The Underground Comix Movement

[@joestrike8537]

I got rid of my entire comics collection I had accumulated from 1970 thru '80, around Y2K, don't miss any of them...except the box full of undergrounds. So *many* stories I fondly remember from those books that I will never see again. [Insert sobbing emoji here]

[@sandrabonner8208]

I got in trouble when my folks found my "underground comix" collection, but due to their cost and paying for them with my own earned money, I was allowed to keep them. Thank God they never found my "Captain Pissgums and His Pervert Pirates" and the "Checkered Demon" by S. Clay Wilson; I can't even think what would have happened...

[@lordofthegremlins]

If you're old enough to hold a job, you're old enough for the comics

[@anthonycrumb5753]

Ah yes I remember them oh ! so well - what about ' RUBY THE DYKE vs WEEDMAN' probably one of the most moronic and socially valueless tracts ever committed to paper - S Clay Wilson truly one of the greats - any way I've gotta go "..Here come the dykes...." Great Days !

[@Koopaklown]

Love it! This one speaks to me since I've made my own handmade indie/underground comics for me and my friends to enjoy back in school.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Those would probably be more aligned with the minicomics movement which started in the '80s rather than the undergrounds or indies, as those two movements both involved sending work to printing presses and selling in stores, whereas minicomics was when people started making their own comics and "printing" them by photocopying and trading them with friends and other comics fans through the mail.

[@talsine]

I wish most of the comics chanels out there were half as creative and interesting in both their subject matter and delivery of content as your channel is. I can't wait till next time. Also, i would love more Doom Patrol!

[@itszackempire]

A great video! I've always felt that another reason the "underground" comics of that era started to wein, was because they were repeating subject matter over and over again. There was a similar situation with all the autobiographical comics around the 2000's. It was a lot if the same stuff over and over, and people became disinterested. You can really see this in Crumb's work where there is a point that he seems to have no idea what he is doing, until he moves past all the drugs and sex, and starts going in to social commentary.

[@sirmount2636]

Your videos are of an entirely different caliber. You educate & entertain us about subjects that no other channel will, in a way no other channel will. We don’t deserve you!

[@StrangeBrainParts]

I disagree, sir! Like Batman, these are the videos you deserve. Or something. That sounded far more clever in my head. Regardless...I do appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.

[@sirmount2636]

Strange Brain Parts 😊

[@unrulysimian3897]

I need to come up with a new way to say “well done.” Please just keep doing what you do. I believe I’ve read 75+% of what would be considered underground, in various forms. Love Crumb (warts and all). Huge Freak Brothers fan. Spain was - in my eyes - the premier artist working in b&w. And Williams? A graphic genius.

[@paulnash9851]

Freewheelin' Franklin sez "Groovy, nice mellow video man... " In all seriousness, so glad you are still around and here.

[@penelopegreene]

"He doesn't know I whizzed in his stash." --Fat Freddy's Cat

[@jennifermax2927]

My dad passed away recently and he left me his collection of underground comix. He never let me see them when I was a kid and I had no idea how sizable his collection was. Tons of Bizzare Sex, Slow Death, Doctor Atomic, and Checkered Demon. Plus a bunch of Zippy, and Zap. Amazing stuff and I wish there would be a modern comix revival.

[@Gabreel]

i hate to say we have something in common but my father did the same for me :(

[@NightViper91]

I'm very sorry about

[@officegossip]

There’s a newborn interest lately due to KZbin. If it wasn’t for Comics Kayfabe channel I wouldn’t be hunting these down.

[@leroypreston2973]

I feel that comics on patreon or on certain porn sites would be the modern equivalent. As the creators can write porn comic stories and have recurring characters in them. They can be varied with their kinks and acts of sex. Some can be straight sex, others can be porn with plot. The difference I feel between porn comics on Patreon/porb sites/etc. is that fans can contact creators more easily and even commission stuff for the creators to write. The closest thing in underground comix would be fan letters. Given the material of underground Comix, I shudder to think about what the fan letters regarding underground comix would be. Though does anyone else think that porn comics on Patreon are the modern equivalent to underground comix?

[@leroypreston2973]

Maybe it depends on the creators on patreon and what they write about. If they just write porn and pin ups, then it's just porn. If it's using sex and bringing up taboo topics, then I suppose that it's carrying in the spirit of Underground comix. Would porn with plot comics that have kinks that are cobtroversial like BDSM, furries, feet, muscle women, weight gain, older people count as carrying on the spirit of underground comics?

