The extraordinarily gifted and chronically underpaid Georgia Straight illustrator, cartoonist and comic book artist Rand Holmes of Lasqueti Island died at age 60 in 2002. His Harold Hedd comics are collectors' items and he was respected across North America in the Sixties and Seventies as a peer of cartoonist Robert Crumb (Mr. Natural) and Gilbert Shelton (Furry Freak Brothers). Cannabis Culture magazine ran a profile on Holmes and his art show that was exhibited on Lasqueti Island in March of 2007. Patrick Rosenkranz of Portland, Oregon, has compiled a 328-page biography and a retrospective art book devoted to Holmes' career, The Artist Himself: A Rand Holmes Retrospective (Fantagraphics Books $39.99 U.S.).
According to family friend Kathy Schultz of Lasqueti Island, a close friend of Martha Holmes, widow of the late Rand Holmes: "In 2007, five years after Rand's death, Martha felt ready with the help of her friends to do something with Rand's art and studio on Lasqueti. Patrick Rosenkranz had been asking before Rand's death if he could come and interview Rand and so we contacted him to come visit Lasqueti and look at Rand's work space the way he had left it. From there we decided to get all of Rand's art work together and host a Lasqueti retrospective art show before the majority of his work left the island for safer keeping. [You can view a trailer of this show on youtube. The title is Rand Holmes : Retrospective Art Show.] Patrick took away many of Rand's journals and was given permission by Martha to write Rand's biography."
According to promotional materials: "Rand Holmes was Canada's most revolutionary artist in his heyday, the star cartoonist at the Georgia Straight newspaper in British Columbia during the 1970s. His hippie hero, Harold Hedd, became the spokesman of the emerging counterculture as he avoided work, explored free love, and flouted drug laws. The Adventures of Harold Hedd spread across the globe in the wave of underground comix and newspapers of the era and Holmes became famous - or at least notorious. While his comic character was bold and blatant, the artist was shy and quiet, well on his way to becoming a complete hermit. This book is an intimate and expansive account of a very private man who expressed his deepest feelings in the then disreputable medium of comix. " He didn't talk much but he sure wrote a lot," avowed his widow Martha. This biography/retrospective includes generous selections from his private journals and correspondence, family photo albums, sketchbooks, and personal anecdotes from his friends and colleagues. His artistic history began haltingly on the lonely windswept plateau of Edmonton, flourished in Vancouver and San Francisco, and concluded peacefully on Lasqueti Island, a remote backwater in the Straits of Georgia where he lived out his dreams of pioneering and homesteading. Holmes' life story is richly illustrated with drawings, comic strips, watercolors, and paintings that span his whole career, from the hot rod cartoons he drew as a teenager, dozens of covers for the Georgia Straight, pornographic cartoons for the sex tabloid Vancouver Star, to complete comic stories from Slow Death Funnies, Dope Comix, All Canadian Beaver, Death Rattle, Grateful Dead Comix, and many more. The full-length Harold Hedd comic novels, Wings Over Tijuana and Hitler's Cocaine are reprinted in their entirety together for the first time. This unique collection of art documents a lifetime of work by one of the most talented artists of his generation. Holmes died in March 2002 from Hodgkin's lymphoma, and his ashes are buried next to the Art Centre he helped build on Lasqueti Island."
ISBN: 978-1-60699-170-1
[Contact: Patrick Rosenkranz, 1211 SW 58th Avenue, Portland, OR. 97221, Telephone 503-241-8317 or prosenkranz@comcast.net]
[BCBW 2010] "Art"
According to family friend Kathy Schultz of Lasqueti Island, a close friend of Martha Holmes, widow of the late Rand Holmes: "In 2007, five years after Rand's death, Martha felt ready with the help of her friends to do something with Rand's art and studio on Lasqueti. Patrick Rosenkranz had been asking before Rand's death if he could come and interview Rand and so we contacted him to come visit Lasqueti and look at Rand's work space the way he had left it. From there we decided to get all of Rand's art work together and host a Lasqueti retrospective art show before the majority of his work left the island for safer keeping. [You can view a trailer of this show on youtube. The title is Rand Holmes : Retrospective Art Show.] Patrick took away many of Rand's journals and was given permission by Martha to write Rand's biography."
According to promotional materials: "Rand Holmes was Canada's most revolutionary artist in his heyday, the star cartoonist at the Georgia Straight newspaper in British Columbia during the 1970s. His hippie hero, Harold Hedd, became the spokesman of the emerging counterculture as he avoided work, explored free love, and flouted drug laws. The Adventures of Harold Hedd spread across the globe in the wave of underground comix and newspapers of the era and Holmes became famous - or at least notorious. While his comic character was bold and blatant, the artist was shy and quiet, well on his way to becoming a complete hermit. This book is an intimate and expansive account of a very private man who expressed his deepest feelings in the then disreputable medium of comix. " He didn't talk much but he sure wrote a lot," avowed his widow Martha. This biography/retrospective includes generous selections from his private journals and correspondence, family photo albums, sketchbooks, and personal anecdotes from his friends and colleagues. His artistic history began haltingly on the lonely windswept plateau of Edmonton, flourished in Vancouver and San Francisco, and concluded peacefully on Lasqueti Island, a remote backwater in the Straits of Georgia where he lived out his dreams of pioneering and homesteading. Holmes' life story is richly illustrated with drawings, comic strips, watercolors, and paintings that span his whole career, from the hot rod cartoons he drew as a teenager, dozens of covers for the Georgia Straight, pornographic cartoons for the sex tabloid Vancouver Star, to complete comic stories from Slow Death Funnies, Dope Comix, All Canadian Beaver, Death Rattle, Grateful Dead Comix, and many more. The full-length Harold Hedd comic novels, Wings Over Tijuana and Hitler's Cocaine are reprinted in their entirety together for the first time. This unique collection of art documents a lifetime of work by one of the most talented artists of his generation. Holmes died in March 2002 from Hodgkin's lymphoma, and his ashes are buried next to the Art Centre he helped build on Lasqueti Island."
