Motor City Comics #1, April 1969,  Rip Off Press, Robert Crumb, Underground Comic

1st Printing / April, 1969 / 28 pages / Rip Off Press / In the spring of 1969 Crumb produced Motor City Comics #1, which introduces Lenore Goldberg, one of his strongest female characters to date. While she displays some of Crumb's favorite physical attributes, such as muscular thighs and cheesecake cleavage, Goldberg is the most earnest feminist he had yet created.

After opening with the absurd "The Inimitable Boingy Baxter," which is about an everyday guy escaping a pregnant mistress, the cops and a Chinese dentist by bouncing away in his spring-loaded shoes, Crumb delivers the nine-page "Lenore Goldberg and Her Girl Commandos."

Lenore Goldberg is the leader of a group of young women who storm a meeting of liberal intellectuals to "clear the air of all this bullshot about 'femininity'!" Goldberg declares that "men and women must get together as equals, but for this to happen the whole society must change radically." She never explains exactly how society must change; instead, Goldberg and her "girl commandos" ridicule the soxually repressed intellectuals by pretending to flirt with and seduce them, but it's all just a game and they exit the meeting after humbling their enemy.

When Goldberg and the commandos are pursued by police as they flee the meeting, one of them is caught and brutally punished, but this only strengthens their resolve to expand their membership and push the feminist revolution to the next level. Of course, in Crumb's eyes, the revolution does not prevent Goldberg from going home to have oral sox with her boyfriend and give him a blob job.

Motor City Comics #1 is the second title published by Rip Off Press (Radical America Komics was the first), and though it has plenty of weak spots, the strength of the Lenore Goldberg story makes it a must-read for fans of the Crumb and the underground.

The only copy of the first printing I own is the slabbed copy shown above. If I ever unslab that book or acquire another copy of the first printing, I will replace the image used above with my usual scanned image. It will also give me the chance to show the copyright on the inside front cover that is the only way to identify the first printing.

HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES: There are seven known printings of this comic book, the first six by Rip Off Press and the last by Last Gasp. It is currently unknown how many copies of this comic book were printed for any of the printings. The first five printings all have 50-cent covers and can be somewhat difficult to distinguish. The first two printings have no company logo on the front cover, state The Print Mint address on the back cover, and have copyright information on the inside front cover. But only the 1st printing does NOT have the copyright symbol © on the inside front cover. The 2nd printing added the © symbol to the copyright information.

The 3rd to 5th printings all have the Rip Off Press logo added to the front cover. The 3rd printing still has The Print Mint address on the back cover, but the 4th and 5th printings change to the Rip Off Press address. The only way to tell the 4th and 5th printings apart is that the 4th printing has a glossy paper stock cover and the 5th printing has a matte cover stock. The 6th printing has a 75-cent cover price. The 7th printing is the first published by Last Gasp and has a $2.50 cover price.

COMIC CREATOR: Robert Crumb - 1-28    

Disclaimer: We may have chosen to alter and block a portion of the cover of this particular comic, because it contains simple drawings, sketches, cartoon funnies and caricatures, showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated and satirical way.  For Adults Only is printed on the cover because it’s not a children’s comic book. We have listed this issue in the Viewer Discretion Advised category to comply to eBay’s policies and rules concerning restricted items that may be considered for Mature Audiences only. However, it is at eBay’s discretion to prohibit items that they deem to be inappropriate and we agree with all of eBay’s decisions to maintain a marketplace that all of eBay members can enjoy.  We will voluntarily remove any cartoon comic book that eBay may find unacceptable now or any time in the future.

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OUR STORY - While living in Greenwich Village in the sixties. There was a little store off Bleecker that specialized in underground comics.  Every Friday afternoon after work, I’d go there to see what was the latest version just hitting the shelves. With several of my hippy friends grooving, and laughing over Comics, we’d sit around that smoke-filled room, sometimes late into the night.  Fast forward, some fifty years later – my wife and I discovered some old cardboard boxes hidden behind junk in the back of our storage locker.  It was a dry, cool place and the hundreds of underground comics that had only been read once, were in beautiful condition.  It felt like we discovered a pot of gold.  We wrote to dozens of book and comic stores with a list of our inventory.  They said, there was no interest, no market and offered us little to nothing for the collection. We explained to them that these were complete sets, first editions. To the retail outlets they were worthless, but to us they were priceless.  Now we offer them on E-Bay and the collectors are grabbing them up, at our more than fair and reasonable prices.  Many we had universally certified with CGC, so you’ll know we’re trustworthy, reliable and have the best of service.  Just check the feedback and reviews to know we’re honest and responsible.  We are happy to answer any questions you may have and hope you buy them now while they still are available.  First come, first serve.  Thank you again for your time and interest.