Frank Zappa Rock N' Roll Comics

While trying to find references for the remainder of this course I stumbled upon rare interviews, live performances and printed items like books and magazines that I had no idea about. I must say as a child, I was never into reading. If I had to read a book for school, chances are I asked my fellow classmates what it was about or I forced my mother to read it to me (which only happened a couple of times before she forced me to do homework like everyone else). Although I really enjoyed visuals. Every week I would pick up a new colouring book, wrestling magazine or hockey yearbooks with eight-by-eleven photos of some of the world's greatest players. When I turned nine years old, I was at my Uncle Mario's house while he was cleaning up his storage room. He decided to part ways with his comic book collection. I inherited over eighty of the best and most rare comic books known to mankind. The collection consisted of mainly X-Men, Spider-Man and Thor comics including some special edition issues. Mario also introduced me to Ghost Rider, which was pretty extreme for a kid under the age of ten. As I got older, I got more into comics and I still buy them to this day. As I continued my research on Zappa, I came across this odd comic book that was released in 1994. The cover says it is unauthorized so I cannot confirm if Zappa had anything to do with the release. Judging by the cover (I downloaded it as an online PDF document, wishing I had a physical copy) it seems like the publisher is Revolutionary Comics however the title reads: "Rock N' Roll Comics: Frank Zappa-Viva La Bizarre." The phrase can also be found on the back cover. The first page of the 34-page comic book consists of its own unique interview with Larry "Wild Man" Fischer. What I found noticeably hilarious was that they referred him to Weird Al Yankovic as if they were long lost brothers. Of course in 1994, Weird Al Yankovic was perhaps pop-comedy's biggest star with his renditions of classic pop songs and he also appeared on MTV's video shuffle constantly. "Long before Weird Al, there lived another wacky, musical madman..." was the opening line. I could understand the timing...but how many other wacky men can we relate "Wild Man" to before Weird Al?!

The black and white comic is separated into two divisions both titled "The Ballad of Frank Zappa"; (1) Movement One-Viva La Bizarre and (2) Interlude One: Tokens of his Extreme Circa 1979. The opening cover is Zappa looking like a detective, reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. The focus of this comic book is Zappa's life and his career. Movement One deals more with his life as an early adolescent to being an iconic rock figure. Perhaps the "cream of the crop" (or cream of the comic) is when he was arrested at Studio Z, the illustration shows Zappa being question by Detective Willis and arrested while he is in a straight-jacket. This bit of irony proves Zappa was not able to do or prove anything during his arrest. Interlude One focuses more on Zappa as a composer all the way to Zappa testifying at the Senate Hearing. Seeing Zappa's life in the form of a comic book is quite beautiful to say the least. Illustrations of Gail, Flo and Eddie and numerous groupies also make the comic fascinating. The last page is a continuation of Fischer's interview where he describes a falling out with Zappa after Zappa helped him launch his album. He says Zappa always "hated him" and he owed nothing to Zappa, only the IRS. It seems as if Wild Man Fischer was actually interviewed for this publication (since it was unauthorized) but I cannot find solid proof of it. Either way Fischer was also crazy so it wouldn't surprise me if this is a real interview. I wish I had a physical copy of this comic. It must go for top dollar these days since it was listed as "one of the weirdest comics ever made" by numerous social media websites. I downloaded a PDF of it while searching on Google for various Zappa content. I would love to upload the whole thing on my blog, but I'm afraid that is not possible. Take my word for it: it's a grown man's colouring book and it is awesome.