Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States and in the United 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 the counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary 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 with alternative comics.
History United States The United States underground comics scene emerged in the 1960s, focusing on subjects dear to the counterculture: recreational drug use, politics, rock music, and free love. The underground comix scene had its strongest success in the United States between 1968 and 1975, with titles initially distributed primarily through head shops. Underground comix often featured covers intended to appeal to the drug culture, and imitated LSD-inspired posters to increase sales.
These titles were termed "comix" in order to differentiate them from mainstream publications. The "X" also emphasized the X-rated contents of the publications. Many of the common aspects of the underground comix scene were in response to the strong restrictions forced upon mainstream publications by the Comics 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. 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".
Antecedents Between the late 1920s and late 1940s, anonymous underground artists produced counterfeit pornographic comic books featuring unauthorized depictions of popular comic strip characters engaging in sexual activities. Often referred to as Tijuana bibles, these books are often considered the predecessors of the underground comix scene.Les Daniels, Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, 1971, chapter 8
American comix were strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics and especially magazines edited by Harvey Kurtzman, including Mad (which first appeared in 1952). Kurtzman's Help! 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 and Gilbert Shelton. Other artists published work in college magazines before becoming known in the underground scene.
1962–1968: Early history 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 was Frank Stack's (under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon) The Adventures of Jesus, begun in 1962 and compiled in photocopied zine form by Gilbert Shelton in 1964. It has been credited as the first underground comic. Shelton's own Wonder Wart-Hog appeared in the college humor magazine Bacchanal #1-2 in 1962. Jack Jackson's God Nose, published in Texas in 1964,Booke, Keith M. 2010, Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels, ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara, CAMaurice Horn. ed., The World Encyclopedia of Comics, 1976, Robert Crumb has also been given that title. One guide lists two other underground comix from that year, Vaughn Bodē's Das Kampf and Charles Plymell's Robert Ronnie Branaman.Kennedy, Jay. The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide. Boatner Norton Press, 1982.
Joel Beck began contributing a full-page comic each week to the underground newspaper the Berkeley Barb and his full-length comic Lenny of Laredo was published in 1965."Joel Beck: Underground comic artist", San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 1999 Another underground paper, the East Village Other, was an important precursor to the underground comix movement, featuring comic strips by artists including Crumb, Shelton, Kim Deitch, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, and Art Spiegelman before true underground comix emerged from San Francisco with the first issue of Zap 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 the East Village Other, the Berkeley Barb, and Yarrowstalks.
1968–1972: Underground's "Golden Age" In February 1968, in San Francisco, Robert Crumb published (with the help of poet Charles Plymell and Don Donahue of Apex Novelties)Zap Comix entry at the Grand Comics Database. Accessed October 27, 2009. 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 — including S. Clay Wilson, Robert Williams, Spain Rodriguez, and Gilbert Shelton — and Crumb launched a series of solo titles, including Despair, Uneeda (both published by Print Mint in 1969), Big Ass Comics, R. Crumb's Comics and Stories, Motor City Comics (all published by Rip Off Press in 1969), Home Grown Funnies (Kitchen Sink Press, 1971) and Hytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971), in addition to founding the pornographic anthologies Jiz and Snatch (both Apex Novelties, 1969).
The San Francisco Bay Area was an epicenter of the underground comix movement; Crumb and many other underground cartoonists lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in the mid-to-late 1960s.Lopes, Paul. Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book (Temple University Press, 2009), p. 77. Just as importantly, the major underground publishers were all based in the area: Don Donahue's Apex Novelties, Gary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Company, and Rip Off Press were all headquartered in the city, with Ron Turner's Last Gasp and the Print Mint based in Berkeley.Levin, Bob. The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against The Underground (Fantagraphics Books, 2003), p. 41. 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 the Corcoran Gallery of Art staged an exhibition, The Phonus Balonus Show (May 20-June 15, 1969). Curated by Bhob Stewart for famed museum director Walter Hopps, it included work by Crumb, Shelton, Vaughn Bodē, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch and others.Corcoran Gallery of Art Exhibitions Richard, Paul. "Walter Hopps, Museum Man with a Talent for Talent". Washington Post, March 22, 2005.
Crumb's best known underground features included Whiteman, Angelfood McSpade, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural. Crumb also drew himself as a character, caricaturing himself as a self-loathing, sex-obsessed intellectual. 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?" Because of his popularity, many underground cartoonists tried to imitate Crumb's work. While Zap was the best-known anthology of the scene, other anthologies appeared, including Bijou Funnies, a Chicago publication edited by Jay Lynch and heavily influenced by Mad. The San Francisco anthology Young Lust (Company & Sons, 1970), which parodied the 1950s romance genre, featured works by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman. Another anthology, Bizarre Sex (Kitchen Sink, 1972), was influenced by science fiction comics and included art by Denis Kitchen and Richard "Grass" Green, one of the few African-American comix creators.
Other important underground cartoonists of the era included Shelton, Wilson, Deitch, Rodriguez, Skip Williamson, Rick Griffin, George Metzger, and Victor Moscoso. Shelton became famous for his characters Wonder Wart-Hog, a superhero parody, and The 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-published Feds 'N' Heads in 1968. Wilson's work is permeated by shocking violence and ugly sex; he contributed to Zap and created the infamous The Checkered Demon, 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 the East Village Other before becoming known within underground comix for Trashman and his solo titles Zodiac Mindwarp and Subvert. Williamson created his character Snappy Sammy Smoot, appearing in several titles.
Underground horror comics also became popular, with titles such as Skull (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) and Two Fisted Zombies (Last Gasp, 1973). Many of these were strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics like Tales from the Crypt.
The male-dominated scene produced many blatantly misogynistic works, but female underground cartoonists made strong marks as well. Edited by Trina Robbins, It Ain't Me, Babe, published by Last Gasp in 1970, was the first all-female underground comic; followed in 1972 by Wimmen's Comix (Last Gasp), an anthology series founded by cartoonist that featured (among others) Melinda Gebbie, Lynda Barry, Aline Kominsky, and Shary Flenniken. Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli's Tits & Clits Comix all-female anthology debuted in 1972 as well.
1972–1975: Controversy and recognition By 1972–1973, the city's Mission District was "underground headquarters": living and operating out of The Mission in that period were Gary 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 and Art Spiegelman.Kinney, Jay. "The Rise and Fall of Underground Comix in San Francisco and Beyond" from Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78 (City Lights Foundation, 2011), edited by Chris Carlsson.
Mainstream publications such as Playboy and National Lampoon began to publish comics and art similar to that of underground comix. The underground movement also prompted older professional comic book artists to try their hand in the alternate press. Wally Wood published witzend in 1966, soon passing the title on to artist-editor Bill Pearson. In 1969, Wood created Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, intended for distribution to armed forces bases. Steve Ditko gave full vent to his Ayn Rand-inspired philosophy in Mr. A and Avenging World (1973). In 1975, Flo Steinberg, Stan Lee's former secretary at Marvel Comics, published Big Apple Comix, featuring underground work by ostensibly "mainstream" artists she knew from Marvel.