Junked Issue 1
Underground Overlords!
It’s been a while since I’ve wrote a Substack post. I guess I don’t have as much time to write about comics as I thought I did. I’ve got limited free time. Either I can work on comics or I can look at a laptop and type about comics. The last few weeks I’ve been working on Wrong Issue Two. It’s been a slow process but it’s the Junked way. Substack posts will be written whenever there’s time, comics will be released whenever they are ready. There’s no schedule that will save us from ourselves. I’ve said it before but underground comics is somehow the ugly (older) cousin of punk bands. There’s a snotty immediate experience in reading comics and listening to music, but it seems everything in comics takes ten time longer than everything in music. You and your mates can pick up instruments on Friday night, start writing and by Saturday you can record something decent and start gigging. If you start trying to measure the amount of time that goes into producing a comic you’ll probably get visions of your own grave hurtling at you like a freight train. Junked issue 1 was delayed for a couple reasons. We thought it would be out in Autumn 2024, it kindof emerged in January 2025 or something. It’s hard to pinpoint. No-ones really keeping track.
If you know Dylan’s work then you’ll know self aware meta sadist comics ooze out his pen without him even pushing it. This cover was inked within minutes of him showing us the rough sketch. Dylan’s a man who knows a thing or two about snuff films. The rest of us elder millennials are probably happy knowing as much as we learnt on Rotten.com or Liveleak 20 odd years ago, but Dylan really knows the who’s, what’s, why’s and where’s beyond that. He’s got his reasons.
It would be bloody awful to find that you absolutely must make a snuff movie. Imagine the horror in realising you’ve agreed to it in the unread terms and conditions when signing up for Substack. I bet after the horror has subsided it would be a pretty clumsy and sardonic affair. Dylan explores this idea in the opening story “Gary Swandale Does Snuff.” 6 pages of joke per panel rhythm that cant be read with a straight face. I’d hate to imagine what Dylan was up to when he dreamt up this nightmare.
I was trying to walk off a hangover when I came up with my pages. A pleasant meal in a distant city had descended into chaos the night before. There was wrestling in the street and I had camped out on a lawn. On waking I had about 90 minutes to feel human and look presentable. I tried to convince myself that I was sober on a walk around unknown suburban streets. A woman ironing in her window caught sight of me. I’m sure she was trying to take a mental note of what I was wearing in case any neighbours reported burglaries later on. The idea of catching someone’s eye accidentally then ruining your life is pretty much the gist of this story. I still feel hungover looking at the art. Around the same time as drawing this I was working on a handful of other stories that involve people invading your privacy and wrecking everything. I didn’t even realise I had written so many stories with this trope until much later. I’ve had to put it to rest for a bit, still creeps me out though.
The Junked collective have an uneasy relationship with auto-bio comics. Ask any of us and we’ll probably sneer at it, but the truth is we’ve all dabbled. We can’t just blame Joe Matt or Robert Crumb or Harvey Pekar for making it acceptable. The DIY comics format itself lends itself too easily to auto-bio rambling. It’s a better fit than blogs or vlogs or Christmas cards or wedding speeches. The trouble is it can be a hell of a lot more revealing. You can’t really draw an auto-bio comic about your successes without looking conceited. You can’t really draw a comic trying to justify your crimes without looking dishonest. You’re kind of left with this self effacing territory of spilling your guts out. When Leslie does auto-bio he gets away with it because in real life he isn’t sanguine and pathetic. The dude has rough edges that he doesn’t try to hide. Too many people in that auto-bio-sphere are perpetual victims in a nice guy pissing contest. Leslie’s pages in Junked 1 is roughly an auto-bio comic about drawing comics about not drawing comics.
Right. Paul Kortjohn’s pages. Possibly the greatest pages in this book. Possibly the greatest thing he drew up till then. But I honestly can’t write about it for a mailing list read by strangers. There’s a pervert and a toy horse. That might be all you need to know.
I can’t explain much about this horse. I don’t want a handful of people having their bank holiday Monday’s soured with a email describing what a toy called Sparklehorse gets up to when it gains sentience.
Oh god, I’ve probably said too much already. It’s probably best if you remove yourself from this mailing list.
Junked has a mascot called Kali Blaster. One of the reasons Junked 1 was delayed was sorting out the Kali Blaster photos. Our usual cosplayer Katie Baker couldn’t make this issue due to work schedules. Do you know how hard it is to be an isolated middle aged bloke who’s suddenly charged with figuring out a cosplay shoot from scratch? I think I’d rather be told I have to make a snuff film. It sounds really simple up until you realise you need to find a model, find a photographer and make a bunch of props by hand otherwise nothing will look right. I spent a drunken night drawing the complete major arcana for the fantastic Miss Ubel to do her thing with.
The first 20 issues of Junked 1 came with a free hand drawn tarot card drawn at random. First 100 issues came with another secret surprise prize. Issue 2 will probably come with a bag cereal with a toy inside. When did cheesecake imagery leave underground comix? Weirdo Comix had cheesecake photomontages in the 80’s. Clowes’ Eightball had cheesecake elements in the adverts in the 90’s but no photos. Charles Burns has a streak of disarmed cheesecake that somehow feels more seedy and dangerous. Credit where credits due, Leslie Wenlock is the one who pushed for photos to be included in Junked. The man is stoking the embers of cheesecake and exploitation with his Black Ink Empire.
The gears have just started turning for Junked Issue Two. Expect it in Summer. Buy it in Winter.
Find all the Junked artists (Dylan Henty, Leslie Wenlock, Dan Hughes, Paul Kortjohn) on Instagram and buy Junked Issue 1 direct from them.
(Hughes)