Rory Hayes

The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise, Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again. Hayes died of a drug overdose in 1983.

"Rory Hayes was the real thing; a genuine ‘outsider’ artist. His work retains its raw, primitive power to this day, teetering precariously between chaos and control, madness and oddly endearing teddy bears." – Bill Griffith

"A great American primitive." – R. Crumb

See also:
• Blog posts relating to Rory Hayes on FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog