American underground cartoonist and illustrator (1941?1975)
Vaughn Bod?
(
;
[a]
July 22, 1941 ? July 18, 1975) was an American
underground cartoonist
and
illustrator
known for his character
Cheech Wizard
and his artwork depicting voluptuous women. A contemporary of
Ralph Bakshi
, Bod? has been credited as an influence on Bakshi's animated films
Wizards
and
The Lord of the Rings
. Bod? has a huge following among
graffiti
artists, with his characters remaining a popular subject.
[3]
Bod? was inducted into the
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame
for comics artists in 2006.
[4]
Career
[
edit
]
He was born Vaughn Bode on July 22, 1941.
[5]
In 1963, at age 21, and while living in
Utica, New York
,
[6]
Bod? self-published
Das Kampf
, considered one of the first underground comic books.
[7]
Created after Bod?'s stint in the U.S. Army,
Das Kampf
has been called "a war-themed spoof on
Charles Schulz
's 1962 book
Happiness Is a Warm Puppy
."
[6]
With money borrowed from his brother Vincent, Bod? photocopied about 100 copies of the 52-page book and (mostly unsuccessfully) attempted to sell it around the Utica area.
[6]
In the mid 1960s Bod? was living in
Syracuse, New York
, attending classes at
Syracuse University
and contributing to
The Sword of Damocles
, a student-run, though not university-sanctioned, humor magazine similar to
The Harvard Lampoon
. It was here that Bod?'s most famous comic creation,
Cheech Wizard
, first saw publication. Cheech Wizard (sometimes characterized as a "cartoon messiah") is a
wizard
whose large yellow hat (decorated with black and red stars) covers his entire body except his legs and his big red feet. Cheech Wizard is constantly in search of a good party, cold beer, and attractive women. Usually depicted without arms, it is never actually revealed what Cheech Wizard looks like under the hat, or exactly what kind of creature he is, although in the episode entitled "The Unmasking of Cheech Wizard", when he "doffs the hat", it is evident that underneath was a low-rent Oz man all along (in an interview, reference is made to the frontal lump in the hat caused by crossed arms). Characters pressing the issue generally are rewarded with a swift kick to the groin by Cheech. After an initial run in
The Sword of Damocles
, the strip continued for a few more years in
The Daily Orange
, the student-written newspaper at Syracuse University.
In 1968, Bod? illustrated the cover & interior art for
R. A. Lafferty
's
science fiction
novel
Space Chantey
, published by
Ace Double
. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he illustrated covers and interior art for the science fiction digests
Amazing Stories
,
Fantastic
,
Galaxy Science Fiction
,
Witzend
and
Worlds of If
.
Discovered by fellow cartoonist
Trina Robbins
, Bod? moved to
Manhattan
in 1969 and joined the staff of the underground newspaper the
East Village Other
.
[3]
It was here that Bod? met
Spain Rodriguez
,
Robert Crumb
and other founders of the quickly expanding
underground comics
world.
[8]
At the
East Village Other
, he helped found
Gothic Blimp Works
, an underground comics supplement to the magazine, which ran for eight issues, the first two edited by Bod?.
Bod?'s
post-apocalyptic
science fiction
action series
Cobalt 60
featured an
antihero
wandering a devastated
post-nuclear
land, seeking to avenge the murder of his parents.
Cobalt-60
debuted as a ten-page black-and-white story in the science fiction
fanzine
Shangri L'Affaires
(a.k.a.
Shaggy
) #73, published in 1968. Bod? won the 1969
Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist
largely on the strength of
Cobalt 60
, but he never did anything else with the character. (
Cobalt-60
was later "completed" in the early 1980s by Bod?'s son
Mark Bode
, with stories by
Larry Todd
, who was Vaughn's friend and collaborator in the 1960s on projects for
Eerie
,
Creepy
, and
Vampirella
magazines.)
Beginning in 1968 and continuing until his untimely death, Bod? entered a prolific period of creativity, introducing a number of strips and ongoing series, most of which ran in underground newspapers or erotic magazines:
- Bod?'s strip
War Lizards
, a look at the
Vietnam War
from the hostile stance of the period's
counterculture
, was told with
anthropomorphic
reptiles instead of people. It ran sporadically in the
East Village Other
,
Witzend
,
Pig Society
, and Bod?'s own
Junkwaffel
from 1969?1972.
