History Main / UndergroundComics

* ''Comicbook/{{Rocky}}: Swedish autobiographical comic by Martin Kellerman in which FunnyAnimal AuthorAvatar Rocky and his slacker buddies deal with things like relationships, hang out at bars and coffee shops, attend HipHop concerts and have a series of often-embarrassing [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex one-night stands]].

* ''{{Comics/Rocky}}'': Swedish autobiographical comic by Martin Kellerman in which FunnyAnimal AuthorAvatar Rocky and his slacker buddies deal with things like relationships, hang out at bars and coffee shops, attend HipHop concerts and have a series of often-embarrassing [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex one-night stands]].

* Tijuana bibles are an early form of underground comics. Often they were solely pornographic parodies of mainstream comics (featuring characters ranging from Blondie and Dagwood to Mickey and Minnie Mouse), but there were also Tijuana bibles that featured original characters, a rarity in the comic book industry at the time, as during the early days of comic books, the medium almost solely published reprints of newspaper comics.

* ''MadMan'' started out as one. Not so much anymore since he has been published by both DarkHorseComics and ImageComics.

* MysticStudiosProductions: A company founded by [[IsaacBaranoff Isaac M. Baranoff]] in 2003.
** ''HereWolf'': A FunnyAnimal Wolf and his human girlfriend face FantasticRacism.
** ''{{Horndog}}'': A pot-smoking, skirt-chasing punk rock hip-hopper who happens to be an anthropomorphic dog on a planet inhabited by [[FunnyAnimal Funny Animals]]. The first underground comic to form a basis for a webcomic variant.
** ''SoftDesire'': A crime mystery with influences from ''SinCity'' and DavidLynch.
** ''TalesOfTheUnrefined'': Brutally violent, sexually explicit horror comics.

Produced by people like RobertCrumb or Gilbert Shelton, comix were popular with the hippie counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter. Long after their heyday underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement (''[[Film/FritzTheCat Fritz The Cat]]'', ''DownAndDirtyDuck'' and MontyPython) and with mainstream comic books like ''[[ComicBook/HowardtheDuck Howard the Duck]]'', but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics.

* ''MadMan'' started out as one. Not so much anymore since he has been published by both DarkHorseComics and ImageComics.

Produced by people like RobertCrumb or Gilbert Shelton, comix were popular with the hippie counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter. Long after their heyday underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement (''[[Film/FritzTheCat Fritz The Cat]]'', ''DownAndDirtyDuck'' and ''MontyPython'') and with mainstream comic books like ''[[ComicBook/HowardtheDuck Howard the Duck]]'', but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics.

** ''Merton of the Movement'': A household of ostensible revolutionaries who were basically unmotivated stoners - done in the style of Elzie Segar (Thimble Theater).

** ''[[{{Ptitlebkpivqe3}} Here, Wolf]]'': A FunnyAnimal Wolf and his human girlfriend face FantasticRacism.

Still other underground comics were important not for the sex and violence, but because they could be experimental in other ways; exploring subject matter that was [[SliceOfLife mundane]] rather than fantastic, or [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible experimenting with]] the [[/ComicBookTropes medium of comics itself]].

As the comic industry has matured (or at least become more tolerant), these pioneering works have [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny lost some of their original power]]; SliceOfLife, [[BloodierAndGorier violence]], and [[HotterAndSexier sex]] have all found their way into mainstream comics nowadays, but that doesn't mean these comics are any less important or.

* ''CherryComics'': DumbBlond [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex has lots of sex]] in a PornWithPlot usually stylized after ArchieComics (when drawn by Cherry's creator, Larry Welz, not by Vaughn Bodé's son).

* ''CherryComics'': DumbBlond [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex has lots of sex]] in a PornWithPlot usually stylized after ArchieComics (when drawn by Cherry's creator, Larry Welz, not by Vaughn Bode's son).

* ''CherryPoptart'': A very sexually explicit parody of the ArchieComics style. Later renamed "Cherry" following a lawsuit from Kellogg, the producers of Pop Tarts.

* [[ComicBook/DirtyDuck Dirty Duck]]: Bobby London's comic strip, published in underground comics, and later in ''National Lampoon'' and ''Playboy''. Artistically influenced by George Herriman; the comic's protaganist is also similar to Groucho Marx.
** Not to be confused with the 1975 film of the same name, which was actually titled ''DownAndDirtyDuck'', produced by RogerCorman, and starring Flo & Eddie. While it does feature a duck, it has nothing in common with the comic strip, and does not feature the comic's main character.
** London also did "Merton of the Movement", about a household of ostensible revolutionaries who were basically unmotivated stoners - done in the style of Elzie Segar (Thimble Theater).

* ''TheAdventuresOfJesus'': Often considered the first true underground comic, Frank Stack's strip and book series featured Jesus Christ as its main protaganist in order to satirize modern culture and the hypocrisy of so-called Christians. Stack drew the series as "Foolbert Sturgeon" early on, but later drew new strips under his own name, because the alias was too ridiculous.
** Stack/Sturgeon also did "Dr. Feelgood", about a ghetto psychiatrist, whose sole patient, a neurotic academic white guy, recounted his dreams and experiences.

