Terminal Exposure
Comics, Sculpture, and Risky Behavior
Published on 22. July 2025
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-1-68137-931-9 (ISBN)
Description
"The first-ever collection of comics and assorted artwork by Michael McMillan--not only a legendary underground cartoonist, but also a sculptor, painter, printmaker, filmmaker, animator, poster designer, and an avid rock climber. Michael McMillan has said he's "not really a cartoonist," but the evidence suggests otherwise. Born and raised in California, he studied architecture and design before a visit in 1969 to an exhibition of Chicago's Hairy Who and encounters with the bourgeoning San Francisco underground comix scene convinced McMillan to make his own comics. He plunged in, drawing for legendary publications like Weirdo, Young Lust, Lemme Out Here, Arcade, and eventually his own one-issue wonder, Terminal. Over the following decades, McMillian kept playing with the form of comics. He reimagined the kind of stories single-panel, two-panel, and many-panel strips could tell, blending favorite genres from his childhood (horror, swords and sandals, science fiction) with more mature themes (autobiography, dating, sex) into new and striking forms. In Terminal Exposure, McMillan's comics are collected for the first time, alongside a selection of his electrifying sculptures, eye-popping paintings, and stunning pages from the journals he kept during his years rock climbing in California's Sierra Nevada. With an introduction by Dan Nadel, this volume offers a first-time portrait of the great "not really a cartoonist" cartoonist"--
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
New York Review Books
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 218 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
1270 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68137-931-9 (9781681379319)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Michael McMillan was born in Pasadena. While attending San Francisco State University for a master’s degree in sculpture in the late 1960s, he saw an exhibition by the Hairy Who at the Art Institute of San Francisco. That exhibit, together with Zap Comix, spurred his career as a comic book artist. He went on to produce his comic book debut, Terminal Comics, and contributed to publications throughout the 1970s such as Young Lust, Arcade, Weirdo, and Lemme Outa Here. A fine artist as well as a cartoonist, McMillan has worked in many mediums over the course of his career, including film, animation, sculpture, and printmaking, which he currently pursues full-time. McMillan lives in the Bay Area.
Dan Nadel is the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the author most recently of Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life. His previous books include Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976; The Collected Hairy Who Publications; Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900–1969; Gary Panter; Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940–1980; Dorothy and Otis: Designing the American Dream; and the New York Review Comics collections Return to Romance: The Strange Love Stories of Ogden Whitney and It's Life as I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Dan Nadel is the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the author most recently of Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life. His previous books include Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976; The Collected Hairy Who Publications; Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900–1969; Gary Panter; Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940–1980; Dorothy and Otis: Designing the American Dream; and the New York Review Comics collections Return to Romance: The Strange Love Stories of Ogden Whitney and It's Life as I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.