'The Village Voice' (Fuktup Funnies #1, 1972).
Marty Nelson was a mid-20th century U.S. underground comix artist, about whom not much is known. His only known contributions to comic history were parody stories, published in issue #23 of Yellow Dog (Print Mint Inc, 1972) and in the one-shot title 'Fuktup Funnies' (Head Imports Inc, 1972). He is additionally notable as the cover illustrator of the album 'A Beacon From Mars' (1968) by the psychedelic country rock band Kaleidoscope.
Kaleidoscope connection
Little is known about Marty Nelson's personal background, except that he was a friend of the musicians David Lindley and Chris "Chester" Darrow, founders of the 1960s psychedelic country rock band Kaleidoscope. In an article about the band on the website of rock historian Bruno Ceriotti, it is mentioned that during the early 1960s, Nelson was a teacher working for the Berry and Grassmueck music store, located at 927 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California. Also working there in a similar function was David Lindley. In March and April 1966, Lindley and Nelson exhibited their paintings at the Add Gallery, a cooperative adventure of various Southern California Artists located at 125 South Fair Oaks in Pasadena.
Two years later, Nelson designed the cover of the second Kaleidoscope album, 'A Beacon From Mars' (1968). The band's multi-instrumentalist Maxwell Buda later provided scripts for some of Nelson's underground comix. Buda and Chris Darrow later released the album 'Eye Of The Storm' (1981), of which the cover was designed by another underground comix artist, Rick Griffin.
Cover art for the second Kaleidoscope album (1968).
Identity
Considering Marty Nelson's connection to the Kaleidoscope entourage in California, it is unlikely that Nelson the cartoonist is the same person as the New York City vocalist Marty Nelson, a founding member of the vocal group Manhattan Transfer and a composer/producer for Lifesong Records in the 1970s. As a singer/voice actor for commercials, TV broadcasts, movies and cartoons, this Marty Nelson's connection to comics was the production of a Spider-Man-themed music album, 'Spider-Man: Reflections of a Super-Hero' (1976).
In 1989, a comic artist called "Nelson Marty" appeared in the first issues of 'Continüm Presents', published by Joseph Naftali's Continüm Comics.
'Fonda Livin'' (Fuktup Funnies #1, 1972).
Fuktup Funnies
In 1972, an underground comix publisher named Head Imports released four underground comic books: Cloud Comics, Gimme, Roxy Funnies and Fuktup Funnies. Their Cloud Comics issue was presented as a sequel to a similar title, Cloud Comix, published in 1971 by Kitchen Sink Press. Some of the artists in Kitchen Sink's Cloud Comix issue, like Bill Skurski, Peter Bramley, Tom Hatchma and Gail Burwen, also reappeared in Cloud Comics. Newcomers were Leslie Cabarga, Jay Kinney and Ned Sonntag. The comic book Gimme featured stories by Leonard Rifas, Larry Rippee and Bob Garcia, while Roxy Funnies offered room for some of the best-known underground artists of that era, including Lyn Chevli, Kim Deitch, Joyce Farmer, Rory Hayes, Jay Kinney, Jay Lynch, Art Spiegelman, Bhob Stewart, and nowadays obscure artists like Cormo, Sam Cornell, Don Dohler, Lou Pearson and Jim Siergey.
Fuktup Funnies mostly featured comics drawn by Marty Nelson, written in collaboration with Max Buda. Two are parody stories, mocking Disney's Donald Duck. The first one, 'Fonda Livin'', featured a sailor suit-wearing duck named Darne Olde Duck. Given that many underground comix artists were strongly inspired by the early issues of Mad Magazine, scripted by Harvey Kurtzman, the name Darn Olde Duck might have been inspired by the 'Donald Duck' spoof found in Kurtzman and Will Elder's Disney comics parody 'Mickey Rodent' (Mad issue #19, 1955). Nelson's duck, however, is a more raunchy character, who lusts after Hollywood actress Jane Fondle (a pun on Jane Fonda). Nelson and Buda's other story, 'Hijack Hijinx or Cubana Be, Cubana Bop', followed the anthropomorphic jazz musician duck Dizzy Ducklespie (a pun on Dizzy Gillespie) who gets involved in a plane hijacking. Other Marty Nelson productions in the comic were 'The Village Voice', another funny animal comic parody, and the one-page gag 'Mr. Fixit Works Out'.
'Hijack Hijinx or Cubana Be, Cubana Bop' (Fuktup Funnies #1, 1972).
The only other contributor to Fuktup Funnies was an artist signing with the name Joe Arthur Potts, who used the characters of Ozzie and Lotta in two adventure stories, 'Beat Me Daddy 8 to the Bar' and 'The Visitation'. It should be noted that the hippie couple 'Ozzie and Lotta' weren't creations by Potts, but instead characters previously used by Robert Armstrong in L.A. Comics #1 (1971), Mickey Rat #1 (1972) and, later, in Comix Book #3 (1975). It has been argued that Joe Arthur Potts and Marty Nelson might be the same person, or that the comics were actually drawn by Robert Armstrong under a pseudonym. Fuktup Funnies indeed also features an anthropomorphic rat, not unlike Armstrong's Mickey Rat character, while in 'Mickey Rat', there is also a jazz musician based on Gillespie, named Dizzy Ratstein. However, on the website comixjoint.com, this theory is dismissed, given that Nelson and Potts' graphic styles are very different.
A second issue of Fuktup Funnies was considered, with participation of writer Max Buda and the artists Tad Hunter, the "Fabulous Potts Brothers" and Marty Nelson. The issue would have featured a story titled 'The All Losers Squad', spoofing the DC Comics superhero team 'Justice League', Disney comics and C.C. Beck & Bill Parker's 'Captain Marvel'. However, the publisher disappeared with the original artwork, a situation Robert Crumb also experienced in 1968, with the first issue of Zap Comix. Unlike Crumb however, the Fuktup Funnies team had no back-up of their original drawings.
Yellow Dog
Marty Nelson additionally contributed to an underground comic with a larger circulation, Yellow Dog, distributed by Print Mint. In issue #23 (October 1972), he wrote and drew two stories. The first one, 'Fauna Funnies', was a gag page, again featuring Armstrong's characters Ozzie & Lotta. The other was a science fiction-themed one-page gag, '2001: A Spaced Odyssey', making a pun on Stanley Kubrick's SF epic '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Interestingly enough, the Yellow Dog issue also featured contributions by Robert Armstrong.
'Fuktup Funnies'.