If you’re planning to check out Mike McCarthy’s Destroy Memphis documentary, about the failed effort to save Libertyland, or at least Elvis’ favorite rollercoaster, the Zippin Pippin, you might also want to grab a copy of McCarthy’s recently complied comic book HELVIS No. 1 (Millenia Comeback Special).
This erratically-published story of a pop-eyed zombie Elvis walks a weird line between personal and regional mythology, and a kind of underground journalism, chronicling the death and decay of a Memphis at the heart of American pop culture. 
McCarthy created HELVIS in 1988 when he was still living with his parents, seventeen miles outside of Tupelo. The first (unfinished) version of the comic wasn’t published for 24-years though the ghoulish, trash-rock horror story served as an inspiration for McCarthy’s first film, Damselvis, Daughter of HELVIS, and its influence can be felt on in other films like Teenage Tupelo, The Sore Losers, and Superstarlet A.D.
Go to Helvis
The new, “complete” Helvis, currently available at 901 Comics, reflects McCarthy’s interests from Sexploitation films, Mad magazine, and rock-and-roll to historic preservation. One sequence finds Helvis disoriented, mad, and riding the Zippin Pippin in Green Bay, WS. Although it reflects a less than happy ending for Memphis, the comic’s a sweet Halloween treat for your favorite trickster, and the perfect companion piece for Destroy Memphis.
Worth it for the centerfold . 
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