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 The cover artwork for the first issue ofZap Comix, featuring the characterMr. Natural. | |
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Underground comix aresmall press or self-publishedcomic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by theComics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in theUnited States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in theUnited Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s.
Robert Crumb,Gilbert Shelton,Barbara "Willy" Mendes,Trina Robbins and numerous other cartoonists created underground titles that were popular with readers within thecounterculture scene.Punk had its own comic artists likeGary Panter. Long after their heyday, underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement and with mainstream comic books, but their legacy is most obvious withalternative comics.
The United States underground comics scene emerged in the 1960s, focusing on subjects dear to thecounterculture:recreational drug use, politics,rock music, andfree love. The underground comix scene had its strongest success in the United States between 1968 and 1975,[1] with titles initially distributed primarily throughhead shops.[2] Underground comix often featured covers intended to appeal to the drug culture, and imitatedLSD-inspired posters to increase sales.[1]
These titles were termed "comix" in order to differentiate them from mainstream publications. The "X" also emphasized theX-rated contents of the publications.[1] Many of the common aspects of the underground comix scene were in response to the strong restrictions forced upon mainstream publications by theComics Code Authority, which refused publications featuring depictions of violence, sexuality, drug use, and socially relevant content, all of which appeared in greater levels in underground comix.[1]Robert Crumb stated that the appeal of underground comix was their lack of censorship: "People forget that that was what it was all about. That was why we did it. We didn't have anybody standing over us saying 'No, you can't draw this' or 'You can't show that'. We could do whatever we wanted".[1]
Between the late 1920s and late 1940s, anonymous underground artists produced counterfeitpornographic comic books featuring unauthorized depictions of popularcomic strip characters engaging in sexual activities. Often referred to asTijuana bibles, these books are often considered the predecessors of the underground comix scene.[3][4]
American comix were strongly influenced by 1950sEC Comics and especially magazines edited byHarvey Kurtzman, includingMad (which first appeared in 1952).[1] Kurtzman'sHelp! magazine, published from 1960 to 1965, featured the works of artists who would later become well known in the underground comix scene, including R. Crumb andGilbert Shelton.[1] Other artists published work incollege magazines before becoming known in the underground scene.[1]
Early underground comix appeared sporadically in the early- and mid-1960s, but did not begin to appear frequently until after 1967. The first underground comix were personal works produced for friends of the artists. Perhaps the earliest of the underground comic strips wasFrank Stack's (under the pseudonymFoolbert Sturgeon)[5][6]The Adventures of Jesus, begun in 1962 and compiled in photocopiedzine form byGilbert Shelton in 1964. It has been credited as the first underground comic.[5][6] Shelton's ownWonder Wart-Hog appeared in the college humor magazineBacchanal #1-2 in 1962.Jack Jackson'sGod Nose, published in Texas in 1964,[7][8] has also been given that title. One guide lists two other underground comix from that year,Vaughn Bodē'sDas Kampf andCharles Plymell'sRobert Ronnie Branaman.[9]
Joel Beck began contributing a full-page comic each week to theunderground newspaper theBerkeley Barb and his full-length comicLenny of Laredo was published in 1965.[10] Another underground paper, theEast Village Other, was an important precursor to the underground comix movement, featuringcomic strips by artists including Crumb, Shelton,Kim Deitch,Trina Robbins,Spain Rodriguez, andArt Spiegelman before true underground comix emerged from San Francisco with the first issue ofZap Comix.Zap and many of the first true underground comix publications began with reprints of comic strip pages which first appeared in underground papers like theEast Village Other, theBerkeley Barb, andYarrowstalks.[1][a]
In February 1968, in San Francisco,Robert Crumb published (with the help of poetCharles Plymell andDon Donahue ofApex Novelties)[11] his first solo comic,Zap Comix. The title was financially successful and almost single-handedly developed a market for underground comix.
