Joel Beck

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Joel Beck (May 7, 1943 - September 21, 1999) was a San Francisco Bay Area artist/cartoonist. His comic book, Lenny of Laredo is considered by many to be one of the first underground comic books of the 60's generation (although this is debatable among many comic book historians with the release of Jaxon's God Nose).

Born in Ross, California, Beck was an ill and bed-ridden child, who fought with a combination of tuberculosis and spinal meningitis. As the 60's progressed, Beck - now in his early 20s' - moved into a housing unit on the Berkeley University campus known as "Haste House", and began to submit cartoons to the campus newspaper The Pelican. During this time he published three underground comic books - Lenny of Laredo, Marching Marvin,and The Profit.

He was voted The Nation's Top College Cartoonist in 1965.

Beck died on September 21, 1999 from tuberculosis and injuries from a mugging in Point Richmond, California.