- Bod?'s comic strip
Deadbone
, about the adventures of the inhabitants of a solitary mountain a billion years in the past, ran in the men's magazine
Cavalier
from 1969?1975. Originally in black-and-white, when colored the strip changed its title to
Deadbone Erotica
and later simply to
Erotica
.
- Episodes of
Cheech Wizard
ran in the "Funny Pages" of
National Lampoon
magazine in almost every issue from 1971 to 1975.
- Bod?'s black-and-white science fiction parody
Sunpot
appeared in
Galaxy Science Fiction
in the early 1970s. (It was later republished, in color, in
Heavy Metal
.)
- Bod?'s monthly comic strip feature
Purple Pictography
ran in
Swank
magazine in 1971?1972. (
Bernie Wrightson
did the painted art for five of
Purple Pictography
episodes based on Bod?'s scripts and rough layouts.)
Print Mint
published four issues of Bod?'s solo series
Junkwaffel
from 1971 to 1974. Bod?'s graphic novel
The Man
, published by Print Mint in 1972, is about a
caveman
who accidentally makes important observations about life.
Cartoon Concert tour
[
edit
]
Beginning in 1972, Bod? toured with a show called the "Cartoon Concert", that featured him vocalizing his characters while their depictions were presented on a screen behind him via a
slide projector
[8]
(in a performance similar to a
chalk talk
). The first of these "Cartoon Concerts" was presented in October 1972 at the
Detroit Triple Fan Fair
in front of 80 people. He next did the Concert at
Bowling Green State University
,
[3]
and eventually performed it at several
comic book conventions
, including the November 1972
Creation Con
in New York City. Observing the crowd reaction, The
Bantam Lecture Bureau
immediately signed him on, and the show became very popular on the college lecture circuit. Bod? even performed it at the
Louvre
, in Paris.
[2]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Bod? was born in
Utica, New York
, the son of Kenneth and Elsie Bode.
[2]
Vaughn was one of four children, including his older brother Victor and younger siblings Vincent and Valerie.
[2]
Vaughn's father was an alcoholic;
[2]
he started drawing as a way of escaping a less-than-happy childhood.
[8]
Bod?'s parents divorced when he was around ten years old, and he was sent to live with an uncle near Washington, D.C.
[2]
After joining the Army at age 19, Bod? went
AWOL
but later received an
honorable discharge
due to a psychiatric diagnosis.
[9]
Bod? married Barbara Hawkins at age 20 in 1961.
[2]
Their son
Mark
was born in 1963. Barbara divorced Bod? in 1972,
[2]
and he moved to
San Francisco
in 1973 (with some of his underground contemporaries, including Robbins and Spain).
[8]
Sexuality
[
edit
]
Around 1970?1971, conversations with the
guru
Prem Rawat
and fellow cartoonist
Jeffrey Catherine Jones
(with whom Bod? shared a studio in
Woodstock, New York
)
[9]
led Bod? to
cross-dressing
,
transvestism
,
[3]
and even a short-lived experiment with female hormones.
[9]
Bod? described his sexuality as "auto-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual, mano-sexual, sado-sexual, trans-sexual, uni-sexual, omni-sexual."
[8]
[9]
Death
[
edit
]
Bod?'s death was due to
autoerotic asphyxiation
. His last words were to his son: "Mark, I've seen God four times, and I'm going to see him again soon. That's No. 1 to me, and you're No. 2."
[8]
Thirty-three years old at the time of his death, Bod?'s ashes were dropped from a
Cessna
airplane over the waters off the coast of
Point Reyes
.
[8]
He left behind a library of sketchbooks, journals, finished and unfinished works, paintings, and comic strips. Most of his art has since been published in a variety of collections, mostly from
Fantagraphics
.
Influence
[
edit
]
Bod? was a friend of animator
Ralph Bakshi
, and warned him
[
why?
]
against working with
Robert Crumb
on the
animated film adaptation
of Crumb's strip
Fritz the Cat
.
