Randolph Holton Holmes (February 22, 1942 – March 15, 2002) was a Canadian artist and illustrator probably best known for his work in

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

. 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 Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', '' Fat Freddy's Cat'', and '' Wonder ...

's ''

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' is an underground comic about a fictional trio of stoner characters, created by the American artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in ''The Rag'', an underground newspaper published in ...

'' and

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...

's Mr. Natural. Born in

Truro, Nova Scotia Truro (Scottish Gaelic: ''Trùru'') is a town in central Nova Scotia, Canada. Truro is the shire town of Colchester County and is located on the south side of the Salmon River (Nova Scotia), Salmon River floodplain, close to the river's mouth ...

, he grew up in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. As a teenager Holmes taught himself to draw by copying comic-strip artists

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...

and

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner ( ; March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) wa ...

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book ''Mad (magazine), Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ...

later published two of his drawings in ''

Help! ''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965 by Parlophone. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the sin ...

'' He married young and worked briefly as a sign painter.

Career in underground comix

''Georgia Straight''

Holmes moved to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

in 1969 and found work as an illustrator at ''

The Georgia Straight ''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 ...

'', a weekly underground tabloid. The ''Straights publisher, Dan McLeod, would later say of him:

''Harold Hedd''

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 ''The Body Politic'' was a Canadian monthly magazine, which was published from 1971 to 1987. It was one of Canada's first significant gay publications, and played a prominent role in the development of the LGBT community in Canada. ''The Body Po ...

'',"Historicist: I Sing The Body Politic"
''

Torontoist ''Daily Hive'', formerly known as ''Vancity Buzz'', is a Canadian online newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It began digital publishing in 2008 and became Western Canada's largest online-only publication by 2016. In September 2022 ...

'', February 14, 2015. 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 volumes: :* ''The Collected Adventures of Harold Hedd'' (1972) Georgia Straight (1st edition), with a 2nd edition in 1973 by

Last Gasp (The) Last Gasp may refer to * Last Gasp (publisher) Last Gasp is a San Francisco–based book publisher with a lowbrow art and counterculture focus. Owned and operated by Ron Turner, for most of its existence Last Gasp was a publisher, dis ...

, Berkeley, oversized, 36 p. :* ''Anus Clenching Adventures with Harold Hedd'' (1973), Last Gasp, 36 p. ''Harold Hedd: Hitler's Cocaine'' was Holmes's longest published story (in two issues of 26 and 30 p.), published by Kitchen Sink in 1984. It received notable success among European readers.

Other works

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 ''Gay Comix'' (later ''Gay Comics'') is an underground comics series published from 1980 to 1998 featuring cartoons by and for gay men and lesbians. The comic books had the tagline "Lesbians and Gay Men Put It On Paper!" Much of the early con ...

'' (1980, Kitchen Sink), and illustrated three horror story scripts for

Pacific Comics Pacific Comics was a comic book Distribution (marketing), distributor and Comic book publisher, publisher active from 1971 to 1984. The company began as a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill Schanes, Bill and Steve Schan ...

: ''

Twisted Tales ''Twisted Tales'' was a horror comics comics anthology, anthology published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. The title was edited by Bruce Jones (comics), Bruce Jones and April Campbell. Publication history ''T ...

'' #2, #5 (1983) and '' Alien Worlds'' #8 (1984).

Later life

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 Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

. His reference library included works by

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

Robert Williams Robert, Rob, Robbie, Bob or Bobby Williams may refer to: Architecture * Train %26 Williams#Robert Edmund Williams, Robert Edmund Williams (1874–1960), Canadian-American architect * Robert Williams (architect) (1848–1918), Welsh architect a ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and '' Wonder Warthog''. Holmes died at

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...

, BC, undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

treatment for

Hodgkin's lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

. 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.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Rand 1942 births 2002 deaths Canadian comic strip cartoonists Canadian editorial cartoonists Artists from Edmonton Artists from Nova Scotia Writers from Edmonton Canadian comics artists Canadian comics writers People from Truro, Nova Scotia Underground cartoonists Canadian graphic novelists Novelists from Alberta Novelists from Nova Scotia