Within a few issues,Zap began to feature other cartoonists — includingS. Clay Wilson,Robert Williams,Spain Rodriguez, andGilbert Shelton — and Crumb launched a series of solo titles, includingDespair,Uneeda (both published byPrint Mint in 1969),Big Ass Comics,R. Crumb's Comics and Stories,Motor City Comics (all published byRip Off Press in 1969),Home Grown Funnies (Kitchen Sink Press, 1971) andHytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971), in addition to founding the pornographic anthologiesJiz andSnatch (both Apex Novelties, 1969).[1]
TheSan Francisco Bay Area was an epicenter of the underground comix movement; Crumb and many other underground cartoonists lived inSan Francisco'sHaight-Ashbury neighborhood in the mid-to-late 1960s.[12] Just as importantly, the major underground publishers were all based in the area:Don Donahue'sApex Novelties,Gary Arlington'sSan Francisco Comic Book Company, andRip Off Press were all headquartered in the city, withRon Turner'sLast Gasp and thePrint Mint based inBerkeley.[13] Last Gasp later moved to San Francisco.
By the end of the 1960s, there was recognition of the movement by a major American museum when theCorcoran Gallery of Art staged an exhibition,The Phonus Balonus Show (May 20-June 15, 1969). Curated byBhob Stewart for famed museum directorWalter Hopps, it included work by Crumb, Shelton,Vaughn Bodé,Kim Deitch,Jay Lynch and others.[14][15]
Crumb's best known underground features includedWhiteman,Angelfood McSpade,Fritz the Cat, andMr. Natural. Crumb also drew himself as a character, caricaturing himself as a self-loathing, sex-obsessed intellectual.[1] While Crumb's work was often praised for its social commentary, he was also criticized for the misogyny that appeared within his comics.Trina Robbins said: "It's weird to me how willing people are to overlook the hideous darkness in Crumb's work... What the hell is funny about rape and murder?"[1] Because of his popularity, many underground cartoonists tried to imitate Crumb's work.[1] WhileZap was the best-known anthology of the scene, other anthologies appeared, includingBijou Funnies, a Chicago publication edited by Jay Lynch and heavily influenced byMad.[1] The San Francisco anthologyYoung Lust (Company & Sons, 1970), which parodied the 1950s romance genre, featured works byBill Griffith andArt Spiegelman. Another anthology,Bizarre Sex (Kitchen Sink, 1972), was influenced byscience fiction comics and included art byDenis Kitchen andRichard "Grass" Green, one of the fewAfrican-American comix creators.[1]
Other important underground cartoonists of the era included Shelton, Wilson, Deitch, Rodriguez,Skip Williamson,Rick Griffin,George Metzger, andVictor Moscoso. Shelton became famous for his charactersWonder Wart-Hog, a superhero parody, andThe Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, a strip about a trio of "freaks" whose time is spent attempting to acquire drugs and avoid the police, both of which first appeared in the self-publishedFeds 'N' Heads in 1968.[1] Wilson's work is permeated by shocking violence and ugly sex; he contributed toZap and created the infamousThe Checkered Demon,[1] a portly, shirtless being who is frequently called upon to kill the various demented bikers, pirates, and rapists who populate Wilson's universe. Spain worked for theEast Village Other before becoming known within underground comix forTrashman and his solo titlesZodiac Mindwarp andSubvert.[1] Williamson created his characterSnappy Sammy Smoot, appearing in several titles.
Undergroundhorror comics also became popular, with titles such asSkull (Rip Off Press, 1970),Bogeyman (San Francisco Comic Book Company, 1969),Fantagor (Richard Corben, 1970),Insect Fear (Print Mint, 1970),Up From the Deep (Rip Off Press, 1971),Death Rattle (Kitchen Sink, 1972),Gory Stories (Shroud, 1972),Deviant Slice (Print Mint, 1972) andTwo Fisted Zombies (Last Gasp, 1973). Many of these were strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics likeTales from the Crypt.[1]
The male-dominated scene produced many blatantly misogynistic works, but female underground cartoonists made strong marks as well. Edited byTrina Robbins,It Ain't Me, Babe, published by Last Gasp in 1970, was the first all-female underground comic;[1] followed in 1972 byWimmen's Comix (Last Gasp), an anthology series founded by cartoonistPatricia Moodian [fr] that featured (among others)Melinda Gebbie,Lynda Barry,Aline Kominsky, andShary Flenniken.Joyce Farmer andLyn Chevli'sTits & Clits Comix all-female anthology debuted in 1972 as well.
