ProJunior, sometimes styled as Pro Junior, is an American comics character created by

Don Dohler Donald Michael Dohler (January 27, 1946 – December 2, 2006) was an American film director known for making low-budget science fiction and horror films, as well as his work in underground comix and publishing.Vanderbilt, Mike"Don Dohler’s Nigh ...

in 1958.Fox, M. Steven
"Don Dohler's Projunior"
ComixJoint. Accessed June 4, 2018. He debuted in a

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

in 1961, and 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, ...

in 1970. Known as "

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

's blasphemous bad boy", the character is unusual in the underground genre for being "shared" by a number of different creators, appearing in stories by (among others)

Jay Lynch Jay Patrick Lynch (January 7, 1945 – March 5, 2017) was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his '' Bijou Funnies'' and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip ''Nard n' Pat'' and the r ...

Art Spiegelman Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman ( ; born February 15, 1948), professionally known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazin ...

Skip Williamson Mervyn "Skip" Williamson (August 19, 1944 – March 16, 2017) was an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Williamson's art was published in the '' National Lampoon'', ''High Times'', ''the Realis ...

, 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 ...

. His main period of popularity was from 1970 to 1972. The name of the character came from the teenage zine-maker Dohler's self-perceived status as a junior professional editor. By flipping "junior" and "pro" Dohler came up with "Pro Junior".

Publication history

In 1961 at the age of 15, Dohler started a '' Mad'' magazine-style fanzine called ''WILD''. As with ''Mad'' and

Alfred E. Neuman Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine '' Mad''. The character's distinct smiling face, gap-toothed smile, freckles, red hair, protruding ears, and scrawny body date back to late 19th-century ad ...

, Dohler used his middle-school creation Pro Junior as ''WILD''s mascot. In ''WILD''s peak (the years 1961–1963) it featured cartoons by the likes of

, and

, who all later went on to be significant contributors to the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1970 Lynch and Spiegelman were fooling around and they started drawing Pro Junior again, but this time in a leopard skin leotard. Robert Crumb saw the character—whose name he styled as ProJunior—and decided to draw a comic about him, which appeared in ''

Bijou Funnies ''Bijou Funnies'' was an American underground comix magazine which published eight issues between 1968 and 1973. Edited by Chicago-based cartoonist Jay Lynch, ''Bijou Funnies'' featured strong work by the core group of Lynch, Skip Williamson, Ro ...

'' #4 (

Print Mint The Print Mint, Inc. was a major publisher and distributor of underground comix based in the San Francisco Bay Area during the genre's late 1960s-early 1970s heyday. Starting as a retailer of psychedelic posters, the Print Mint soon evolved into ...

, May 1970). From there, other underground cartoonists made ProJunior stories as well. The character finally appeared in his own title in ''Don Dohler's ProJunior'' (

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcov ...

, October 1971), which featured contributions from 22 underground cartoonists, including Lynch, Crumb, Spiegelman, Williamson, S. Clay Wilson,

Evert Geradts Evert Geradts (born 9 June 1943, The Hague) is a Dutch comics artist and former underground comics artist. He later became a prolific Disney comics writer and artist too. He is the winner with Leny Zwalve of the 1977 Stripschapprijs. Influenc ...

Jay Kinney Jay Kinney (born 1950) is an American author, editor, and former underground cartoonist. Kinney has been noted for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the underground comix press of the 1970s and '80s. Career Kinney was a member, ...

, Justin Green, Jim Mitchell,

Trina Robbins Trina Robbins ( Perlson; August 17, 1938 – April 10, 2024) was an American cartoonist. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic '' I ...

Denis Kitchen Denis Kitchen (born August 27, 1946) is an American underground cartoonist, publisher, author, agent, and the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Early life Kitchen grew up in Wisconsin, attending William Horlick High School, Raci ...

Bruce Walthers Bruce Walthers von Alten (born 1944) is an American underground cartoonist. Also known as Bruce von Alten, Walthers was part of the late-1960s/early-1970s Milwaukee underground comix scene and a member of the Krupp Comics/ Kitchen Sink group, ...

Joel Beck Joel Beck (May 7, 1943 – September 14, 1999) was a San Francisco Bay Area artist and cartoonist. His comic book ''Lenny of Laredo'', one of the earliest underground comic books of the 1960s, was the first underground comic book published on t ...

Bill Griffith William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip '' Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited t ...

—and his creator, Don Dohler. ProJunior's final appearances were in Lynch and illustrator Gary Whitney's ''Phoebe & the Pigeon People'' comic strip, which were first published in the late 1970s.

