So Thursday afternoon I acquired a small pile of underground comics from a person selling off a late relative’s collection. It was some of the expected stuff…lots of Robert Crumb comics, including a full run of Mr. Natural, some Freak Brothers, even some Zippy mags. However, in the middle of all these was this odd item that I’d never seen or heard of before:

…Wolfman Jack Comics, a digest-sized 28-page staplebound black and white publication. Obviously it was available through the mail, based on the label (which I obscured) on the front cover there.
A search online turned up very little about this item, save for an approximate publication date (around 1970) that I found on some ancient Wolfman Jack fan page that I’m not linking here as it will automatically forward to porn ads. I haven’t dug deep into any ‘zine collection directories yet, so maybe I’ll find something there, but I haven’t found this on eBay, or in the usual comic databases, and it’s not even in the Fogel underground price guide. (I haven’t been able to check the older Kinney underground guide yet.)
Thus, in order to provide future Wolfman Jack fans with some details on this comic via a (mostly) non-porn site, here we go!
The outer covers are color, and here is the back:

The cartoons inside are…okay, maybe not the most polished artwork you’ve ever seen, but there is a charm and childlike energy to it.

The stories revolve around Wolfman Jack and various supporting characters getting into shenanigans, including a surprising amount of family-friendly nudity:

And I’m posting this sequence with the Wolfman in a tank because I like it:

There’s an activity page, where you can dress up Wolfman Jack as you please…this is just the top half:

And there are ads, like the come-on for the Wolfman Jack fan club:

…and this page of merch (who wouldn’t want to take a swig of Wolfman Whiz?):

Here’s what some of those goodies will set you back:

Did I just do a search (unsuccessful, alas) for Wolfman Whiz on eBay? I’m not saying “no.”
“Koffman and Berenson” are the only credited names here. Aaaaand…that’s all I know about this thing. If anyone out there has more info, let me know or where to find it and I can add it to this page for later scholars to track down. And if you go searching and find a page titled “wolfy1” — that’s the site that throws up the porn ads, don’t click! Unless you want porn ads, you do you, friends.
EDIT: big thanks to Matthew in the comments for using his superior Google-fu (or Bing-fu, I won’t judge) to find the site of one of the creators of this publication (Dan Koffman), who still has copies to sell!
The artist still has copies he’s selling on a site: https://www.artwithasmile.com/wolfman-jack-comic-book-1/wolfman-jack-comic-book-1
Maybe they should make a sequel “Wolfman Jack Team-Up” comic featuring Wolfman Jack and Marv Wolfman…
True confession: When I was a wee lad, I created a comic based on Wolfman Jack’s forgotten cartoon WOLF ROCK TV. I made him a super hero, because of course I did.
Ironically, it lasted far longer than the actual cartoon.
Did a little research. The address listing for ordering would’ve been the address of XERB, a border blaster radio station (i.e., one whose transmitter was in Mexico and thus not subject to FCC limits) which was Wolfman Jack’s home turf.
“Maybe they should make a sequel ‘Wolfman Jack Team-Up’ comic featuring Wolfman Jack and Marv Wolfman…”
I remember seeing an ad at some point in the ’70s, maybe in “Bullpen Bulletins,” saying “Wolfman returns to ‘Tomb of Dracula.'” I was a kid and not up on writer names, so I thought it sounded pretty cool that Dracula would meet the Wolfman. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me at the time that it could have been Wolfman Jack, who was way better known at the time than Lon Chaney, Jr. was.
You know he’s nude inside that tank.
Also, $3 T-shirt? Whoa. That *is* an old comic.
Scott-I’m reminded of that scene in Morrison’s Animal Man where Buddy Baker visits Arkham and meets the Psycho Pirate who is afraid that the “Wolfman sent Buddy Baker after him”. How fortuitous that Marv Wolfman was the writer on Crisis. That scene wouldn’t have exactly worked had it been a fear that “Thomas sent him”.
I guess there’s a lot about Wolfman Jack I didn’t know. This book is about that DJ with the weird voice, right? Is there any other Wolfman Jack? I didn’t think the DJ went all the way back to 1970 and I have no idea what all these jokes about him being naked are about.
“Maybe they should make a sequel “Wolfman Jack Team-Up” comic featuring Wolfman Jack and Marv Wolfman”
and Werewolf by Night!
The Guess Who had a song, “Clap for The Wolfman”, and it got a lot of play here on our WLS-AM station. Lots of Jack laughing in between choruses.
Mike: I knew of these from the biggest Kroch’s & Brentano’s (eventually Kroch’s) as they had an entire rack of oddball saddle-stitched books.PolkaZine sold well, I’m not lying.
For fun, use Google Maps on that address. I have a ton of Onions from the 90s and 00s I bought for cheap on eBay. The address in NYC had seen better days.
WHAT A FIND! WANT!
And Wolfman Jack has a very interesting history…which was legend way before he was in American Graffiti or had a song named after him
@ Pete
There is a mention in the Wolfman Jack comic to the risque counterculture Off Broadway play from the late ’60s “Oh! Calcutta!” So, the Wolfman Jack comic was lampooning that. The comic also rehashes a few parodies based on the early EC MAD comics with a character called Super Duper Man, and also Fat Man and Reuben (similar to MAD’s Batboy and Rubin).
Actually, this makes me think that DC should have a limited series or one-shot comic set on Earth-MAD that would feature the parody characters Superduperman, Batboy and Rubin, Blunder Woman, Captain Marbles, and perhaps other characters. They could get someone like Hilary Barta to draw it in a humorous Wally Wood homage style. Maybe it could even be a situation where the original Inferior 5 cross over and meet these characters in a tale called “Crisis on Earth-MAD!”
Oh, and the Crisis on Earth-MAD plot could also add the Black and Blue Hawks, and Plastic Sam to the mix…
Pete – I don’t know what the nudity jokes are springing from either, but, hey, if Wolfman Jack wants to be naked, let that man be naked!