Talk:Vaughn Frick

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BOOKS :

" A Cooperative Guide to Flat Repair," Published by Citybikes Several interior illustrations about bicycles, owls, and herons.

" Gay Comics," published by New American Library, 1989 1 full page "Watch Out!" comix, 5 page story "Leatherthing" written by Michael Goldberg, originally published in Gay Comix # 8

"MEATMEN- An Anthology of Gay Male Comics" Volume # 1, published by G.S.Press/ Leyland Publications, 1986 6 pages of my San Francisco " Watch Out!" comix.

The "Meatmen" series of books were mostly Gay sex stories, a different chakra from the agitprop themes of my mostly political cartoons. The page rate paid was scant, and the publishing contract not favorable for the artist. Example: If a book was reprinted that I was published in, I would not be paid for my work unless the press run was over a set number. MEATMEN was reprinted in the lower numbers, so the artists were not paid. There was also some skullduggery about copyright ownership of my artwork once  published by G.S. Press. I was offered a whole book contract, which would have collected my comix and had good distribution. I declined the offer due to the contract involved. At least I know that when I met the devil at the crossroads I made the right choice.

"MEATMEN- An Anthology of Gay Male Comics" Volume # 3, published by G.S. Press/ Leyland Publications, 1988 A 9 page original post-apocalyptic romance titled " Restorations."

"Restorations" was a bold attempt of mine to draw a story in a style removed from my standard cartoon buffoonery. A simple tale of when two lovers meet, away in a time far from today.

"No Straight Lines," published by Fantagraphics Books, 2012 1 page of San Francisco " Watch Out!" comix, 9 page story " The Tortoise and the Scorpion" originally published in Gay Comix # 8

" So Fey, Queer Fairy Fiction," published by Haworth Press. 2007 A short story fantastical romance between a faerie and a pixie. No art drawn for this.

"Strip AIDS," published by Last Gasp of San Francisco, 1988

A 2 page comic strip titled " Stan Stone gets an HIV test." This was a AIDS benefit book including original artwork/comix by both comic book industry name talent and their more obscure underground comix counterparts.

COMIX

"Annie Sprinkle is Miss Timed" # 1, 2, 3, 4, published by Rip Off Press, 1990 - 1991

This comic was produced in the standard comic book collaborative model:  editor, writer, pencil artist, ink artist, letterer. For this project I inked another artist's pencils and lettered the pages. I have enjoyed collaborating with other people, and this project was very different. The main character was based on Annie Sprinkle, a former porn star turned performance artist/ sex activist. The series premise was that Annie ( Miss Timed ) ran afoul with a time machine and then bonked her way through history in a series of sex-positive adventures. I sure got to ink a lot of pubic hair. The writer was Andy Mangels, and the pencil artist M. Michael Clarke. This comic's sexual dynamic was heterosexual, flirting with bisexuality. Andy and I are both very Gay, and M Clarke then a straight virgin, an odd set to create a sex comic with. I was reminded of those medieval drawing of elephants drawn by artists whom had never in real life seen one, had only had what an elephant looks like described to them. It all was good fun.

Gay Comix # 3, 1982, published by Kitchen Sink.

1 page "Watch Out"

My friend Stan Henry first nudged me to contribute to gay Comix, and GC's editor Howard Cruse gave me a good turn and published my first attempts at creating comic strips. My style then had a very hard, radical street edge to it. The two characters drawn were experiments and this would be their only appearance. I still very much was trying then to find my style and theme. With my Gay Comix work I really tried to create new themes and would push how each strip was drawn into different directions. Gay Comix had 3 editors during my run: Howard Cruse, Robert Triptow, and Andy Mangels. Each very helpful with good advice for my out-there stories. Gay Comix also switched publishers to the Bay Area Reporter later on.

Gay Comix # 4, 1983

Cover artwork and a 4 page comic strip " Stan Stone, the little writer that nobody loves." 
Stan Stone is based upon a good friend and writer Stan Henry. Stan and I then always shared what we were working on with each other, an artistic relationship. We gave honest opinions about each other's projects, and he absolutely gave good advice that helped make what I was working on then better. Stan and I corresponded, and in those letters I started drawing a little caricature of him. As an in joke I slipped his character into a "Watch Out!" comic strip I was drawing when he visited me in San Francisco. People responded well to the character, I got good feedback, so I drew Stan into several other strips, and so the Stan Stone legend was born. Real Stan loved his connection with comic Stan Stone, and even collaborated with me by writing a series of Stan Stone comic strips. Stan Stone was a very malleable creation to draw stories around, and became my most popular character. Several times when first meeting me, people who had read the strips would think that I should look like Stan, instead of a long-haired young hippy. 
Stan passed many years back, so I retired the character. I've toyed with resurrecting it in tribute, perhaps.

