TEENBEAT by Robert Romagnoli
I always thought the “Teenbeat” script was amusing because it bit the hand that was feeding me: It makes fun of celebrity-obsessed magazines, and Bananas was a celebrity-obsessed magazine! Best of all it was written by Robert Romagnoli, who was everyone’s favorite PUNK magazine contributor back in the day.
I met Romagnoli in 1973, when we were students in Harvey Kurtzman cartooning class. One day his roommate Harry Venezia invited me to visit their Hoboken apartment. They were two of the funniest people I ever encountered: All they did was crack jokes and insult each other. Robert had a good record collection, which to me was a sign of character, distinction and taste. He had a copy of Lou Reed’s Berlin, which was very controversial at the time. He dismissed it as “The most depressing album ever, you’ll want to kill yourself after listening to it!” (This convinced me to buy it, which helped prepare me for my PUNK #1 interview with Lou).
In November 1975 I invited Robert to contribute to the first issue of PUNK. He gave us two pieces: “Incident At Dave’s Corner” (a poem) and the “Do-It-Yourself Sixties Protest Song.” People went nuts over the Protest Song and he became our most popular contributor. While everyone enjoyed the music coverage, the staff and contributors always wanted to see what he came up with first, readers often turned to his stuff first. This is the odd part: Robert was never a punk rocker. He didn’t hang out at CBGB. He never wore a leather jacket. I doubt he even liked the music! But he contributed to every issue of PUNK and always hit the mark.
In 1976, after the first JOE comic strip ran in Bananas #3, Editor-In-Chief Jovial Bob Stine invited me to run a comic strip in every issue! This was great news, except that now I had to be a professional cartoonist and meet production deadlines. I was very busy producing PUNK magazine and didn’t have a lot of time to write scripts, so I asked around for help.
As Romagnoli recalls:
“The original teenbeat poem I wrote back in... I hate to say this...1974?!?! If I recall, I had made a little printed book of my poems and you read it, and you asked if you could use the teenbeat poem in a strip. I, of course, said yes.”
Romagnoli soon became the first “famous” PUNK magazine contributor: He parodied R. Crumb’s “Mr. Natural” (which was being published in The Village Voice) in PUNK magazine #5 (August 1976 issue).
Crumb promptly quit the strip after reading Romagnoli’s parody and wrote a two-page letter (published in PUNK #7) explaining his decision. (You can check all of this out in “The Best of PUNK Magazine” book, published by Harper/IT Books).
The Best of PUNK Magazine at alibris
The Best of PUNK Magazine at GoodReads
(Screw Amazon!)
Robert was immediately hired by The Village Voice to replace R. Crumb! He replaced the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time cartoonist) and took over the most prominent cartoon space in the most influential counter-culture newspaper in New York City, “Media Capitol of the World.” However, (like a true punk), he couldn’t deal with all the corporate bullshit: He had to submit material and go through a vetting process involving several layers of editorial control, adhere to their rules and regulations, and please the editorial board. So fuck ‘em all, he quit.
Currently, Robert is running a New York City foodie blog:
https://www.newyorkcity-eats.com
You can email Robert there, so go ahead and contact him. I’m sure he’d like to hear from you. He is a great guy in real life, an under-appreciated comic genius, and a true Italian.
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