Alternative Visions

Despite the small press' ephemeral nature, it proved a superb training ground for future professional comics creators. In Britain, perhaps the most famous of these were Eddie Campbell and the Donald brothers (Viz). In America and Canada, Chester Brown, Julie Doucet, Joe Matt, the Hernandezes, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and many more started from these roots. Which is not to say, of course, that the small press is simply a 'feed farm' for bigger publishers. It has retained its own integrity (as expressed in the manifesto), and there have always been small pressers who insist that they would not work professionally even if they had the chance.
So, taking the alternative sector as a whole, there was thus a remarkable diversity of subject matter, and an equally remarkable level of creative liberty. Yet there was a price to pay. Just as the underground had provoked the ire of the establishment, so too did the alternatives, and censorship became ever more intense. The backlash was sustained by the fact that politically both the USA and Britain were in the grip of a swing to the right. In the 1980s and 1990s, the policies of Reagan and Bush were echoed by those of Thatcher and Major, all supported by an overwhelmingly right-wing media. At the same time, the hardline evangelist Christian right was exerting ever more influence, and in America, the so-called 'moral majority' initiated a 'crusade' against popular culture, which took in records, videos, books, and, crucially, comics.