The Saga of Volume 2, Issue 7

by James Norton

Our final regular issue of the Liberator was volume 2, issue 7: The Funkadelic Issue. It was glorious, and marks a high-water mark for the publication, and for myself.

It came out on a week in April when the temperatures were 70 degrees, the sun was shining, and I was enjoying the blossoming of my first long-term relationship, with the lovely Laura Certain. Class felt more-or-less optional, I'd gotten into UW-Madison, and everything was so damned level and good-natured that it's dizzying to recall.

Sorry for the wallow. But, yeah; good issue. Optical Illusions is one of my favorite features ever. And in print, I went on a loving, nostalgic romp that still sums up how I feel about West.

There was comparitively little controversy about issue 7. The issue's unusual topper (Curious George and the Cat in the Hat spraying water on a giant afro-head with our name on it) came about when Jon Kaplan and I took the issue to Kinko's and realized the banner looked pretty empty with only the afro-head on it; a quick search of the greeting cards and kiddie books yielded the hose-spraying cartoons that kicked the top into shape.

Otherwise, we got word that the Sword and Shield (the lickspittle school paper at Memorial High School) was not terribly happy that we reprinted "Fashion With Alexis" for comedy value, but there wasn't a lot they could do; we didn't openly mock it, or alter it in any way. We just figured that anyone reading it in the Liberator would be able to enjoy it for its gorgeously terrible construction. And they did.