UNDERGROUND COMIX

'Underground comics' (or 'comix') are small press or self-published comic books that began to appear in the US in the late 1960s. The comix community was centered in San Francisco, but also included important artists and publishers in New York, Chicago and Austin, Texas. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Jim Franklin, Justin Green, Rick Griffin, Bill Griffith, Jack "Jaxon" Jackson, Jay Kinney, Jay Lynch, Dan O'Neill, Ted Richards, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Foolbert Sturgeon, Robert Williams, Skip Williamson and S. Clay Wilson.
Underground comix reflect the concerns of the 1960s counterculture: experimentation in all things, drug-altered states of mind, rejection of sexual taboos, ridicule of "the establishment." The spelling 'comix' was established to differentiate these publications from mainstream 'comics'. The notion of comic books outside the mainstream was suggested by Harvey Kurtzman when he used the headline "Comics Go Underground" on the newspaper-format cover of ''Mad'' issue 16 (October, 1954). The term 'underground comics' was created by writer-editor Bhob Stewart during a panel discussion at the July 23, 1966, New York comics convention. On a panel with Ted White and Archie Goodwin, Stewart predicted the birth of a new type of comic book: "I want to say that just as mainstream movies prompted underground films, I think the same thing is going to happen with comics. You will have underground comics just as you have had underground films. This would be more like James Joyce in comic book form. You can see the beginning of this in some of the cartoon panels that have been appearing in the ''East Village Other''."
Mainstream comics are typically produced by a team (writer, penciler, inker, letterer, editor), while underground books were often done by a single person. As it can take very long for a single artist to produce a full-length work, many underground artists contributed shorter works to anthology comic titles. A well-known example is the comic ''Funny Aminals'' (1972), edited by Terry Zwigoff with short pieces by Crumb, Griffith, Lynch, Spiegelman and Shary Flenniken.
Underground comix were largely distributed though a network of head shops which also sold underground newspapers, psychedelic posters, and drug paraphernalia. In the mid-1970s, sales of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up. Although many of the underground artists continued to produce work, the underground comix movement is considered by most historians to have ended by 1980, to be replaced by a rise in independent, non-Comics Code compliant publishing companies in the 1980s and the resulting increase in acceptance of adult-oriented comic books (see alternative comics).
The most popular underground comics have been reprinted many times and can be obtained relatively easily. Many other comix were produced in a single, small print run, and are now rare. Records of comix produced are less complete than those for mainstream comics. A 1982 book, ''The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide'' by Jay Kennedy, is one of only a few relatively complete and authoritative reference works on comix. A small but growing number of university libraries have comics collections, in which underground comics often play a key role.
The term "underground comics" is sometimes used more loosely to also include some contemporary alternative comics.

Contents

Notable underground comix

Publishers

Further reading

References

See also

Listen to

External links

Notable underground comix

★ ''Air Pirates Funnies'' (Dan O'Neill, others. Sparked a famous copyright lawsuit from Disney)

★ ''Anarchy Comics'' (political comic edited by Jay Kinney)

★ ''Arcade'' (anthology edited by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman)

★ ''Bijou Funnies'' (Chicago-based anthology, Jay Lynch and others)

★ ''Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary'' (Justin Green)

★ ''Bogeyman'' (Rory Hayes and others)

★ ''Cheech Wizard (Vaughn Bode)

★ ''Comix Book'' - Marvel Comics attempt at mainstream underground comics

★ ''Coochie Cootie's Men's Comics'' (Robert Williams)

★ ''Corn Fed'' (Kim Deitch)

★ ''Dopin' Dan'' (Ted Richards)

★ ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' (Gilbert Shelton)

★ ''God Nose'' (Jaxon) considered by many to be the first underground comic

★ ''Gothic Blimp Works'' - anthology produced by the East Village Other newspaper

★ ''Hytone'', ''Despair'', ''Big Ass,'' ''XYZ'' (Robert Crumb)

★ ''It Ain't Me Babe'' (anthology edited by Trina Robbins)

★ ''Skull Comix'' (EC style horror comix edited by Greg Irons)

★ ''Tales from the Tube'' (Rick Griffin)

★ ''Wimmen's Comix'' (anthology edited by the Wimmen's Comix Collective)

★ ''Witzend'' (edited by Wallace Wood and Bill Pearson)

★ ''Young Lust'' (romance comic satire edited by Jay Kinney)

★ ''Zap Comix'' (Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Robert Williams, Victor Moscoso)

Publishers

★ Print Mint

★ Rip Off Press

★ Last Gasp

★ Kitchen Sink

Further reading

★ Kennedy, Jay. ''The Underground Comix Guide''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Boatner Norton Press, 1982.

★ Rosenkranz, Patrick. ''Rebel Visions: the Underground Comix Revolution,1963-1975'' Fantagraphics Books, 2002. ISBN 1-56097-464-8

★ Tucker, Brian. X-Tra: "The Legacy of Underground Comix," review of ''Rebel Visions''

References

''A History of Underground Comics'', Mark James Estren (Straight Arrow Books/Simon and Schuster, 1974)
''Comix, Comics and Graphic Novels'', Roger Sabin (Phaidon, 2001)
''Comix: The Underground Revolution'', Dez Skinn (Collins & Brown, 2004)

See also

★ Help! (magazine)

★ Tijuana bible

Listen to

★ 1991 audio interview with Art Spiegelman by Don Swaim

External links

★ Quarter Bin: Underground comics

★ "A Visual Guide to Underground Comix Reprints" - A guide to distinguish reprints.

★ Robert Crumb official site

★ Comic Strip Search