“What’s the deal with the Church of the Subgenius?”
I don’t have so much a comment but a question that comes to mind that I have always Wondered about. As mentioned in the (excellent) report I remember the face of Bob from Pee Wee´s funhouse as well as various other places (lots of ASCII art with his mug) but the face of “Bob” is “Bob Appelton” from the National Lampoon cartoon series “The Appelton´s”. They were this 50´s “Ward and June Cleaver” type family - except that the dad (Bob) was always getting the kids hurt during some sadistic game under the ruse of “family fun time”.
This seems more like a real “question” to me now then a “comment” And after some months lurking around here I think this board gets a lot more traffic So my question is:
Did the “Church” swipe Bob from Nat-lamp,
or did Nat-Lamp swipe Bob from the church.
I believe the resemblance between “Bob” and Mr. Appleton is one of “those” coincidences. They were both probably based on the 50’s stereotype of the successful, in-control, pipe-smoking man of the world; a deranged version of the dad on “Father Knows Best”. Okay, I found it: from Natlamp’s Very Large Book of Comical Funnies, copyright 1975: Mr.Appleton’s first name was Norm. Not Bob. But- as Cecil said, SubGenius did not go public until about 1979 (maybe 1978). So cartoonist B.K. Taylor did not steal “Bob’s” face for Mr. Appleton, unless he was in touch with Bob’s creator Ivan Stang previous to the coming of SubGenius.
I, personally, by the way, am a minor SubGenius saint- although it has never gotten me laid.
The retro-50s image of the smiling, in-control square-jawed, clean-cut man has been one of the most popular figures for counterculture satire. Check out the cover art from Frank Zappa’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970) and Devo’s first album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978).
When the Subgenius first appeared in 1979, my buddy in Clevo called me up and compared “Bob” to the Weasels Ripped My Flesh cover. (We were both big Zappa fans.)
The Subgenius Organization is a subject that is near and dear to my blackened little heart. It began(as I’ve been told by one of its high ranking “hiarchites”)as a bet, that if Jim Jones could get almost 1000 people to commit suicide, that Ivan Stang (aka Doug Smith)could get 1000 people to send him $1. As time went on, this little bet took on a life of its own. It became kind of an in joke among counter culture types. Many highly creative people took up the flag of Slack and began contributing artwork, short stories, various and sundry new age (and a few fundamentalist)concepts to flesh out the brand new mythos of “Bob”.
“Bob” (always spelled with the quotes btw)began his existence as a piece of clipart in a book of yellow pages advertising art. Ivan Stang still keeps the original photo and has since made it a registered trademark of the organization.
The Church of the Subgenius came to a climax (some would say that they actually experienced erectile dysfunction) on July 5th, 1998 in Sherman New York. This was the date fortold in the “Prescriptures” that the Xist would arrive and take all of the dues paying Subgenius away in the “Pleasure Saucers”. This date had been talked about in the Subgenius community for 20 years with mock seriousness. When the date and time (7am) arrived and went and Xist failed to materialize it was revealed that the date scribbled by “Bob” himself on a cocktail napkin was being read upside down and the Xist would not actually arrive until 8661 (1998 upside down). Stang was tarred and feathered (actually honey’d and feathered) and thrown into a stagnant pond where he was lovingly heckled by the assembled mob. This event broke all standing records for the longest “shaggy dog story” ever told.
The yearly XDay drills are still held in Sherman N.Y. at a beautiful campground called Brushwood. Some of the intensity and fervor is gone but its still one of the best events for those of us who have a genuine love of the odd. For more information visit them at http://www.subgenius.com. PraBob!
Slack!
Pastor Pressure
By the way, Frank Zappa, while not a dues paying member, did mention in his autobiography that the Subgenius best extolled his religious beliefs.