SUNDAY FUNNIES!! HELP'S Robert Crumb & Harlem

 

I think this cartoon story by Robert Crumb in HELP! Magazine #22. January 1965. was when Robert was Harvey Kurtzman’s (editor of HELP! Assistant.  Which brings to mind the time I submitted a cartoon to HELP! and Kurtzman mailed me a note back saying he like it and his assistant Robert Crumb would send me an official acceptance. 

Crumb is considered by many to be the father of Underground Comix.

Then the next official note I received from HELP! was notified of my subscription being cancelled because HELP! Magazine was closing.

I have been to Harlem only once, and that was on February 21, 1965.    I remember that date because that was the date Malcom X was assassinated.

That was also the date uniformed military personnel was to protest the Vietnam War were in Union Square, in NYC.  I was stationed in NAS Lakehurst, NJ, not far away.  So, my friends and I piled into my old Volvo to go to the Big Apple, about 60 miles away to see the protests. 

The military put out a warning that all military in uniform protesting would be arrested.

We did not get to see the uniformed protesters; the crowd was too big.

We zigged-zagged up and down streets looking for a way to get to the Lincoln tunnel and found ourselves in Harlem.   

WHAM!  A brick hit the right-side door of my car.  Another brick flew by us.

We got the heck out from there. 

Later we heard on the news Malcom X was assassinated that day.