[@edward2962]

Awesome video! I'd also like to add that another thing that lead to demise of the 60-70's generation of Undergrounds is that many of them were sold at Head Shops ( stores that sold drug paraphernalia and other counter culture material) and in the mid-70's law enforcement really started to crack down on such places.

[@acehandler1530]

Precisely and exactamundo. Heady days to sparse days.

[@lordofthegremlins]

Yeah, even though those days you could easily see prostitutes lining the sidewalks, porno shops, etc, but the cops didn't concern themselves with that. Because firstly there isn't any money in that, opposed to handing out obscenity fines for subversive comics...which leads to the second reason. They were subversive comics, they represented a collected effort to go against the grain, to rebel from the ways of the establishment. The war on drugs assault against head shops for cannabis flower, hashish, mushrooms, etc, represents the same sentiment. Psychedelia which has the potential to break yourself outside of the comfort-zone that's been built into you brick by brick by your surrounding establishment such as media propaganda, the school system, religious fearmongering, etc, threatens the establishments interests just as much as taking free speech seriously does.

[@Kaleidoscopikc]

I'm such a sucker for the art style and the edgy content of underground comix. I understand its offense and why the average person will find it distasteful in this new age of political & social movement, but it has a vintage charm that I can't turn away from. Thank you so much for talking about one of my favorite niche interests lol.

[@shrekcore582]

Pretty much proves how much we have regressed and how intolerant society has become once again!. What was once revolutionary now is again condemned, trying to censor anything that is considered “vulgar”, “immoral” , just like the old times lol...

[@tomokokuroki3085]

Nya, it depends on your perspective. I consider sexist, homophobic and racist jokes (and those that denigrate people with disabilities too) prehistoric. That kind of jokes are old, too easy to make and not challenging. Where is the challenge in making fun of a group that doesn't hold power? I am not amused by them for the same reason that young people of the 60s didn't find the jokes of the 19th century funny. I'm actually simplifying things a lot, because at the time those comics were published there were authors who thought these kinds of jokes were out of date. When I make underground comics I tend to experiment with eschatology, for example when I created a series of characters that were literally ittle girls made of poop, pee and snot.

[@briteness]

@@tomokokuroki3085 eww... that sounds really disgusting.

[@eattheasslikeitsgrass5113]

@@shrekcore582 Society has become MORE tolerant actually. Underground comix were ust easy pickins to degrade minorities w/o restriction. They would be unacceptable today cuase its not fair to offend/make fun of someone because they dont fit into a backwards "normal". Like imagine if white straight men are made fun of on a constant basis just cause they exist. Thats how it was like for women, lgbt, POC, and the disabled. Especially w/ a lack of representation in media too. You seem like the type of old man who complains about why he cant say slurs in todays day and age. And im honestly sick of seeing types like you. People have toughned up, stop getting offended like the people you think are.

[@ctbinary42]

It's about time R Crumb and Co got the recognition they deserve. You're content is intelligently put together and well done. Thanks for giving us titles and creators the mainstream wants to keep covered up. Keep up the good work 👍

[@dont-want-no-wrench]

the 60's were a kind of unique time. we may see something like it again someday, but whether that is a good thing or not, we leave to history to decide

[@ottosixtysix8546]

An unprecedented review of the trials and turbulent times that the Underground Comics moved thru our culture. Thank you for your inspired review. But now, you've set our appetite for your take on 'Love and Rockets'. Hope we'll see it soon. Fingers crossed.

[@anthonycrumb5753]

Underground Comix - so many good memories - great video.

[@davep6102]

Your channel is goldmine man thanks for the videos

[@HyperDeathRee]

Fantastic video! Instant Subscribe :D

[@pendafen7405]

As a younger female I used to love Welz's 'Cherry', because it felt celebratory and defiant as well as exciting. Years later, I still feel that way, though with maturity and life experience, I can recognise troubling facets of the plots & characters too (see 7:08). The art holds up.

[@davidshields948]

Great channel. Liked subscribed , shared. Keep on trucking.👏👏👏👏

[@patrickmorehead9537]

i really enjoyed this video!! thanks for making it!!

[@fluff1353]

I subscribed to National Lampoon back in college during the early and mid-Eighties. Zippy was a regular feature, plus a few other lesser-known characters. Even then, people told me that the government monitored subscribers to these "subversive" publications. I don't know if that was true, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[@HereComesPopoBawa]

In those days, "monitored" probably meant putting one's name and address in some basement FBI filing cabinet. They were more interested in monitoring artists and publishers who produced such work. When I was a kid in the 70s-80s I could buy Lampoon or Zap reprints from local stores without going on anyone's list. My local comics shop was owned by a friend a few years older than me, and he'd let me buy underground comix so long as they weren't explicitly pornographic.

