Chicago Seed (Newspaper)
Encyclopedia
Seed was an underground newspaper
launched by artist Don Lewis and Earl Segal (aka the Mole), owner of the Molehole, a local poster shop, and published biweekly in Chicago
, Illinois
from May 1967 to 1973. Disagreements between Lewis and Segal led to its purchase by Harry Dewar, a graphic designer and Colin Pearlson, a photographer, who thought it had commercial potential. Lester Dore took over the art direction when Don Lewis moved to New York to work for Screw magazine. Skeets Millard, a young photographer and community organizer who was publishing the Chicago edition of Kaleidoscope
, joined the Seed staff in 1969, at a time when all of the original founders were gone and there was no one working on the paper who had been there more than 12 months; Mike Abrahamson was running the paper in Abe Peck's absence. Jim Roslof
, Karl Heinz-Meschbach, Paul Zmiewski, Skip Williamson
, Jay Lynch
, Peter Solt, and other 60s artists contributed to what was called one of the most beautiful underground press publications of its time.
The Seed was edited for several years by Abe Peck. Among the staff writers were Marshall Rosenthal and Eliot Wald
. It was notable for its colorful psychedelic graphics
and its eclectic, non-doctrinaire radical politics, and was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate
. It was a real DIY operation: in the Seed office copy was set on an IBM Selectric and pasted up, negatives were made and stripped up for plate-making, and inks were mixed to take to the printer. The Seed, along with the San Francisco Oracle, was one of the first tabloid newspapers to use "split fount" inking
on a web press. At its peak it circulated between 30 and 40,000 copies, with national distribution. Important events covered by Seed writers and artists were the trial of the Chicago Eight, Woodstock
, and the murder of Fred Hampton
. After losing its original printer in 1968 it was printed for a time on the presses of liberal Wisconsin newspaper publisher Bill Schanen, who provided printing services for a large number of Midwestern underground papers that could find no other printer.
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
launched by artist Don Lewis and Earl Segal (aka the Mole), owner of the Molehole, a local poster shop, and published biweekly in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
from May 1967 to 1973. Disagreements between Lewis and Segal led to its purchase by Harry Dewar, a graphic designer and Colin Pearlson, a photographer, who thought it had commercial potential. Lester Dore took over the art direction when Don Lewis moved to New York to work for Screw magazine. Skeets Millard, a young photographer and community organizer who was publishing the Chicago edition of Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope (newspaper)
Kaleidoscope was an underground newspaper, founded by John Kois, radio disk jockey Bob Reitman, and John Sahli , which was published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from Oct. 6, 1967 to Nov. 11, 1971, printing 105 biweekly issues in all...
, joined the Seed staff in 1969, at a time when all of the original founders were gone and there was no one working on the paper who had been there more than 12 months; Mike Abrahamson was running the paper in Abe Peck's absence. Jim Roslof
Jim Roslof
James Paul "Jim" Roslof was an American artist and graphic designer particularly well known for cover art and interior illustrations of fantasy role-playing games published by TSR, Inc. during the "golden age" of Dungeons & Dragons...
, Karl Heinz-Meschbach, Paul Zmiewski, Skip Williamson
Skip Williamson
Skip Williamson is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement.Williamson is known for being the most political and satirical cartoonist of the underground comix movement.- Childhood :...
, Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
, Peter Solt, and other 60s artists contributed to what was called one of the most beautiful underground press publications of its time.
The Seed was edited for several years by Abe Peck. Among the staff writers were Marshall Rosenthal and Eliot Wald
Eliot Wald
Eliot Wald was a comedy writer who worked for The Second City improv group in Chicago and for Saturday Night Live before turning to movies. He and a partner, Andrew Kurtzman, wrote scripts for the television movie Hot Paint and for the films See No Evil, Hear No Evil , Camp Nowhere and Down...
. It was notable for its colorful psychedelic graphics
Psychedelic art
Psychedelic art is any kind of visual artwork inspired by psychedelic experiences induced by drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The word "psychedelic" "mind manifesting". By that definition all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered "psychedelic"...
and its eclectic, non-doctrinaire radical politics, and was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate
Underground Press Syndicate
The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
. It was a real DIY operation: in the Seed office copy was set on an IBM Selectric and pasted up, negatives were made and stripped up for plate-making, and inks were mixed to take to the printer. The Seed, along with the San Francisco Oracle, was one of the first tabloid newspapers to use "split fount" inking
Split-fount Inking
Split-fount inking is a printing technique which is used to achieve subtle gradations of colors. It was used in the 1960s by poster artists such as underground comic artist Gilbert Shelton, who designed posters for a venue in Austin, Texas called The Vulcan Gas Company. The technique is still in...
on a web press. At its peak it circulated between 30 and 40,000 copies, with national distribution. Important events covered by Seed writers and artists were the trial of the Chicago Eight, Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, and the murder of Fred Hampton
Fred Hampton
Fred Hampton was an African-American activist and deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party...
. After losing its original printer in 1968 it was printed for a time on the presses of liberal Wisconsin newspaper publisher Bill Schanen, who provided printing services for a large number of Midwestern underground papers that could find no other printer.
See also
- Underground Press SyndicateUnderground Press SyndicateThe Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
- San Francisco OracleSan Francisco OracleThe Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city...
- Berkeley BarbBerkeley BarbThe Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, from 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects as the anti-war and civil-rights movements as well as the...
- Los Angeles Free PressLos Angeles Free PressThe Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
- The East Village Other
- Rat Subterranean NewsRat (Newspaper)Rat Subterranean News, New York's second major underground newspaper, was created in March 1968, primarily by editor Jeff Shero, Alice Embree and Gary Thiher, who moved up from Austin, Texas, where they had been involved in The Rag.-Beginnings:...
- Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
- Whole Earth CatalogWhole Earth CatalogThe Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
- Third Coast Press
- KaleidoscopeKaleidoscope (newspaper)Kaleidoscope was an underground newspaper, founded by John Kois, radio disk jockey Bob Reitman, and John Sahli , which was published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from Oct. 6, 1967 to Nov. 11, 1971, printing 105 biweekly issues in all...
External links
- http://www.brasscheck.com/seldes/history.html
- Chicago Seed at Chicago History.org
- http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/exhibits/voices/pages/Seedv5n8_jpg.htm
- Microfilm copies of the Chicago Seed at the University of Oregon
- http://www.library.wwu.edu/access/media/mf-help/underground.shtml