PX77: Hup

Hup by Gary Panter (140x216mm)

This blog series was over half a year ago, but I’ve stumbled onto a couple of relevant items, so I thought I’d just write a few words about them.

More bonus tracks.

I was really excited to find this early Panter book. It’s a 32 page book published by Gary Panter in 1977. I’m guessing it was photo-copied?

The storyline is somewhat vague and some of the artwork tends towards abstraction, but it’s basically one long fight scene between a character called Hup and an insect guy. On Mars.

Note that Panter sings the pages as GARS ROZZ TEX, not Rozz-Tox, as he’d later do.

Oh, is this where Frank Miller picked up his entire style? It must be.

Anyway, this is a fascinating little artefact. It’s very different from Panter’s work in the early 70s, but hasn’t yet morphed into his late-70s Jimbo style. Can’t really say it’s on the midway point, either — it’s something quite separate?

And with a lot of Japanese influences, and with the Dal-Tokyo name in place.

As you can see. the cover is basically a colour photostat (?) that’s been glued onto the black-and-white interiors.

This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.

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