[@kirbyculp3449]

I doubt that the .gov monitored National Lampoon as it was sold in the bookstores on the military bases.

[@Jamesharveycomics]

Indie comics then: breaking taboos Indie comics now: reinforcing taboos

[@AshenDruid]

I finally have gotten around to going through my late aunt's collection and I was pretty shocked to find a whole box of this stuff that she mustve collected while she was kicking around Berkeley in the 60's. She'd mentioned Fabulous Freak Brothers a few times but there was so much more. It really emphasized how much her and a lot of Boomers changed and turned almost as uptight as the people they were rebelling against. I wish we'd stayed on better term and I'd had the chance to find out the story behind all this stuff the woman I knew wouldve dismissed as tasteless smut, but I think it wouldve been kinda like going through internet history is today and she wouldnt have wanted to talk about a lot of it.

[@williamdaly1005]

Worked for a short period at Comics and Comix in SF. Interesting place.

[@blahblahoink]

Nicely done. Takes me back to 1976 when I came home and found my mum had dumped my entire collection because they were 'disgusting'. Mind you some of that stuff was very extreme. Legions of Charlie etc..(Nasty Tales)

[@Trollificusv2]

The Checkered Demon? That was the most gratuitously horrific stuff I can remember.

[@joestrike8537]

I have to point out Crumb's exxagerated, beyond-the-pale "Angelfood McSpade" character was a *commentary* on and send-up of the racist depictions of Black people in mainstream culture that were commonplace in the past. Think of that image of her as having quotes around it, just alike the ones around her name above. Crumb's sensitivity to and appreciation of Black culture is apparent in his other work: "That's Life," a bitterly ironic short story about an unknown blues singer, or his "Heroes of the Blues" trading card series, where his art is an immacculate recreation of period photographs of those performers.

[@KClouisville]

Most definitely. While there are some facets of Crumb's personality that are kind of distubing that do come through in his art, I've always thought the racial stuff was basically him holding up a sort of evil funhouse mirror to America and it's sordid history in regards to race.

[@carlcushmanhybels8159]

Yes. I liked Angelfood McSpade. I knew he had no racist intentions.

[@terriblereading7586]

Love it when KZbin recommends me gold like this

[@carlospointofview]

Nice video! I had never heard of these underground comics before.

[@brightgreenfuzzyball3000]

Wow, thank you so much for this history lesson on such a great art movement.

[@anthonycrumb5753]

Below there is a comment below on Vaughn Bode, in my opinion the mighty Terminator franchise was a mixture of Vaughn Bode's artwork from some drwaings called the 'Machines' and a Daws pulp SiFi series called the 'Berserkers' by an author called Fred Saberhagen, set in the future about invincible killer robots - put the two together and you basically have 'Terminator'. Vaughn Bodes 'The Machines' if memory serves me correctly was a series of drawings about these machines taking over and exterminating humanity. The resemblance to the opening scenes of T1 and Vaughn Bode is uncanny - check it out and you will see what I mean. So similar is it, I am suprised that the Terminator never got sued for copyright.

[@Zartak343]

Dope ass video as always, good to see you back.

[@destineydevereux4722]

The first time I saw R. Crumb artwork was the cover of a janus Joplin album 😎❤️

[@anthonycrumb5753]

Yes that's right ' Cheap Thrills' RIP Janis honey, you are still loved.

[@eveahn9595]

Interesting topic, thank you for covering it.

[@lolaanfer88]

Thank you so much for these

[@lancebon2931]

I have a collection of over 200 UG comix I'm in my late 70's And I know when I pass away they might just go to the trash. So I will be trying to set up an Ebay store. My memorabilia goes back to 1965 when I went to live in the village.

[@tommitchell7257]

i have ZAP ⚡️ 1-11.. was nice to see some proper information out there ! great 👍🏼 job

[@edwardmiller4709]

Interesting! I used to own about 30-50 comix, Zaps, Bijou, Yellow Dog, Bum Wad Comix, etc.......... Fun to read when you're really high!

[@lefthandedsophiethepop-wit503]

Great video, Vaughn Bode is the most underrated of all the underground comic artists, maybe even the best. He transcends the 60s tropes and his work is highly influential to graffiti artists, even today!