Gay Comix # 5 1984

2 "Watch Out!" Comix pages

Gay Comix # 7 1986 " Stan Stone in the 86th Dimension." A 7 page phantasmagoria set

Gay Comix # 8 1986

"Leatherthing," a 5 page comic strip about when leather can go to far, written by Michael Goldberg. This was my first of 3 collaborations with my friend and fellow cartoonist Michael Goldberg. Michael was great to work with, he had a wild imagination, wry wit, and infectious enthusiasm for whatever project at hand. We planned and giggled about many more prospective projects to collaborate on, but the venues of publication too few, and then Michael died.

Gay Comix # 13, 1988

" Our Love was too Cosmic," a 10 page saga of Radical Faerie love and woe during a Radical Faerie gathering. Written by Michael Goldberg. Page count was always at a premium at Gay comix with a lot of cartoonists wanting in, getting 10 pages to draw was a luxury, and Michael's script was very visual.

Gay Comix # 14, 1991

" Castro St. 2000," a six page what-if future whimsy about the future of San Francisco's Castro street. Written by Michael Goldberg. There are many in-jokes slipped in here for my fellow cartooning clique.

Gay Comix # 15, 1992

" The Tortoise and the Scorpion," a 9 page funny animal AIDS psycho-drama, romance, and transformation. Reprinted in the anthology " No Straight Lines" in 2012. This work also got pirated by a Swedish publishing house several years back, printed directly and translated off of a copy of Gay Comix. By the time I found this out, the publishers had gone bankrupt, and getting anything from that unauthorized use of my comic got tangled in international law. One's creative output can wind up in the most interesting of places.

Gay Comix # 22, 1994

" Portland Bird: Jays in the Military,"
A one page " Portland Bird" strip about funny-animal assimilation.

Gay Comix # 25, 1998,

 A one page end of AIDS parable titled " And then it began gently to rain."

Watch Out Comix # 1, 1986, published by Last Gasp! of San Francisco.

A solo 44 page undergound comic book, a  compilation of my San Francisco "Watch Out!" comix, including a sequel to the Stan Stone story from Gay Comix # 4. This was published during the end of the underground comix age. Adult comix then suffered from extremely limited distribution outlets, as many head shops which had sold them had shuttered up as consequence of the war on illegal drugs. Comic book stores were then about mostly selling old comic books to collectors, often being children. Most comic book stores avoided selling adult themed material to minors out of fear of being fined or closed down. The United States Supreme Court had ruled that local communities legally can set the standards of what is labeled as obscene or pornographic, which had a chilling effect for a publishing medium that was aimed mostly then for children. The sales were not good enough for a "Watch Out Comix" # 2, although today old copies of WOC#1 are available through several internet book sale outlets. " Gay Comix" was able to be sold then through a now mostly vanished landscape of small GLBTQ bookstores. Today comic books translate into big box-office movies and graphic novels sold over the counter, what once was treated as a disposable market for children.

MAGAZINES / PERIODICALS

Earth First! Journal 1990's

EFJ published my "Cascadia" comic strips, and I drew cover and interior artwork to illustrate articles. The editor then is my best friend Leslie, and I used to go to the Earth First journal offices during newspaper production and draw up filler artwork as needed. EFJ on occasion still digs up old artwork of mine to use, with my blessings.

GAUNTLET 1992

I illustrated two comic strips written by Andy Mangels." No Messages Here " at five pages and " A gerbil too far."

RFD magazine

RFD started in the early 1970's as a reader written journal aimed for rural/counterculture Gay Men. Over time it became a Radical Faerie centered publication, and still gets published collectively. Beginning in the early 1980's I would contribute original artwork, including several covers, and my "Watch Out" comix were also reprinted during the late 1980's.

NEWSPAPERS:

Before the internet age there were published a plethora of small run community/activist/radical newspapers that today have mostly vanished from our cultural landscape. Before the ease of computer design, a crew of dedicated people was needed to physically create the newspaper pages which were then photographed onto steel plates for printing. Besides cartooning and illustration, I designed  and put together the newspaper pages, operate darkrooms, edit and take photographs, design advertising,edit newspaper copy, caption and headline writing, selling classifieds, etc. The challenge and fun of working at a small newspaper then for me was a chance to wear several professional hats. many of these production jobs are now lost to quicker technologies. My bankable skill was operating a photo-stat camera, which reproduced the gray tones in black and white photographs into reproducible dot patterns for the printing process then. Working at these newspapers forged a journalistic ethic for my comix. I learned to be able to edit out what was not necessary for the story, to be able to say a lot with a little. Working alongside reporters taught me the reporting code of " Who- What- Where- Why-When." When a reporter's job was to give the public the facts and let them decide for themselves, instead of interpreting the news for them. I truly am thankful to have been able to work in publishing at that point in time before today's "infotainment." I also was blessed with being able to work with several exceptional editors. Gary Schwiekhart at the San Francisco Sentinel and George Bakan at the Seattle Gay News are at the top of this list.
"Watch Out!" Comix was a satirical/ political comic strip that I first began drawing while working at the San Francisco " Sentinel " in 1982, then at the Seattle Gay News from1985 till 1991

" Cascadia," first titled " Portland Bird." was drawn between 1992 and 1998.The main characters were a great blue heron and a spotted owl who shared a committed relationship together during the environmental apocalypses of their time. The content was pure radical environmental politics with a Gay rights high-five.

