I define juvenilia as anything I drew before moving to New York City in 1977; this flyer dates from the year before that (it’s signed `David Celsi’- my professional alias was still several years in the future). It advertises a play whose subtle message was “SAVE THE WHALES!”, presented at Mountain Moving Cafe, a radical feminist watering hole located at what was then Southeast 39th Avenue (now César E. Chávez Blvd) and Stark Street in Portland. The location is now an office of Volunteers Of America.
David Chelsea is reading:
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive ScrabblePlayers
by Stefan Fatsis
My only copy bears a censor’s mark. The play’s director didn’t appreciate the addition of a sign reading “Boycott Nips” (my cheeky way of referencing a then-current boycott of Japanese products by the Save The Whales movement) on the whale/blimp’s gondola, and ordered the offending words blacked out on all copies.
Despite its 1976 vintage, this flyer is soon to appear in a book about Portland in the 1960s by local author Polina Olsen (The 60s took a few years longer to die here).
You can view this image big at Comics Lifestyle
Check out this David Celsi/Chelsea juvenilia album at Comics Lifestyle