THE RETURN OF RIP MAGAZINE (or "Why I Got Fired By Larry Flynt")

Rock writer Lonn Friend, former MTV host and publisher of the terrific '90s music mag Rip, is announcing an online archive of the magazine! Rip is where I first launched the Rock Tales comic strip before it ended up at Spin Magazine.

After around a year of the two-page Rock Tales strips, I turned one in mocking Courtney Love called "12 Steps to Stardom" - little did I know that Rip publisher Larry Flynt had just arranged for Love to play his wife in the movie The People VS Larry Flynt.

Flynt took one look at my Love strip and fired me on the spot (it finally saw print years later in Real Deal) - Rip continued for several years before finally falling victim to the same low circualtion killing most newsstand mags.

So here's a message from Lonn Friend and the RIPpers -----

 Dear Friends and Fans of RIP Magazine & Lonn Friend: We are excited to announce that the long-awaited on-line home and 'resting place' for the archives of the iconic RIP Magazine has been officially launched at theripfiles.com/

We are launching this great site with just a small fraction of the archival photos, videos and audio files from back in the day with a great deal more content to follow!

 We are also building a bibliography of all of the issues, scanning them and getting them up on the site. As requested, we are bringing back the vaunted 'RIP Girls'! We have begun our search for our 2010 'RIP Calendar Girls' with a contest that is now under way. Please Send us a current picture and enter now ladies! You could win $1,000! www.theripfiles.com/rip_girls

We also invite you to JOIN the site as a 'member'. This will enable you to access the exclusive content that is being added daily. Come back often to browse or leave us a note. Our objective of the site is to build an active on-line RIP community of the true fans, past and present. Also, we are interested in seeing the next generation of hard rock/heavy metal fans step forward, grab the torch and shout it out loud.

 The RIP Store is now OPEN! Time to step up and wear the RIP shirt and headgear again! www.theripfiles.com/store

Published between 1986 and 1996, RIP magazine was heralded as the finest hard rock/heavy metal publication of its day. RIP's coverage of the bands that ruled, tooled and fueled the decade of decadence earned it the nickname "Bible of the Bang" and was hailed by fans and artists alike.

My own favorite RIP memory involves a concert they threw in L.A., featuring Stuttering John's metal band, Entombed, members of Metallica and Gn'R, and headliners Pantera. The company I ran, Rock 'N' Roll Comics, had bought a piece of the sponsorship package, and we were there giving out free schwag to attendees and hanging out backstage with the bands.

My mom in Georgia - who passed away in 2004 after a long bedridden illness - took her last real vacation then, around 1993, where she finally got all the way to CA and to Hollywood for the first time ever. A longtime theater actress on the east coast, it was a journey she'd been planning and dreaming of all her life 

It was nighttime when we drove her around Hollywood, before the concert, and she wanted to stop at the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum (she was into Fortean Times mag and strange phenomenon) - on the sidewalk, a very colorful "bum" tried to hustle money out of us with some fast crazy meth rap none of us could understand.

 She laughed about it, but later on she told people back in GA her favorite part of the trip had been the VIP lounge of the heavy metal concert and watching the mosh pit from an upstairs lounge, comparing it to an Indian tribal ritual --- (She did enjoy Grauman's/Mann's Chinese Theatre and the footprints) ---

Tho Pantera was the headline band, she could never recall their name after the concert - I'd get several calls a year from her asking "Who was that Panther band I saw?" -

 Usually when she'd call, I could hear nieces and grandkids and other youngsters in the background, oooing and awwing to find out this almost-70 year old lady had actually hung out at a Hollywood party with Pantera! The band dubbed her "Hard Rock Grandma" that night, as later emblazoned on a custom T-shirt for her.

 So thanks for that, RIP Magazine! Even if I did almost get beat up by roadies for whipping out a mid-eighties glam-era Pantera photo and getting Dimebag and the boys to sign it for my mom --------

Here's the comic strip that got me fired by Larry Flynt --------------