Spain's 1963 Buffalo Rumble in Artvoice

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Spain Rodriguez: Buffalo, March 3, 1963 by Ed Cardoni

In this poster-sized masterwork drawn in San Francisco in 1973 (pictured ), Spain Rodriguez—by then a denizen of the Mission District and full-fledged member of the Zap Comix collective—looks back on a memorable night from his youth 10 years earlier in downtown Buffalo: March 3, 1963, the day after his 23rd birthday.

Note the old Greyhound bus station in the top left corner, the “Jesus Saves” sign, and, right next door, that of the Signet Lounge. This is Pearl Street just below Tupper, in the present-day Theater District. (No need to cower in fear on this Curtain Up! night, Mr. & Mrs. Theatergoer, this mean-streets Buffalo is bygone!) Many of Spain’s favorite motifs and stylistic flourishes are crowded into this elaborately rendered battle scene of Road Vulture rumbling: the leather jackets sporting colors of Spain’s own design, street signs and storefronts, street lamps and cracks in the sidewalk (here with the lingering heaps of dirty snow at the curb Buffalo used to have before the climate changed), tail-finned cars cruising Pearl when it used to be a two-way street, more verbalized comic-book sound-effects than a season of Batman TV episodes, and of course the artist’s beloved motorcycles parked in the top right corner. You can read the legend for yourself, but you need to know that “Algernon Backwash” was the nom-de-plume Spain sometimes used for the literary side of his graphic creations.

This original drawing was exhibited at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York City as part of the exhibition Zap: Masters of Psychedelic Art, 1965-1974, May 12-June 25, 2011, curated by Gary Panter (of Peewee’s Playhouse fame) and Chris Byrne.