Underground Comix

UNDERGROUND COMIX. Called “underground” because of their links with the “underground newspapers” of the late 1960s, and spelled “comix” to distinguish them from mainstream comic books and newspaper comic strips, this expression of dissenting ideas and new comic art forms remains sui generis. While they rose and fell with the counterculture, underground comix changed, in lasting ways, ideas about what comic art and a comic book could be. In that sense, they also made possible the emergence of Graphic Novels in the twenty-first century, and new uses of comic art in many venues, from stand-alone stories in the New York Times to the use of comics in all levels of education.

Underground comix have been remembered by cultural historians as an important, artistically innovative movement. Noticeable was the works of R. Crumb, whom the fine arts world has embraced, but also of Art Spiegelman, whose art and influence would do much to define the next stages and enhance the reputation of comics as a legitimate art form. At the same time, and partly as a backlash against mostly unsought respectability, some critics have strongly insisted that readers should not be expected to applaud a movement that published, even if it did not actually encourage, images of racial and, especially, gender relations considered unacceptable.

The underground comix genre flourished thanks to another remarkable innovation: the local underground newspaper, which reached tens of thousands of readers across the country by 1970. Reprinted and circulated widely as the local newspapers exchanged copy with each other, single strips fostered a sizable audience for the new comic art. A handful of artists had meanwhile designed posters for the emerging psychedelic music scene. Comix appeared as staples and mostly twenty-four page printed “books” in the new “head shops” that also marketed rock concert posters, handicrafts, and drug paraphernalia. The special popularity of Gilbert Shelton’s “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers,” hippie characters taken from real life Austin, Texas, and collected in a series of volumes, spurred the sales of other books in the United States and later, across Western Europe.

All this, including a certain disreputability, owed more than a little to the history of comics, and arguably most of all to artist Harvey Kurtzman, the creator and editor of Mad Magazine. Unsuccessful in publishing several satire magazines after leaving Mad in 1955, Kurtzman remained interested in younger artists and by 1960 had become a formal and informal mentor to the emerging rebellious artists. Help! Magazine (1960-65), his final newsstand entry, published several founders of underground comix, and these artists themselves, including Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman and Spain Rodriguez, made their way to his home in Mt. Vernon, New York.

Comix artists had grown up as comic readers of EC and Kurtzman’s work in particular. The manic social criticism in Mad Comics (1952-55), including attacks on McCarthyism, censorship, militarization of popular culture in peacetime and consumerism at large, had anticipated the underground comix in themes and styles. EC Comics, the mother ship of Mad, published remarkably antiwar “war comics,” some drawn by Kurtzman himself, Science Fiction comics warning against atomic war, and even stories dramatizing the very real American horrors of racial discrimination and lynching. More than a few underground comix artists regarded their work as vindicating comic themes and styles effectively suppressed by the middle 1950s.

A feature 1965 piece in Help! by young artist Robert Crumb, paid by Kurtzman to a draw sketches of gloomy and weird Bulgaria on location, proved to be the major debut of the artist who would play the largest role in the undergrounds. Zap Comix #1, entirely drawn by “R. Crumb” and published in February 1968, may have opened the floodgates by showing that a comic book produced independently could become popular. Gilbert Shelton’s Feds ’n’ Heads, published a few months later, similarly addressed young people who were experimenting with marijuana and LSD, providing them with stories and art at once humorous, supportive and informed by experience. These two books helped the comix find (and win the loyalty of) its core audience. Two years later, Head Comix, released as a hardback with art entirely by Crumb, demonstrated that the new comic art had also found a corner of the commercial book world.

The political Left entered the genre at its founding. One of the very first comix, Radical America Komiks, was published in 1969 as a special issue of Radical America, a journal associated with the Students for a Democratic Society. (At the time of publication, the term “comix” had not yet been firmly established.) During that year, Radical America founder/editor Paul Buhle also delivered the first substantial essay on the emerging field, “Komix Kountermedia,” in the new left magazine Leviathan. He argued that the rebellious art served “to destroy an old view of the world and replace it with a new one, politically as well as artistically.”

