Spain: Street Fighting Men

Spain: Street Fighting Men
Fantagraphics Books, November 2017

'Spain: Street Fighting Men' (304 pp) was published by Fantagraphics Books in November 2017. Like all the titles from Fantagraphics, this is a well-made, heavy slab of a trade paperback, printed on high-quality paper stock with reproductions as crisp as possibly can be made from scans, negatives, and printed copies of decades-old drawings, photographs, and comix.

Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, Manuel ‘Spain’ Rodriguez (1940 – 2012) was a pioneering figure in underground comix and alternative media. ‘Street Fighting Men’ is the first in a planned five-volume series of graphic novels compiling all of Rodriguez’s illustrations and comics. (As of August 2020, Fantagraphics has issued the first two volumes in the series.)

Patrick Rosenkranz (Rebel Visions) is the premiere historian of the underground comix era, and thus ably qualified to edit this book, which is divided into five parts:

‘The Complete Trashman’ compiles all of the comix featuring this seminal character. You get all of the Trashman stories from his first appearance as a one-page strip in The East Village Other in 1968, up to his final appearance, in the comic Zero Zero, in 1995. All the Trashman stories from Subvert Comics are present and accounted for. This compilation is superior to the 1997 Fantagraphics book, 'Trashman Lives' (used copies of which have asking prices close to $30, which is the same price as 'Street Fighting Men').

Growing up, I really liked Trashman, so being able to get all of his adventures in one volume, reprinted on glossy paper stock, in 'Street Fighting Men' is a real bargain. All of the intricate details - such as Spain's careful use of Zip-A-Tone - that were hard to make out in the original comix are easier to see, and appreciate:

‘Sometimes I’m So Happy I Can’t Stand It’ is Rosenkranz’s biography of the Buffalo, NY ‘Road Vultures’ motorcycle club; Spain joined the club in 1961 and participated in many of its activities, including its road rides and bar-room brawls.

Full of anecdotes and reminiscences by Spain and other members of the Vultures, accompanied by press clippings, photos from personal archives, early drawings by Spain, and even excerpts from a Scholarly Dissertation (?!), this essay is a very entertaining overview not just of the history of a motorcycle gang during the 50s and 60s, but a history of blue-collar Buffalo and Upstate New York in their golden years before the advent of economic decay and the establishment of the Rust Belt.

‘The Complete Road Vulture Comic Strips’ section features Spain’s semi-autobiographical accounts of the adventures of the club, ‘….back when Harleys still ruled the road’.

‘Arm the Vagrants’, another essay from Rosenkranz, is a narrative history of Spain’s relocation to New York City in the mid-60s. There, Spain played an important role in the nascent underground comix movement, mainly through his duties as the art director of the influential counterculture newspaper The East Village Other. Anecdotes about the ‘real creepy place’ in New York city that Spain and fellow comics artist Kim Deitch lived in during the mid 1960’s conjure up authentic Escape from New York, The Wolfen, and Fort Apache the Bronx vibes……. well before any of those films hit theatres.

Closing out ‘Street Fighting Men’ is a very short section of ‘Manning’ comix, one-pagers about a vigilante cop that Spain incorporated into early issues of The East Village Other.

Whether you're an underground comix fan, an aging hippie seeking nostalgia, or an acolyte or historian of American pop culture, 'Spain: Street Fighting Men' is a worthy investment. 

I would pick it up sooner, rather than later, as eventually these Fantagraphics titles will acquire out-of-print status.......... and high prices.