Yellow Dog (comics)

Yellow Dog was an underground comix newspaper and later comic book published by the Print Mint in Berkeley, California. It published 22 issues from 1968 to 1973, featuring many of the period's most notable underground cartoonists, including Robert Crumb, Joel Beck, Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, Greg Irons, and Trina Robbins. Other frequent contributors included Andy Martin, Franz Cilensek, John Thompson, Buckwheat Florida, Jr., Jim Osborne, Ronald Lipking, and Hak Vogrin. The founding editor was Print Mint co-publisher Don Schencker.

Yellow Dog has the distinction of having published more issues than any other true underground comix publication.

Origins
There is some disagreement about the impetus for Yellow Dog. Print Mint publisher/editor Don Schencker claims he came up with the idea, wanting to create an underground comix version of the old comics section of the Sunday newspaper. Cartoonist John Thompson claims that he and Joel Beck came up with the idea of a comix newspaper with the title "Puck the Yellow Kid" (a reference to Richard F. Outcault's' pioneering comics strip character The Yellow Kid). Thompson states that after some coaxing by the artists, Schencker agreed to publish the newspaper, but changed the name to Yellow Dog.

Publication history
Yellow Dog started out as a tabloid-size fold-out newsprint broadsheet with black-and-white interiors featuring some yellow spot color. The first issue, published in May 1968, had eight pages, while issues #2–8 had 16 pages each. From issue #9–10 onward, Yellow Dog had at least 32 pages, most commonly running 44 pages long. With issue #13/#14 (July 1969), Yellow Dog switched format from a newspaper broadsheet to standard comic book size and format, with color covers and black-and-white interiors.

The first volume of Yellow Dog included seven issues, all published "as weekly as possible" in 1968. Vol. 2 began with issue #8 in 1969; eight issues were published that year, but three of those issues (#9/#10, #11/#12, and #13/#14) were double issues. Yellow Dog published two issues in 1970, two issues in 1971, three issues in 1972, and two issues in 1973. Yellow Dog ceased publishing after 22 issues, numbered 1-25 because of the three double issues.

The first twelve issues of Yellow Dog were reprinted in 1973 as a fifth anniversary edition, and sold together in a manila envelope.

Overview
The "mascot" of the yellow dog — featured on almost all the covers — was intended to be a sort of underground analogue to Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman. The dog appeared on the cover of the first few 11 issues, portrayed as urinating on the leg of Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick. From issue #11 onward, the dog appeared in various places, sometimes part of the actual cover art, although it did not appear at all on issues #15, 18, and 19.

The first few issues of Yellow Dog offered little beyond drug-influenced vignettes, scatological humor, and some work by Robert Crumb. Crumb illustrated many covers for issues #1–13/14 (July 1969), which was the last issue to which he contributed. Highlights from issues #7–12 included Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Crumb's Mr. Natural, and strong contributions from Kim Deitch, and Skip Williamson. Issue #7 featured the first underground published work from Robert Williams.

The first comic-sized issue (#13/14, published in July 1969) featured contributions from Crumb, Greg Irons, Jim Osborne, Larry Welz, Jay Lynch, Hak Vogrin, Kay Rudin, and S. Clay Wilson. As time passed, Yellow Dog became a showcase of sorts for new talent in the underground field, giving a forum to voices like Greg Irons, Justin Green, Trina Robbins, Bill Griffith, Robert Armstrong, and Howard Cruse.