The Doors comics blog

Did The Doors read any comics?

Wednesday, September 06, 2006


Mad magazine cover #23

Since I got involved with The Doors comics This question got stuck in my head: Did The Doors members read any comics? I don´t remember any specific comment in the band members books Riders on the storm (John Densmore) and Light My Fire (Ray Manzarek) . The most clear comment about this was from Danny Sugerman´s and Jerry Hopkins book "No One Here Gets Out Alive". They say in september 1957 the Morrison family moved to Alameda in northern California, Jim spent one year and a half there in highschool. From page 9 and 10 :

"He read MAD magazines avidly and adopted several of the catch phrases as his own. He said he was "crackers to slip the rozzer the dropsie in snide". He worked out elaborate ways to answer the telephone, reflecting the sick side of MAD´s humour or the taint of ethnic slur: "Morrison´s Mortuary...you stab´em we slab ´em".


What about the later years? In the late sixties there was a lot of underground comics popping up in underground newspapers and in the form of comic books. Some of them are Zap Comix and Bijou Funnies. Among the artists of these comics are Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Jay Lynch, Gilbert Shelton and many others.


So when I read the Doors bio comic (The Doors, by Jay Sanford and Greg Fox published in 1991 - read more about it) I was really surprised by this specific frame:

"Passed his days smoking, writing and reading Zap Comix?" I had to ask Jay - the script writer of this comic book - "Is that true???" he replied " I don't know if it's true that Morrison collected Zap Comix, but it doesn't seem unlikely. Not sher how one would confirm or disprove other than asking his parents or others who were close to him."

I think Jay is right and I did exactly what he said! I asked everyone I found on the internet range that knew Jim, worked with him or were friends with him. I didn´t find much I´ll tell ya, but there are some interesting replies:

Salli Stevenson - Circus Magazine interview with Jim Morrison and friend

Aside from Mad Magazine and Superman, I think a western genre comic and stuff like Green Hornet and Spiderman, Jim and I did not discuss comics or the works of Robert Crumb. The others were discussed when we were comparing our childhoods and what we read. Sorry I can't be more helpful about Jim's comics favorites. We never got past childhood favorites.

Leon Barnard - the Doors publicist

Before he joined The Doors' crew, Leon graduated in fine arts. He used to draw and do paintings. Leon said that he and Jim sat on a table to start creating a comic book together. Leon remembers:

Our only and Main disagreement was...which came first: My drawings for him to capture with words...or his words for me to illustrate.
The debate ended in a drawing between "The Two Superstars" at the table that evening...and then he began to drink...a full bottle of Courvoisier presented to him as a birthday gift.

Vince Treanor - The Doors road manager

I never saw Jim reading Comics. He usually had much more weighty tomes in hand - anything unusual or redical. Not that there were no comics in those days. It is just that they did not contain what he wanted for input in that time. Mad magazine was quite the sensation and could do and say things not accepted in common conversation.

Jay Lynch - cartoonist and Bijou Funnies editor

The Doors were out of LA. They didn't do be-ins. They were mostly at the Whisky a-go-go. I never ran into those guys in my travels. Only their one-time manager, Danny Fields. Once I wrote an article for Hustler about Howard Hughes called "Showered by Howard". This was in 1979 or so. It was in the October issue. I used one of Fields' Morrison stories in that piece.
Actually Morrison is still alive. He lives across the street. I can see him out the window. He's trying to light up his barbecue pit. Uh-oh! He's using too much starter fluid...I'd better go help him. He isn't too good at lighting fires...he's always shouting for someone to help him with that chore.


Well, I´ll keep searching and maybe someone will have a more accurate answer.

1 Comments:

At 9:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is everybody in? Fifteen years late, here's an answer:

https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/jim-morrison-on-zap-comix.jpg

 

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