wood cover I hadn't seen before. Tom was kind enough to pay me a visit and let me pull a scan of the cover, which I am now happy to share with all you lovable SCREW Cover Art blog readers. It's SCREW #398, dated October18th, 1976.