20070117

Warhol, what is it good for?

In the days before the internet, we had to make our own entertainment. When I was a teenager, which was several decades ago, I used to read things called newspapers, which were sort of like blogs, only without the comments. To appeal to the yoof demographic, they would sometimes publish sections specifically targeted at their younger readers. So, for example, The Daily Telegraph published a weekly section called 'The Young Telegraph', and the Sunday Times had a supplement called 'The Funday Times'. These usually consisted of various mirthless cartoons reprinted from elsewhere, with occasional ill-advised attempts at pedagogy. One would occasionally publish abridged biographies of various notables in the form of a comic. Possible the worst, or best (depending on your perspective) of these was "The Life of Andy Warhol". Words cannot really describe the sheer weakness of this realization. The Valerie Solanas incident, for example, was immortalized in a single panel with the words "Calm down Valerie, let's talk about this" being put into Andy's mouth. Alas, all I have to commemorate this fine document is the scan of a single frame, which depicts... well, see for yourself:



If anyone has access to the complete page, or can be bothered to sit down in a copyright library and search through back issues of newspapers from 1993 or thereabouts (perhaps they have scans on DVD-ROM by now?), well, that would make my day.

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