Artist Rory Hayes—whose skritch-skratch primitivism was almost too outre even for the underground comix of the ’60s—is finally comped and catalogued in the about-to-be-released Where Demented Wented, which wraps up tons of repro art with rare interviews and which will be as fine an addition to your personal library of life resisters as it will be to mine. Brutal imagery plus more after bump.

from this killer site

As far as I can tell, Hayes got his first rediscovery in the same landmark Art Out Of Time comix compilation which pulled up Fletcher Hanks—a similarly idiosyncratic artist whose I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets is well-worth a pick-up. Chronologically, he was the last person included, and if you’d like to take that as because he’s a hard act to follow—or a difficult guy to have standing right behind you—then who am I to argue? Visually, he seems like a forerunner of Gary Panter and/or Mike Diana, whose ability to charm all comers is of course well known by now, and he collaborated with well-known semi-local Rick Griffin several times; philosophically, it can’t be a coincidence that he’s one consonant away from the man who wrote the lyrics to “Red Temple Prayer” and “I Think Of Demons.” In preparation to receive the new terrible wonder of Rory Hayes, I went and flipped through his chapter in Art Out Of Time. It wasn’t cheerful. I look forward to the rest.

Tags: comix, fantagraphics, fletcher hanks, i shall destroy all the civilized planets, mike diana, rick griffin, roky erickson, rory hayes, underground comics, where demented wented