In the second issue of Streetcomix, for reasons that I'm unaware of since I don't own the comic, the publishers declared that "there would be no number 3." And so there wasn't a Streetcomix #3! Instead, it's called Streetquomix! See, it says so right up there in that picture of the book! A completely different comic book with a completely different title!

Well, that didn't really fool anybody now, did it? No, it didn't even fool the publishers, as they more or less acknowledged on the title page's indicia (see link in the right column). After the second issue's 2,000 copies sold out (surprisingly?), Streetcomix #3 was produced, and they printed an extra thousand copies of the book to boot.

Jerzy Szostek gets this issue off to a terrific start with a one-pager called "Pain-Thing by Numbers," which features a lover's quarrel that leads to a clever number of consequences. Nick Toczek (an Arts Lab jack-of-all-trades: his Wiki page provides proof) follows with an article that sings the praises of the French sci-fi/fantasy comic magazine Metal Hurlant, which was barely two years old at the time. He also bubbles with excitement that an English version is to be expected soon called Heavy Metal (which actually debuted the same month Streetcomix #3 went to press).

Geoff Rowley and Chris Welch team up for "2002 A Rock Oddity," which is not a parody of the movie 2001 but rather a very funny nine-page story about members of a veteran rock band desperately trying to recapture the "cosmic riff" that originally made rock 'n roll so great. The story includes a 6,000-year-old guru on a remote island who has a terrible lisp that should have driven me away screaming, but for some reason I just kept laughing my ass off every time he spoke.

After a classically surreal one-pager from Hunt Emerson, a forgettable three pages of tired dreck from Graham Higgins (aka Pokketts), and an intriguingly bizarre center spread from Sioban Coppinger, Bryan Talbot pops up for two loverly pages about the state of the British comics/comix medium. It too offers high praise for Metal Hurlant while wondering if British alternative comics will ever find an audience.

Shaun Johnson's two-pager "The Man Who Was Stuck in a Comic" offers an amusing slant on an idea that probably wasn't all that old back in 1977. The five-page "City Tales" follows, a stark drama about city paranoia and alienation that was produced by partners Tony Schofield and Dave Taylor. Mr. Hepf mentions them in his article near the end of the book, saying "these two kids seem a little pissed off with civilization" and that they're planning a "mammoth work" that begins with the five pages here. If this mammoth work has as much style and a little more dialogue than the first chapter we get in this issue, I'm all in. Unfortunately, Schofield and Taylor don't appear again in Streetcomix and I can't find a word about them on the internet.

A few other short comics and articles (including Mr. Hepf's) wrap up the third issue of Streetcomix, which only has a couple iffy stories mixed in with some pretty solid work. If the rest of the series can live up to this standard, it will be tragic indeed that Streetcomix didn't survive long after 1978. Of course, that's not the first time I've said something like that about an underground or alternative comic that disappeared from the scene before its time.



HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES:
Arts Lab Press printed approximately 3,000 copies of this comic book. It has not been reprinted.

COMIC CREATORS:
Hunt Emerson - editor, 17, 36-37
Ar:Zak designers - 1 (presumably vintage illustration from unknown source)
John Hyatt - 2
Paul Fisher - 3 (introduction)
Jerzy Szostek - 5, 35
Nick Toczek - 6-7 (article)
Geoff Rowley - 8-16 (script)
Chris Welch - 8-16 (art)
Graham Higgins (aka Pokketts) - 19-21 (art)
Else (full name unknown) - 19-21 (script)
Sioban Coppinger - 22-23
Bryan Talbot - 24-25
Shaun Johnson - 26-27
Dave Taylor - 29-33 (script)
Tony Schofield - 29-33 (art)
Steve Berridge - 34
John Dowie - 38-39 (article), 40 (article, shared)
Will Eisner - 39 (spot illo)
Mr. Hepf - 40 (article, shared), 41 (article)
Jooste Swarte - 41 (spot illo)