Jay Day Remembrance

[roughwriter]

    Hi All! Jay Day is less than a month away (3/5) and I don't want it to slip by quietly this year! What can we do to celebrate Jay? Do you have a favorite sketch he did you'd like to share with us? What about a story about your interactions with him? Anything you all can contribute to keep his memory alive would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[RawGoo]

    Hi All! Jay Day is less than a month away (3/5) and I don't want it to slip by quietly this year! What can we do to celebrate Jay? Do you have a favorite sketch he did you'd like to share with us? What about a story about your interactions with him? Anything you all can contribute to keep his memory alive would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I remember meeting him when there was a show in Manhattan, around 2008-2009; Topps, and Jay Lynch and David Gross were there, promoting the "new" Old School Wackys.  He was very entertaining, and Dave had lots of promos to hand out.  Anyway, I met a lot of forum friends there, and rode the elevator down with Jay.  As I recall, he told Elizabeth and me a story about his recent cat problem, and we stood outside the building with him for a bit so he could finish.

And on Greg's old forum, I do believe he recounted some stories about his trials attempting to complete 10,000 sketches for that first Old School set.  I was fortunate enough to pull two of his color sketches from that set.  I also purchased one of his earliest sketches from ANS3 from the Topps Vault.  Here are scans of the ones I have now.

     

[lucidjc]

This isn't much but its Jays own words in a PM to me.

Jim,
Haw!  If my name came up with the guys at the plant in Duryea, it was probably 'cause they were cursing me.   I used to do that Bazooka Joe stuff too...when they printed the wax wrappers in Duryea...and that stuff was always late!
       As far as I know, Topps still has the building in Duryea, but they don't have any production equipment there any more. Last I heard they just use it as a warehouse, and they farm their printing out to printers in Texas and Detroit.  They had an office in Scranton at one time too.  But I think they just rented that space.   I live in upstate NY.  I'm 200 miles from Manhattan... But only 60 or so miles from Scranton or Duryea.  Hopefully some day Topps will rallly, and I can go to Duryea to do color checks on the stuff they print at 4 a.m., which would be a much easier gig than drawin' these furshluginer sketch cards.
      You may be sitting on a goldmine, though....There are probably several tons of RATZ and CRACKED ANIMALS stickers in the landfill up there somewhere.
Jay

[Joe G.]

Well I only spoke to Jay on the phone and never had the pleasure of meeting him in person.  That said my brother Dan lives in Jersey and was at a comic book convention in 2013 where Jay was one of the guests.  This was shortly after ANS 11 came out which had some of my first Wacky contributions in it.  My brother showed Jay some of my roughs and Jay drew this sketch for me.  My brother said he had a blast meeting and talking to Jay and couldn’t say enough good things anout the encounter.

[Zenergizer]

if there were a Mount Rushmore of Wacky Artists, Jay would be front and center.

Or at least "askew" to one side

[roughwriter]

   
    Let's try it this way! I'm finally ready to send out the free sketch cards from last year, and I'll give mailing preference to those that post stories or sketches from Jay. There's no reason for this to be a dead thread. Jay did TONS for this hobby, and he deserves better than this. Impress me!

[RawGoo]

I already posted about my one and only meeting with Jay.  How's this for a great painting??



And, here's a fantastic jigsaw puzzle that I haven't opened up yet:

[sco(o)t]

I only met Jay once. It was at a card show in Chicago. We had a gathering of several Wacky collectors who were all on the Prodigy service, collecting, trading and sharing info on that early internet service. Jay was extremely nice and patient with all us fan boys gathered around and produced some nice pieces for us. Mine is below. Unfortunately, back at home, I had it setting on our dining room table waiting to frame it. My then 3 year old daughter grabbed it and wadded it up as this was one of her hobbies at the time. Tried ironing and flattening over the years, but it still carries the battle scars. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the pen was no match for my daughter. 

[quas]

I only met Jay once. It was at a card show in Chicago. We had a gathering of several Wacky collectors who were all on the Prodigy service, collecting, trading and sharing info on that early internet service. Jay was extremely nice and patient with all us fan boys gathered around and produced some nice pieces for us. Mine is below. Unfortunately, back at home, I had it setting on our dining room table waiting to frame it. My then 3 year old daughter grabbed it and wadded it up as this was one of her hobbies at the time. Tried ironing and flattening over the years, but it still carries the battle scars. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the pen was no match for my daughter. 

Still looks great!

[vahsurfer]

Pat,

Painting AND Puzzle look great!

I would love to have both one day!

Richard
#StayWacky

[RawGoo]

Pat,

Painting AND Puzzle look great!

I would love to have both one day!

Richard
#StayWacky

I believe the painting used for the puzzle was also done as a poster.

[roughwriter]

   The revelry of Mardi Gras is behind us and today, Ash Wednesday, begins the Lenten season, where we focus on our sins. The timid response to the celebration of Jay's memory would be an appropriate topic of consideration! Jay was involved with Wacky Packages from their inception until the day he died. He was the creative genius behind many of the gags in the early series and kept contributing through the ANS days almost 50 years later! There is no exact number on his total contribution to Wacky Packages, but the most educated guesses put it at about 500 designs! He was also a key figure in the Underground Comix movement that sought to break the decades-long strangle hold the Comics Code had on American humor. He also contributed to more mainstream magazines such as Crazy. He had a very tough early life, and it is amazing he turned out to be such a kind and generous person.
     Jay passed away in 2017, and the very last interview he gave was to Gary Groth for The Comics Journal on March 8th of that year. In that interview he said "Ever since I was a kid I always wanted a certain degree of immortality that in our system represents being able to talk to unborn generations, and that being through the printed word. So I got that as good as I can." Jay's desire for his iconoclastic voice to be heard after his demise is being carried out now by the gag writers and painters that follow in his footsteps and continue to poke fun at Commercialism and rampant Capitalism through Satiric Parody! Join me today in honoring his memory. Long Live Wackys!