{"id":1197,"date":"2010-07-12T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2020-07-16T14:24:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T18:24:50","slug":"down-in-space-its-always-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/12\/down-in-space-its-always-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"EIGHTIES – We’re Living in the Eighties!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DUCKWORK<\/a>

DUCKWORK No. 3 – Fall 1981<\/p><\/div>\n

Having read Gerry Giovinco’s<\/a> fascinating posts<\/a> about the origin and early days of Comico<\/strong>, I started to wonder when it was that I first hooked up with Gerry, Bill Cucinotta<\/a> and the rest of the gang who were on the leading edge of the independent comic publishing revolution. I wasn’t part of Comico<\/strong>, but I was part of its immediate predecessor DUCKWORK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The exact details and wheres and whos are a bit fuzzy, but let’s see what I can recollect.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I entered art school in the early ’80s and it was a disheartening experience. I was a freshman and as a freshman I had to endure what the school referred to as FOUNDATION. Outside of life drawing, the whole course of study seemed to be an exercise in futility. We would move around lumps of clay or twist window screen into shapes for weeks on end in what was known as 3-D DESIGN. Worst than that was 2-D in which we would endlessly rule out series of horizontal and vertical lines for the majority of the semester for no reason I could ever discern. My guess is that it was designed as a weeding process similar to boot camp. People who weren’t serious or the dabblers or the people who thought it would be neat to go to art school would wash out. Of course, the school would get their tuition checks first.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, I had a couple of those freshman pieces placed in the student showcase at the time. I’m not sure why. One of them was sort of a brain that looked like a maniac attacked it with a melon ball scooper all sculpted in a putrid green, Roma Plastilina clay. I called it Timothy Leary’s Brain.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thankfully, there was an oasis among this baffling desert of aesthetic deconstruction, and it came in the form of eight black and white pages. DUCKWORK <\/strong>was the school’s student paper, and it had news, school information, (gulp) poetry and other useful tidbits, but more than half of it was comic strips. There was the usual pseudo-edgy, art student stuff that was fully expected for an art school rag, but there was also a lot of fun stuff like editor Gerry Giovinco’s<\/a> Star Duck<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…and Bill Cucinotta’s<\/a> Punk Duck<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…as well as Matt Wagner’s movie poster spoofs:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I guess you’ve picked up on the duck theme.<\/p>\n

I was in a class or two with Matt Wagner, and, knowing he was a comic fan, budding comic artist and contributor to DUCKWORK<\/strong>, we got to chatting. He invited me to drop in on the DUCKWORK<\/strong> offices on the mysterious 13th Floor. (I guess they weren’t superstitious.)<\/p>\n

To be continued!<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having read Gerry Giovinco’s fascinating posts about the origin and early days of Comico, I started to wonder when it was that I first hooked up with Gerry, Bill Cucinotta and the rest of the gang who were on the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[33,130,11,12,132,133,10,43,5,131,138,3669,137],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blast-from-the-past","tag-1980s","tag-art-school","tag-bill-cucinotta","tag-co2-comics","tag-comico","tag-duckwork","tag-gerry-giovinco","tag-humor","tag-joe-williams","tag-matt-wagner","tag-pca","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-college-of-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-jj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41217,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/08\/17\/with-the-comico-boys\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":0},"title":"With The Comico Boys","author":"Joe","date":"August 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the well worn stack of comics that I refer to as Barbershop Comics was an old issue of the X-Men that hit the stands late in 1981. There is nothing special about that particular issue, but the advertisement above for comic conventions caught my eye. I attended the Philadelphia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/X-MEN-153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1428,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/19\/duckworks-swan-song-the-partys-over-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":1},"title":"DUCKWORK’s Swan Song: The Party’s Over","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It was 1982. Issue No. 6 was the last issue of DUCKWORK. I am not sure of the reasons why, and I'm hoping that Gerry Giovinco does his history of the paper because he was directly involved with the nuts and bolts and all of the behind-the-scenes issues involved in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/gomer-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1450,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/08\/03\/swamp-things-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":2},"title":"Swamp Things","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Before you read this entry, head over to CO2 Comics' Blog NOW and read Gerry Giovinco's history of DUCKWORK. He fills in some of the enormous gaps left by my own meager history of PCA's semi-official student paper. His entry comes complete with embarrassing photographs! It was 1982, and DUCKWORK\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Wagner-Poster1.jpg?fit=425%2C499&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/13\/does-head-cheese-taste-the-same-coming-up-as-it-does-going-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":3},"title":"Does Head Cheese Taste The Same Coming Up?","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"DUCKWORK No. 4 - October 1981 If I hadn't done so earlier, this was the issue that convinced me to venture up to the 13th Floor and drop in on the DUCKWORK offices. Gerry's cartoon of a vomiting duck placed in front of a halftone of the school building at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/missing-video.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/missing-video.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/missing-video.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/14\/naked-lady-falling-down-the-stairs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":4},"title":"Naked Lady Falling Down The Stairs","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"DUCKWORK No. 5 came out in November of 1981, and I think this was the last issue of the year. Mid-terms were coming up and everybody was going to be way too busy to squeeze out another issue before winter break. It was the 16 page Sex Issue complete with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DW-6pack.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1306,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/15\/no-youre-out-of-order\/","url_meta":{"origin":1197,"position":5},"title":"No, You’re Out of Order!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"After I started posting my experiences with DUCKWORK, I had found this issue from April of 1981 stuck inside the pages of a later issue. This is the second issue of DUCKWORK. I was still in high school when I picked this issue up. It must have been when I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DUCKWORK April 1981","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4120\/4794331136_818982d511.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}