Bamaland

Many many moons ago when I was a young impressionable lad redolently living my days in the now nonexistent Abercrombie Hall I suffered those terrible pangs of uncertainty and ennui that are common for that age.

While I treasure my sadly abbreviated time in Tuscaloosa it’s mostly a haze of boring days and frantic discombobulated nights.The glorious cacophony of music at WVUA became the focus of my little world.

And a singular muse for my strange perspective on the world appeared in the pages of the energetically tepid Crimson White. It was vision of the world so dramatically sick and twisted I recognized it for something I knew to be special in a way few understood.

For two years – 1985 and 1986 – Walt Guthrie penned a comic called Bamaland that featured the most bizarre, horrendous and perverse hilarity I had ever encountered. It’s the kind of thing that would have made him a celebrity in the age of the internet which was, sadly, a good decade away.

Psychotic roommates, philosophical fish, drug-induced dementia – Bamaland knew no boundaries. That lovable alien scamp from beyond the stars who stole America’s heart that year, ET, even became a running character – well, his rotting corpse anyway.

In any case, do yourself a favor and pop over to this website created by one Royce Williams who that houses the whole run of the comic with the kind permission of Mr. Guthrie himself.

Take some time and introduce yourself to the bizarre world of one Bubba Brown and his roommate Skag. If nothing else it’ll make your world seem a bit more normal.