Going underground
Going underground |
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Page 13 of 36  Cover, Tits'n' Clits (Nanny Goat Productions. 1980). Art: Joyce Farmer. These early women cartoonists were using their strips to protest about a number of related issues: obliquely, about being excluded from the male-dominated underground (especially the big anthologies, which they claimed had a 'Boys Only' atmosphere) and about the sexism that was rife in the movement (particularly comix by Wilson, Crumb and Spain); and more directly about women's politics generally - subject matter included rape, sex, abortion, babies, working conditions and housework. The individual comix did not command anything like the sales of Zap and Bijou Funnies, but nevertheless they were successful enough to inspire others. They were followed by a string of women's anthologies which were generally better organized and produced, the best-known titles being: Wimmin's Comix (Last Gasp, 1972), designed as a platform for new creators; Tits V Clits (Nanny Goat Productions, 1972), intended to 'bring a sense of humour to the women's movement'; and Wet Satin (Kitchen Sink, 1976), a collection of stories about women's erotic fantasies. They featured a number of very talented creators, including Melinda Gebbie (dark sexual fever dreams), Lynda Barry (ratty cod-schoolgirl hilarity), Aline Kominsky (Jewish humour and self-loathing) and Shary Flenniken (sex, politics and cute characters). The second major sub-genre, horror, was popular with the comix crowd because it offered opportunities to challenge the anti-violence censorship of the Code. The titles that resulted were taboo-breaking, first and foremost, and although they acknowledged their debt to the EC comics of the 1950s, they took explicitness to levels that even these gory forerunners could not have hoped to aspire to.  Cover. Wimmin's Comix (Last Gasp, 1985). Art: Joyce Farmer.  Pages from Wimmin's Comix (Last Gasp, 1976). Art: Dot Bucher. This title was the best known of women's comix, and often the most controversial (note, for example, the dead man at the bottom of the second cover). |