Once upon a time, back when I was in college, I drew a cartoon strip called "Nobby Crevvel and his Atomic Guitar." Nobby's super power was the ability to blow away "evildoers" (local cops, federal agents and of course, his arch enemy Dick Disko) with a thunderously loud note from his massive guitar amps. As you can see, I was going for a "underground comics" kind of motif like R. Crumb's nototious "Fritz the Cat" and "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" cartoons.

Nobby Crevvel first emerged in the 1974-75 school year, during my disasterous stay at Hartwick College. I drew a few strips then but didn't really hit my stride until a couple of years later when I was going to C.W. Post. I really liked drawing these things and found them quite therepeutic. Dozens and dozens were drawn although only about 12-15 still survive. Sometime toward the end of my stay at Post my portfolio disappeared with most of my 'toons. It really took the wind out of my sails and I never regained the enthusiasm for the strip I'd previously had.

If the cartoonist was prone to a "Seventies" frame of mind ("Party 'Till You Puke," "Legalize It," "F**k the Pigs" etc.) you can understand that considering most of these strips were drawn from 1978 through 1980. Most of these surviving strips were drawn at my friend Joe Spleb's kitchen table, under the influence of something or other. "The Spleb Man" helped a lot with the writing and brainstorming for many of these strips. I didn't realize his contributions until later, and so I acknowledge them here.

Several of these were published in student publications both at C.W. Post and American University, where a friend of mine ran a 'zine. That's why Nobby's other arch enemy, Officer "Porky" Bolton was renamed to Officer "Porky" METRO in some of these strips - the D.C. Police were called the "Metros.". The final strip here represents a comeback for Nobby of sorts. When I got to graduate school in the mid-eighties, I tried to resurrect Nobby. At my wife Terri's suggestion I tried to bring him into the Eighties and make the strip more topical.

I thought I'd share some of these strips just for yucks. Let me know what you think.

"Taxeman Axeman" - An mid-period strip in which Nobby gets confronted by a rather dumb I.R.S. agent.

"Decibels" - Another mid-period strip in which Nobby battles for audio supremacy with his arch enemy, Dick Disko!

"Bowlin' With the Bear" - In this later strip, Nobby practices his own brand of "Ganja Glasnost" with some guests from the Soviet Union.

"Slipped Trip" - Another later strip in which Nobby's Dad recalls his first acid trip in 1953 - Courtesy of the C.I.A.!

"Hell Bent" - This is one of the last ones I did, later on in the mid-Eighties when I was going to grad school at N.Y.U.

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Last Updated 12.18.05