May 14th saw the passing of a major figure in the Raleigh alternative arts scene of the 80’s, Russell Boone, publisher of Scream magazine. Russell had a stroke in 2003 and then an accident involving traumatic brain injury in 2004, and had been cared for since by his wife and publishing partner, Katie Boone. She held a memorial gathering at the PR, and the attendees represented a fine tribute to Russ as well as a fascinating cross section of a certain segment of Raleigh’s intellectual culture. Russell was a Vietnam War veteran who made a pretty complete break with his earlier life. In finding and wooing Katie at a tender age, he married into a strong and distinct group of Raleighites who have always particularly charmed and impressed me – that is, the wave of NCSU professors’ kids who came of age in the 70’s, mostly in Cameron Park. The PR’s side room was filled with them, many of whom made it back into town for the event. The late Mike Reynolds, an NCSU Hemingway scholar, was one of the aforementioned parents, but also a personal friend of Russell, who spent some time at NCSU. Mike provided original Hemingway material for publication in Scream, and helped it land on the map of small press publications of the era.
Scream was touted as a new combination of “literature, art comix and journalism.” Drawing on the local zine tradition that included Blind Boy’s Gazette and Biohazard Informe, Russell upped the ante and went for a full scale magazine with designer graphics. The marvelous community of artists, writers, and designers he attracted to his project created a body of work well worth remembering. In September 1985 Guy Munger, NandO’s book editor (and father of another family of Cameron Park intelligentsia) described the first issue thusly:
“…a mad melange of prophecy, poetry and ‘Rollywood Funny Papers’ (what us Mad mag grads call comix). Among the attractions: ‘Gemstone File,’ a collection of predictions starring JFK, Jackie, Richard Nixon, Onassis, Howard Hughes and other notables that would make Nostradamus nervous; an eerie little piece by Mike Reynolds, ‘A Green in June’ about a hedge trimmer who just might play ‘paranoid parchesi’ with a chainsaw, and several poems worthy of note.” (News and Observer, 9-8-85)
Billed as a quarterly, Scream’s run comprised seven issues, ending in 1989. Each was more lush and polished than the previous, and Scream became an important venue for the emerging fusions of genre that would lead to graphic novels. Local expressionist extraordinaire David Larson did many of the covers, but others such as William Waters, Errol Engelbrecht, and Denis Draughon got their turn. Writers such as David Weaver, Richard Butner and Peter Eichenberger published early work. The Rollywood Funny Papers took on a life of their own as the flip side of what was essentially a double magazine, with powerful and beautifully presented dark comix by Lillian Jones, Rick Koobs, and Matt Feazell. Danny Gallant also contributed comix, but became a leading force in Scream’s truly sumptuous graphic designs, executed in multi-color offset by Richard Kilby’s Barefoot Press. The final two issues gained some extra excitement when Charles Bukowski ackowledged his admiration for Scream by sending two pieces for Russell to publish.
After Russell decided to stop publishing Scream, Danny Gallant went on to publish several issues of Alternating Crimes in 1996-97, using an imprint Russell had founded in 1985. Russell was a consulting editor, and Danny continued to work with Russ on his own new publishing project – the catalogs for Boone’s Native Seed Company, his heirloom seed mail-order business. Just as Scream laid new ground for a local literary magazine, these catalogs educated about heirloom plants long before they were hot topics, offered the fruits of Russ and Katie’s wildcrafting, and managed to offer more art and literary value than anything of it’s kind. David Larson’s sultry charcoals and pastels were on the covers, and toward the back- “The Anguished Adventures of Cowboy Ant” ! This comic insertion in a seed catalog featured an ant hero whose work and words rocked the sleazy world of industrial agriculture. Russell wrote the strips and Danny Gallant illustrated and lettered them.
Though he was a successful editor and also worked many years on a novel, Russell’s seed enterprise brought him closer to his true love – outdoors and botanical adventures. He was just about the only person from whom I’d accept a wild mushroom to eat, and I was rather glad he never got to see the destruction of the wooded hills surrounding Lake Raleigh, which he loved to roam. He and Katie went all over the state wildcrafting, and Russell always had so much to teach and share about plants, whether in the wilderness or the garden. His last years were inactive, and for the most part speechless, but Katie faithfully rolled his chair along the greenway and occasionally got him down to Sadlack’s. She will get some well deserved respite now, but she was fiercely loyal to him, and communicated with him in a way that most of us couldn’t. Russell said his piece, a big piece, with Scream, and for that and more he will be well remembered.
