The first two issues of Canopic Jar were printed and distributed (marginally) in 1986. The highlights included poetry by P.A. Merrill (who, along with Phil Rice, was the Jar's co-founder), Rethabile Masilo, and Hal Rice. From the beginning we were looking to stretch beyond the literary arts, and those first two issues relied heavily on drawings by Hal.
Hal, an established guitar-slinging songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, would be a headliner in the first Canopic Jar Live (with Jeff Taylor on vocals) in 1995.
The scans for this gallery are taken from the originals mock-ups from 1986, including the cover for #2.