Northwest Passage 1979 - 1985

The Northwest Passage was a radical counterculture/progressive newspaper of the sort that every large city then had, a forum for those who's causes and politics locked them outside of the mainstream media culture. Simply, a hippy protest rag produced by a loose-knit ever-changing anti-authoritarian collective. I worked off and on at the Passage from 1979 till the paper's demise in 198?. I drew editorial cartoons, cover artwork, article illustration, advertising graphics, page design and production, copy writing, darkroom work, newspaper distribution.

PDXS Mid 90's PDXS was a Portland alternative paper oriented toward the club and live music scene. I got to draw several covers, and a full page comic titled "Cooley Foolery," and a two page comic titled " Bob's Tongue Untied." Both strips were about the downfalls of two different silly political hypocrites.

Portland Alliance 1990's

This was the home paper for my " Cascadia" comix. I also assisted with newspaper design and production. "Cascadia" was very much about radical environmental politics and current events,  all of the Alliance editors I worked with helped with a very difficult radically political comic strip to write and draw.

San Francisco Sentinel 1982-1984

I worked at the San Francisco Sentinel from early 1982 till late1984. The Sentinel was a bi-weekly newspaper oriented for the San Francisco Gay community. I was the art director/photo editor, and operated the photostat camera, designed advertisements, and drew regular editorial cartoons and started my comic strip comic strip called "Watch Out! Comix.

Seattle Gay News 1978-1980 1985-1991

I began working at the Seattle Gay News while still in high school in 1979. I had come out as Gay during my senior year at Lincoln high school of Seattle, an action which caused me to get thrown out of my home by my parents. My mother while on a snooping mission found copies of SGN hidden in my bedroom, a discovery even more shocking for her when She realized that my artwork was being published in it, and saw my name in the staff box. I had to drop out of high school so I could support myself, and it did all turn out well enough with the help of my friends. 
SGN publisher and editor George Bakan allowed me a free hand for what subject matter I could draw with my comix. Each week I had a full page to fill, an artistic luxury unheard of for newspaper cartoonists today. A full newspaper page allowed me to cram in detail, experiment with composition and story-telling techniques. Some strips would be very political in content, or just silly and social. I also drew an AIDS serial drama that published for over a year, featuring a ghost and his best living pal. Many of these strips were so topical in content and locked in the politics of the day, that now they don't translate well without extensive foot-notes. That was what I wanted to draw, a comic strip very much a part of it's time.
I also worked at SGN with all the aspects of newspaper production.

Seattle Lights

A short lived GLBTQ community newspaper which reprinted several of my San Francisco " Watch Out! " comix.

Seattle Sun 1980

A brief run of a comic strip called "Suburban Aliens"

Seattle Weekly

The Weekly was a mainstream paper where in 1985 I drew cartoons and illustrations for articles till a new editor came on board whom did not like my artwork.

POSTERS, FLYERS, HANDBILLS, AND OTHER EPHEMERA

American Indian Association of Portland 1992 500 years and still dancing

3rd Annual Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival 1986

A large color cartoon poster, and flyers for the event.

Family Jewels 1986

Several handbills for a used jewelry store.

Freedom Day Committee

The Freedom day Committee organizes Seattle's annual GLBTQ Pride Parade. In 1987 I served as Co-Chairperson for the Parade, and drew the Parade poster. I also created handbill art and other promotion artwork for the GLBTQ Parade for other years circa late 1980's.

Healers for a Healthy planet.

Logo design. Healers for a Healthy Planet was a short lived environmental group.

Hibiscus 1990 A play by Stan Henry about seminal Gay rights activist Hibiscus, AKA George Harris, who became famous when Life magazine published a photograph of him placing flowers into the gun barrels of the National Guard at an anti-Vietnam war protest.

Imperial Court of Seattle Coronation 1988

The Imperial Court has been a National, philanthropic organization of drag performers who for over 50 years have set up drag shows, usually to benefit causes for the GLBTQ community.

Northwest Run for the End of AIDS 1988

A marathon run to raise H.I.V.awareness in the Pacific Northwest.

Radical Faeries

The Radical faeries began as a loose network of Gay men from the Radical end of the Gay rights pool. Today many non Gay people identify as being a Radical Faerie, which at times places Gay men in the minority of a culture they created as a safe space for their own. For nearly 30 years I've drawn artwork for events, gatherings, organizations, posters, comic strips, etc.   In the late 1980's I helped produce 4 issues of a newsletter called " The Faerie Home Companion."

ResistDance early 90's 2 posters for benefits for the Cascadia Forest Alliance

Sacred Earth Coalition

The Sacred Earth Coalition was a coalition of Native American and Environmental activists working together for the common goal of preserving our natural environment.

A Tribute to Wy'East 1989 Sacred Earth Coalition Benefit 1990 Public Hearing on Mt. Hood Meadows 1991 Wy'East Summit 2 Gathering 1991