By 1972–1973, the city'sMission District was "underground headquarters": living and operating out of The Mission in that period wereGary Arlington,Roger Brand,Kim Deitch,Don Donahue,Shary Flenniken,Justin Green,Bill Griffith &Diane Noomin,Rory Hayes,Jay Kinney,Bobby London,Ted Richards,Trina Robbins,Joe Schenkman,Larry Todd, Patricia Moodian andArt Spiegelman.[16]
Mainstream publications such asPlayboy andNational Lampoon began to publish comics and art similar to that of underground comix.[1] The underground movement also prompted older professional comic book artists to try their hand in the alternate press.Wally Wood publishedwitzend in 1966, soon passing the title on to artist-editorBill Pearson. In 1969, Wood createdHeroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, intended for distribution to armed forces bases.Steve Ditko gave full vent to hisAyn Rand-inspired philosophy inMr. A andAvenging World (1973). In 1975,Flo Steinberg, Stan Lee's former secretary atMarvel Comics, publishedBig Apple Comix, featuring underground work by ostensibly "mainstream" artists she knew from Marvel.
Film and television began to reflect the influence of underground comix in the 1970s, starting with the release ofRalph Bakshi's Crumb adaptation,Fritz the Cat, the first animated film to receive anX rating from theMPAA.[2] Furtheradult-oriented animated films based on or influenced by underground comix followed, includingThe Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat andDown and Dirty Duck.[2] The influence of underground comix has also been attributed to films such asThe Lord of the Rings (1978) andForbidden Zone (1980).[2] The animation sequences – created byHelp! contributorTerry Gilliam – and surrealistic humor ofMonty Python's Flying Circus have also been partly attributed to the influence of the underground comix scene.[1][2]
Despite the form's influence on the culture at large, however, by 1972, only four major underground publishers remained in operation: thePrint Mint,Rip Off Press,Last Gasp, andKrupp Comic Works (Kitchen Sink Press).[17] For much of the 1970s, Rip Off Press operated asyndication service, managed by cartoonist and co-ownerGilbert Shelton, that sold weekly comix content toalternative newspapers andstudent publications.[18] Each Friday, the company sent out a distribution sheet with the strips it was selling, by such cartoonists as Shelton,Joel Beck,Dave Sheridan,Ted Richards,Bill Griffith, andHarry Driggs (as R. Diggs). The syndicate petered out by 1979; much of the material produced for it was eventually published in the company's long-runninganthologyRip Off Comix, which had debuted in 1977. Griffith's strip,Zippy, which had debuted in 1976 as a weekly strip with the syndicate,[19] was eventually picked up for daily syndication byKing Features Syndicate in 1986.
