Flyer by Dylan Williams – Click to make real big
Happy birthday to us! Sometime in 1988 the editorial crew behind School of Visual Arts off-Campus publication Tuna Casserole changed it’s name from The Art Dicks to Wow Cool. Tuna Casserole was launched by Sam Henderson and Tom Hart in the studio that Tom and I shared at the SVA dorms in the Sloane House YMCA on 34th Street in Manhattan. At some point just prior to the summer break I was officially made a member of the three headed beast and the new name was chosen by Tom for reasons that are best left in the past. By the time we reached our 20th anniversary it was decided that January first would be the official founding day for reasons I’m not too sure of anymore. For more of my own view of Wow Cool history, please check out this page.
So, I wanted to start out what will hopefully be a series of blasts from the past with images from the early Tuna Casseroles and the first mail order catalog and ads. While digging through the binder of old advertisements I stopped when I came across this. It’s a flyer for a small press event held at Berkeley’s Comic Relief on June 6, 1994 – two days after the first Alternative Press Expo. The art is by the much-missed Dylan Williams. It’s a great little drawing that I doubt very many people have seen. Added bonus: Jeff Smith’s Bone! Despite being on a Monday, I remember this event being packed.
