SALLY WAS A FREE SPIRIT PERFECTLY MATCHED TO MELMON AND HIS CABAL OF ARTIST AND WRITERS.
BEING THE ONLY WOMAN ON THE CREW MEANT LITTLE TO NOTHING FOR SALLY, A SELF STYLED ANARCHO-CHIC TYPE OF WOMAN, WAY BEFORE IT WAS Fashionable. SALLY FORGED HER OWN PATH IN THE WORLD OF COMICS LIKE NO OTHER MAN OR WOMAN BEFORE HER. except maybe for HORACE WOODLY who she tended to copy alot.
SALLY LIVED HER LIFE, AND EVENTUALLY DIED FOR ART. HER WORK ON THE ASTOUNDING SUB-HUMAN WAS NOTHING LESS THAN Astounding! FOR ONCE THE COVER BLURB LIVED UP TO IT'S HYPE! SHE APPRENTICED UNDER HORACE WOODLY FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS, UNTIL HORACE SAID 'I CAN'T TEACH YOU ANY MORE...... YOUR TEACHING ME NOW!'
AFTER THAT IT WAS A BLUR OF PAGES BEFORE SALLY, FROM ADVENTURE INTO WEIRDNESS TO THE MYSTIC KNIGHTS OF THE MYSTERY SCHOOL, WHERE SHE CO-CREATED THE SUPERGROUP "THE BURNERS" WITH BILL Bollingweather.
HER RUN ON bill TSO'S "MEET THE STRANGERS" WAS EXCELLENT, MELMON AND CREW WERE WATCHING..... ACTUALLY A LITTLE MORE THAN WATCHING.
SALLY TANE WAS A BRIGHT BRIGHT STAR IN THE BRONZE AGE COMIC SEEN, BUT THE COMPANY THAT SHE KEPT WAS SOMEWHAT QUESTIONABLE
BEING A FREELANCED ARTIST HAS IT'S PERKS, THE ARTISTS WOULD LEAVE YOU TO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE SLAVISHLY CHAINED TO THE DRAWING BOARD, BUT IN REALITY MANY RELY ON CRUISING ON THEIR TALENT WHEN INSPIRATION FAILS TO SHOW UP OR REAL LIFE ANNOYINGLY INTERVIENS.
SUCH WAS THE CASE IN 1979 WHEN SALLY AND HER POLITICAL BELIEFS MET UP WITH TEN STATE TROOPERS OUTSIDE THE 1ST NATIONAL BANK ON ST.PAUL STREET IN DOWNTON BALTIMORE.
IT WAS AN OPEN SECRET THAT TANE WAS COVERING FOR HORACE WOODLY FOR QUITE SOME TIME BEFORE HER FIRST SKIDMORE ASIGNMENT. WOODLY'S HEALTH WAS FAILING AND TANE JUST COULD NOT STAND THE THOUGHT OF LOSING HER MENTOR. HER POLITICAL CONTACTS From THE SOCIALIST LIBERATION FRONT WERE RIGHT BEHIND HER. IF A TALENT LIKE HORACE WOODLY COULD GO UNAPPRECIATED AND UNDER-INSURED IN THIS WORLD. THEN SALLY TANE COULD REASONABLY AND WITHOUT ANY GUILT, KNOCK OFF ONE OF SKIDMORE'S DISTRIBUTORS EASILY AND EVEN THE SCORE.
BY 1975 THE DIMES HAD TURNED INTO QUARTERS FOR THE POOR DOWNTRODDEN COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS AND LOOP HOLES IN THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX MEANT THAT OWNERS WERE SWIMMING IN THE DOUGH THAT THE YOUTH OF AMERICA WERE WANTONLY SPENDING. SALLY'S FIRST ACT OF REBELLION WAS SABOTAGE! SALLY WAS NEVER WHAT YOU WOULD TERM 'A COMPANY GIRL' SHE WOULD STIR UP THE SHIT WHEREVER SHE COULD FIND IT, IN INTERVIEW'S FROM THE TIME. SALLY WOULD NOTORIOUSLY DERIDE THE CONCEPT OF ADOLESCENT POWER FANTSAY . ALL THE WHILE EXTOLLING THE BRAVE AND BOLD CONCEPTS OF THE NEW SCIENCE BASED BOOKS SHE WAS WORKING ON! SHE WAS A PROUD AND VOCAL MEMBER OF THE CREATORS CODE WHO PLEDGED AN OATH OF SERVITUDE TO COMICS IN A 1974 MANIFESTO ENTITLED, 'WHO ME WORRY?'. PUBLISHED INDEPENDENTLY WITH HORACE WOODLY IN HIS PRO-ZINE 'WIT'S END'.
