CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Paul Mavrides

American artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ7152281
Source-derived summary

Paul Mavrides (born 1952) is an American artist, best known for his critique-laden comics, cartoons, paintings, graphics, performances and writings that encompass a disturbing yet humorous catalog of the social ills and shortcomings of human civilization. Mavrides worked with underground comix pioneer Gilbert Shelton on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers from 1978 to 1992. Mavrides has been noted for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the underground comix press of the 1970s and '80s.

Mavrides is a founding member of the Church of the SubGenius, having been a member of the organization since its earliest days. He is a co-author of Revelation X: The "Bob" Apocryphon: Hidden Teachings and Deuterocanonical Texts of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs (Fireside Books, 1994).

Career

Mavrides came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1975, and was soon working with San Francisco-based comics creator Jay Kinney on "Cover-Up Lowdown", originally a weekly panel cartoon which was collected and published by Rip Off Press in November 1977. This strip satirized political cover-ups of the day, as well as those of recent history, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Kinney and Mavrides then collaborated on the political anthology Anarchy Comics, which was published sporadically by Last Gasp between 1978 and 1987. Mavrides contributed comics to all four issues of Anarchy Comics as well as editing the final issue.

Mavrides illustrated several stories for Harvey Pekar in American Splendor.

Editorial summary

“Paul Mavrides” enters the record as american artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Paul, Mavrides and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1952, 1978, 1992, 1994—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1945-01-01, 1952—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Paul, Mavrides and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Paul Mavrides” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Paul, Mavrides and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7152281. VIAF identifies the subject as 72857606. The Library of Congress control number is n85387960. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1978, 1992 and 1994.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Paul Mavrides”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Paul Mavrides primary sources, Paul Mavrides archive and Paul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Paul Mavrides”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Paul Mavrides” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.