* GilbertShelton
** TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers: A trio of hippies in search of marijuana, various forms of psychedelic drugs, sex, and cheap thrills.
** WonderWarthog: His secret identity is the mild-mannered reporter Philbert Desanex. (Occasionally, however, Shelton has depicted Wonder Wart-Hog and Desanex as two distinct individuals, with Wonder possessing the ability to reside inside the reporter's body.) Distinguishes underground comics from alternative comics, as alternative comics do not focus on superheroes, which are considered to be mainstream.

* MysticStudiosProductions: A company founded by Isaac M. Baranoff in 2003.

Produced by people like Robert Crumb or Gilbert Shelton, comix were popular with the hippie counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter. Long after their heyday underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement (''[[Film/FritzTheCat Fritz The Cat]]'', ''DownAndDirtyDuck'' and ''MontyPython'') and with mainstream comic books like ''[[ComicBook/HowardtheDuck Howard the Duck]]'', but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics.

** ''SoftDesire'': A crime mystery with influences from ''SinCity'' and DavidLynch. Apparently this one doesn't have any of the porn that Baranoff's other non-anthropomorphic comic, ''TalesOfTheUnrefined'' has.
** ''TalesOfTheUnrefined'': Brutally violent, sexually explicit horror comics. As noted above, this comic is essentially PornWithPlot.

** ''SoftDesire'': A crime mystery with influences from ''SinCity'' and DavidLynch. Apparently this one doesn't have any of the porn that Baranoff's other non-anthropomorphic comic, ''Tales of the Unrefined'' has.

** ''TalesOfTheUnrefined'': Brutally violent, sexually explicit horror comics.

*''TheAdventuresOfJesus'': Often considered the first true underground comic, Frank Stack's strip and book series featured Jesus Christ as its main protaganist in order to satirize modern culture and the hypocrisy of so-called Christians. Stack drew the series as "Foolbert Sturgeon" early on, but later drew new strips under his own name, because the alias was too ridiculous.
*''AmericanSplendor'': Early on. Later published by VertigoComics, an imprint of DCComics. A pioneering autobiographical comic focusing on the life of its creator and writer, Harvey Pekar, with art drawn by many underground cartoonists, including Frank Stack and Robert Crumb.
*''CherryPoptart'': A very sexually explicit parody of the ArchieComics style. Later renamed "Cherry" following a lawsuit from Kellogg, the producers of Pop Tarts.
*RobertCrumb
**AngelfoodMcSpade: A satire of American racism and blackface iconography.
**[[ComicBook/FritzTheCat Fritz the Cat]]: An anthropomorphic cat who seeks self-fufilling pleasures, including drugs and sex, who proclaims to be a deep poet seeking "the truth". Adapted as a [[Film/FritzTheCat 1972 film]] by RalphBakshi.
**Mr. Natural
**Whiteman
*[[ComicBook/DirtyDuck Dirty Duck]]: Bobby London's comic strip, published in underground comics, and later in ''National Lampoon'' and ''Playboy''. Artistically influenced by George Herriman; the comic's protaganist is also similar to Groucho Marx.
**Not to be confused with the 1975 film of the same name, which was actually titled ''DownAndDirtyDuck'', produced by RogerCorman, and starring Flo & Eddie. While it does feature a duck, it has nothing in common with the comic strip, and does not feature the comic's main character.
*GilbertShelton
**TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers: A trio of hippies in search of marijuana, various forms of psychedelic drugs, sex, and cheap thrills.
**WonderWarthog: His secret identity is the mild-mannered reporter Philbert Desanex. (Occasionally, however, Shelton has depicted Wonder Wart-Hog and Desanex as two distinct individuals, with Wonder possessing the ability to reside inside the reporter's body.) Distinguishes underground comics from alternative comics, as alternative comics do not focus on superheroes, which are considered to be mainstream.

**''{{Horndog}}'': A pot-smoking, skirt-chasing punk rock hip-hopper who happens to be an anthropomorphic dog on a planet inhabited by [[FunnyAnimal Funny Animals]]. The first underground comic to form a basis for a webcomic variant.
**''TalesOfTheUnrefined'': Brutally violent, sexually explicit horror comics.
*''OmahaTheCatDancer'': A very explicit SoapOpera with FunnyAnimal or [[FurryComic Furry]] characters.
*Tijuana bibles are an early form of underground comics. Often they were solely pornographic parodies of mainstream comics (featuring characters ranging from Blondie and Dagwood to Mickey and Minnie Mouse), but there were also Tijuana bibles that featured original characters, a rarity in the comic book industry at the time, as during the early days of comic books, the medium almost solely published reprints of newspaper comics.
*''ZippyThePinhead'': Early on. Later became a syndicated newspaper comic, thus earning mainstream status.