Mickey Rat [ISSUE #4] by Robert Armstrong • 1982 • Last Gasp

Mickey Rat [ISSUE #4] by Robert Armstrong

ISSUE #4 [1982] LAST GASP COMICS

Nice 80's printing of this rare underground comic. 

Nice copy in very good condition.   Cover has some mild rub wear;  one mildly creased corner on front.    

Reads nicely with some tanning to pages.  One very mild water stain on underside of rear cover with some extremely faint wrinkling on margins of last few pages.   [see last photo] Otherwise, excellent. 

The persona of Mickey Rat fit perfectly with his appearance: rough at the edges and leering at objects of his desire through a stubborn hangover. In 1972, L.A. Comic Book Company featured Mickey in his own comic book, which apparently failed to sell out. But Denis Kitchen at Kitchen Sink believed in the uncouth rat and published the second issue in the series. Both issues featured stories written by Crill, but he was not impressed by the financial rewards of comic book publishing and soon stopped writing for them. After the second issue there was an eight-year gap between issues before Armstrong ended up with Last Gasp, which published the final two issues of the series in 1980 and 1982.

By those last two issues Mickey Rat's exploits were even more reprehensible than before.  Mickey is usually hung-over, on drugs or otherwise incapacitated and lost in his own world. For someone who never seems to get much done he manages to sustain quite a superiority complex, always conveyed with a wickedly rude sense of humor. He is crass, raunchy, and tacky; capable of performing any act of filth. His mind is seemingly always on one track and incapable of growth or sustained comtemplation. Mickey Rat seems entirely unmotivated to accomplish anything but chase down his next piece of ass or a decent-size roach.