[10]
Bod? has been credited as an influence on Bakshi's films
Wizards
and
The Lord of the Rings
.
[11]
[12]
Bod? has a huge following among
graffiti
artists and his work can often be seen replicated in the world of street art.
[8]
As the original New York graffiti train writers (such as
DONDI
) chose to replicate his characters, images from his work have remained popular throughout the history of graffiti.
[3]
His son
Mark Bode
is also an artist, producing works similar to the elder Bod?'s style, and further cementing his father's legacy.
[3]
In 2004, Mark completed one of his father's unfinished works,
The Lizard of Oz
, a send-up of
The Wizard of Oz
, starring Cheech Wizard one more time.
[8]
Awards
[
edit
]
The
Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist
was bestowed upon him in 1969, and he was nominated for
Best Professional Artist
the following year. He also won the
Yellow Kid Award
[
de
]
, awarded by the International Congress of Cartoonists and Animators at the Italian
Lucca comics festival
, in 1974. He was a finalist for induction into the
Eisner Hall of Fame
in 1998 and 2002, before finally being inducted in 2006. He was awarded the
Inkpot Award
in 1975.
[13]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Das Kampf
(self-published, 1963)?re-issued in 1977 by Walter Bachner and Bagginer Productions with paste-up, layout, and lettering by
Larry Todd
)
[6]
- The Man
(Office of Student Publications Syracuse University, may 1966; reprinted by The Print Mint, 1972)
- Deadbone
/
Deadbone Erotica
/
Erotica
(
Cavalier
, May 1969?August 1975 [with the exception of April 1975])
- Sunpot
(
Galaxy Science Fiction
, February?May 1970/republished in color in
Heavy Metal
, April?July 1977)
- Purple Pictography
(
Swank
, August 1971?April 1972)?monthly comic strip feature with
Bernie Wrightson
- Cheech Wizard
(
National Lampoon
, 1971?1975)?monthly feature
- Junkwaffel
(4 issues,
Print Mint
, 1971?1974)?final issue, #5, published by
Last Gasp (publisher)
, and includes some reprints from the first four issues
- Schizophrenia
(Last Gasp, 1973)
- The Bod? Broads
(Bagginer Press, 1977)
Collected works
[
edit
]
From 1988 to 2001, Fantagraphics published a 14-volume series of Vaughn Bod? work titled The Bod? Library.
- Vaughn Bod?'s Erotica
vol. 2, 1988, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 48 pages
ISBN
978-0930193553
- Deadbone
, 1989, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 64 pages
ISBN
978-0930193980
- Cheech Wizard
vol. 1, 1990 Fantagraphics (Seattle), 68 pages
ISBN
978-1560970422
- Vaughn Bod? Diary Sketchbook
#1, 1990, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 64 pages
ISBN
978-1560970286
- Vaughn Bod? Diary Sketchbook
#2, 1990, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 64 pages
ISBN
978-1560970446
- Vaughn Bod? Diary Sketchbook
#3, 1991, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 64 pages
ISBN
978-1560970538
- Cheech Wizard
vol. 2, 1991, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 68 pages
ISBN
978-1560970545
- Junkwaffel
vol. 1, 1993, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 84 pages
ISBN
978-1560970866
- Junkwaffel
vol. 2, 1995, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 80 pages
ISBN
978-1560971108
- Vaughn Bod?'s Erotica
vol. 1, 1996, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 48 pages
ISBN
978-1560973072
. Note, this reprints the 1983 edition published by
Last Gasp (publisher)
.
- Vaughn Bod?'s Erotica
vol. 3, 1997, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 48 pages
ISBN
978-1560972679
- Vaughn Bod?'s Erotica
vol. 4, 1997, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 56 pages
ISBN
978-1560972839
- Lizard Zen
, 1998, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 48 pages
ISBN
978-1560973096
- Schizophrenia
, 2001, Fantagraphics (Seattle), 138 pages
ISBN
978-1560973713
Other collected material:
- Sunpot
(Stellar Productions, 1971)
- The Collected Cheech Wizard
(Company & Sons, 1972)
- Bod?'s Cartoon Concert
(Dell, 1973)?collects material from
Cavalier Magazine
- Orange Bode: Vaughn Bode At Syracuse's Daily Orange - An Annotated Catalog
(Bob Coughlin/Chimneysweep Nostalgia Co., 1978); 160pp.
