Going underground
Going underground |
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Page 17 of 36  John Lennon relaxes with a copy of The International Times. Integral to this boom, there were many more great early undergrounders, which unfortunately space forbids us from discussing here. They included Jay Kinney, Kim Deitch, Frank 'Foolbert Sturgeon' Stack, Justin Green, Dave Sheridan, Ted Richards, Vaughn Bode, Guy Colwell, Joel Beck, Diane Noomin and Roberta Gregory, to name a few. However, with more comics being produced, there was inevitably going to be more rubbish. In fact, if anything, the underground actually encouraged poor work because its central ethic that 'anybody could do it' meant that anybody did. Its main strength was also its main weakness in that comix were often amateurish, misogynistic and not very funny. 'Self expression' could also mean 'self indulgence', and it should be borne in mind that for every Zap, there were a hundred comix by rank amateurs doing their growing up in public. The development of an underground in Britain echoed that of the United States. The American comix had been imported into Britain from the beginning, and gleefully consumed. Indeed, bootleg versions of early titles were published, sometimes before they appeared in the States. Crumb and Shelton were particular favourites, though other creators developed cult followings, depending on whether Customs would allow their work into the country.  The International Times (Lovebooks Ltd, 1967)  Oz (Oz Publications Ink, 1968) |