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Mainly because his son Mark became a graffiti artist using the same art style (after doing some anthology comics for Marvel's "Epic Illustrated" and a shortlived Miami Vice parody comic book called "Miami Mice").

[@ottosixtysix8546]

No, during his time he was a very highly regarded artist who unfortunately left us too soon. His work still stands.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

@@ottosixtysix8546 nobody said it didn't

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

​@Mr. McGringus It's definitely "Miami Mice." I still have all the issues including the first one with a flexidisc containing a Miami Mice theme song. Google "Mark Bodé" "Miami Mice" and you can check the stuff out yourself.

[@charlesmadison1384]

i (and obviously a lot of others) became acquainted with Bode via "National Lampoon"

[@Onemadgnome-ls2wq]

Wonder Warthog... LOL ! I loved that one... always been so confused and nialistic !

[@Nesty9]

Most of them have awesome art

[@spellbound111]

These comics can be downloaded to PC by Digital Comics.

[@framusburns-hagstromiii808]

Surprised no mention of Metal Hurlant or Heavy Metal magazine from the mid 70's...not really comix but the next level

[@tomsherwood4650]

That stuff seemed like sci fi/action, not at all like the old stuff.

[@KClouisville]

@@tomsherwood4650 It wasn't really "underground" either...those had big publishers behind them. While they did sometimes have underground artists work in there magazines, it's hard to call something underground that has massive distribution and you can find it in a 7-11.

[@victoriafelix5932]

It is somewhat of a shame that a wider look could not have been made. Coming from an Australian context, I can see how the spread of Underground Comix here, as well as to the UK both directly and indirectly through _OZ_ could have enriched this video. I'm also thinking of the role of fanzines, and of APAs had a role in the aesthetics of the movement, in addition to the whole DIY emphasis from punk. (I might not need to emphasise the influences from Discordianism, the Church of the Subgenius, et alia....)

[@robsyers8647]

Great video! Thanks!!

[@crustycobs2669]

These comix were meant to shock straight society and give it the finger. Mission accomplished! Impossible to categorize a phenomenon spawned by rebellion and lysergic acid diethylamide 25 Some of them were very artistic, especially R. Crumb, but he portrayed shocking dark impulses too.

[@javib2978]

I get that underground comics aren't for children. But in a story named "Joe Blow". There are two children in that storyline for some reasons.

[@javib2978]

Thank L.A.!! Counterculture, not Cancel Culture. I will not be a part of Cancel Culture. It will ruin everything about families, young people, political views, and society as a whole. I am not comparing Neoliberalism or Counterculture to Cancel Culture. They are pretty much their own independent ideological views of the world at large.

[@gazoontight]

I remember reading some of these. One of the publishers had a fire in their warehouse and lost a lot of stock.

[@atlascove1810]

honestly, it's fascinating to see parallels with the early internet's creative output

[@jojo-lp4rd]

wow - really high quality video here - the art on display here is incredible and the commentary is a definitive overview touching on all important aspects of the subject. to me, this independent channel of expression would have progressed beyond profanity and shock value if society didn't attempt to suppress it. really captures the sentiment that if you depict something in art, that's doesn't mean you endorse it reality - and what free speech represents. underground comics were the subject of that debate that"s been going on ever since.

[@fredhannum4015]

I still have mine, I love/hate "Insect Fear" and small form "Pork" and many others. Thanks. nuff said

[@scifiguy9000]

I was given a copy of Freak Brothers and it's somewhere in my collection.

[@randyperfecto7468]

Loved Joe Blow, Zap Mr. Natural mags at my uncles house as a 16 yr old awesome

[@goredongoredon]

I'd love it if you did a follow up about the alternative comics in the late 80s/early 90s. The speculator boom was happening at the same time so the rise of Fantagraphics and the new books still coming out from publshers like Kitchen Sink etc were kind of ignored for the most part - both then and now.

[@TitularHeroine]

"Too 'Fucked Up' To Love!" 😂😂😂 Or.... am I?? I love this channel though!

[@fredwood1490]

I had wondered what had happened to Zap Comix and the like after I left the nearly counter culture. They, like the drugs and a certain purposelessness all had to be left behind if I was going to actually live my life. I may have been wrong on that count. On the fringe of the common culture, nowhere near anything radical, Zap did give me a feeling that there was something else out there, but mostly I just found entertainment in drugs, in ignorant intellectualism and conspiracy theories but no real exploration of society or even reality. Took me a long time to finely go crazy and begin to understand the world as it probably is.

