Rory Hayes

Biography Hayes was born with esotropia in his left eye; later treatment was ineffective and as an adult he had mostly lost the sight in that eye.

Hayes and his older brother Geoffrey were into popular culture and comic books, including Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Sugar and Spike, Dick Tracy, and, later, EC Comics. Together, they published homemade comics, which were encouraged by their mother. All through their teens the boys continued to make comics, home-made movies, and later, fanzines, including Rory's titles Monsters and Ghouls and The Dolls Weekly. He favored drawing monsters and animals (bears, especially) over people in his work. Moving back to San Francisco at about eighteen years old, which soon released his first published comic, Bogeyman.

Bogeyman gained Hayes some notoriety in San Francisco during this era, and he began getting illustrations gigs and other opportunities to do comics. In 1969 Hayes produced his most notorious creation, Cunt Comics, a 24-page explosion of violent, pornographic drawings (with contributions from Jay Lynch and Kim Deitch). From 1969–1976, Hayes was a regular contributor to underground anthologies such as Bijou Funnies, Snatch Comics, Skull, Insect Fear, and especially Arcade. He also began using recreational drugs, including amphetamines and LSD.

He was a landscape painter from 1976 until his death from a drug overdose in 1983.