Monday 3 August 2015

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
(Anything Goes! #3, The Comics Journal, March 1986)
Story & Art by Dave Sim, Colours by Tom Luth

GARY GROTH:
(from the editorial to Anything Goes! #3, March 1986)
Justice doesn't come cheap in these United States (and most of the time it probably doesn't come at all), but if it did come cheap, you wouldn't be reading Anything Goes!. This comic is published by The Comics Journal, the revenue from which is going, not to the creators, who certainly deserve it, but to paying the Journal's legal defense in its six-year litigation initiated by the comic book writer Michael Fleisher. Thanks, once again, are in order, to readers for buying the comic and helping to support the Journal's continued journalistic efforts, and to the creators for making the book possible. A few comments and thank-yous:

Neal Adams would like it known that he's not taking sides in the litigation between the Journal and Fleisher, and that he drew our Cerebus cover (with the much appreciated permission of Dave Sim) in the interests of helping the Journal see the lawsuit through. Special thanks to Cory Adams for a stunning color job.

And, speaking of comic's premier wise-guy, many thanks to Dave Sim for coming through with his contribution. (In fact, I haven't forgotten that Dave was one of the first people to buy an "I Support The Comics Journal And The First Amendment" t-shirt five or six years ago when the lawsuit first broke. Even though he's never done us the honor of parodying the Journal in Cerebus, the crazy bastard must like it. Birds of a feather, I guess.)...

Anything Goes! #3
(The Comics Journal, March 1986)
Art by Neal Adams

5 comments:

Anthony Kuchar said...

I found a complete set of Anything Goes! at an antique/"stuff" store. All issues, bagged and boarded. I think I paid $15. Good deal.

Anonymous said...

I bought this at the time and did not know the background. The guy with the pipe is Harlan Ellison and he actually said that Michael Fleisher was, among other insulting things, "bugfuck", thus leading to the lawsuit. Somewhat ironic, in light of Dave's later treatment by TCJ, that Dave Sim supported TCJ's "freedom of speech" in calling someone insane. Perhaps Dave would still say that TCJ has the freedom to call people insane, but maybe he has a bit more sympathy for being on the receiving end of it.

- Reginald P.

Tony Dunlop said...

Reginald, thanks for the info. I always thought that looked like Harlan, but had no idea why!

Travis Pelkie said...

I have this issue signed by Neal Adams himself. Like a dumbass, though, I almost smeared the signature because I wasn't waiting long enough for it to air dry before re-bagging it. D'oh!

Zidders Roofurry said...

Damn...I used to have this issue. Completely forgot about it until I saw this. Wonder if I still have my box of comics upstairs?