"We're all here and we're all sincere, including our friend Fred!!!"
It has come to my attention that out there in society the existance of the Doom Patrol has been met with a less than enthusiastic response. Part of this is due to the oft posed question, "What is the Doom Patrol? Is it a comic book...is it a colony of lepers...what exactly is it? When speaking to the average, unlightened member of society, I reply that the Doom Patrol is merely an organization of artists, writers and musicians. Although this is a sufficiently good answer, that is in layman's terms, it is only partially accurate as well. Yes we are the aforementioned things, but the Doom Patrol is more than just the sum of it's parts.
In the summer of 1986 a group of young men decided that they would go to a screening of the just released James Cameron film, Aliens. After viewing the film twice, cheering loudly each time an Alien "got" a human, these self-same individuals decided to continue the evening among the glorious streets of the upper West Side of Manhattan. After visiting the All American Diner for a meal of burgers, fries and numerous cups of coffee, these young men continued on their journey, stopping only to liberate hundreds of Learning Annex pamphlets from the vendors which housed them. While doing so, these jovial young fellows tossed these self-same magazines into the air yelling, We wanna learn!!! at the tops of their lungs. By evenings end, there existed a trail of what must have been at least one thousand Learning Annex mags scattered along the sidewalks and roadways of Broadway, between 72nd and 96th Streets. Needless to say the passersby were not amused...
October 17-18th, 1986 became infamous dates in history for two reasons. While the summer of 1985 hosted the filming of V&R Productions first film, That "Old Proud" Look starring Steve (Big M) Mirande the fall of 1986 hosted yet another milestone. For one it was the date of the now legendary firstTelethon to Benefit the Boat People but what made this date even more important was the fact that this was the first time that both V&R Productions and Bliss Products would work together as one entity. Those present, who also comprise the backbone of the Doom Patrol were Herb, Chris, Jeff, Jimmy K. and Steve. While tens of thousands of dollars were raised for the boat people, by the telethon's end it was all down to nothing. It turned out that everyone who had donated money had taken it all back. The last quarter (each quarter in the Fred Flintstone bank represented twenty-five dollars in donations) was taken by an irate contributor all for a phone call. An extremely disillusioned Chris could only mutter, "Yabba dabba do..." While this effort wasn't a great success, early 1987 on the other hand held, if not great promise, it did have in it's favor that things could not possibly get worse...
"We're all here and we're all sincere, including our friend Fred!!!"
In January 1987 the Doomers, Chris, Herb, and Jeff the Joker would perform what were to soon be refered to as The Friday Night Jam Sessions. Save for the two occasions in which Steve attended, the first where he screwed up the tempo by playing the maracas, and the second where he stepped on the cord to the video camera, killing the audio (which earned him the nick-name Steve (Big M - Step on the Cord) Mirande), these sessions were unattended by any other member of this particular organization. Each session got better than the last, and the culminating one was not only recorded, and released as a bootleg (as a V&R Audio release). These sessions also gave birth to the trio of Troy, Maximillian and Ray, and thus catapulted this self-same trio into rock music history!!! In an interview conducted after the last recording, all three went on the record as saying that, to quote Troy, "We're all ahtists...we are totally devoted to our aht...Do we look as if we need influencing?" While Max and Ray would later
drop off into obscurity, Troy, once he'd done away with his partners would be a guest, via sattelite, on the Ben Franklin Telethon to Benefit the Boat People in late 1988.
Being the hard headed forerunners that they were, one failed telethon was not enough. On November 19, 1988 they would again attempt to raise money for the Boat People. With a special guest host Ben Franklin (brother of Joe), they produced The Ben Franklin Telethon to Benefit the Boat People. With high hopes, and numerous special guests such as Troy, The Camel Boy from Illinois, Dr. Phinneus Parsons (from Hofstra University), and the great Steve (Big M) Mirande what began as a great work, once again dissolved into nothing. Although over $1.93 million was raised, it was all stolen. At first it was purported that it was Fred who filched the funds, but upon further investigation it was discovered it was none other than Steve Mirande owner and operator of the famous chain of Steve's Porno Palaces that was the true traitor. Fred, being freed (see "Road-Kill Review #1" for the full story) found Steve put in his place, in prison.
The end of the 1980's did little to hamper the creative output of the Doom Patrol. While each member seemed to drift away from the group, for varying lengths of time, something always drew them back. By the end of 1990, Jeff and Herb, once again would bring it all together. This time it was The Road-Kill Review that would do it. What began as a mere newsletter for the group, quickly avalanched into a whole lot more. The first issue of the Review, (cover date January 1991) featured work from all seven members, and included poetry, satire, essays, and comics such as Herb's "That L'il Bastid" and Jeff's "The '80's". By issue two, the 'zine was being carried in three shops in Greenwich Village, Mosaic Books, St. Marks Books and St. Marks Comics. Both issues two and three sold out at all three stores, and even during the hiatus between issues three and four, the response from the readership continued to pour in. At this point in time five issues of The Road-Kill Review
have been published, and the first four are currently out of print.
During the times between issues, Chris, Jeff, Herb, Jimmy, Johnny, and Tommy would continue to gather for their sporadic jam sessions, which eventually moved from Blissland on the upper East Side of Manhattan, to studios on West 27th Street, and later one on Newark Street, in beautiful downtown Hoboken N.J. June 20, 1990 marked the fifth anniversary of the group, and hosted a gathering that up until then had never occured. All seven members actually made it!!! Even the elusive "Tom P. '97" was there.
As time passed Blissland moved to upstate New York, and since then the jam sessions, and gatherings, have continued. As ever, they've been hosted by The Walnut and have progressively gotten better and better. An excursion into Blissland in the summer of 1996 brought Jeff, Jimmy, Johnny and newest member Ray-O-Vac into the fray. Much beer was consumed, much music was played and a good time was had by all. Video documentaries were shot of both the 1995 and 1996 Blissland jams.
What does the future hold for this off beat, yet uncompromising group of artists, writers and musicians? Not one of them can say...Yet one aspect of the group has, and will remain constant, and it is, (as quoted by The Joker): "We're all here, we're all sincere, and we wanna learn!!!"
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