ALL THIS WORK WAS WAS noticed and welcomed with with open arms as sally brought their coffee into the SKIDMORE SCIENCE HERO COMMUNITY, SALLY TANE WOULD BECOME A PIVITOL PART OF THE COMICS INDUSTRY AS MORE AND MORE YOUNG MALE ARTISTS WERE DRAFTED INTO THE VIET NAM CONFLICT. IN RETROSPECT IT WAS A PATHETIC AND A HORRIBLE WASTE OF AMERICAN TALENT SENDING ARTIST, WRITERS. ROCK AN ROLLERS AND DOPERS ALIKE INTO A IDEOLOGICAL STALEMATE THAT ONLY ROBBED WORLD CULTURE OF THE THINGS THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. AS MELMON ONCE QUOTED- 'SALLY KNEW THE HELL WE WERE ACTUALLY LIVING IN ..... MAYBE NOT CONSCIOUSLY. BUT SHE KNEW! INTELLECTUALLOR META PHYSICALLY SHE KNEW..... SHE HAD THE GIFT OF SEEING THE BLACK IRON PRISON THAT DEFINED OUR EXITANCE AND WAS ABLE TO EXPRESS HER DISCONTENT AS ELIQUINTLY AS ART ALLOWS, SHE WAS A NATURAL FOR THE ADVENTURES OF ADAM O'BLIVION!'
ADAM O'BLIVION ROCKED THE CORE OF SALLY TANE'S VULVA. ORIGINALY BROUGHT ON BOARD AS INKER FOR YOUNG ARTIST DANNY SULIVAN BUT EVENTUALLY SIGNED ON AS ADAM O'BLIVIONS PRIMERE ARTIST. TANE AND MELMON PRODUCED A TANTALIZING TALE OF THE SKIDMORE UNIVERSE AND JUST HOW YOU THE READER FIT INTO IT! THE SERIES WAS META-PHSICS 101 THAT QUICKLY ADVANCED INTO THE CURRENT STATE OF MANKIND. WHILE MOST AMERICANS WERE STRANDED IN GAS LINES AND OLD FOLKS WERE EATING DOG FOOD IN 1972.
MELMON AND TANE WERE CREATING A WORLD WHERE THE NEO-ROBBER BARONS OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICA WERE HELD HOSTAGE TO THE dark lords of the ANTI-UTOPIAN CONSPIRICY THAT WAS ENSLAVING A WORLD. 'ARE YOU READY FOR THE WORLD TO BE'...... WAS THE CONSTANT TAG LINE FOR ADAM O'BLIVIAN. MOST SKIDMORE READERS WERE WELL AWARE THAT THIS WORLD TO COME WAS IN FACT THE WORLD THAT WAS OUR FALSE REALITY! IT DIDN'T TAKE A GENUIS TO FIGGURE IT OUT, JUST A FEW DOSES OF LSD. WE HAD BEEN BOUGHT AND SOLD BY THE VARIOUS DIVISIONS OF THE CORPORATE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL MEGA-COMPLEX. A SAD EXISTENTIAL FUNK FLOWED THRU THE BOOKS AND THE COUNTRY ITSELF AS ONE BY ONE THE TRUE ENEMY'S OF MAN WERE EXPOSED NIGHTLY ON THE LOCAL TV NEWS. ADAM O'BLIVION SUCKED IT ALL IN. AND GAVE IT BACK OUT IN SPADES!
IN ISSUE #25 OF ADVETURES INTO OBLIVION TANE MANAGED TO EXTRAPOLATE FROM MELMONS SCRIPT A SCATHING CAULDRON OF CORUPTION AND DECAY THAT WOULD HAVE MADE THE OLD WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF 'G'WON CALL THE COPS' CORPORATE CRIMES DIVISION PROUD! TROUBLE WAS NOBODY COULD DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT! THE ULTRA-RICH AND PRIVILEGED CLASS HAD SUCESSFULLY HI-JACKED THE AMERICAN DREAM, AND SOLD IT BACK TO US AS A CHEAP IMMITATON OF FREEDOM AND CHIOCE. LUCKILY MEL SKIDMORE WAS ON HIS DEATH BED, SO MANY OF MELMON AND TANE'S DIATRIBES WENT UNOTICED.....FOR AWHILE!
READERS WERE LISTENING AND WATCHING and looking out for cops AS THE SAGA UNFOLDED, BUT THEY WERE NOT AMUSED! THE SERIES HAD CUT TOO CLOSE TO THE BONE AT THIS POINT IN TIME. RIGHT THERE IN THE AGE OF IRREVELANCY IN COMICS MELMON AND TANE HAD CREATED AN OPIS THAT WENT CONTRARY TO THE ACCEPTED IDIOMS IN COMICS OF THE DAY! IT WAS REVOLUTIONARY BUT IT TOOK A FEW YEARS OF HINDSIGHT TO FIGURE THAT OUT!