Critics of the underground comix scene claimed that the publications were socially irresponsible, and glorified violence, sex and drug use.[1] In 1973, theU.S. Supreme Court, inMiller v. California, ruled that local communities could decide their own First Amendment standards with reference to obscenity. In the mid-1970s, sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up, leaving mail order as the only commercial outlet for underground titles.[2]
In 1974, Marvel launchedComix Book, requesting that underground artists submit significantly less explicit work appropriate for newsstands sales.[1] A number of underground artists agreed to contribute work, including Spiegelman, Robbins andS. Clay Wilson, butComix Book did not sell well and lasted only five issues.[1][20] In 1976, Marvel achieved success withHoward the Duck, a satirical comic aimed at adult audiences that was inspired by the underground comix scene. While it did not depict the explicit content that was often featured in underground comix, it was more socially relevant than anything Marvel had previously published.[1]
By the mid-1970s, independent publishers began to release book-length collections of underground comics. Quick Fox/Links Books released two important collections,TheApex Treasury of Underground Comics, published in 1974, andThe Best of Bijou Funnies, released in 1975. TheApex Treasury featured work by Crumb, Deitch, Griffith, Spain, Shelton, Spiegelman, Lynch,Shary Flenniken,Justin Green,Bobby London, andWilly Murphy;[21] while theBijou Funnies book highlighted comics by Lynch, Green, Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, Deitch,Skip Williamson,Jay Kinney,Evert Geradts,Rory Hayes, Dan Clyne, and Jim Osborne.[22] Similarly, and around this time, the publishing cooperativeAnd/Or Press publishedThe Young Lust Reader (1974), a "best-of" collection from Griffith and Kinney'sYoung Lust anthology, andDave Sheridan andFred Schrier'sThe Overland Vegetable Stagecoach presents Mindwarp: An Anthology (1975). And/Or Press later published the first paperback collections of Griffith'sZippy the Pinhead comics.
By this time, some artists, includingArt Spiegelman, felt that the underground comix scene had become less creative than it had been in the past. According to Spiegelman: "What had seemed like a revolution simply deflated into a lifestyle. Underground comics were stereotyped as dealing only with Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills. They got stuffed back into the closet, along with bong pipes and love beads, as Things Started To Get Uglier".[1]
One of the last major underground titles wasArcade: The Comics Revue, co-edited by Spiegelman andBill Griffith. With the underground movement encountering a slowdown, Spiegelman and Griffith conceived ofArcade as a "safe berth", featuring contributions from such major underground figures asRobert Armstrong,Robert Crumb,Justin Green,Aline Kominsky,Jay Lynch,Spain Rodriguez,Gilbert Shelton, andS. Clay Wilson (as well as Griffith and Spiegelman).Arcade stood out from similar publications by having an editorial plan, in which Spiegelman and Griffith attempted to show how comics connected to the broader realms of artistic and literary culture.[23]Arcade lasted seven issues, from 1975 to 1976.
Autobiographical comics began to come into prominence in 1976, with the premiere ofHarvey Pekar's self-published comicAmerican Splendor, which featured art by several cartoonists associated with the underground, including Crumb.[1] Comics critic Jared Gardner asserts that, while underground comix was associated with countercultural iconoclasm, the movement's most enduring legacy was to be autobiography.[24]
In the late 1970s, Marvel andDC Comics agreed to sell their comics on a no-return basis with large discounts to comic book retailers; this led to later deals that helped underground publishers.[2] During this period, underground titles focusing onfeminist andGay Liberation themes began to appear, as well as comics associated with theenvironmental movement.[1]Anarchy Comics focused onleft-wing politics, while Barney Steel'sArmageddon focused onanarcho-capitalism.[25] British underground cartoonists also created political titles, but they did not sell as well as American political comics.[1]
Artists influenced by the underground comix scene, who were unable to get work published by better-known underground publications, began self-publishing their own small press, photocopied comic books, known asminicomics.[26] Thepunk subculture began to influence underground comix.[27]
In 1982, the distribution of underground comix changed through the emergence of specialty stores.[2]
In response to attempts by mainstream publishers to appeal to adult audiences,alternative comics emerged, focusing on many of the same themes as underground comix, as well as publishing experimental work.[27] Artists formally in the underground comix scene began to associate themselves with alternative comics, including Crumb, Deitch, Griffith,Lynda Barry, andJustin Green.[27]
