Going underground
Going underground |
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Page 19 of 36  Covers to Hasty Tales (Bloom, 1971), art by Dave Sheridan The results were the JT-based Cyclops (Innocence and Experience, 1970) and IT-financed Nasty Tales (Bloom, 1971) and the Oz-funded Cozmic Comics (H Bunch), which ran under twenty-one different subtitles from 1972. As well as reprinting American material by Crumb, Shelton, Spain, Irons and others, they showcased a roster of British strips - not all of which, it has to be said, were in the same league. They were able to reprint so much American material because it was essentially free. Without contracts the underground artists had no claims on their work and British editors could draw on it as much as they wanted. The London (or, more precisely, 'London-associated') creators included Chris Welch, whose 'Ogoth and Ugly Boot' was a violent science fiction satire (a mix of Conan the Barbarian and London Hell's Angel culture); Edward Barker, whose sketchily rendered long-haired lowlifes lent his strips a pleasingly seedy quality; Mike Weller (aka 'Captain Stelling'), whose angry stories about industrial relations had real political bite and were a highlight of the Cozmic line; Ray Lowry, whose Dadaist collages for Cyclops pushed the envelope of artistic innovation; Malcolm Livingstone, whose cockney funny animals debated the decline of hippiedom; William Rankin (aka 'Wyndham Raine'), whose detailed 'kids' comics' style harkened back to British titles from the 1930s; and finally Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland, mentioned together because their superb Americanized style - clean, precise and 'professional' - betrayed their love of Marvel/DC comics.  Pages from Cozmic Comics (H Bunch, 1972). Art: Dennis Leigh.  Page from Cozmic Comics (H Bunch), reprinting an American strip by Jay Kinney. |