The comix produced in the next several years described a mainstream society sleepwalking toward global environmental disaster and nuclear war. The feeling of urgent danger reinforced more utopian desires to “drop out” and to create and to rediscover alternatives of all kinds. Comix historians, focusing on sex and drugs, have mostly missed the political side of the work. By contrast to the fantasies in mainstream comics in which superheroes prevented nuclear holocausts, the images of horror in underground comix offered their readers no reassurances other than the evidence that someone else shared their fears. Unlike mainstream comic books, self-censored since 1954 by the Comics Code, the undergrounds flaunted sex. This freedom attracted young artists who sought to explore the untapped artistic possibilities of the medium.

A wide range of art styles quickly emerged, from the unique work of poster artists Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso to the determinedly “low” art of representational painter and hot-rod magazine illustrator, Robert Williams, to the “action’ comics of Spain Rodriguez, with his leftwing interpretations of war comics. Other outstanding early artists included Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch, Sharon Kahn Rudahl, Jack Jaxon, Willy Murphy, Ted Richards and Dan O’Neill, some trained in art schools, others self-taught.

Unlike mainstream comic books, underground comix took the form of anthologies in which each story was written, drawn, and lettered by one person working without collaborators. The overwhelming majority were published in black and white, with color covers on coated stock, with a minimum press run of 10,000 copies. Publishers, essentially small businesses, emerged mainly in the Bay Area, representing a considerable break from the traditional East Coast home of comic book production. Unlike mainstream comic books, comix did not appear on any regular schedule.

Crumb was at once massively talented, utterly unique, and, for some readers, unbearable. He assaulted the repressed and hypocritical American business culture and poured out his fantasy life—much of which centered on his desire to dominate strong women—largely unfiltered, onto the published page. He conducted this experiment without regard for readers’ own sensibilities. Crumb’s willingness to express what previously had been unspeakable also inspired the first of the full-scale autobiographical comic art experiments: Justin Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary (1972), an adolescent’s journey into religious obsession. Crumb’s friend and sometime collaborator Harvey Pekar later became the outstanding proponent of autobiographical comics through his series American Splendor (1976-2008) and, much later, the award-winning biopic film, also named American Splendor (2002). The autobiography, even somewhat fictionalized, informed the popular and prize-winning work of Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel among others.

Trina Robbins, through her editorial work, brought about a distinct women’s comix series and encouraged the work of many other women artists. She rightly protested the refusal of the first inner circle underground artists in the Bay Area to condemn the prominent and violent misogyny that ran through their work. Impelled by their own collective creativity, women artists produced collections beginning with It Ain’t Me Babe (1972), leading to Wimmin’s Comix (1972–1985) and also encouraged Tits and Clits (1972–1987). Among the dozens of women cartoonists who contributed to anthology comix, some also created entire issues of underground comix (“solo books”) of their own, including Trina Robbins, Sharon Rudahl, Roberta Gregory, Mary Wings, Lee Marrs, Melinda Gebbie, Dori Seda, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Diane Noomin (aka Newman). It is notable that Young Lust comics (1978-93), edited by Jay Kinney and Bill Griffith, came to be a show-place for feminist artists as Phoebe Gloeckner, who ridiculed sexual norms but also dealt with the multiple crises of vulnerable young women facing difficult choices.

At a time when only EC comics veteran Marie Severin was working as an artist in the otherwise male-only mainstream industry, underground comix opened new possibilities for women artists. Belatedly, the rising feminist bookstore network of the 1970s-90s offered readers unique feminist comix works. There, the comix joined children’s and young people’s books, the traditional domain of women artists.

