Printed in an edition of 2,000 copies, the Richmond Inquirer" was meant to show how the local Richmond dailies the Times-Dispatch and News-Leader would be transformed by their purchase by the Murdoch corporation, who went on many years later to create Fox News.
Production of the RI was identical to NTGS, although type spec-ing was much more complicated given the bizarre "wrapping" and the rather primitive typesetting equipment used.
RI was printed again by the Fredericksburg Free-lance Star newspaper at a cost of about $200.
For the first time I decided to charge instead of giving the paper away, which turned into a bad dream. Sellers needed contracts signed; Capital News Service threatened to toss them out unless they were on their own racks. Sandy at SanDors Bookstore on Richmond's notorious Grace Street strip refused to stock them at all (apparently he needed more room for the wide selection of grungy porn).
I put 50 cents on the cover, struck deals all over town and watched them sit on the shelves.
After a few days I went to each location with a felt-tip pen, scratched out the 50 cents and wrote FREE. Every copy was gone in 24 hours. Only Biff's books in Carytown sold enough copies to give me a return -- about $29 (at a 50/50 split). That was the last time I tried to charge a price on anything (until I became an author, of course).
Click on the pages to make them gigantic and readable in all their 26-yr-old pulpy newsprinty glory. The devil's in the details.
I put 50 cents on the cover, struck deals all over town and watched them sit on the shelves.
After a few days I went to each location with a felt-tip pen, scratched out the 50 cents and wrote FREE. Every copy was gone in 24 hours. Only Biff's books in Carytown sold enough copies to give me a return -- about $29 (at a 50/50 split). That was the last time I tried to charge a price on anything (until I became an author, of course).
Click on the pages to make them gigantic and readable in all their 26-yr-old pulpy newsprinty glory. The devil's in the details.
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| Cover headline was stolen from an old Harvard Lampoon New York Times parody from the 1960s |
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| Story is a follow-up to the cover story in "Not the Green Section". King-size Peggy is yours truly with his roommate's trench coat pulled over my head and a mannequin head tied on top with a scarf |
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| Mm-mm! Food Cow! |
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| Good thing Style did not go out of business; I write for them now. |
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| Opinion is a take-off on a popular commentator in the Weekly World News named Ed Anger. The Joepalka method of tapping into your superconscious powers was named for a radio personality on WRVA named, of course, Joe Palka. He interviewed me live on the air when Not the Green Section was published. I think he is with NPR now. |
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| As a former AFO student, and with a son now an AFO student, I knew what I was talking about. |
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| This page took a week. |
