The JAM Portfolio
by S. Clay Wilson
& Jon Gierlich
__——
“We thought if two
artists could drop
their egos and not
have a pissing
contest, they could
create a body of art."
S.Clay Wilson
“JAM Portfolio" co-creator
'Gross'comics critique
1970s society, politics
BY MELANIE MENSCH
No one flinches these days when a parental advisory label is
slapped on a CD, movie or television show. But a comic strip?
Cartoon lovers, beware: These aren’t your Sunday comics.
The “JAM Portfolio by S. Clay Wilson and Jon Gierlich” resem
ble hellish versions of “Where’s Waldo,” oozing so much societal
stench, it’s gross.
But that's the point.
Raunchy sex, violent rape, futuristic warfare and terror,
excessive boozing, protruding nipples and bulging crotches
replace the usual feel-good quality of cartoons with a grotesque
profanity only seen in underground comics.
Using their drawings as arsenal, Wilson and Gierlich took
direct aim at American social and political excesses in the late
1960s.
Wilson, a Lincoln native, met Gierlich in the mid-1960s while
studying art and anthropology at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln. Their friendship led to a more creative relationship
after their college days.
During the 1970s, the two artists collaborated on cartoon
strips via mail and sent the drawings back and forth.
“We thought if two artists could drop their egos and not have
a pissing contest, they could create a body of art together,”
Wilson said.
Wilson called it a “graphic chess game.”
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These
untitled
pieces of
the “JAM
Portfolio*
were
created In
ink and
watercol
or.The
project
was cre
ated asa
comment
on 1970s
society.
Gierlich, who then lived in Washington state, sent his pre
liminary sketches to San Francisco, where Wilson added to
the cartoons.
Originally titled “JAM ...,” the portfolio exhibited 21
frames of drawings at the And/Or Gallery in Seattle.
“It's an art-style jam session,” Wilson said. “If musicians
can play together, why not let a bunch of artists get together
and draw?”
Judi Gierlich, Gierlich’s ex-wife who sold the artwork
nearly 25 years ago to the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery,
called the collection "timely today, even after 30 years.”
Using visual and textual narrative, the “JAM Portfolio”
serves as a powerful critique of political, economic, religious
and social institutions, Wilson said.
Daniel Siedell, the Sheldon’s curator, said the drawings were
unusual pieces of the gallery’s permanent collection.
“A forgotten aspect of art is the audience is not necessarily
us,” he said. “These illustrations were relevant to society in the
1970s. It’s important to see these as a part of a moment in a cul
ture.”
The "JAM Portfolio” still makes an impact on its viewers 30
years after its conception, Wilson said.
“A friend called to tell me that a few high school kids were
going ape shit in the gallery where the comics are,” Wilson said.
“The kids were sitting on the floor holding their own JAM ses
sion.
“It’s good to get feedback and reaction like that. It's like a fresh
breeze.”
Bizkit love softens angst
BY ANDREW SHAW
It’s Limp Bizkit’s comeback
album.
All you TRLers out there may
say, “But they’ve been here the
whole time!” Yes, they’ve done
their time with Carson and even
might refer to him as a “friend.”
But the Limp Bizkit on
“Chocolate Starfish and the Hot
Dog Flavored Water” is the rock
band I fell in love with four years
ago, not the TV-friendly, pass
your-buck-my-way hip-hop band
of the last two years.
I’ve been in college 2 Vi years;
I’m into the relaxed schedule of
classes and video games without
worrying about much, but upon
the first listen of “Chocolate
Starfish,” I was reminded of why I
was rebelling for all those years in
high school.
I can still find novelty in a band
who finds 54 places to use the
word “fuck” in one song.
But this Limp Bizkit doesn’t
just play the novelty card any
more. Yeah, we all did it for the
nookie, but Fred Durst, the front
Bizkit, shows signs of intelligence
on "Chocolate Starfish.”
He knows he’s preaching to
the offspring of fans of the Who
and other art-rock bands, and it's
no mistake that the anthem of
angst on this album is “My
—Cme:
Generation.” Durst even stutters
his “g-g-generation" like Roger
Daltry on the 1967 original.
But “My Generation” isn’t a
cover, it’s this millennium's expla
nation of tiie abuse that teens per
ceive from adults. “Go ahead and
talk shit about me / go ahead and
talk shit about my g-g-genera
tion.”
The aggression is the musical
outpouring of what we all felt
when we were ignored and placat
ed in our high school social stud
ies classes, and it speaks to the
hearts of our younger siblings’
experiencing it now.
This album is not just filled
with incessantly powerful and vio
lent songs.
Limp Bizkit shows its "soft”
side on uncharacteristic songs
such as “The One,” a love song
with lyrics directed toward an
unknown woman.
In the song, Durst says this
woman may be “the one” but that
he’s still feeling unsure.
Whoa, Freddy! This display of
affection seems out of place on a
Limp Bizkit album but is very wel
come. If “The One” exhibits any
thing, it is that happiness can find
its way, even in a world seemingly
filled with hate and anguish.
This comment shows a matu
ration of the band, allowing its
facade of tough-guy rock stars to
fall temporarily into real emo
tions.
Don’t be dismayed by
“Significant Other,” Limp Bizkit’s
sophomore album, because the
real band is back, ready to kick ass
and show that it has more to offer
than the hate-mongers of the
industry.
Clumsy boyfriend drops
movie into familiar humor
BY GEORGE GREEN
In a clean and simple fashion, “Meet the
Parents” tickles bursts of laughter from audience
members’ bellies throughout the entire movie.
Ben Stiller plays Greg Focker, a young man
plagued by a humorous last name. (It’s pro
nounced exactly the way it is spelled.)
He wants to ask approval from his girlfriend’s
father to marry her.
Focker, as all characters affectionately call
him, gets whisked away with his girlfriend, Pam
Byrne (Teri Polo), to meet her parents and attend
her sister’s wedding.
As soon as the young couple pulls up to Jack
Byrne’s (Robert De Niro) house, it becomes
apparent that poor Focker is in for a long week
end.
Following the style of other great actors who
stumble into trouble, such as Chevy Chase in
“Christmas Vacation,” Stiller manages to cause
some seriously hilarious damage during his 72
hour visit.
His clumsy, good-guy role is similar to the
simple-and-loving admirer part he played in
“There’s Something about Mary.”
In both cases, Stiller is a big-hearted bumbler
whose cards will not fall the way he wants them
to.
And when his cards happen to land on the
table, something embarrassingly funny shortly
follows.
Perhaps Stiller has a taste of chronic screw-up
syndrome in
real life; he
plays poor
Focker remark
ably well.
But Focker’s
inadequacies
don’t account
for all of the
audience mem
bers’ giggles.
De Niro
does a good job
playing an
overly protec
tive and para
noid father.
He snoops into Focker’s miserable life using
techniques he learned while working as an inter
rogator for the CIA. Byrne warns Focker that he is
always watching.
Byrne drives his old-man’s luxury sedan, com
plains about Focker’s behavior and meticulously
plans his daughter’s wedding in a way that only a
bitter old man could understand.
But he does it in a way that makes the rest of
us explode in full-body laughter.
De Niro and Stiller accentuate each other’s
roles well and have launched “Meet the Parents"
into the No. 1 movie spot in America.
From its perch atop the movie billboards,
“Meet the Parents" promises to keep audiences
rolling with laughter for weeks to come.