IN LATE 1975 'SIR' NICK DIXON ABDICATED THE THRONE OF AMERICA AND OPENED UP A CAN OF WORMS THAT ARE STILL SQUIRMING AROUND TO THIS DAY. MORE IMPORTANTLY HORACE WOODLY HEALTH WAS GETTING WORSE. THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT SALLY TANE COULD NOT STAND FOR! IF SHE COULDN'T SAVE THE WORLD WITH HER ART, SHE SURE
AS HELL COULD SAVE HER BELOVED MENTOR HORARACE WOODLY!
WOODLEY HAD BEEN INKING STEVEN DIO OVER AT AXIS COMICS ON 'THE DETERORATOR'
SERIES. A SHORT LIVED LINE OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MARvIN GLOOKMAN IN HIS DEATH THROWS, AS AN ULTIMATE REVENGE PLOT AGAINST NATIONALISTIC/TIMELY COMICS! WOODLY HAD ALSO PRODUCED A LINE OF HILAROUS PORNOGRAPHIC COMIX THAT PUT THE UNDERGROUND CARTOONIST TO SHAME IN MAL GOLFINK'S 'SCREWED' MAGAZINE. IT WAS REAL BOTTOM OF THE BARREL STUFF ACCORDING TO MOST COMIC FANS, BUT FOR ADMIRERS OF WOODLY IT WAS PURE GOLD! BESIDES BEING SOMEWHAT OF A GUN NUT, WOODLY WAS ALSO A CONFIRMED LIBERTINE IN THE AREAS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION THAT WAS BREWING IN THE MID 70'S. TOPLESS, BRA-LESS AND GUILELESS WAS HOW WOODLY LOVED HIS WOMEN, NO SMALL WONDER WHY WOODLY AND TANE GOT ALONG SO FAMOUSLY! LEGEND HAS IT THAT WOODLY WOULD GET THE BEST WORK OUT OF TANE IN THE SUMMERTIME WHEN IT WAS HOT AS ALL HELL IN WOODLEY'S CRAMPED STUDIO AND THEY WERE BOTH FORCED TO WORK IN THEIR Skidmore Comics Underwear ON THOSE HOT 1960'S NIGHTS! A FACT THAT TANE HERSELF ONCE ALLUDED TO IN AN EARLY INTERVIEW!
AS WOODLY'S HEALTH WORSENED. TANE NOW INSESSED AT HOW SKIDMORE WAS TREATING ONE OF IT'S TOP TALENTS, UNDERTOOK A SERIES OF ARMED ROBBERIES WITH THE HELP OF HER PALS AN FELLOW COMICS FANS IN THE SOCIALST LIBERATION FRONT! SHE SUCCESSFULLY PULLED OFF A SERIES OF ARMED ROBBERIES IN THE GREATER N.Y.-N.J. AREA BEFORE ELECTING TO HIT SKIDMORE WHERE IT HURT. middle America!
INSTINCTIVELY SEEING THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEMS IN THE COMICS INDUSTRY, TANE WENT HUMORLESSLY....FOR THE JUGLER VEIN! THE CORUPT DISTRIBUTORS AND MIDDLE MEN THAT PLAGUED THE COMICS INDUSTRY SINCE IT'S INCEPTION. ALL TOO OFTEN MEN WITH NAMES LIKE SOL OR MERL OR BUBBA HAD BEEN THE DISTRIBUTING ARM OF SKIDMORE, UNDERCUTTING THEIR SALES AND RE-SELLING WORTHLESS, COVERLESS COMICS TO AN UNSUSPECTING PUBLIC. IT WAS BLATENT AND OBVIOUS BY THE late 70'S THAT THESE REJECTS FROM A JAKE KlINEBERG COMIC WERE THE RATS WHO WERE LIVING FAT OFF THE BACK OF SKIDMORE COMICS!
SHE WAS ON A ROLL WHEN SHE TOOK OUT VINNIE CORNBLAT IN PHILADELPHIA AN ROBED HIM OF A MONTHS WORTH OF PROFITS FROM SKIDMORE. IT WA S A HOP SKIP AND A JUMP OVER TO ELIZIBETH NEW JERSEY TO LIBERATE 10 GRAND OFF OF Sy GLOOKMAN, ALL WAS GOING WELL AS SALLY TANE HIT HAL snUChMORE IN DOVER DELAWARE, ALL PROFITS GOING TO THE MEDICAL CARE OF WOODLY. THEN SALLY MET HER WATERLOO IN BALTIMORE.
