Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Underground comix

 
Wikipedia: Underground comix
 
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
"comix" redirects here. For the image viewer, see Comix (software).
"underground comics" redirects here. For the Marvel Comics group, see Underground (comics). For the DC Comics series, see Gotham Underground.
Mr. Natural in Zap Comix

Underground comics (or comix) are small press or self-published comic books that began to appear in the US in the late 1960s, closely associated with the underground press and the burgeoning hippie counterculture of the time. The largest center of the comix community was San Francisco, but the movement also included artists and publishers in New York, Chicago, Austin, Texas and Vancouver, Canada. Prominent artists associated with this movement, many of whom also acted as editors or publishers, include Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Rick Griffin, Jay Lynch, Dan O'Neill, Trina Robbins, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Larry Welz, Robert Williams, and S. Clay Wilson.

Contents

History and themes

Underground comix reflect the concerns of the 1960s counterculture: experimentation in all things, drug-altered states of mind, rejection of sexual taboos, and 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 (including a writer, a penciler, an inker, a letterer, and an 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.

The underground comics movement also helped to inspire the punk rock movement. John Holmstrom, who started Punk magazine, met Griffith at a comics class taught by Harvey Kurtzman and started his influential fanzine as a result of their correspondence. Holmstrom also published work by R. Crumb and Bobby London in Punk magazine.

Notable underground comics

Publishers

See also

References

Further reading

  • 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
  • Skinn, Dez Comix: The Underground Revolution, (Collins & Brown, 2004)
  • Sabin, Roger Comix, Comics and Graphic Novels, (Phaidon, 2001)
  • Estren, Mark James A History of Underground Comics, (Straight Arrow Books/Simon and Schuster, 1974)
  • Mineshaft Magazine. edited by Everett Rand and Gioia Palmieri, Durham, N.C. 1999-present. Logos by R. Crumb. Publishes Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky Crumb, Kim Deitch, Mary Fleener, Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, Simon Deitch, Frank Stack, Spain, Robert Armstrong, Aaron Lange, Ed Piskor, Sophie Crumb and other underground comix artists. ISSN# 1532-138X.

External links

v • d • e
Comics around the world
Americas
Asia
Europe
Oceania

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a word or phrase...
All Community Q&A Reference topics

 
 
 

 

Copyrights:

Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Underground comix".  Read more

Related answers
» More
 
Answer these
» More

Mentioned in

» More» More