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Redartz: One book that really served to educate me early on about the comics industry and all it's variations was Les Daniels' "Comix: A History of Comic Books in America". Published in 1971, it was fairly current in 1974 when I got into comics seriously. Although the chapters on humor, funny animals, Marvel and DC were familiar territory for the burgeoning reader in me, the chapter on Underground Comix (spelled with an 'x' to differentiate from mainstream comics) was a real eye-opener.
Aline Kominsky, Spiegelman and Griffith.
Bill Griffith was the man behind "Zippy the Pinhead", a very odd book that I found irresistable. Another book he produced was "Griffith Observatory", a heavily satiric, critical eye on American society of the late 1970's.
Art Spiegelman, among many other things, gave us the monumental graphic series (and later novel) "Maus". And to this day, "Maus" remains the most powerful, most gut-wrenching, most impactful comic I've ever read.
Therefore, this week, let's join the Underground. Whether it was Crumb's "Zap", or Howard Cruse's "Barefootz", what comics (comix) did you get a kick out of? Did you risk your parents' disapproval by indulging in a few Undergrounds? Did you follow any of the 80's indies? Could "The Walking Dead" exist without the ground being broken by Kitchen Sink's "Death Rattle"? It's all on the table, all that edgy, risky, 'hide it from Mom and Dad' stuff...
11 comments:
I haven't read too many Indie comics; I was pretty much always a Marvel/DC guy. I have read Jon Sable (which was great) ... does that count as Indie? I liked the original Rocketeer stuff too, and Ron Randall's Trekker is still going strong.
I keep meaning to check out stuff like American Flagg, Love and Rockets, or Grimjack, but I've never gotten around to it.
I too first ‘discovered’ Underground’s via the chapter in Les Daniels’ book. The Spain Rodriguez stuff looked kinda interesting to me (it looked the most ‘Mainstream’) but the rest of it seemed too crudely drawn, so I didn’t pay much attention. Soon after that, I saw a trade paperback collection of Underground comics at Walden Books — it might have been the SLOW DEATH anthology? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND COMICS, which seemed to be pretty widely available for years. Anyhow, whatever it was, I flipped through it, was a bit taken aback at the hardcore nature of the comics, quickly put it back on the shelf and walked away, certain that I was going to get into some kind of trouble for looking at such stuff!
Sometime after that, a head shop popped up in the commercial space next to one of the Liquor stores in town where I bought comics. I was naive enough to not have ANY idea what kinds of things were on sale within, but from the sidewalk outside, I could see that there was a small magazine rack that appeared to have some comics on it. That’s all it took to lure me into the store.
Among the comics on that magazine rack was a copy of ZAP #4, with Crumb’s infamous ‘Joe Blow’ story. Let’s just say, ‘WOW.’ Looking back, I’m amazed the guy behind the counter actually let 14-year-old Me buy that comic….
I never got into Undergrounds all that much. I liked certain artists — Dave Sheridan, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Spain Rodriguez, Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch. I found S. Clay Wilson’s stuff utterly repellent and vile. I kinda got tired of Crumb after awhile. Even within the ‘Outlaw Comix’ realm, my tastes have always tended to run toward more Mainstream and Genre themes. I’ve got near complete runs of books like COMMIES FROM MARS, DEATH RATTLE, SKULL, SLOW DEATH — much fewer issues of ZAP, BIJOU, SNARF, etc.
Later, when the Undergrounds transitioned into Indie or Alternative Comics, i bought WEIRDO pretty regularly, dug LOVE AND ROCKETS and Peter Bagge’s HATE!
It’s funny, i liked LLOYD LLEWELLYN a lot too, but never really got into Clowes’ more ‘serious’ work. Likewise, I loved Chester Brown’s early YUMMY FUR when it was more Surrealist/Horror/Sci-Fi/Satiric, but started to lose interest when it became autobiographical and navel-gaze-y.
b.t.
Charlie feels bad saying this but he never read an Underground.
I do recall glancing at a few Freak Bros or such at the local record store which was 1/2 head shop (as in weed, lol).
I do appreciate your review though Red!
The only underground I guess I've read was Maus and I was in my late 20's when I found it. It was pretty hard-hitting and one of the best comics I've ever read.
I am familiar with R Crumb, mainly from his card sets Heroes of the Blues, Jazz, and Country Music. I got the Blues set about thirty years ago. I also found a story he wrote and drew about blues legend Charley Patton that was very good.
I got into Undergrounds comics through local independent record shops in Glasgow and the surrounding towns back in the mid to late 1970s. At that time with Punk, Bowie, New wave music being very popular these stores carried quite a few undergrounds (and/or alternative) comics and counter culture books etc. The first ones I read were the very funny Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers , Fat Freddy’s Cat and Wonder Warthog comics by Gilbert Sheldon. From there I picked up the odd Robert Crumb comic (based on the then popular Fritz the Cat film) but was never really a big fan of his style (although his blues books are lovely pieces of art as Graham notes).
My favourite underground work was anything by the great Vaughn Bode especially his Cheech Wizard comics (which I still have and read at times in some form). In the UK I was (and still am) a fan of anything by Hunt Emerson who was very active in the underground comics scene in the early 70s and was by far the best and funniest artist of this genre (imo at least). There was also a Scottish underground SF comic called “Near Myths” that was influential as it had early work by the likes of Grant Morrison and Brain Talbot. Marvel even tried there hand at produced an underground comic/mag in the 1970s (called Comix Book) which wasn't great but I still bought it !
I still pick up the occasional issue of Love and Rockets when I see it on sale and other indie comics from the 80s indie explosion that are still going strong.
Mike W- Rocketeer was top notch reading! Dave Stevens, a phenomenal artist. Those stories are like a 'how to' exercise in visual storytelling. And Sable certainly counts as an Indie. I've meant to give that a look for years. First Comics had a solid lineup in the mid 80's, with Mars, E-Man, and American Flagg...
B.t.- your youthful impressions of undergounds mirrors my own. Some of the rendering was a bit off-putting, and the subject matter was quite a departure for someone used to the G-rated publications of mainstream comics.
Graham and McScotty- those Crumb Blues cards were impressive indeed. He did an occasional blues story in Arcade, if memory serves.
And regarding Marvel's "Comix Book", I always wondered what it was like. McScotty, you're the first person I've encountered who actually read it. Was it at all comparable to their later effort with "Epic "?
Red: Comix Book had its moments, some nice art by Basil Wolverton , Skip Williamson, John Pound even Scott Shaw and lots of Howard Cruis Barefootz strips but I felt it was more like a punk version of Mad than a true underground. For me at least it was Like Epic in that it looked the part but didn't quite work. Saying that I only had issues 1 and 3 ( out of 5).
Paul, Hunt Emerson's work appears every month in 'Fortean Times' magazine on the page entitled 'Phenomenomix' - I agree it's very funny!
Yeah it's a good strip isn't it Colin I pick FT up now and then mostly for Hunts strip.
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