Arcade (comics magazine)


Arcade: The Comics Revue is a magazine-sized comics anthology created and edited by cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith to showcase underground comix. Published quarterly by the Print Mint, it ran for seven issues between 1975 and 1976. Arriving late in the underground era, Arcade "was conceived as a 'comics magazine for adults' that would showcase the 'best of the old and the best of the new comics.'" Many observers credit it with paving the way for the Spiegelman-edited anthology Raw, the flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement.

Overview

By the mid-1970s, the underground comix movement was encountering a slowdown, and Spiegelman and Griffith conceived of Arcade as a "safe berth." It stood out from similar publications by having an ambitious editorial plan, in which Spiegelman and Griffith attempted to show how comics connected to the broader realms of artistic and literary culture. Arcade also introduced comic strips from ages past, as well as contemporary literary pieces by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski, and illustrated nonfiction pieces by writers like Paul Krassner and J. Hoberman.

Publication history

Spiegelman and Griffith, based in the San Francisco Bay Area — the epicenter of the underground movement — launched Arcade in Spring 1975. Soon after, however, co-editor Spiegelman moved back to his original home of New York City, which put most of the editorial work for Arcade on the shoulders of Griffith and his cartoonist wife, Diane Noomin. This, combined with distribution problems, retailer indifference, and a general failure to find a devoted audience, led to the magazine's 1976 demise.

Contributors

Contributors to every issue of Arcade included Spiegelman, Griffith, Robert Armstrong, Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Aline Kominsky, Michael McMillan, Diane Noomin, and Spain Rodriguez. Crumb illustrated five of the seven front covers. Each issue contained a reprint of work by a cartoonist from the medium's Golden Age, including H. M. Bateman, Harrison Cady, Billy DeBeck, Milt Gross, and George McManus. Each issue's title page contained individual self-portraits by the contributors.

Issue guide

#DateCover artistBack cover artistContributorsNotes
1Spring 1975Robert CrumbVictor MoscosoAldo Bobbo, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Will Fowler, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Jay Kinney, Aline Kominsky, Paul Krassner, George Kuchar, Jay Lynch, Curt McDowell, Michael McMillan, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, James Osborne, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, and S. Clay Wilson; plus a Harrison Cady reprint
2Summer 1975Robert CrumbArt SpiegelmanArmstrong, David Cohen, Crumb, Deitch, Green, Griffith, Rory Hayes, Kinney, Kominsky, Krassner, Kuchar, Lynch, McMillan, Murphy, Noon, Osborne, Shelton, Spain, and Spiegelman; plus a W. E. Hill reprint
3Fall 1975Robert CrumbGilbert SheltonArmstrong, Charles Bukowski/Crumb, Sally Cruikshank, Green, Griffith, Hayes, Denis Kitchen, Kominsky, Kuchar, Jane Lynch, McMillan, Murphy, Noomin, Jim Osborne, Joe Schenkman, Shelton, Spain, Spiegelman, Wilson; plus a Milt Gross reprint
4Winter 1975Robert CrumbJustin GreenArmstrong, William S. Burroughs, Crumb, Deitch, Green, Griffith, Hayes, J. Hoberman, Kominsky, Bill Lynch, Curt McDowell, McMillan, Murphy, Noomin, Michael Reynolds, Schenkman, Shelton, Spain, Spiegelman, Robert Williams, Wilson; plus a George McManus reprint
5Spring 1976Jay LynchRobert WilliamsArmstrong, Michele Brand, M. K. Brown, Dirk Burhans, Crumb, Deitch, George DiCaprio, Green, Griffith, Hayes, Hoberman, Kominsky, McDowell, McMillan, Murphy, Noomin, Spain, Spiegelman, Wilson, Williams; plus a Billy DeBeck reprint
6Summer 1976Robert CrumbMichael McMillanArmstrong, Mark Beyer, Brown, Crumb, Deitch, Green, Griffith, Geoffrey Hayes, Hayes, Hoberman, Gerald Jablonski, Kominsky, McMillan, Murphy, Noomin, Larry Rippee, Spain, Spiegelman, Wilson; plus a H. M. Bateman reprintIncludes a tribute to the recently deceased Willy Murphy by Ted Richards
7Fall 1976M. K. BrownB. KlibanArmstrong, Beyer, Brand, Oliver Christianson, Crumb, Deitch, Green, Griffith, Rory Hayes, Hoberman, B. Kliban, Kominsky, McMillan, Noomin, Spain, Lulu Stanley, Williams; plus "Sex Comics of the Thirties" section

Legacy

Although short-lived, Arcade still has admirers. Famed comics writer Alan Moore said it was "the only truly worthwhile material produced during the 1970s." With the general waning of the underground scene, however, Spiegelman despaired that comics for adults might fade away for good. Frustrated with editing his peers because of the tension and jealousies involved, for a time Spiegelman swore he would never edit another magazine. Nonetheless, by 1980, Spiegelman and his wife/collaborator Françoise Mouly launched Raw, a "graphix magazine," hoping their unprecedented approach would bypass readers' prejudices against comics and force them to look at the work with new eyes.