Few non-white artists, by contrast, emerged until the 1980s-90s, when paperback formats found specialty readerships. Larry Fuller’s Ebon, the first black superhero to star in his own book (January, 1970), failed to reach its intended audience of black children through distribution channels that mostly served white adults, and failed to win him a job drawing a Marvel or DC superhero comic. (The first black hero to star in his own mainstream comic book series, Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, appeared in 1972.) Fuller later went on to create the transgressive underground comic White Whore Funnies (1975, 1978, 1979.) Milton Knight and a handful of other artists published or self-published solo comics, but more often found work in animation studios.

Explicit, didactic leftwing artists were less rare. Spain Rodriguez, a Marxist of sorts, created “Trashman: Agent of the Sixth International,” an urban guerrilla, ironic hero (1968-1985). A more psychedelic Skip Williamson edited Conspiracy Capers (1969) to raise money for the legal defense of the Chicago Eight. Greg Irons drew nuclear war and ecological disasters as contemporary horror comics, often for Ron Turner’s pioneering, environmentalist Slow Death comix series (1970–1979). Guy Colwell, while jailed for draft resistance, created Inner City Romance (1972–1979), which dramatized prison and ghetto life. Anarchy Comics (1976-84) merged Punk and historically anarchist themes of attack on class society at large. A variety of other overtly political comix also appeared on the fringes of the protest movements, drawn by more obscure artists, often for underground newspapers or their less political successors, the “alternative” press. With the passage of generations, these efforts led to widely read, politically-charged satirical comics, notably the highly-political work of the artist known as Tom Tomorrow.

Laws against obscenity were the main weapon that the authorities used against underground comix. Bookstores were “busted,” as was Berkeley’s Phoenix Gallery for its display of original underground comix art. Some international shipments were seized. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, founded and led for decades by comix publisher/artist Denis Kitchen, continues to fight for freedom of expression in comics.

The comix movement greatly encouraged similar publications abroad, creating interest for US work (especially that of Gilbert Shelton) and fostering local talent. The UK, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and other locations developed readerships, translations and small-scale comix industries of their own, heavily influenced by American work. Chinese comics, didactic and stiffly drawn, attracted few readers in the United States, but a handful of Asian reprints, above all Barefoot Gen (full length US edition, 2004) the story of an atomic war survivor, had a wide circulation, generations before Manga swept the American comics market.

In 1973, after four or five jam-packed years, the original underground comix market largely collapsed. Rising printing costs and tightening obscenity laws added to the crisis caused by a campaign to shut down the head shops for selling drug paraphernalia. No doubt the waning of the counterculture itself weighed most heavily on the surviving comics. So did a glut of inferior material on the racks of local stores. A handful of comix publishers nevertheless persevered and in time even turned crisis into opportunity known as “Alternative Comics.”

Comix about sexual fantasy and drug humor continued to be the best-selling titles, but the 1970s saw a rising interest in educational and political themes in comix. Comix artists sought to explore this new area while maintaining the level of artistic freedom to which they had been accustomed. They were determined to avoid becoming lifelessly didactic, preachy, or “politically correct” according to the exacting standards of what Crumb called the “nit-picking fuss budgets” of the left. Print runs shrunk, but a seriousness of intent took hold.

In addition to the series mentioned above, some educational and political comix included Facts o’ Life Sex Education Funnies (1972) edited by Lora Fountain, Abortion Eve (1973) by Lyn Chevli and Joyce Sutton (Joyce Farmer), Net Profit (1974) by Michael J. Becker and Shelby Sampson, The Underhanded History of the U.S.A. (1974) written by Jim O’Brien and illustrated by Nick Thorkelson, Forbidden Knowledge (1975, 1978) edited by George DiCaprio (the father of Leonardo DiCaprio), All-Atomic Comics (1976) by Leonard Rifas, White Comanche (1977) by Jaxon, Cover-up Lowdown (1977) by Jay Kinney and Paul Mavrides, Corporate CRIME Comics (1977, 1979) edited by Leonard Rifas, Cartoon History of the Universe (1978–1994) by Larry Gonick, Anarchy Comix (1978-1987) founded by Jay Kinney and Paul Mavrides, Gay Comix (1980–1991) founded by Howard Cruse, and World War 3 Illustrated (1979–) founded by Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman. Later, Leonard Rifas (Food First Comics, 1982) and Joyce Brabner (Real War Stories, 1987) worked directly for progressive organizational sponsors.