- The Complete Cheech Wizard
, #1?4 (Rip Off Press, 1986?1987)
- Poem-Toons
(Kitchen Sink Press/Tundra Publishing, 1989)
- The Collected Purple Pictography
(Eros Comix, 1991)
- Cobalt 60
Book One (Tundra Publishing, 1992)?created by Vaughn Bod?, illustrated by
Mark Bode
, written by
Larry Todd
.
ISBN
1-879450-35-6
- Cobalt 60
Book Two (Tundra Publishing, 1992)?created by Vaughn Bod?, illustrated by
Mark Bode
, written by
Larry Todd
.
ISBN
1-879450-35-6
- Cobalt 60
Book Three (Tundra Publishing, 1992)?created by Vaughn Bod?, illustrated by
Mark Bode
, written by
Larry Todd
.
ISBN
1-879450-35-6
- Cobalt 60
Book Four (Tundra Publishing, 1992)?created by Vaughn Bod?, illustrated by
Mark Bode
, written by
Larry Todd
.
ISBN
1-879450-35-6
- Vaughn Bode: Rare And Well Done
(
Pure Imagination
, 2004)?
fanzine
and small press work
Explanatory notes
[
edit
]
- ^
As explained by Bod?'s friend Fred A. Levy Haskell, in the collection
Vaughn Bod?'s Poem Toons
(Tundra Publishing, 1989, ISBN 1-879450-39-9),"the line over the 'e' in Vaughn's signature is not an
acute accent
, it is a
long mark
. That is, it was
not
part of the family name, and is not pronounced as if it were a long 'a'?he added it to his signature to indicate that you are supposed to pronounce the long 'e' at the end of his name."
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Vaughn Bode, July 1975"
.
United States Social Security Death Index
.
FamilySearch
. Archived from
the original
on March 4, 2016
. Retrieved
February 21,
2013
.
Citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Levin, Bob (March 2005).
"I See My Light Come Shining"
.
The Comics Journal
.
5
. Archived from
the original
on May 6, 2014
. Retrieved
February 18,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Harmanci, Reyhan (July 1, 2010).
"The Bay Citizen: In Finishing Comics, a Son Completes a Legacy"
.
New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on November 10, 2017.
- ^
"The 2006 Eisner Award Winners"
.
San Diego Comic-Con
. Archived from
the original
on April 11, 2008
. Retrieved
April 22,
2008
.
- ^
Rosenkranz, Patrick (2002).
Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975
. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books. p. 226.
ISBN
9781560974642
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Fox, M. Steven.
"Das Kampf"
.
ComixJoint
. Archived from
the original
on July 13, 2016
. Retrieved
December 29,
2016
.
- ^
witzend
. Fantagraphics Books. July 8, 2014. pp. 293?.
ISBN
978-1-60699-744-4
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Frucci, Angela (May 31, 2004).
"Following a Wiz to a Far-Out Oz; A Son Completes the Legacy Of an Underground Cartoonist"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on October 31, 2010
. Retrieved
April 22,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Zagria (June 15, 2009).
"Vaughn Bode (1941 - 1975)"
.
A Gender Variance Who's Who
. Archived from
the original
on May 6, 2014.
[
better source needed
]
- ^
Gibson, Jon M.; McDonnell, Chris (2008). "
Fritz the Cat
".
Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi
. Universe Publishing. p. 63.
ISBN
978-0-7893-1684-4
.
- ^
Beck, Jerry (2005).
"
Wizards
"
.
The Animated Movie Guide
. Chicago Review Press. p.
317
.
ISBN
978-1-55652-591-9
.
- ^
Lenburg, Jeff (2006).
"Bakshi, Ralph"
.
Who's who in Animated Cartoons
. Hal Leonard Corporation. p.
15
.
ISBN
978-1-55783-671-7
.
- ^
"Inkpot Award"
. Archived from
the original
on January 29, 2017
. Retrieved
August 17,
2021
.
External links
[
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]
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