Jay Allen Sanford co-created the comic book line Rock 'N' Roll Comics for Revolutionary Comics, publishers of the Beatles Experience 8-issue series (among the titles reprinted in graphic novel form, beginning in 2010), and his publishing company Re-Visionary Press is known for its line of Carnal Comics — True Stories of Adult Film Stars; the titles were among the top-selling independent comic books of the '90s. He also created the comic strip "Rock Tales," which began in Rip Magazine before beginning a 15-plus year run in Spin magazine. Since selling off his publishing interests in 2000, he likes to scribble and type stuff every day, and rumor has it that people actually pay him to do this, including MTV/VH1, for whom he writes TV shows and specials like Pop Up Video, 100 Most Metal Moments, etc.
For the San Diego Reader, he serves as Music Section editor and writes cover stories and musician interviews, as well as contributing each week to the Blurt music column for over 20 years. He draws two comic strips created specifically for the Reader: Overheard in San Diego (debuted 1996 and collected in book form in 2013) and Famous Former Neighbors (since 2004). His column Just Announced, previewing upcoming local concerts, debuted in early 2017, and his Local Five/Live Five column debuted in 2019.
June 1978: Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson was picked up as a vagrant crashing in Balboa Park.Flashback to late 1976: The mercurial Beach Boy was complaining about round-the-clock “treatment” administered by Beverly Hills shrink Dr. …
Research into Elvis Presley’s first-ever California concerts, over the first week of April 1956, has yielded new material about the San Diego dates, including unpublished photos of the rock icon backstage at the long-gone San …
Gary Wilson at Soda BarMarch 20The documentary film You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story, details the life of Gary Wilson, the eccentric indie-punk pioneer best known for his highly sought 1977 LP …
9-11-66: Del Mar was renamed “Clarksville” for the day, as part of a promotion for The Monkees TV show, which would debut the following night. The Sunday event marked the first time the foursome ever …
May 1969: Two hundred years after Father Junípero Serra founded the first California mission on Presidio Hill, San Diego celebrated its bicentennial. The Ferry still shuttled passengers and cargo across the harbor, as it had …
Who doesn't miss the staple-infested LP bins of Off The Record's late lamented Hillcrest locale? Those beat up bins survived hundreds of live concerts, with both bins and shows dating back to the store's original …
The 1979 film Hardcore shows downtown at its Sodom and Gomorrah peak, with George C. Scott stumbling through wall-to-wall porno shops in search of information about his missing porn-star daughter. He makes his way down …
Fred Benedetti at the Jazz LoungeMarch 7Fred Benedetti began playing the guitar at age nine, going on to perform with the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, the Starlight Opera, the American Ballet Company, …
Yoko's personal secretary called me early on a Friday afternoon. "Miss Ono and her companion will be arriving in Dalton Georgia around 3pm tomorrow. She regrets that she won't be able to accompany you to …
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