Characterization

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

describes ProJunior this way: In his original incarnation, Pro Junior had corks in his ears and four teeth. By the time he appeared as ''WILDs mascot, he became more recognizably human, with the flat-top haircut and a single tooth. When he began appearing in the comix he sported a leopard skin leotard, and under Crumb's direction dropped his cartooning aspirations and became more of a rabble-rouser and weekend revolutionary.Crumb, Robert. "ProJunior" I'm no playboy! I'm a workboy!" ''Bijou Funnies'' #4 (Print Mint, May 1970). Projunior's first girlfriend was Belinda Berkeley, who left him after becoming "liberated" by the women's movement.Crumb, Robert. "She's Leaving Home", ''Uneeda Comix'' (Print Mint, ugust1970). His next girlfriend — and the person who shares many of his adventures — was the Crumb character Honeybunch Kaminski.

List of comix appearances

* ''Bijou Funnies'' #4 (Print Mint, May 1970) ** (by

) "ProJunior" I'm no playboy! I'm a workboy!"** (by Daniel Clyne) "Dr. Lum Bago" — cameo (with a parody of Crumb's Snoid) * (by

) "Too Much Too Soon", ''Teen-Age Horizons of Shangrila'' #1 (Kitchen Sink Press,

ummer Kachinamthoduka Puthiyapurayil Ummer known as K. P. Ummer (11 October 1930 - 29 October 2001) was an Indian actor from Thekkepuram quarter of Kozhikode, Kerala, India. He was active in the Malayalam cinema from the early sixties until the late ...

1970) * (by Robert Crumb) "She's Leaving Home", ''Uneeda Comix'' (Print Mint, ugust1970) — with Honeybunch Kaminski and Belinda Berkeley * ''Don Dohler's Projunior'' #1 (Kitchen Sink Press, Oct. 1971) ** (by Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson) "Pro Junior in Perdido" ** (by

) "Pro Junior" ** (by Jay Lynch) "Bongo Bongo Bongo" ** (by

) "Pro Junior Tries Yoga" ** (by Justin Green and

) "Pro Junior Learns To Draw" ** (by Jim Mitchell) "Jim Mitchell's Pro Junior" ** (by

) "Pro Junior and Belinda Berkeley Pull Dat Ole Switcheroo" ** (by Peter Poplaski) "Pro Junior" ** (by Peter Loft) "Pro Junior" ** (by Ned Sonntag) "Pro Junior The Jazz Slinger" ** (by

) "Juan Cristobal Valdez deProJunior, Explorer" ** (by Dave Dozier) "Pro Junior" ** (by Wendel Pugh) "Pro Junior and the Junior Prom" ** (by Dave Herring) "Look Out Sinner! Here Comes Pro Junior" ** (by

) "Pro Junior" ** (by Dale Kuipers) "Pro Junior" ** (by Justin Green) "Pro Junior" ** (by

) "Pro Junior in Personal Turmoil" ** (by

) "Pro Junior Comix" ** (by

) "Pro Junior's Little Difficulty" ** (by

) "Pro Junior in The Good Deed" ** (by Denis Kitchen) "Beware Of Venereal Disease" * (by Robert Crumb) "ProJunior" Projunior, our welfare's been cut again!!!" ''Bijou Funnies'' #6 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1971) — with Honeybunch Kaminski * (by Jay Lynch) "Projunior Movies", ''Teen-Age Horizons of Shangrila'' #2 (Kitchen Sink Press, November 1972) * (by Gail Burwen) "Manhattan Madness", ''Apple Pie'' #1 (Histronic Publications, March 1975) * ''Phoebe & the Pigeon People'' #1 (Kitchen Sink Press, June 1979) ** (by Jay Lynch and Gary Whitney) untitled Sigh! I thought that if I took my rambunctious teen-age nephew, Pro Junior, ..."** (by Lynch and Whitney) untitled I'm sick of having you embarrass me with this jungle boy routine of yours, Pro Junior!"** (by Lynch and Whitney) untitled Lord knows I've tried talking sense into the boy -- "

Further information

* "Letters", ''Mr. Monster's Super Duper Special'' #7 (

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...

, May 1987)

References

Notes

Sources

Projunior
at the Comic Book DB
Pro Junior
at the Comic Book DB

External links

"The History of ProJunior"
a video by John Kinhart

{{DEFAULTSORT:ProJunior American comics characters 1970 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1970 Male characters in comics Magazine mascots