“Blue Meanies No. 5 of 9” (2021)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
11.75 x 16 in. on 2 pages, blue ballpoint ink on paper
Coppola Collection

When “The Strange Death of Alex Raymond” was initially printed during the summer of 2021, the printer made a critical and quite mysterious error, leaving off four pages worth of blue-line printing that caused the entire edition to be scrapped and the release of the book to be delayed for several months while the printer gathered the materials for a full reprint. Even odder, Carson and Dave had a history of printing issues related to blue line artwork when working on the second half of the book, what Dave referred to in conversation with Carson as “the Blue Meanies.” After the book was finally correctly printed in November, Carson took nine of these misprinted copies and created original artwork on two of the pages missing printing, depicting the “Blue Meanies” in each copy, each one unique, and in blue ballpoint ink, of course. The draw appears on pp. 256-257.

I put my request in for one of these, immediately, and Carson did me a solid: not only reserved one for me, but turned me into the Blue Meanie in my copy.