In the 1980s, sexual comics came into prominence, integrating sex into storylines rather than utilizing sexual explicitness for shock value.[27] The first of these features wasOmaha the Cat Dancer, which made its first appearance in an issue of thezineVootie. Inspired byFritz the Cat,Omaha the Cat Dancer focused on ananthropomorphic feline stripper.[28] Other comix with a sexual focus includedMelody, based on the life story ofSylvie Rancourt andCherry, a comedic sex comic featuring art similar in style to that ofArchie Comics.[27][28]
In 1985, Griffith's comic stripZippy the Pinhead — which originally appeared in underground titles — was syndicated as a daily feature byKing Features.[2] Between 1980 and 1991 Spiegelman's graphic novelMaus was serialized inRaw, and published in two volumes in 1986 and 1991. It was followed by an exhibition at theMuseum of Modern Art and aPulitzer Prize for Spiegelman in 1992. The novel originated from a three-page story first published in an underground comic,Funny Aminals [sic], (Apex Novelties, 1972).[2]
Alternative cartoonistPeter Bagge was strongly influenced by underground comics,[27] and was reciprocally admired by Crumb, for whom Bagge editedWeirdo magazine in the 1980s; he could be considered part of a "second generation" of underground-type cartoonists, including such notables asMike Diana,Johnny Ryan,Bob Fingerman,David Heatley,Danny Hellman,Julie Doucet,Jim Woodring,Ivan Brunetti,Gary Leib,Doug Allen, andEd Piskor. Many of these artists were published byFantagraphics Books, which was founded in 1977 and through the 1980s and '90s became a major publisher of alternative and underground cartoonists' work.
As of the 2010s, reprints of early underground comix continue to sell alongside modern underground publications.[2]
The 2010sForeskin Man, a comic book published to protest againstcircumcision, has been referred to as "comix" by some reviewers.[29]
British cartoonists were introduced in the underground publicationsInternational Times (IT), founded in 1966, andOz founded in 1967, which reprinted some American material.[1] During a visit to London, American comics artistLarry Hama created original material forIT.[30]
The first UK comix mag wasCyclops, started in July 1970 byIT staff members. In a bid to alleviate its ongoing financial problems,IT brought outNasty Tales (1971), which was soon prosecuted for obscenity. Despite appearing before the censoriousOld Bailey JudgeAlan King-Hamilton, the publishers were acquitted by the jury.[31][32]
In the wake of its own high-profile obscenity trial,Oz launchedcOZmic Comics in 1972, printing a mixture of new British underground strips and old American work. WhenOz closed down the following yearcOZmic Comics was continued by fledgling media tycoonFelix Dennis and his company, Cozmic Comics/H. Bunch Associates, which published from 1972 to 1975.[33]
While the American underground comix scene was beginning to decline, the British scene came into prominence between 1973 and 1974, but soon faced the same kind of criticism that American underground comix received.[1] UK-based underground cartoonists included Chris Welch,Edward Barker,Michael J. Weller, Malcolm Livingstone, William Rankin (aka Wyndham Raine),Dave Gibbons, Joe Petagno,Bryan Talbot, and the team of Martin Sudden,Jay Jeff Jones andBrian Bolland.[1]
The last UK underground comix series of note wasBrainstorm Comix (1975–1978), which featured only original British strips (mostly byBryan Talbot).
Hassle Free Press was founded in London in 1975 by Tony and Carol Bennett as a publisher and distributor of underground books and comics. Now known asKnockabout Comics, the company has a long-standing relationship with underground comix pioneersGilbert Shelton andRobert Crumb, as well as British creators likeHunt Emerson andBryan Talbot. Knockabout has frequently suffered from prosecutions from UK customs, who have seized work by creators such as Crumb andMelinda Gebbie, claiming it to be obscene.[34][35]
The 1990s witnessed a renaissance in the genre in theUnited Kingdom, through titles likeBrain Damage,Viz, and others.
After the death ofKing Features Syndicate editorJay Kennedy, his personal underground comix collection was acquired by theBilly Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Ohio.
TheUniversity of California, Berkeley'sBancroft Library has a large underground comix collection, especially related to Bay Area publications; much of it was built by a deposit account atGary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Store. The collection also includes titles from New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
TheRhode Island School of Design's Fleet Library acquired a thousand-item collection of underground comix through a donation byBill Adler in 2021.[36]
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