Underground comics (or "comix") are small press or self-published comic books that first emerged in the 1960's. They came about as an artistic response to the mainstream, Comics Code Authority-approved comics, which focused on superheroes, war, romance, and juvenile humor, while ignoring many of the real-life issues affecting their readers. Underground comics took on these topics forbidden in the mainstream, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence. They were most popular from the late 1960's to the early 1980's.
Underground comics were popular with the hippie counterculture and punk scenes. Produced by people like Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Gary Panter, the comics tapped into the zeitgeist of the youth culture, exploring themes of distrust in government, the horrors of daily life, and the fading of The American Dream.
Underground comics gained prominence and influence, as is evidenced in such works as The Movie of Fritz the Cat, Down and Dirty Duck and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Also, Zippy the Pinhead and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originally began as underground comics before gaining mainstream success (in Zippy's case, syndication in newspapers, whereas the Turtles were basically commercialized and pimped out by major corporations). Even mainstream comic books weren't immune, and took on underground themes, as with Howard the Duck. Their legacy is most obvious with Alternative Comics, the genre's Spiritual Successor.
This movement helped to kick off the Furry Fandom early on due to the sheer number of attempts to subvert the belief that "all comics are Funny Animals" that was pervading the mainstream comics industry in the 70s, by basically taking those characters and putting them in adult or sexual situations.
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 mundane rather than fantastic, or experimenting with the medium of comics itself.
As the comic industry has matured (or at least become more tolerant), these pioneering works have lost some of their original power; Slice of Life, extreme violence, and sex have all found their way into mainstream comics nowadays, but that doesn't mean these comics are any less important or entertaining.
The Underground Comix influence waned during The '80s due to a number of reasons. The counterculture of The '60s had fallen out of relevance. These comic books had very limited printing and distributionnote . They were often found only in head shops (stores that specialized in cannabis paraphenelia). The rise of Indy Comics (or Independent Publishers; meaning almost everyone who was not Marvel or DC) opened the door for comic books published in a diverse range of genres that were not necessarily edgy, pornographic, taboo, or subversive, but simply providing alternatives to the superhero genre.
Underground comics with pages:
- American Splendor: Early on. Later published by Dark Horse Comics and Vertigo Comics, an imprint of DC Comics. 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.
- The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: A trio of hippies in search of marijuana, various forms of psychedelic drugs, sex, and cheap thrills. An animated adaptation premiered in 2021, starring the voices of Woody Harrelson, Pete Davidson, John Goodman and Tiffany Haddish.
- "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."
- Fritz the Cat: Robert Crumb's anthropomorphic cat seeks self-fulfilling pleasures, including drugs and sex, who proclaims himself to be a deep poet seeking "the truth". Adapted as a 1972 film by Ralph Bakshi. A second film, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (which had no involvement from Crumb or Bakshi), was released in 1974.
- God Nose: Considered one of the first (if not the first) underground comic; self-published by Jack "Jaxon" Jackson in 1964, it features God, Jesus and a satirical look at life in The '60s.
- Horndog: Isaac Baranoff's pot-smoking anthropomorphic dog Bob routinely cheats on his cat girlfriend on an extraterrestrial planet inhabited by Funny Animals.
- Life in Hell: Before going on to wide mainstream success with The Simpsons and Futurama, Matt Groening self-published this in Xeroxed comic book form. It focused on a bitter, depressed rabbit named Binky, his girlfriend, their illegitimate son, Bongo, and a pair of identical gay lovers named Akbar and Jeff (you can even see in the Simpsons character designs that a lot of the inspiration was from Life In Hell, particularly Akbar and Jeff, whom most Simpsons fans will recognize as Milhouse van Houten, his mother Luann, and his father, Kirk).
- Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist: Created by lesbian cartoonist Diane DiMassa, the comic is about a lesbian who seeks to end misogyny and homophobia by killing or castrating every man she sees.
- Mr. A: Surprised to see something Steve Ditko was involved in on here? Ditko's Ayn Rand-inspired, Objectivist-themed superhero series appeared in underground comics series like witzend, as well as issues self-published by Ditko himself.
- Omaha the Cat Dancer: A very explicit Soap Opera with Funny Animal or Furry characters.
- One-Punch Man: Originally started as a self-released webcomic until Shonen Jump offered to re-publish it with new artwork, leading it to become one of the most popular Japanese franchises in mainstream media.
- Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman: A very silly comic about a very violent man.
- Rocky: Swedish autobiographical comic by Martin Kellerman in which Funny Animal Author Avatar Rocky and his slacker buddies deal with things like relationships, hang out at bars and coffee shops, attend Hip-Hop concerts and have a series of often-embarrassing one-night stands.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was originally a self-published independent comic which was ridiculously gritty and violent (as a parody of the two most popular comics of the early 80s, Frank Miller's "dark and edgy" Daredevil and the teenage mutants of the X-Men), prior to becoming a mainstream sensation aimed at children.
- Zippy the Pinhead: Early on. Later became a syndicated newspaper comic, thus earning mainstream status.
