Tag Archives: underground

02/02/2018 · 1:11 pm

In The Beginning

Set the Wayback Machine for 1998. I was at Kinko’s, in the middle of the night, running off copies of Mike The Pod Comix #4 (the blue one).

Those aren’t fonts. I didn’t have a computer. They’re typefaces copied from a book of antique alphabets, then literally cut and pasted. The rest is my own lettering.

The fourth issue was a transitional one. Drop Dead, my “90’s comic book“, concluded in its pages, in lieu of a seventh issue. I reprinted the Liquid Paper Pirates and Squeeky Wheel Gets The Grease strips from FINK, as well as For Whom The Beef Jerks.

Oh, and for the first time ever, I did full frontal, stark raving nudity. (NSFW!!!)

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Girls of BIUL, Magazine Rack, Movies You Missed, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1988, 1990s, 1996, 1998, 2000s, 2008, 2018, Bad Religion, Bands I Useta Like, behind the scenes, breasts, Cannibal Corpse, comic, comix, Drop Dead, Kinko's, Mike the Pod, Mike The Pod Comix, music, New Jersey, NSFW, Oingo Boingo, pre 9/11, Savannah, Sordid Hollow, strips, The B-52s, underground, Ween

12/05/2017 · 4:40 pm

“An Afternoon On The Playground”

From BIUL #1 (2014).

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Filed under Comix Classic & Current, Girls of BIUL, Magazine Rack, Site Stuff

Tagged as 2009, 2010s, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, Atlanta, Bands I Useta Like, Ceaseless Fables of Beyonding, comix, J.P. Kittens, Musical Meddler Squad, Select Your Destiny, underground

08/19/2017 · 4:53 pm

Million Dollar Extreme

I love great sketch comedy, and as demonstrated on this site, I have tremendous nostalgia for the video industry of the 1980’s and ’90s. By nature I am protective of those things, out of love. I have little tolerance of exploitation of them.

I believe the modern peak of sketch comedy came with two shows; Mr. Show with Bob & David, and The Kids In The Hall (both on HBO). Since the 1990s, these programs set the gold standard. Inevitably, new sketch comedy shows are compared to them, and they seldom hold up. I don’t think The State gelled until they became Reno 911. Broken Lizard has fantastic moments; generally one or two per film. Too many comedy groups nowadays are post-UCB; all manic energy, no focus. That’s fine if the group is performing live for an drunken bar audience. TV is a different matter.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Nostalgic Obsessions, Unfairly Maligned

Tagged as 1990s, 2000s, 2002, 2004, 2017, Adult Swim, Atlanta, Bob Odenkirk, Bumfights, Charls Carroll, comedy, Eric Wareheim, Everything Is Terrible, Family Guy, Gwar, HBO, Internet, Jackass, John C. Reilly, Kids In The Hall, Million Dollar Extreme, Mr. Show, music, Nick Rochefort, political correctness, Sam Hyde, Saturday Night Live, Tm Heidecker, underground, vaporwave, Will Forte, Wonder Showzen

08/10/2017 · 1:11 pm

You Can Pick Your Nose, But You Can’t Pick Your Fans

A stalker once told me, as though it validated his abhorrent behavior, “You can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your friends’ friends.” Admittedly, that’s partly true.

I mean, you’re welcome to pick your nose, if you’d like to be ostracized from society and make everyone sick at the same time. You can pick your friends, provided they’re in the same socio-economic class as you are, and they don’t consort with a better version of your identity. And you can’t pick your friends’ friends, who, for all you know, could be royalty, or morally repugnant wasted orgasms.

If you create art and/or entertainment, you don’t get to pick and choose who likes it.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Don't Know Don't Care, Girls of BIUL, Uncategorized

Tagged as 1970s, 2010s, 2017, corporate crap, fandom, Godspell, Internet, Manwoman, Michael Jordan, Monty Python's Life Of Brian, political correctness, sellouts, The Who, Tommy, underground

08/01/2017 · 11:24 am

Dead Kennedys

Real political subversion will be hidden from you by the media. When do you see a current celebrity interacting with rioters, or a mob of angry protesters? Never? There you go.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1960s, 1980s, 2017, alternative music, Bands I Useta Like, comix, Dead Kennedys, Family Guy, Indecline, jail, Jay Lynch, Jello Biafra, Marvel comics, Peter Kuper, political correctness, R. Crumb, Rik Mayall, riots, S. Clay Wilson, Skip Williamson, Social Justice Warriors, social media, The Simpsons, The Young Ones, underground

07/12/2017 · 4:44 pm

The Day Pekar Died

From BIUL #1.

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Filed under Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Magazine Rack, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1990s, 2010, Afghan Whigs, alternative music, American Splendor, Atlanta, Bands I Useta Like, Cincinnati, Cleveland, comix, despair, Harvey Pekar, Ivan Brunetti, laughter, R. Crumb, underground, Willy Murphy

06/20/2017 · 9:54 am

Prideful Moments

From BIUL II.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Worst Of All

Tagged as 2015, Bands I Useta Like, comix, despair, strips, underground

06/16/2017 · 11:38 am

Name Your Rock Band

A long, long time ago, on a website far away, there was a thing that pulled in page-views like a drunken champion. It was about 50% my creation. The rest was appropriately and totally ripped off.

It was called “Name Your Rock Band”.

For the first handful of years of the 21st century, it was the most popular page on my site, Mike The Pod. In truth, it goes back even farther than that.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Site Stuff

Tagged as 1970s, 1980s, 1985, 2000s, 2005, behind the scenes, comedy, laughter, Mike the Pod, National Lampoon, New Jersey, satire, The Fugs, The Simpsons, underground

06/06/2017 · 11:38 am

Willy Murphy

If you don’t recognize the name in the title, it’s okay. I’m not gonna browbeat you this time. This guy takes a lot more effort to be aware of, so don’t feel bad if you’re unfamiliar. In fact, let me introduce you to one of the funniest underground cartoonists of the 20th century.

From San Francisco Comic Book No. 4, 1973.

If you’ve read Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, you’ll recognize Murphy’s distinctive style. Willy was as much a natural talent as Gilbert Shelton or Robert Crumb.

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