Ralph Reese #3: Screaming Metal
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Our Ralph Reese Festival continues. By the way, if you want to purchase Reese artwork directly from Ralph, write to him at
reeseralph@gmail.com"The Toughest Town West of Chicago" was scripted by Carl Sifakis and appeared in
The Big Book of Hoaxes, published in 1996 by Paradox Press, Andy Helfer's imprint at DC Comics. Ralph also contributed to
The Big Book of Freaks, The Big Book of Losers and
The Big Book of Little Criminals. For a detailed listing of Ralph Reese stories, go to the
Comic Book Database.
In Ralph's notes below, he recalls Matty Simmons, who was the publisher of the
National Lampoon. He also mentions the French magazine
Metal Hurlant ("screaming metal").
Heavy Metal was launched in 1977 as the American edition of
Metal Hurlant. Ralph continues...
"An Afternoon Cocktail with Heather and Feather" was in Harpoon, a short-lived Lampoon clone. Dennis Lopez was the editor and also wrote the story. I did one more page, and then Matty Simmons called me and told me to cease and desist or else. I shoulda used a false name. The robot hooker painting was on the cover of Metal Hurlant. I originally did it for a portfolio of robosex drawings sponsored by Mark Rindner who used to run a comic art gallery. The Vampirella-Martians piece was a private commission by a Vampirella fan. The other story is from one of the DC Big Books... like The Big Book of Scams or something. They were like 150-page anthologies with stories illustrated by a hundred different artists and usually all written by the same author. Paul Kirchner wrote a couple of them. Kind of similar in theme to the other books that he's written since, all filled with weird facts. --Ralph Reese
Paul Kirchner comments: "
The Big Book that I wrote most of was
The Big Book of Losers, and Ralph's art on the story of Custer was stunning."
Labels: big book, custer, harpoon, helfer, kirchner, lampoon, metal hurlant, ralph reese