Spain Rodriguez

The Silvermine Guild School of Art professors didn’t appreciate his representational drawings, an alcoholic landlord threatened his life, and he’d witnessed a good friend commit suicide.

So he returned to his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where he painted, took a janitor job (at the Western Electric plant for five years[10]), became invested in left wing politics, and joined an outlaw motorcycle gang.

[13]"In New York City, during the late 1960s, he became a contributor to the underground newspaper the East Village Other, which published his own comics tabloid, Zodiac Mindwarp (1968).

[14][15] He covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a reporter for the East Village Other, adventures which were chronicled in My True Story (Fantagraphics Books, 1994).

One of his earliest strips, "Manning," featured a hard-boiled, over-the-top cop and was later cited as an influence on the British comics character Judge Dredd.

Somewhere between a crazy artist crossed with a left wing radical, crossed with a working class Latino hood" - Robert Crumb[17]Spain was a co-founder[18] (with Nancy Griffith, Bill Griffith, Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Art Spiegelman, Roger Brand, and Michele Brand[19]) of the United Cartoon Workers of America,[20][21][22] The U.C.W.

The following month, over the course of a second meeting that assembled a greater number of participants with assistance from Rip Off Press, the creators placed their own status in underground publishing on the table.

The third meeting was more didactic: Albert Morse, the lawyer for Zap Comix (and for Robert Crumb), wrote a report on the topic of royalties, Greg Irons explained how to buy art supplies in bulk, and Bill Griffith dissected the costs of printing and distribution.

[27] "Spain Rodriguez’s work stands above that of all the other male artists in this creation of sexually explicit comics art, both because he was so prolific and popular, and because he strove to show his sympathy toward women’s passions and struggles.

"[28]"The tall, leggy, often half-naked “Big Bitch” is a raunchy, explicitly sexual Rodriguez character who appears in She Comics in stories that often incorporate macho, sadomasochistic themes.

"[29]After moving from New York City to San Francisco in 1970, Spain's Subvert Comics series (1970–1976)[30] featured "three full length Trashman: Agent of the Sixth International stories.

"[31] Trashman later appeared in such publications as High Times, Heavy Metal, Weirdo, San Francisco magazine, Zap #11–13, and the Fantagraphics anthology Zero Zero #2.