[@joshbanks9261]

I love those underground comix of the 60s and 70s. I found an odd T shirt in Bangkok Thailand that has Mickey The Rat which looks straight out of underground comix. I remember the furry freak brothers and R Crumb from back in the day. I used to collect comics all kinds I was actually big into Eastman and Liard first TMNT comics before they were for kids. Mostly it was just more violent than what it became more geared towards kids. There were tons of bizzare comics on the shelves. Still you can find lots of old books filled with underground comics. Also I found some newer books that were based on punk the underground. Zerf wrote the Dhamer comic series along with The City which were inspired by the underground comic scene. I love the twisted cartoons that were inspired by comics as well.

[@sebastianluehring7488]

What is that beautiful comic from 10:54 called? It is so eye catching and otherworldly!

[@sebastianluehring7488]

I'll answer my own question. The art is from Victor Moscoso’s 1960s and ’70s Psychedelic Drawings. Thank you Google Image Search!

[@feverdreamss]

@@sebastianluehring7488thank u!

[@fujifilm5127]

I'm french Canadian. I grew up on these. Maybe that's what fucked me up...

[@WorgenGrrl]

I would not be surprised if these comics inspired Ralph Bakshi on some level with movies such as "Hey Good Looking", "Coonskin", "Cool World" and the (In)famous "Fritz the Cat"

[@georgebrown2175]

There was a comic strip about a tequila worm living in a New York City vacant lot.

[@larrysorenson4789]

A great synopsis and introduction. Itself worthy of publication. Oh wait, it is. Never mind.

[@jamesedwardclard]

great video

[@andreworders7305]

7:43 That cover is definitely not using those characters legally

[@josefschiltz2192]

I love to have been a very small part of the Underground. Sadly though, both of us contributers had to curtail our involvement, me especially, due to family concerns. My friend and colleague, Bib Edwards, creator of Captain Biplane: Interplanetary Airman, was able to continue, in a limited capacity, whilst being a teacher and also by being enabled to continue his own art activities and attended conventions such as Caption. I wish that I could have gone to those with him. Was not to be. Sadly, he passed away in 2014 owing to pulmonary fibrosis, possibly something he inhaled whilst in his earlier incarnation as a gas fitter that sat in his lungs over many years.

[@phillipmontano7664]

When I was a kid this stuff was available in some book store and stores like Spencer's but you had to be an adult to purchase them but they were available

[@neilstern7108]

Loved the 3d glasses

[@mattschwarz3553]

R.I.P. Robert Crumb

[@brunfranc]

0:42- "Har Har"

[@lisathuban8969]

Elfquest! Yeah! And all the rest is great too.

[@danb.3397]

A "movement" is just that, a moment in time expressing one point of view. I'm glad it warped my thinking. FTW !! If you don't know what this means then find an old hippie and ask them !

[@phillipmontano7664]

I remember there was some boys who got in trouble for bringing some issues of the freak Brothers to school in junior high

[@ottodachat]

I still remember one R. Crumb strip, a one page comic, entitled Meat Ball, I think it was in Zap 1, or perhaps Zap 0???, a classic piece about the sensation of being liberated, hate to use the word, 'woke' but seemed to describe the sensation to a tee.

[@person14876]

Are you gonna cover an obscure marvel character like deaths head or ROM spaceknight

[@StrangeBrainParts]

ROM and the Micronauts are two series I've been intending to do.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

@@StrangeBrainParts would pair well with The Saga of Crystar and Shogun Warriors

[@warrenpeece1726]

I remember Wonder Wart Hog and Harold Hedd particularly.

[@tomsherwood4650]

The hog was my first underground I saw as a kid. Other than looking bizarre I guess the stories seemed mundane or over my head?

[@tobygathergood4990]

That was the thing with the underground comics, they were simply outlets for the artists to express their perversions with very little artistic merit, regardless of how well they were artistically set. I grew up in that era, and although I had access to these publications, I very quickly found no attractiveness in them whatsoever, thus avoided them completely as they were sources of deliberate deviancy and perversion. I preferred to view, pursue and practice bona fide art forms such as art Nouveau, art Deco and hyperrealism.

[@beefgravystudios]

Always interesting

[@MrBonners]

Cheech Wizard was hilarious

[@MarvinThiessen]

Why wasn't "Captain Guts" mentioned? "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" and "Young Lust" were also hilarious.

