McCleary, John Bassett. Hippipe Dictionary. A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s.Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. 2004. Print.
681
Comix and Underground Cartoon Strips of the Era
Abortion Even (1973)
All Girl Thrills (1972)
A Teen Abortion
*Big Ass comics – Rip Off Press, R. Crumb
Bijou Funnies
Book of Raziel
*Come Out Comix (1973) Mary Wings (the 1st lesbian comic book)
Dyke Shorts
Eternal Comics
Everyman Comics (1979)
Fat Freddy’s Cat Comix
Fed ‘n’ Heads
Gay Comix
Insect Fear; It Ain’t me, Babe (an all woman’s comic – 1972)
Mod Love
Moondog #1 – 4
*Mr. Natural – Apex Novelties / Kitchen Sink Enterprises, R. Crumb
Pandora’s Box
Pudge, Girl Blimp
Snarf
*Snatch Comics – R. Crumb
Tales of the Sphinx
Tits ‘n’ Clits
Truckin’ #1 and #2
Wet Satin (Women’s Erotic Fantasies)
Wimmen’s Comix
Young Lust
*Zap Comix – R. Crumb
Comix Artists, Writers, and Producers of the Era
R. Crumb – (artists/writer) Mr. Natural, Eggs Ackley, Vulture Demonesses, Johnny Fuckerfaster and Valerie the Vegetarian
(BY: Stanley Wiater and Stephen R. Bissette) Comic Book Rebels. Conversations with the Creators of the New Comics. New York: Donald I. Fine, INC. 1993. Print.
Intro
Comix Code Authority - formed Oct. 1954 – “monitor and enforce the industry-wide self-censorship of the medium”
“Everything changed in the late sixties, as the underground “commix” (an adaptive monicker adopted by the movement to differentiate their comic books from the mainstream industry product) revolutionized the medium by understanding the vitality and accessibility of the art form.
“Reflecting the youth counterculture they grew out of, commix creators shared an urgent belief that the existing systems of power, whether social, political, religious, or interpersonal, had to be deconstructed in order to build a better world.
“Jack Kirby had practically invented the vocabulary of the American comic book, and in doing so laid the foundations for the mighty Marvel Comics empire/the first prominent mainstream creator to work with the new “independent” publishers of the direct-sales market.
“dominate industry powers, which remain predominantly white, male, and heterosexual
“Though their importance as an artistic movement within the scope of the Sixties counterculture should NOT be minimized, the undergrounds were, in part, an attack upon the restrictions of the comic book industry as it existed up to the Sixties. …It was not until the evolving direct-sales comic book maret spawned the “independent’ publishers of the early Eighties that the alternative publishing methods had a direct impact upon mainstream comics publishers in their own backyard.
“Inspired by the example of the AMer underground comix movementand eager to explore the potential of the medium, a group of French and Belgian cartoonists rallied their considerable powers in the mid-Seventies to form a coalition and self-publish their own work.
Responsibilities of self-publishing
Will Eisner – “There isn’t a major superhero that has survived through today that is still being done by its originator.”
“For many creators, the medium itself is the message. Comics harbor possibilities enough for any creator to explore in a lifetime-knowing he or she will only, at best, scratch the surface of the art form’s potential.
10
Scott McCloud – “One of our very first tasks is to convince the public that comics is not a genre, it is a medium. B/c comics has been traditionally seen as a subset of two very different art forms-of writing and the graphic arts-and not as an art form in itself.
11
Primary producers of comics: Japanese market, the European market, and the American market
Relation of each market to each other (what they have to offer)
12
“McCloud: The vocabulary of comics is any element in the great universe of visual iconography: that includes pictures, words, symbols. Any of the icons that have been invented for comics, such as he panel border and the word balloon. (continues to describe)
31
‘The revolutionary underground comix movement of the Sixties and Seventies forever changed the medium. Exploding from the youth counterculture that spawned them, the undergrounds reveled in an uninhibited torrent of concepts, stories, and imagery that flowed from the minds and pens of creators like Robert Crumb, S.Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Vaughn Bode, Greg Irons, Richard Corben ,the Air Pirates, to name just some of the most outrageous.
(influences – even including Surrealists and Dadaists), the comix creators totally exposed the raw potential of an art form which had strained for far too long beneath the constraints of the established comic book industry.
“Here all taboos were gleefully broken, explored, exploited, and satirized. There were no boundaries save those of the cartoonists’ imaginations and the cost of the ink and paper. In the undergrounds, no subject was sacred or immune from examination.
32
Humor college magazines
“historians now consider The Adventures of Jesus to be the very first underground comix”
(Jackson’s response) NOTHING!!
God Nose (1964) one of the earliest undergrounds
37 – Jackson
“No, the ‘comix’ as such were out of the tail end of the rock poster trip.
“We’re just doing the art because it’s great to do, man, not to get rich.”
Poster producers turning to comix
Mention of Crumb and his Zap
“… in a sense it was a natural setup, you see, because the market already existed for the posters in the head shops. So the rock posters laid the groundwork which enabled us to publish the underground comix. The distribution system and printers were already in place; we didn’t have to start from scratch. And since none of the mainstream distributors would touch this outrageous material, it was really essential that we had that “underground” system.
38 – J
“We never felt like we were reaching a sizable audience. The comix were for aficionados and dopers and whatnot from the beginning. We were just entertaining our friends, so to speak.
“Basically we were just trying to have some fun, and avoid having to work a straight job.
Slow Death (1970 – 1970) content
40 – CBR
You were one of the first underground artists to adapt the stories of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. How influential were those pulpmasters from the 1930s to your work?
41
(“the Movement” running its course)
Jackson: “ I think it was around 1973, when Stanley Mouse…We knew that the end had come when one of the hardcore, cutting-edge artists suddenly goes straight on us, appearancewise.
“But the scen itself started getting real ugly and nasty at that point in the mid-Seventies.
“Just remember that comix were just a reflection of the larger scene; so it’s hard to talk about the undergrounds without talking about the social turmoil that was going on simultaneously.
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