Bugle (newspaper)

The "Bugle" or "Bugle-American" (the latter was the original name) was an underground newspaper based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and distributed throughout Wisconsin from 1970 to 1978. While by no means conservative, the "Bugle" saw itself as less radical that the city's other underground newspaper, "Kaleidoscope" (in some ways making it a predecessor to the alternative newsweekly genre) [Krulos, Tea. "The Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen," "Riverwest Currents", V. 2, #7; July 2003 [http://www.riverwestcurrents.org/2003/July/000771.html] ] ; but it was not viewed that way by the local establishment media such as the "Milwaukee Journal" and "Milwaukee Sentinel". It was founded by Denis Kitchen and four friends, [Kitchen, Denis. "Button 065: Bugle-American (Wisconsin underground Newspaper by Denis Kitchen)" [http://deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BP_KSP.65&Category_Code=] ] most of them (like Kitchen) former journalism students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The tongue-in-cheek name was inspired by that of the "Daily Bugle", the fictional newspaper published by Spiderman-hater J. Jonah Jameson. Due to Kitchen's interest in underground comics, the "Bugle" featured the works not only of local artists like Kitchen, Jim Mitchell, Don Glassford, Bruce Walthers, and Wendel Pugh, but work by nationally-known artists like Robert Crumb as well. On February 22, 1975, the "Bugle's" office on Bremen Street on the East Side was firebombed. The newspaper's next issue was delayed only a week, aided by financial support from such fans as George Reedy, Leonard Cohen and Bryan Ferry. [Peterson, Gary. "February on My Mind," "Lake County News", Feb. 24, 2007 [http://lakeconews.com/content/view/313/] ] Like the bombing at about the same time of "Kaleidoscope's" editor John Kois' car, this bombing was never solved; many suspected involvement by the Milwaukee Police Department's Red Squad. [Armstrong, David. "A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America" (Houghton Mifflin, 1981), p. 148-149 "et seq."]

Veterans of the "Bugle" (in addition to Kitchen) include Tony Capaccio (later editor of "Jane's Defence Weekly"), Greg Kot (the "Chicago Tribune"'s pop music critic since 1990), Rob Fixmer (later technology news editor of the "New York Times"), and Peter James Spielmann of the Associated Press.

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