R.U. Sirius interviewed Marc Franklin, art director of issue #2 of High Frontiers (the forerunner to Mondo 2000 by way of Reality Hackers), magazine which 17" x 11". I still have the copy I bought when it came out in 1985 or so and it ranks as one of my favorite issues ever of any magazine.
MARC FRANKLIN: In the process of setting up my itinerary, I called William Burroughs. His secretary, James Grauerholz – we had known each other for years — said, "You know, we want to see you, but we're going to be in Switzerland in May. William's shotgun paintings are going to be on exhibit. But we really want to see you. Instead of coming and seeing us on the beginning of your trip, come and see us at the end. We do want to see you — definitely. Come by. However, you know, William hates having his picture taken. And he hates psychedelics. But we want to see you, so please come by."
I didn't think anything much of this conversation… I just marked it down that I had to go see William Burroughs in June……Continuing my quest, I headed out to Lawrence Kansas to see Burroughs. 26 hours straight, I was on the highway. I get there at 11:00 am. I bound up the stairs to see James Grauerholz. He's there. I show him my portfolio. We chat and catch up. "Hold on a minute." James is on the phone. He looks at me and says, "Would one o'clock be good for you?" "Yes, point me in the direction of a health food store, I'm starving…"
We have a little caravan of cars heading off to William's house. Me, in the California plated car, I was followed by a local police cruiser. [Laughs]
William's tiny house is threadbare, literally. He's got a small wooden table, no carpet… nothing on the walls. No furniture in the house beyond the chairs we were sitting on. It's 98 degrees with 99% humidity. We were sitting at the table and talking. I show him my portraits, because I knew that I was not going to photograph him. We're talking about all sorts of wide-ranging, interesting subjects. "Would you like a drink?" he says, as he walked over to his refrigerator. "What are you going to have?" "A Cuba Libre." I noticed he had a Dos Equis on his refrigerator door. "I'll have that Dos Equis." I knew that I could sip on that for two days if need be… appearing quite social enough. Because if I drank any alcohol to speak of, I would fall over and collapse from the sheer exhaustion of the crazy drive…
William belts back several of these drinks faster than I could blink, right? He takes his bony finger and he points it in my face. "Tell me something. How long do these photographs of yours take?" "Oh, approximately a sixtieth of a second." "You're on."
Interview with Marc Franklin, photographer of psychedelic explorers and High Frontiers' art director