ISBN: 978-1-60699-170-1
[Contact: Patrick Rosenkranz, 1211 SW 58th Avenue, Portland, OR. 97221, Telephone 503-241-8317 or prosenkranz@comcast.net]
[BCBW 2010] "Art"
Articles: 1 Article for this author
Rand Holmes Publications
Checklist
Checklist of Rand Holmes Published Comic Work (separate from his extensive work for the Georgia Straight, Vancouver Free Press and Vancouver Star).
Compiled by Patrick Rosenkranz
Benchracer 1962-63 "Out To Lunch";
Help! Magazine (2) (circa 1963) gag cartoons
Hot Rod & Drag Cartoons (circa 1965-66)
Georgia Straight/Vancouver Free Press (1971-1980)
Vancouver Star (1978-9?)
Collected Adventures of Harold Hedd 1972 GS & Last Gasp editions
Anus Clenching Adventure with Harold Hedd 1973 "Wings Over Tijuana";
White Lunch Comix #1 1972 Covers
"Baldric the Barbarian";
"Vegetable of the Week";
All Canadian Beaver Comix #1 1973 Cover & "Harold Hedd's Bike Song";
"Continuing Adventures of Harold Hedd
Slow Death #5 1973 Cover & "Museum Piece";
Slow Death #6 1974 Cover & inside front & "Raw Meat";
Slow Death #8 1977 Back Cover - Greenpeace Whale
The Image of the Beast 1973 Inside back - Last Gasp ad
Berkeley Con Program Book 1973 Ads - Harold Hedd and Slow Death
Tales from the Berkeley Con 1974 Covers (2) & Last Gasp Ad
A History of Underground Comics 1974 Front & Back covers
Title pages (2)
Head Magazine 9/76 Harold Hedd (cats prevent bust)
Head Magazine 11/76 GreenpeaceWhale
High Times #3 1975 8-page condensed "Wings over Tijuana";
Cheri magazine 10/76 RH Interview w/illo
5/77 Basement Man strip
Fog City Comics #1 1977 Cover & "Nip and Tuck in Anal Antics";
Fog City Comics #2 1978 Cover & inside front (self-portrait)
"Killer Planet"; (black & white)
Inside back - Stampart Ad
"Close Encounters of the Turd Kind
Fog City Comics #3 1979 Cover & Inside front
"The Artist Himself"; (black & white)
GS Cover - SciFi convention
GS Cover - Merry Christmas
GS Cover - Lobotomy
Back cover - Stampart Ad
No Ducks #2 1979 "Star Rats"; (George Metzger) (single panel)
Harold Hedd: Hitler's Cocaine #1 1984
Harold Hedd: Hitler's Cocaine #2 1984
Pacific Comics
Alien Worlds #8 1984 "Stony End";
3D Alien Worlds 1985 "Spaceman Go Home";
Twisted Tales #2 1983 "Speed Demons";
Twisted Tales #5 1984 "Banjo Lessons";
Kitchen Sink Press
Gay Comix #1 1980 Cover
Dope Comix #4 1981 Cover
Death Rattle #1 1985 "Killer Planet"; (color)
Death Rattle #2 1985 "The Artist Himself"; (color)
Death Rattle #4 1986 Cover & "Power of Prayer"; (color)
Death Rattle #5 1986 Cover & "Junkyard Dog"; (color)
Death Rattle #6 1986 "Cat Calls";
Death Rattle #9 1987 Cover & "Child of the Media";
Death Rattle #10 1987 "Side Show";
Death Rattle #11 1987 "Keep the Home Fires Burning";
Death Rattle #14 1988 "Bummer";
Death Rattle #17 1988 Cover & "Slide Sinner Slide";
Snarf #11 1989 Cover & "Basement Man in Latex Love";
"Carrotoons"; (color back cover)
Grateful Dead Comix #2 1991 "The Lille Story";
Grateful Dead Comix 1992 Paperback collection, includes "The Lille Story";
NBM
Confessions of a Cereal Eater! 1995 "Mean Old Man";
Foreign Editions
Germany (1979-1984)
Volksverlag (Raymond Martin)
U-Comix Sonderbanden Anthologien
Rand Holmes gesammelte Werke Band 1
Harold Hedd & Vetter Egon
Rand Holmes gesammelte Werke Band 2
Flugel Uber Tijuana
Rand Holmes gesammelte Werke Band 3
Star Whores
Rand Holmes gesammelte Werke Band 4
Hitler's Kokaine
Rand Holmes gesammelte Werke Band 5
Cartoons & Comix
U-Comix (covers for #9 #11 #58 et alia plus
serialized HK & other RH strips)
France
L";Echo des Savanes - Special USA (Fershid Bharucha)
Albin Michel Coke du fuhrer 1987
Albin Michel Planetes pas Nettes 1988
Editions du Triton Cheres Fraiches 1979
Librairies Paralleles Marijuana á Tijuana 1974
Great Britain
Zip Comics #1 1973 Cover
Spain
Toutain Editor, Barcelona - Comix Internacional #51 Nip & Tuck
Ediciones La Cupula - La Vibora (3/2/84) Hitler's Cocaine & Latex Love
Italy
Ediciones La Cupula - Goma-3 (7/16/79) Nip & Tuck
Horror N. 1 Guigno 1990 Potere della Preghiera (color)
Norway
Semic
Sweden
A/S Interpresse Underground No. 2
A/S Interpresse 1987 Harold Hedd Kokain I Lasten
Denmark