The original Great Hoboes were the bowery bums and vagabonds of the era following World War I. Family lore and rarely told secrets number at least few of them in my own family - men who were unable to find employment during those troubled times, and resorted to a fraternity of sorts with their fellow travelers. McSorley's Ale House is probably the most notorious extant hangout of theirs in New York. While the White Horse Tavern welcomed the more erudite self-made bohemians (like Thomas Wolfe and Dylan Thomas), McSorley's was the home to many random figures of folk knowledge and street smarts.

There was a whole culture to the great hoboes. They had their own code of honor, their own lingo, and even a cartoon-like shorthand that they used to leave messages for one another while on the road. Jack Kerouac may have made hitchhiking and exploring our country hip, but it was the Great Hoboes who took the first steps towards taking those first steps out of your home town. Many did not do so out of wanderlust as much as out of a need to escape - whether that be to escape the police, the bill collectors, or any number of Depression-era boogeymen. They were the reluctant groundbreakers for what eventually became the post-war bohemian lifestyle.

We've adopted the title 'Great Hoboes' not out of irony or mockery of these great men, or the unfortunates who have been forced into their shoes today. The Great Hoboes of New York is modeled as a production of the best efforts of the people who now live and work in the one-time hobo squatting neighborhoods of New York - The Bowery, the East Village, Hell's Kitchen, and the one-time brewery district of Brooklyn (now Greenpoint and Williamsburg). Without any sense of irony or arrogance, this publication is intended as a relevant alternative to The New Yorker, much as the early Village Voice was.

The Great Hoboes of New York started in the backwoods of Western Massachusetts, where a bunch of us New York expatriates were getting our sheepskins. We had no heady plans; we just wanted an extra $5 an hour over the G.E.D. alternatives that were at our disposal. A group of writers, artists, photographers and humorists, we contributed a publication called The Omen - an often self-contradictory 'zine that covered politics, the media, and carried some of the best fraudulent non-fiction out there. It was the Harvard Lampoon for punks, hippies and degenerates.

Several years after the fact, most of us have returned to New York and are more seasoned in our respective fields. Despite the fact that we may have cut are teeth outside of the city, it's apparent that it was New York itself that served as our best mentor. Every story, picture, photograph, cartoon and article in Great Hoboes was inspired by those first memories we have of visiting the Bowery and the Village. Whether we were 4 or 14 or 24, it is those particular neighborhoods that shaped us. We continue to grow along with this city, and we hope that the stories, art and commentary on Great Hoboes serve to entertain you, and maybe remind you of a few of your own fond memories of these neighborhoods.

Where to from here? We're working on a print quarterly - a "best of", containing highlights of our comics, art, and writing. Right now, the Hoboes are a small collective of creators who are doing this whole thing by the seat of their pants during their off hours. We Hoboes are a collaborative lot, though. If you feel at home with the content of this magazine, please see our submission guidelines (at left). We want this circle of hoboes to keep growing.