About Teeth
Strumming Teeth #10 - 1996 - Colorised
Teeth started life as a free street magazine Strumming Teeth in Auckland City, New Zealand, with tens of thousands of print copies distributed between 1995 and 1998.
Written, illustrated and published by unemployed actor Andy Conlan, the original physical magazines were printed in black and white, with a single spot colour on the cover, to save printing costs.
Conlan's three main artistic influences were Albert Uderzo, Jim Woodring and Dave Sim, with many of the narratives stemming from an early obsession with works of author Samuel Beckett. Most of the strips were a split between dark seedy stories of obsession and manipulation, and more surreal regular features that revolve around physical degradation, the afterlife and the supernatural.
The most constant serial in the comic's four year history was the series Mausoleum, about a wretch who finds himself in an underworld hellscape while searching for the cat that died due to his neglect. The series ran from 1994 - 1998, and Conlan continued to explore the theme of a cat in the underworld in his children's illustrated book, Nina's Phantom Friend.
At the start of 1998, Conlan dropped the Strumming from the title, and the last physical issues were released under the masthead Teeth.
The same year saw the publication go online as Teeth, and the name has been retained ever since.
Cover to Strumming Teeth #16 - 1997 - Colorised
Cover to Strumming Teeth #7 - 1996 - Colorised
Cover to Strumming Teeth #9 - 1996 - Colorised
Cover to Strumming Teeth #21 - 1997 - Colorised
Cover to Strumming Teeth #22 - 1998 - Colorised
Cover of the final printed issue of Teeth magazine - 1998 - Colorised.
Unused original cover for the final printed issue of Teeth magazine before name change - 1998 - Colorised.