Last of the Spinner Rack Junkies: Paul Kirchner: Early Work 1974

I know I know, it's been a while. While I can't promise that I'll ever post regularly, I can promise that when I do post something, it will be quite tasty. And today do I have a visual feast for your eye holes. Below you'll find early work from Paul Kirchner, who may not have the name recognition for some of you of most artists I spotlight. That's on you.

Kirchner is most famously known for his work at High Times Magazine as well as Heavy Metal Magazine in the late 70s and 80s. He wrote and drew various surreal fantasy stories as well as the surreal strips The Bus and Dope Rider. He also drew one of the early original graphic novels Murder by Remote Control which was published in a small format in 1986 but was republished in a larger more readable format by Dover Press in 2016. His most recent work was a revived Dope Rider strip in High Times as well as a strip for the Adult Swim website called Hieronymus Bosch. Collections of these works can be found on his website, and if you're lucky he may even draw in it for you.

This early work for DC and Charlton isn't quite as polished as his later work would become but his style is already on display in raw form. I believe he only inks himself on two or three stories, with Neal Adams pinching in on a story and Tex Blaisdell the rest. At the time Kirchner was assisting Blaisdell on Little Orphan Annie and I believe Joe Orlando (the editor of the DC mystery books) was trying to help out Blaisdell financially by having him ink Kirchner. Kirchner wanted the work and experience and Blaisdell needed the cash. It was a win-win, except artwise. Kirchner became a bit lost in his inks, but not completely as to where his own style wasn't apparent.

I highly recommend this long podcast interview with Paul Kirchner conducted by Scott Edelman from November 2019: Nibble naan with Paul Kirchner in Episode 109 of Eating the Fantastic.

UPDATE: After posting this link on Facebook, Paul commented and added context to some of his old work.

"I'm impressed that you located this old stuff.

Tex Blaisdell had been working on Little Orphan Annie for several years, and as the strip was losing papers at the time, which meant Tex was earning less, he went to Joe Orlando for some comic book work. Joe paired me with Tex, me doing pencils and Tex inking them. Fortuitously, Tex also hired me as a one-day-a-week assistant on Annie, helping him finish the strips the day before the deadline and bringing them with me late at night from his home in Flushing to the Daily News building on 42nd St. The $50 he paid me for that day's work more than covered my rent.

I was also doing some work at Continuity Associates, Neal Adams' and Dick Giordano's studio. I assisted Ralph Reese and Larry Hama, who rented space there, and occasionally helped color storyboards for Neal. Neal, who believes a comic book artist shouldn't leave his desk until he's totally exhausted, had fallen asleep on the subway and had his portfolio stolen. He was responsible to replace the work, so he hired me to pencil "Deep Sleep," which he greatly improved with his inks, and he graciously allowed me to keep the originals.

The "Hoax" job for Charlton would be better left buried.

"Valley of Death" was the first comic story I completed, though in pencil only as I had no confidence in my inking ability. I showed it as a sample to Neal Adams and he got me work from Joe Orlando. It was originally a wordless story. For Charlton, I redrew it smaller for the standard comic book page, added words, and inked it. It also provided the inspiration for Dope Rider".

House of Secrets 120, 1974 (DC)