Russell will always be “Burns Norton” to me, his pen name when I met him in the late 70’s as a mentor to the Blind Boys Gazette crew. Burns was kind of like Bukowski, Albert Camus and Hunter S. Thompson all rolled into one from where I was sitting. We used to raise all kinds of hell in Raleigh, whether going to see 999 at the Pier or interviewing obsure SciFi writers for his zine. His mantra was “Sci Fi, Comics, and Rocknroll” and he totally lived it. Russ turned me on to so much music, art, and literature, and for that I’m really grateful. He’s one of a handful of people that I met in life that had a definite impact on the way I think and see the world. I can still hear his sinister chuckle when something really tickled him. He would probably tell me what I schmuck I am for writing all this gibberish, I know that much!
I moved from Raleigh in ‘81 and saw him and Katie only rarely after that, but we did stay in touch through the years. I know it’s a cliche to say it, buy they definitely broke the mold when Burns Norton was forged. Thanks for this posting.
Russell was my only sibling. Although I loved him dearly, I was part of his so called break with his earlier life. As such, we lost contact with each other for most of our lives. He was a dreamer and I was (and am) a lawyer. As children, he was always reading. Always. I played baseball and he read comic books. I collected baseball cards and he collected Mad Magazines (from the first issue on). While a fifth grader, he was published in Boy’s Life Magazine. From what I remember (I was in the third grade at the time), it was a pretty big deal. Some folks from the school came to our house and tried to convince my parents to let him attend a school for gifted students. Unfortunatley, my parents did not share a high regard for education. And they had limited resources. His early writing was rarely encourgaged by my family. But I thought it was pretty cool. After all, my friends read Boy’s Life and knew that MY brother had been published in it. Gave me bragging rights. Oh, and then there were the girls. He was a very handsome guy, and the girls came a calling. Boy, did they. I was somewhat popular just because I was his little brother. My parents moved from Florida to Virginia when he was a senior in High School. His life was completely disrupted. So he ran away, never to return home. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right. When Russ got out of the Air Force in 1968, he was not the same guy I had known for so many years. He was different. And he had missed most of the peace movement of the 60’s along with the Haight Ashbury type endeavors. But Russ being Russ, he simply turned the clock back and made his own world. Just like when we were kids. I finished college and, due to the draft, became an Officer and a gentleman in the Navy. For 4 years. And Russ entered North Carolina State University. So he was the college student and I was the military guy. And I went to Vietnam. Didn’t we all? And I guess I changed while away as much as Russ had earlier. You must remember, these were heady times. I entered Law School August of 1973. At that time, Russ was married to a fine lady he had met and fallen in love with during his senior year of High School. High School sweethearts. But the times being what they were, he kept changing in ways that she didn’t. So they divorced. It was during this period that he and I went our separate ways also. I really can’t put the blame on him. Truth be known, I was probably more responsible for our break than he was. Who knows? Doesn’t really matter now, does it. But somehow, we reconnected in 2004. My mom died and I had the cremains. My house was located on an island in the James River in Richmond, Virginia and I decided to hold a memorial service alongside the river. So I reached out and invited him. And he came. Along with Katie and her dad. Wonderful people. Only wish I had met them so many years earlier. I was saddened to learn that not only was he confined to a wheelchair, he also could not speak. But his eyes said everything that needed to be said. For that one afternoon, two grown men became the boys they once were, the ones who shared stories, their hopes and dreams, and most of all, their love. I will miss Russ. Goodbye.
Thanks so much for the stories. He shaped me also and I’m again realizing how much I miss him. I’ve really missed him since 2003 but even after the TBI in 2004, he had a wicked sense of humor. We parsed the universe into Yes/No questions, but it worked for us. I took him out to see much music and do wheelchair dancing. Oliver Sachs says in his new book that when speech and reading go due to brain injury, music rarely does. Rhythm never leaves humans. Chimps can’t dance. I will always celebrate the life of my dear, dear Ruseell Boone. If you see me dancing and crying then you’ll know why.
A mate encoraged me to read this site, nice post, fascinating read… keep up the good work!