ORACLE COMIX No. 2

ORACLE COMIX No. 2

24pp half-legal digest w Color Covers
Published by Thru Black Holes Comix Productions
Copyright © 1981 by Michael Roden
1st Printing Ltd. Ed. of 300
$1.00

cover untitled illustration

Nice drawing (with collage elements) of the mysterious character Plain Loon with the “Pleine Lune” in the background. Wonderful colors.

pages 3-5 We’re All Just Skeletons Inside

Another wonderfully imaginative cosmic-philosophic journey: “So, The End is The beginning.” Another nice example of the MR psychedelic style.

pages 6-7 Kanaan

Wordless (primarily) collage narrative. MR did a number of these in the early 1980s. They are really quite amazing.

page 8 Electric Neuro-Tick

Weird full-page drawing. Is this where we’re all headed?

page 9 Luna-Tick

A fascinating three-panel self-analysis that reveals a lot about MICHAEL RODEN the artist: “I think one reason for such bizarrity is mental tension release.” Also contains one of my favorite MR lines: “I understand it’s a lot easier living here on paper, than it is in the real world.” Probably so.

page 10 Psycho-Tick

“Motto: Bizarrity for the sake of bizarrity.” And why not?

page 11 untitled collage-drawing

Wonderfully atmospheric landscape with ghostly clouds and crumbling ruins. Would make a really outstanding illustration for a Gothic horror story.

pages 12-13 Antiques & Curios

Great almost wordless surprise-ending horror story. I like it. Note that the faces of the characters in this story (drawn in 1977) already begin to hint at the Crazy Men that were to come later.

pages 14-15 Der Flammende Stein

The very strange Plectognath Plebiscite (what a great name!) seeks — and finds — the Flaming Stone. A wonderfully weird Lovecraft-influenced tale featuring a fantastically imaginative creature:

Plectognath is in the dictionary. It is several varieties of Tropical Marine Fish. Plebiscite roughly means 'of the people.' The creature Plectognath Plebiscite lives in a glass ball. It sends out tubes to push itself along the ground. The tubes expand to create different shapes like part human. I have a water color painting of one on a landscape. MR: email to DLC dated Jan 5, 2006

pages 18-21 Oracle Gallery

Four full-page illustrations, including (for MR) a rare Nazi reference (in the illustration entitled X) and a page of collaged faces entitled Cubis-Tick (being the fourth and final installment in the book’s “Tick” Series). Note the redrawn version of Picasso’s Ghost in this “cubist” page (compare to the similar drawing on page 10 of the story Dreams in ANCIENT DREAMS COMIX). The other two drawings in the gallery are untitled.

page 23 Hand-Head Visits the Alien Carnival!

Full-page advertisement for ALIEN CARNIVAL COMIX reprinting the title page of the lead story.

page 24 untitled collage

Absolutely beautiful other-worldly landscape with wonderfully weird colors. This is one of my personal favorites. MR really outdid himself with the color separations for the covers of this book.

Other contributors to this book are:

page 2 DON MARSH (drawing with indecipherable title )

page 16 ED H. DORN (It Screamed!)

page 17 ED H. DORN (It Came)

page 22 RAOUL NEWK (untitled cartoon)

History:
Page posted to the online MICHAEL RODEN CATALOG 27 August 2003.
Page revised and corrected 20 July 2006. I like being a nerd.