The Checkered Demon

The Checkered Demon is a fictional character created by S. Clay Wilson, one of the leading underground comix artists of the 1960s and a contemporary of Robert Crumb. The Demon debuted in "Zap Comix" #2, in 1968.

Fictional character history

A portly, shirtless being always seen wearing checkered pants, the Demon is Clay's hero, and is frequently called upon to kill the various demented bikers, pirates, and rapists who populate Clay's universe. The Demon is unbeatable in combat, but prefers to copulate with rapacious women such as Star-Eyed Stella, Ruby the Dyke, or Lady Coozette, or to sit around drinking Tree Frog beer. After the run of Zap, the Demon frequently appeared in Crumb's "Weirdo" magazine, as well as in Clay's own comics such as "Pork" and the Demon's own title, of which only 3 issues appeared.

Although the Demon is generally shown as having red skin and black and white checkered pants in color illustrations, Wilson has claimed that the character can actually make himself any color.

A large number of Checkered Demon stories were collected in the book "The Checkered Demon Anthology, Volume 1", published by Last Gasp.