Motor City Comics #1, April 1969
Boingy Baxter is a classic early peak Crumb story that originally sold complete in 2017. Broken up in 2024, I managed to acquire a great page late last year. Here’s the description of the story from the original auction sale at Heritage:
“Speed freak Milton “Boingy” Baxter gets tranked out in Detroit and has to bounce his way out of a marriage and on to China, in this crazy five-pager. Motor City Comics was R. Crumb’s most straight-forward series from his early peak period, with less emphasis on sex and drugs (although not completely lacking in that department). It’s fun stuff with a lighter touch, particularly this story, with a 1940s-style title character reminiscent of slick deadbeat Al from the radio comedy My Friend Irma, who always called his girlfriend “Chicken.”
Motor City Comics #1 appeared at almost the exact same time as Zap #4 (see below), most infamously known for “Joe Blow”, a Crumb story that ultimately resulted in an obscenity conviction for some Zap retailers, and a long-term decline in the availability of outlets for underground comics.
It is definitely cool to check off a Crumb page from the original art bucket list, especially a terrific early one that is suitable for display in any setting.