ON THE TAIL END OF A 5 DAY CRIME SPREE, SALLY RETURNED TO HER HOMETOWN OF BALTIMORE MD. SHE STAKED OUT AND STRUCK LONGTIME DISTRIBUTOR ABE SHERvAN AT HIS MONEY LAUNDERING HONEY HOLE, THE 1ST NATIONAL BANK. SHOWNG ABSOLUTLY NO MERCY TO THE CAPITOLIST CRIMINALS IN THEIR SEAR SUCKER SUITS AND THE SOULLESS LACKIES THEY EMPLOYED, SALLY WENT BALISTIC! ONCE CONFRONTED WITH ABE SHERvAN AND THE ILL GOTTEN PROFITS FROM HIS "NEWS-STAND"OPERTION, A KNOWN FRONT FOR NARCOTICS AND AN ARRAY OF OTHER VICES THAT SALLY HAD KNOWN SINCE CHILDHOOD....... SALLY TANE'S MIND SNAPPED!
THE BALTIMORE SUN REPORTED IN THEIR AUGUST 30TH EDITION FOR 1979 THAT A LONE GUNWOMAN BENT ON REVENGE FOR PERCIVED INJUSTICE'S ACCURED IN THE COMICS INDUSTRY HAD ATTEMPTED TO ROB THE 1ST NATIONAL BANK AND REGRETFULLY MURDERED BELOVED NEWSVENDOR AND ROTERY CLUB MEMBER ABE SHERvAN BEFORE BEING CUT DOWN IN A HAIL OF BULLETS FROM MD, STATE TROOPRS ON LUNCH BREAK FROM COURT next to THE 1ST NATIONAL BANK ON ST. PAUL STREET. WHILE THEY WERE ATTEMPTING (UNSUCESSFULY) TO PICK UP HIPPIE GIRLS. the orioles also lost that night 3 to 7 against kansas city in a rain delayed game. there was a really nice cartoon of the oriole bird walking away dejected underneath a rain cloud on the top box in the corner of the front page of the paper.
IT WAS A GRIM DAY FOR COMIC FANS NATIONWIDE. SALLY TANE WAS DEAD...... CAUGHT WITH HER PANTS DOWN ONCE AGAIN, WHILE HORRACE WOODLY LANGUISHED IN A CHEAP WELLFARE HOTEL IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD. TWO DAYS LATER WOODLY ATE A BULLET FROM HIS 44 MAGNUM.
THEN IT WAS A GRIM WEEK FOR COMIC FANS....... POSSABLY THE WORST WEEK EVER!
THE FAN PRESS REPORTED THAT YOUNG COLLECTORS ACROSS THE BALTIMORE AREA
HOPELESSLY FELL IN LOVE THAT DAY. with Sally Tane comic books, BACK ISSUE SALES OF JOURNEY INTO OBLIVION SOARED! PART TIME COMICS DEALER MARTI RESNIC OF MARTI'S COMCWORLD EXCLAIMED THAT HE HADN'T SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT SINCE THE SPECULATORS MARKET SALES ON SHA-BOOM #1.
MELMON AND SKIDMORE RAN A TASTEFULL OBITUARY ON THE 'LET'S RAP WITH MELMON' PAGE IN ALL ISSUES OF THE NEXT MONTHS SKIDMORES. ADAM O'BLIVION AND SKIDMORE WOULD SURVIVE FOR A FEW MORE YEARS BEFORE SUCUMING TO THE FORCES THAT SALLY TANE SO ADMANTLY ABHORED. 'SHE WAS A TRUE VISIONARY AND WE BARELY LISTENED' EXCLAIMED MELMON IN A 1985 INTERVIEW. 'IF I HAD HALF THE BALLS OF SALLY TANE SKIDMORE WOULD STILL BE OUT THERE AS KINGS OF THE COMIC BOOK MARKET.' LAMENTED SKIP SKIDMORE IN A CRESTFALLEN SPEACH TO SKIDMORE EMPLOYEES AS THEY RECIVE THEIR FINAL PAYCHECKS IN 1982.
AT HER FUNERAL BARLINGTON WINDHIEM SMYTE WAS ELECTED TO GIVE HER EULEGY. BARLINGTON HAD ONLY MET SALLY TANE ONCE OR TWICE BUT HAD SUCH AN IMPRESSIVE BRITISH ACCENT THAT HE WAS A SHOE-IN FOR ALL DEAD CARTOONIST FUNERALS FOR THE NEXT DECADE.
THE AGE OF SKIDMORE WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE. IT'S JUST AS WELL THAT SALLY TANE NEVER SAW WHAT THEY DID TO HER BELOVED COMICBOOKS IN THE 1980'S AND 1990'S. FOR MOST COLLECTORS OF THE BRONZE AGE , COMICS DIED WITH THE DEATHS OF WOODLY AN TANE. EXCELSIOR PILGRIM! EXCELSIOR.
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