Christie’s, the renowned auction house that usually deals in lo que muy fancy, had a fascinating lot up for sale recently: a flyer for the Sex Pistols’ 1978 San Antonio performance at Randy’s Rodeo, at an estimated price of $2,000-$3,000. The rare document’s appearance touched off a firestorm of online sleuthery, however, with some peeps — including Randy’s Rodeo promoter Joe Pugliese — claiming the flyer is fraudulent. Intrepid historian/chronicler of the San Anto underground arts Aaron Forland alerted us to the controversy, which includes oral and textual arguments from Manney Garcia of satxpunk.com, gigposters.com’s hardcore nerds, and fans of KSAL’s Facebook page. Weirdly satisfying bits of evidence include the fact that a portion of the collaged cut-out letters appear to be in the dreaded “Comic Sans” font, which wasn’t introduced until 1995, and Mr. Pugliese’s assertion that there never was a damn flyer for la madre of all San Anto punk shows. Rock designer Art Chantry, however, thinks it’d be hard to fake the vintage paper and analog copier marks. Tellingly, as of press time, Christie’s has taken the flyer off its website. Says Forland, “I was just thrilled to play a small role in a real-life punk rock/design-&-font nerd detective story.”
