u/p8pes

Hi WSB friends — I'm a counterculture archivist who has worked for decades to keep underground literature alive, including working at Evergreen Review with Barney Rosset who published Naked Lunch, who fought for Burroughs' right to exist in court. A longtime friend of Burroughs was Terry Southern.

The Illustrated Life of Terry Southern is a five volume series in underground comics format that will follow Terry Southern's entire life, from birth until death. Future volumes will document his dense relationship with Burroughs, including the attempted but never realized film adaptation of Junkie, which Southern was scripting. Did you know Burroughs almost was the script writer on Barbarella? How weird would that have been? You'll find out about it!

Terry Southern is often known as "the lost beat" as he was writing from the same point in time and was close with the whole group. His work was more satirical, most successful as a co-writer of the script to Dr Strangelove with Stanley Kubrick. Southern's books are amazing.

Attached here as a slideshow is a short preview of Book One with Southern discussing Poe's influence on him at age twelve. The project page is here: https://www.ep.tc/terry-southern/

Peace, Ethan Persoff

Hello comedians! Stop before you disregard this with a TLDR — This might save your whole act.

I'm a counterculture archivist whose work has kept alive much of the work of Paul Krassner, rare items of Lenny Bruce, other foundational stuff.

Here's something to brighten up the world in this dismal era: A Comics Biography Project on Terry Southern!

Many people compare the absurdity of our modern era to being a script from Terry Southern. The entire sidebar of r/comedy of "stand-up, sketch, improv, one-liners, skits, or SNL" also heavily relies on the humor he helped forge. (He worked on SNL and Michael O'Donoghue definitely credits Southern's influence on both National Lampoon and SNL's identity) — His ideas and methods are visible in Mr Show, SCTV, Upright Citizens Brigade, Colbert, The Onion, to name just a few.

People are most familiar with Southern's writing as part of Dr Strangelove (Precious Bodily Fluids, Doomsday Gap, etc) and for his influence on The Beatles, or his role in creating "the magic title" for the film Easy Rider. He is also one of the funniest writers to ever live. And he's never been included in comic books.

A few years back the Terry Southern Literary Trust invited Scott Marshall and me to take on adapting Terry Southern's life into comics.

Scott and I had previously finished a biography on John Wilcock which was a history of the entire counterculture press. The plan for this Terry Southern tribute is to make five volumes. The first book of which is 1924-1938, or his life from birth to age 14. It's now up for sale: https://www.ep.tc/books - This is an independent DIY project free of any publishing company restraints.

If you want to be highbrow about it, Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror (particularly episode 1), Charlie Kaufman's dialogue, and Monty Python's absurdity all show heavy connections to Southern, too.

The book is largely in color, attached here is Terry discussing Edgar Allan Poe's impact on his young life at age twelve.

Cheers and worth a look if interested, Ethan P

Greetings, alt-comix friends! This is Ethan Persoff. I'm excited to mention a special project.

Here's something to brighten up the world in this dismal era: A Comics Biography Project on Terry Southern!

Many people compare the absurdity of our modern reality to being a script from Terry Southern. I'm an archivist of counterculture history and have worked for years on special projects to keep underground material from the 1950s-1970s alive, and Terry Southern has always been a hero.

People are most familiar with Southern's writing as part of Dr Strangelove (Precious Bodily Fluids, Doomsday Gap, etc) and for his influence on The Beatles, or his role in creating "the magic title" for the film Easy Rider. He is also one of the funniest writers to ever live. And he's never been included in comic books.

His influence is greatest visible in "Little Annie Fanny" and "Phoebe Zeit-geist" - and in National Lampoon, which he was a contributor with William S Burroughs. His personal history is amazing, from banned books like Candy, and tons of other stories.

A few years back the Terry Southern Literary Trust invited Scott Marshall and me to take on adapting Terry Southern's life into comics.

Scott and I had previously finished a biography on John Wilcock which was a history of the entire counterculture press. The plan for this Terry Southern tribute is to make five volumes. The first book of which is 1924-1938, or his life from birth to age 14. It's now up for sale: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKY8GZT/ - This is an independent DIY project free of any publishing company restraints.

The book is largely in color, attached here is Terry discussing Edgar Allan Poe's impact on his young life at age twelve.

Cheers and worth a look if interested, Ethan P