Alternative Visions
Alternative Visions |
|
Page 4 of 29  Pages from 'Mister Wilcox, Mister Conrad', Raw (1981). Art: Jose Munoz. Script: Carlos Sampayo. An atmospheric strip about life in New York, by two South Americans who had never been there. If it is hard to generalize about the comics themselves, it is even harder to get a handle on who bought them. Certainly, the readership was vastly different to that of something like the X-Men, and the two audiences, although frequenting the same shops, would rarely buy the same comics. As we might expect, readers of alternative fare would generally be 'alternative' to a degree themselves. They were not part of a 'grand political project' like the hippies before them, butthey were commonly countercultural within the context of the 1980s and 1990s. To be more specific than this involves looking at the wider cultural context. As one alternative creator explained: 'There is a real crossover between the people who are buying alternative comics, and these alternative rock music records that come out on small labels and books published by small publishing companies like REsearch, Amok, Farrow House and Loompanics. They never go to a Spielberg movie [laughs]. They read Film Threat. It's like the medium is beside the point. I don't know what to call it. [It's] "Anti-corporate culture." These people are willing to buy into anything that isn't part of a corporation where they sense material has been watered down and made to be inoffensive." As such, the alternatives carved out a niche for themselves on the shelves of the comics shops. Anthology titles were especially important, because these were the titles that were chiefly responsible for introducing new creators to the field, much in the way as their underground ancestors Zap and Bijou Funnies had a generation before. Containing anywhere between four and forty stories, they were typically cheaply produced, in black-and-white, but sported eye-frazzling colour covers.  More from Raw these wonderful covers measured 11 by 14 inches. (All examples Raw Books and Graphics.)  'Dead Things', Raw (Raw Books and Graphics, 1980). Art/script: Mark Beyer. Distinctive cartoony abstraction from a new American talent, with a somewhat thin story about rat-doll characters in bizarre situations. It is difficult not to agree with critics that Beyer's work represented a victory of style over content, but then in many ways Raw was all about style. |