{"id":8473,"date":"2019-09-24T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T05:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8473"},"modified":"2019-09-22T23:10:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T23:10:01","slug":"pop-culture-schlock-at-rpm-exhibit-d-the-black-crowes-rock-n-roll-comic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8473","title":{"rendered":"POP CULTURE SCHLOCK at RPM: Exhibit D – The Black Crowes Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

POP CULTURE SCHLOCK at RPM: Exhibit D – The Black Crowes Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comic<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Greetings, RPM-people; I guess it\u2019s time once again to dig into the Pop Culture Schlock archive and pull out something music-related to wax lyrical about. This month I\u2019m fingering the comic book long boxes until I come across something particularly hard to handle…<\/p>\n

Casting a dark shadow over both my comic- and music-buying in the late Eighties and early Nineties was a virulent strain of unauthorised biographies equal parts infamous and diabolical.<\/p>\n

Inspired by \u2018Hey Boss\u2019, an independent Bruce Springsteen parody from the mid-Eighties, Todd Loren\u2019s Revolutionary Comics launched its Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics strand in 1989 and, quite remarkably given that it came in the path of snowballing legal threats and action, the offbeat offshoot became the indie comic book publisher\u2019s flagship product.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hiring Larry Nadolsky, artist of the aforementioned Springsteen comic, to pen its debut issue, Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics hit the shelves with a first edition cover-dated June 1989. Guns N\u2019 Roses were the subjects of this first issue and it was welcomed into the legal jungle via a cease and desist order from the GN\u2019R lawyer, Peter Paterno. The subsequent press attention – Rolling Stone magazine covered the furore – saw the initial print run of 10,000 issues sell out completely within two weeks, with buyers assuming that the comic would soon be pulped as big business bulldozed small. As it happened, no actual lawsuits were filed and the debut GN\u2019R issue would go on to have multiple reprints and eventually shift around 150,000 units. A first print copy resides in the Pop Culture Schlock archive, of course. Think it\u2019s so easy to defeat legal issues when knocking on unauthorised material\u2019s door, though? Think again…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics issues 3 and 4 – featuring Bon Jovi and M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce respectively – garnered legal challenges which forced Revolutionary Comics to found a new distribution network outside of the traditional comic book store, instead focussing on music- and gift-related retail outlets. The gamble paid off and Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics ran from 1989 to 1993, publishing 63 issues. The final issue (cover-dated November 1993 and titled \u2018Sci-Fi Space Rockers\u2019 – featuring the likes of Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Marillion, and Genesis) was actually numbered 65 as two issues – Number 8 featuring Skid Row, and Number 61 featuring Yes – were never published due to legal problems that simply refused to have the kinks ironed out. Surprisingly, the highest profile legal case brought against Revolutionary Comics, in regards to the New Kids On The Block issue from 1990, ruled in the indie publisher\u2019s favour, even after Todd Loren had set up a 900 number – \u201cNuke The New Kids!\u201d – to raise funds for the company\u2019s legal fees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics are pure, unadulterated, unofficial Pop Culture Schlock… but which issue should I feature for RPM? Scores of bands were featured: Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, Living Colour, Metallica, Anthrax, The Doors, Queen, Van Halen, The Who, Vanilla Ice – basically any popular beat combo or sex symbol that the artists couldn\u2019t draw very well. Need proof? Check out the Bon Jovi issue; the poundshop rendering of JBJ on the cover as realistic as David Rashbaum\u2019s hair extensions. I have, though, for the benefit of RPM\u2019s flowery shirt and waistcoat-wearing clientele, decided upon Issue 34 of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics, cover-dated September 1991 and devoted to…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Black Crowes, by the time of the comic\u2019s publication, had seen two of their singles – their cover of Otis Redding\u2019s \u2018Hard To Handle\u2019, and \u2018She Talks To Angels\u2019 – crash into the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100, the band tread the legendary boards at Castle Donington, and be bell bottoms-deep into preparations for album number two, \u2018The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion\u2019. Being immortalized in comic book form would be the band\u2019s then-high point, surely?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As with pretty much every page of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics\u2019 output, \u2018Flying High With The Black Crowes\u2019 was well-researched but dogged by poor, oft-shit artwork; exposition too often reduced to ludicrous sentences spat from inked rock star mouths – \u201cYou just wait! Any minute now you\u2019ll hear the first single, \u2018Jealous Again\u2019, on the radio and before you know it, we\u2019ll top the charts!\u201d said Chris Robinson, never.<\/p>\n

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Ah, yes, Chris Robinson, one of the greatest voices of his generation, whose first word (\u201ccool!\u201d) in this comic comes via a thought bubble when he is still in the womb…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is the kind of bollocks that you have to squint your brain and accept if you\u2019re gonna have some Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics in your collection, however. That \u201cUnauthorised and Proud Of It!\u201d mantra from the company emblazoned across the comic covers carte blanche to interpret a beloved history in as ludicrous a way as possible.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBy the way, how\u2019s your guitar playing coming along?\u201d seventh grade Chris asks little brother, Rich. Pretty good you\u2019d think, because seven pages later Mr. Crowes\u2019 Garden have a record deal and a new band name. Soon band members are recording the sound of cars crashing into trash cans, supporting Junkyard, dissing Milli Vanilli posters, and getting career advice from Steven Tyler: \u201cYou could learn from [Aerosmith\u2019s] mistakes, that stuff can kill you!\u201d \u201cRock and Roll and safety have nothing to do with each other,\u201d replies Chris Robinson. A few pages later he\u2019s spitting at concert security for roughing up gig-goers. Silly Billy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The band is accused of dabbling in black magic, of inciting a Dutch riot. Chris slags off Milli Vanilli again; this time in the face of an autograph hunter who complains about the sound at a Crowes gig. Cutting edge stuff, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cQuit calling us The New Stones!\u201d Chris Robinson rages at a journalist. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this in and for the \u201990s,\u201d adds Rich. \u201cActs like ourselves, the London Quireboys, and Lenny Kravitz are playing a NEW tune…\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…and then they are gone, forever to reside in the comic boxes of nerds like myself, a faint \u201cthe future holds nothing but high-flying promise for The Black Crowes\u201d inked farewell floating on the winds of time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you think that the bands featured in Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comics got their bank balances bludgeoned by the unofficial output of Revolutionary Comics, spare a thought for the company\u2019s main man, Todd Loren. He was brutally murdered in 1992, the body of the 32-year-old found at his San Diego condo. He had been stabbed to death and, I shit you not, members of both Guns N\u2019 Roses and New Kids On The Block were linked with the murder due to the previous legal issues. The case remains unsolved to this day, though many believe Loren was the first victim of Andrew Cunanan; the American serial killer who murdered Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t expect that bleak shit when I was writing about Milli Vanilli a few paragraphs ago, right?!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be back in October with some horror-related musical Schlock just in time for All Hallow\u2019s Eve. Smell ya later…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow Gaz & his Pop Culture Schlock 365 on Facebook Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POP CULTURE SCHLOCK at RPM: Exhibit D – The Black Crowes Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Comic Greetings, RPM-people; I guess it\u2019s time once again to dig into the Pop Culture Schlock archive and pull out something music-related to wax lyrical about. This month I\u2019m fingering the comic book long boxes until I come across something particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[2113,2266],"class_list":["post-8473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-gaz-tidey","tag-pop-culture-schlock-365","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8480,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions\/8480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}