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Rand Holmes Original Production ArtworkInterior Illustration Original Art published in The Georgia Straight,
an alternative weekly newspaper in Vancouver (Founded 1967), categorized as Underground ComixIllustration offering social commentary on women’s health, focusing on pregnancy testing or birth control.
A woman to left standing right, pregnant.Top right, a scientist measures results in a test tube.
Behind them, a grid cross-hatch background.
17.5\" x 11.75\"Published by Don McLeod under independent ownership, this piece appeared in The Georgia Straightcirca 1970\'sCreated edge to edge in pastel on textured sea green art paperCondition: ExcellentProvenance:
From the Rand Holmes EstateArrives with specifications sheet for your reference.
See theGenuine HistoryCollection
Randolph Holton Holmes (February 22, 1942 – March 15, 2002) was a Canadian artist and illustrator probably best known for his work in underground comix. His work was of a higher level of quality than was seen elsewhere in the field and is considered comparable to such creations as Gilbert Shelton\'s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Robert Crumb\'s Mr. Natural.
Born in Truro, Nova Scotia, he grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. As a teenager Holmes taught himself to draw by copying comic-strip artists Wally Wood and Will Eisner. Harvey Kurtzman later published two of his drawings in Help! He married young and worked briefly as a sign painter.
Holmes moved to Vancouver in 1969 and found work as an illustrator at The Georgia Straight, a weekly underground tabloid. The Straight\'s publisher, Dan McLeod, would later say of him:
Here was one of the greatest artists in the history of underground comics, living in our building and churning out major satirical work about those who were out to destroy us, turning them into buffoons. He was a sweet, gentle man who helped us to seize the moral high ground when we were feeling beaten.
The Harold Hedd strip lampooned other contemporary personalities, such as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Minister of Finance Edgar Benson. He drew numerous covers for the Straight and created the Harold Hedd comic strip, which ran in the paper as well as in other publications such as The Body Politic during the early 1970s. Described by writer Dana Larsen as Holmes\'s most well known cartoon creation, the one-page strip was collected in two \"Adventures with Harold Hedd\" volumes, 1972 and 1973.
Holmes\'s work appeared in various underground comics titles:
White Lunch Comix #1 (1972, Georgia Straight)
All Canadian Beaver Comics #1 (1973, Georgia Straight)
Slow Death #5 (1973, Last Gasp), #6 (1974)
Fog City Comics #1 (1977), #2 (1978), #3 (1979, Stampart)
Snarf #11 (1986, Kitchen Sink)He provided the cover for the debut issue of Gay Comix (1980, Kitchen Sink), and illustrated three horror story scripts for Pacific Comics: Twisted Tales #2, #5 (1983) and Alien Worlds #8 (1984).
In 1982, Holmes and his second wife Martha left Vancouver and moved to Lasqueti Island. In his last years he concentrated on his meticulous surrealistic oil painting. His reference library included works by René Magritte, Robert Williams, Pablo Picasso and Gilbert Shelton.
Holmes died at Nanaimo, BC, undergoing chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin\'s lymphoma.
In 2007, Holmes was inducted into the Giants of the North, and a retrospective of his work was presented at that time at his Gulf Island home. A further exhibition was held in Vancouver in 2011.
Dan McLeod working on the Straight while visiting Cooktown, Australia, circa 2000
The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as The Straight, it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, public libraries and a large variety of other locations. The Straight has a long history of independent, unconventional editorials and content, and is known as a vocal critic of government, notably the former Liberal government of Gordon Campbell.
As surveyed by VAC its per-issue circulation average as of January 25, 2011, was once 119,971 copies, and its average weekly readership was once 804,000 as of 2009. Its website traffic once ranked 92,215 globally and 5,395 within Canada, according to November 2, 2021, figures from Alexa.
In January 2020, the newspaper\'s acquisition by Media Central Corporation was announced, a few weeks after the same company announced a deal to acquire the similar Toronto publication Now. In September 2022, after Media Central Corporation filed for bankruptcy, The Straight was acquired by Overstory Media Group.
The paper was founded as an underground newspaper in May 1967 by Pierre Coupey, Milton Acorn, Dan McLeod, Stan Persky, and others, and originally it operated as a collective.
In April 1967: \"The proposed paper was christened the Georgia Straight over beer at the Cecil Hotel. The name aims to play on the fact that the weather forecasts will offer free publicity: they\'re always issuing gale warnings for the Georgia Strait.\"
On May 5, 1967, the first issue was presented and cost ten cents. It was originally a biweekly newspaper. On May 12, Dan McLeod was taken away in a paddy wagon and jailed for three hours for \"investigation of vagrancy.\" College Printers refused to print the second issue, but an alternative was found.
In 1972, original staff members left Georgia Straight to publish the competitor bi-weekly The Grape.
On May 12, 1967, the paper was raided and fined by the Vancouver Police for publishing obscenities, and was often banned from distribution for its criticism of the local police and politicians. Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell described the paper as \"filth\" and, objecting of its sale to \"school children,\" urged the city\'s licensing inspector to suspend the paper for \"gross misconduct\" contrary to city bylaws. The paper\'s business license was suspended September 9, 1967, making it illegal for them to sell papers.
McLeod announced that he would continue to publish, giving the paper away and asking for donations. During the time the license was suspended, city police attempted to confiscate the \"free\" papers and to take donation money away from vendors, though any who refused to hand over money or papers were left alone. In addition, McLeod and others associated with the paper were subjected to violent attacks.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association challenged the suspension in court by arguing that only federal laws could restrict freedom-of-the-press. On this matter, the daily papers Vancouver Sun and The Province both weighed in on the side of the Georgia Straight. The initial challenge filed October 2, 1967 was unsuccessful, with Justice Thomas Dohm praising the mayor for his actions.
On October 6, the Canadian Post Office ruled that the paper was not obscene, allowing for distribution by mail; nonetheless, street vending remained illegal without a city business license. On appeal, the appellate court agreed to lift the suspension on the grounds that a hearing should have been provided to explain why the paper was suspended, but did not rule on the BCCLA\'s freedom-of-the-press argument.
Those controversies ended in the 1970s, as the paper moved to become a more conventional news and entertainment weekly, albeit with a progressive editorial slant. Bob Geldof worked as a music journalist for the Georgia Straight in the 1970s before he returned to Ireland and joined the Boomtown Rats. In the mid-1990s a second Straight newspaper in Calgary, Alberta, called the Calgary Straight was produced, however, its existence was brief.
