Cyclops (Underground Comic Magazine)

The comic-strip tabloid Cyclops, The First English Adult Comic Paper, was published in London in 1970. It was developed by a group of people from the U.K. underground paper International Times (IT), led by photographer Graham Keen,who edited Cyclops. It had 20 pages, its publisher was Innocence & Experience and had national distribution and a large print run, but lasted only four issues. Price may have been a factor: it cost three shillings (3/-), when IT with app. 24 pages cost 1/6 d, an average paperback 3/6 d. and an American comic 1/-.^[1]

Keen's photographs had appeared in IT and he became involved with the editorial team. One of IT's founders, Barry Miles, was an old school friend from Cheltenham College and Keen shared a room in the house occupied by Barry and his wife Sue in North Lord Street, London. Keen ran Cyclops from there (says Raymond Lowry; Huxley, p. 35). He managed to bring in William S. Burroughs, who contributed The Unspeakable Mr. Hart. Burroughs wanted Malcolm McNeill to do the art work ("I'll work with this guy"). Malcolm McNeill, who had not read much Burroughs, was a senior student at the Hornsey College of Art.

Cyclops reprinted comix by Spain Rodriguez, Vaughn Bode and Gilbert Shelton, it also published original work by U.K. artists like Ray(mond) Lowry (# 1-4), Edward Barker, also called Edweard (# 1,2, 4), Mal Dean (# 2-4), David Jarrett (# 1, 3, 4) and Australian Martin Sharp, a poster artist from OZ magazine. Some early Alex Raymond-Flash Gordon (from the 1930's) was reprinted in issues 2 to 4.

• Cyclops, No. 1, July 1970, also included work by Vaughn Bodé, Richard Glyn Jones, Larry Lewis, Bernard Power Canavan: Orcus (p. 4),^[2] Martin Sharp (untitled; p. 3)^[3]
• Cyclops, No. 2, August 1970.
• Cyclops, No. 3, September 1970, also included work by Mike Bygraves, an advert by Alan Moore for the London comic shop Dark They Were on p. 8; again in # 4, on p. 12.
• Cyclops, No. 4, October 1970, included Judy Watson, Richard Jones, Mike Harrison, Spain Rodriguez.^[4]

McNeill and Burroughs continued to work together for years, but only eleven pages (of intended 120) of their Ah Pook Is Here were published, in Rush Magazine, 1976. John Calder and Viking produced a text-only version in the Burroughs collection Ah Pook Is Here: And Other Texts. Ah Pook or Ah Puch was the Mayan death deity. Burroughs admired the Maya codices and he and McNeill wanted to create "an unprecedented, full blown word/image novel." Only fragments of this ehrgeiziges projet, called Ah Punch Is Here, have been published until now and only online.^{[5][6] [7] [8]} This might change, as Fantagraphics announces its publication of McNeill's memoirs Observed While Falling and Ah Pook in a two volume package in the summer of 2011. ^{[9] [10]}

Literature

• David Huxley: Nasty Tales. Critical Vision (Headpress), 2001, p. 35
• Barry Miles: In the Sixties. Jonathan Cape, 2002
• Roger Sabin: Adult Comics: An Introduction. Routledge, 1993
• Roger Sabin: Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels. Phaidon, 1996

• Artist Malcolm McNeill: On Beat Writer William S. Burroughs, 'The Unspeakable Mr. Hart' Comic Series, 'Ah Punch Is Here' Graphic Novel, and London 1970s Art Scene. Interviewed by George Laughead, August 2007. ^[11] .
• Malcolm McNeill interviewed by Larry Sawyer. (Jan, 20, 2008).^[12]

References

1. ^ In 1971-72, the IT published seven issues of another comic book, Nasty Tales, concentrating on American reprints.
2. ^ Indebted to Spain's Trashman (David Huxley, p. 34).
3. ^ Resembling Victor Moscosco's work in Zap[[{{subst:DATE|date=July 2011}}|{{subst:DATE|date=July 2011}}]] ^{[disambiguation needed ]}, no. 2, 1968 (David Huxley, p. 34)
4. ^ Printing Techiques: Offset, RealityStudio-blog (the Cyclops-covers).
5. ^ Ah Punch Is Here-Site.
6. ^ George Laughead's Malcolm McNeill Interview
7. ^ Malcolm McNeill interviewed by Larry Sawyer.
8. ^ The Laughead interview and an introduction, RealityStudio-blog.
9. ^ Guardian
10. ^ L.A. Times
11. ^ http://www.vlib.us/beats/malcolmmcneill.html
12. ^ http://www.bigbridge.org/MCN-INT.HTM