We received The Complete Zap last night! Five boxes delivered to our
door. The stack, containing one « copy » each, is nearly as tall as me. I
am stunned by this beautiful edition.
There is the Portfolio, containing perfect reproductions of every cover,
suitable for framing. Then there is the Zap Story, with biographies of
each artist as well as their pre-Zap influences and work, plus their
work outside of Zap. And the story of how it started with R. Crumb, then
evolved into its cast of additional characters. Then of course, all of
the Zaps, including the long-awaited #16. Wilson completed ten pages for
it when he was in Laguna Honda Hospital. It is heart wrenching to see
how well he could still draw then, even though his narrative is
sometimes a bit wacky. I took some photos of Wilson on the couch today,
looking a little overwhelmed by this gorgeous edition, as well as some
close ups to share with you. It is beautiful, elegant (not a word
usually found when describing comics…or Zap) truly complete, and somehow
still revolutionary as well as outrageous. Enjoy…..
