{"id":1450,"date":"2010-08-03T03:27:18","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T08:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:26:11","slug":"swamp-things-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/08\/03\/swamp-things-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Swamp Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before you read this entry, head over to CO2 Comics’ Blog<\/a> NOW<\/strong> and read Gerry Giovinco’s history of DUCKWORK<\/strong>. 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!<\/p>\n

It was 1982, and DUCKWORK<\/strong> was a dead duck<\/em>, but one of the ex-Ducks decided to have a party. Being that I talked incessantly about film and had mentioned the cinematic efforts of Plague Productions<\/strong><\/a> more than once, somebody suggested a film festival. I could bring my reels and we could fill the rest of the evening out with commercial films which were mainly released in 8mm format by a company called Castle Films.<\/strong><\/a> They weren’t the entire film. They were more like highlight reels that told the story in a greatly condensed form.<\/p>\n

I had some horror films like The Mummy<\/strong><\/em> and House of Frankenstein.<\/strong><\/em> I think Matt Wagner had some of the old Batman<\/strong><\/em> serials from the ’40s; Bill Cucinotta<\/a> brought some reels, and there were a few other things to pad out the bill.<\/p>\n

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

So it was decided. The kids were going to put on another show. Matt decided to hold it at his apartment which was among some student housing in a tenement-like building in the 1400 block of Spruce Street. It was a large apartment that Matt shared with two or three other roommates and it, and it was called The Swamp.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Matt also did me the honor of drawing this poster for the party.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

It was a good time. I think we projected the movies against a wall or a bedsheet. The place was packed. My movies got a good response as did the other movies. We all laughed hysterically at the Batman and Robin serial. I think the version of The Mummy<\/strong><\/em> is my favorite although it was heavily condensed. This 8mm version had sound and the picture quality was terrific. It was edited very well and felt like a poetic dream projected large in that apartment. Boris Karloff’s sonorous voice sounded especially eerie beckoning a lost lover from across the seas of time. Great stuff.<\/p>\n

For me, it felt like the last hurrah for the DUCKWORK<\/strong> gang. DUCKWORK<\/strong> was done, but the Ducks were still a fairly tight group. We still saw each other in classes or in the halls of PCA or got together when we weren’t buried under an avalanche of school work.<\/p>\n

Next time: Wrecking Ball<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1464,"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":[31,104],"tags":[33,151,11,12,9,133,10,43,3661,5,131,3669,137,37],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blast-from-the-past","category-philadelphia","tag-1980s","tag-8mm","tag-bill-cucinotta","tag-co2-comics","tag-comics","tag-duckwork","tag-gerry-giovinco","tag-humor","tag-illustration","tag-joe-williams","tag-matt-wagner","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-college-of-art","tag-plague-productions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-no","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1306,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/15\/no-youre-out-of-order\/","url_meta":{"origin":1450,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":43503,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/07\/05\/the-absolute-final-issue-of-duckwork\/","url_meta":{"origin":1450,"position":1},"title":"The Absolute Final Issue of DUCKWORK","author":"Joe","date":"July 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It may have taken 42 years, but the latest and, sadly, the last issue of DUCKWORK is out! DUCKWORK was a short-lived newspaper \"CREATED FOR THE PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF ART COMMUNITY\" back in the early 1980s. It lasted a handful of issues until the school pulled the plug on the\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\/2024\/07\/Header-The-Last-Duckwork.jpg?fit=800%2C269&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Header-The-Last-Duckwork.jpg?fit=800%2C269&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Header-The-Last-Duckwork.jpg?fit=800%2C269&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Header-The-Last-Duckwork.jpg?fit=800%2C269&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/14\/naked-lady-falling-down-the-stairs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1450,"position":2},"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":1428,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/19\/duckworks-swan-song-the-partys-over-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1450,"position":3},"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":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":1450,"position":4},"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":1197,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/07\/12\/down-in-space-its-always-1982\/","url_meta":{"origin":1450,"position":5},"title":"EIGHTIES – We’re Living in the Eighties!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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 leading edge of the independent comic publishing revolution. I wasn't\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\/Rollerduck.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Wagner-Poster1.jpg?fit=425%2C499&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","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=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}