After the loss of the head shop distribution system, artists naturally sought new outlets. Clay Geerdes championed the self-publication of “mini-comix” on the newly perfected photocopy machines of the late 1970s, one kind of return to the roots in personal, mimeographed comics “zines.” Denis Kitchen sought to go “pro” with Marvel and the slick anthology Comix Book (1975-76), while Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman co-edited the most artistic comix compilation, published in a relatively sophisticated magazine format, Arcade (1976-1978). Neither could find a market on the mainstream news stands.

These commercial failures marked the end of an era or, rather, a distinct second era within the short life of “comix.” Individual artists and anthologists continued, the most notable via Denis Kitchen’s Kitchen Sink operation in Central Wisconsin (Gay Comix perhaps the political standout), with Wimmin’s Comix in the Bay Area, and World War 3 Illustrated in New York. Comics, the production and an overwhelming percentage of artists, had come East again.

A small handful of comic artists, who but for their generation would have suited the openness and politics of the underground, managed to find space for left of center comics in weekly newspapers, including Alison Bechdel (“Dykes to Watch Out For,” 1983-2008), Ben Katchor (Julius Knipel, 1990-2000), Tom Tomorrow (“This Modern World,” 1988-present), and Lloyd Dangle (“Troubletown,” 1988-2011).

That Bill Griffith turned “Zippy” into a daily newspaper comic strip for King Features Syndicate (1986-) can be seen as a success itself, but also as a way out of a fading field. Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly launched Raw magazine in 1980, making a case for comics as a global art form. Spiegelman himself won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus in 1994, a saga that had begun in the underground comix world. These three offered multiple turning points, the transformation of old forms into something new. Crumb, who launched Weirdo in 1981, meanwhile offered the last of an underground-derived, anthological genre. He then turned to adaptation of classic literature, first Kafka and later the biblical Genesis. The autobiographical comic had a vibrant future in the next century, but the originators had gone elsewhere.

The comic book format/genre appeared to be finished. By 1990, publishing artistically adventurous, politically radical comic books in the “floppy” magazine format typical of most underground comix had become uneconomical. Independent channels for publishing and distributing comic books had not found a viable replacement for the old head shop distribution system, leaving the comic book industry more thoroughly dominated by superhero comics that were published by two giant corporations.

But even this depressing note would be too strong a statement for the complexity of new stages that followed and had in fact already begun. Harvey Pekar was, after all, selling his American Splendor comics at local comic shows in Cleveland during the later 1970s, and the phenomenon of mostly young people with their own self-created comics, selling or trading them to each other in low-rent arenas, would continue and even grow. Meanwhile, the use of superhero comics as characters of big budget Hollywood films offered a way of bringing comic art into the business pages of the New York Times, with a knock-off effect of “comic art” becoming a subject of reviews in the Times, the New Yorker, the Paris Review and other prestigious locations. Comic art classes expanded in many institutions of higher education, and by 1990 teaching comics created through software advanced.

Eventually web-comics projects would become an important medium for radical comics, most notably thenib.com, founded by cartoonist Matt Bors in 2013. If this format would not reach the prestige of the graphic novel, it provided political minded artists an outlet and a means to reach an increasingly large audience of radicalized young people. Everything in this rapidly changing world of comic art owned a certain debt to “comix,“ and never mind that the artists’ names and their pulp-published creations might be forgotten.

Estren, Mark James. A History of Underground Comics. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1974.

Gordon, Ian, editor. Ben Katchor, Coversations. Jackson. University of Mississippi, 2018.

Kennedy, Jay. The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide. Cambridge, Mass.: Boatner Norton Press, 1982.

Kitchen, Denis and James Danky, eds., Underground Classics. New York:Abrams, 2011.

Rosenkranz, Patrick. Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975. Fantagraphics, 2008.