[@caballerosalas]

I miss the "Until next time"

[@ottosixtysix8546]

I believe that makes 3 of us.

[@uziao]

thank you from Brasil

[@kc-cz3gd]

8:34 eyes popped out of my head

[@adrianpasillas3832]

I picked up these comics in the late 70's. They were a little disturbing but definitely funny as the artists described and drew in their own mocking way a separate reality, even a "prediction" of the universe next door. Little did I know how amazingly prescient these comics were as they unknowingly and unwittingly describe today's nihilistic society of a shameless preoccupation of deviant sex, mindless fashion, paganism, and an overall a debasement of mind and morality as we, upon the greased skids provided at the behest of godless liberalism, slide in the evil world of their version of Sodom & Gomorrah. Indeed, the mindset of the 60's, as aptly foretold by Rick Griffin, has come to "fruition": black is the color, zero is the number....

[@NightViper91]

Skip Williamson was in my eyes

[@DFDuck55]

No mention of Dan O'Neill, Bobby London, and Air Pirates?

[@princeminski47]

There is an excellent video about O'Neill and the Air Pirates that has gone up fairly recently. Previously, they tended to be a footnote in films about copyright tyranny in the music business. Ut's called, cleverly enough, "Dan O'Neill and theAir Pirates" and it's on KZbin.

[@DFDuck55]

@@princeminski47: Nice, thanks for the heads up on that. I hope it mentions that when they came to serve papers on Air Pirates, Dan O'Neill hid and Bobby London is the one that got in trouble for it even though the lawsuit was about the Disney characters that ONeill drew. Ironically though London later ended up working for Disney drawing Popeye cartoons for them.

[@DFDuck55]

@@princeminski47: I was a big fan of Bobby London's character Dirty Duck. In the early 1970s my CB handle was Dirty Duck. A drinking buddy once told me "you're nuthin' but a dirty fu**in' duck" and that name stuck with me. I went by D.F. Duck for several decades, and the first domain name I ever registered, in 2003, was dfduck.net. Some years back I had some email exchanges with Bobby London trying to persuade him to release some of his old Dirty Duck comix, but he seemed bitter that no one wanted to pay him what he thought they were worth. So I found them online and illegally downloaded them, which I felt was fitting.

[@princeminski47]

@@DFDuck55 Bobby is awfully bitter about his checkered cartooning career. I guess O'Neill really sucked them all into his vendetta against Disney and corporate America, and tends to come of as the hero and spokesman for the group. I like 'em all, and have original art by all but Richards. I have a couple pieces from their campaign to raise money and support, and one of London's "Popeye" strips. He's mad about the Popeye syndicated strip too. All the Air Pirates have been shafted by the comics biz, but their place in history is secure, more than anybody's short of the ZAP crowd, and Spiegelman and Griffith.

[@OrtemionQC]

I learned about those comics on tv, they didn't show anything graphic that came from those comics but they clearly said that they were graphic and i still don't know how those comics were not notist by the goverment.

[@johnzeszut3170]

The kids today they read the filth - what the Hell?

[@odiep2181]

All the animal stuff makes you wonder how much of this stuff is present at Furry conventions.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

There is a historical line that connects the Disney comic books from the '40s to the '60s to the undergrounds of the '60s and '70s ("Air Pirates Funnies" was sued by Disney), to the '80s direct market indie furry anthology comics "Critters" by Fantagraphics (which eventually started reprinting both the Carl Barks Disney comics and some of the underground artists) and "Albedo Anthropomorphics," which had a few different publishers over two decades.

[@twikiriwhi]

No mention of Heavy Metal magazine... ????

[@jOoomOooo]

Hi, it would be cool if you had subtitles because I have a hard time hearing and the auto generated kinda suck in a few parts good video though I get most of it

[@StrangeBrainParts]

Thank you for the suggestion! I will look into creating subtitles directly from my script so it's accurate. This is an area I've overlooked, so I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.

[@junbug20]

I wish they had them on comixology!

[@NightViper91]

i couldn't agree more

[@LittleCozyNostril]

Far out, man! The Undergrounds are majorly under-rated. If anyone is interested in a deep dive into Crumb in particular checkout my show CANONICALLY CRUMB

[@rapauli]

Where is the modern equivalent?

[@davidingham3409]

Even this rather good video sometimes takes satirical content too literally. Talking about something does not imply advocating it, especially not in an unpretentious medium. There is no inappropriate subject for underground comix -- unless it is boring. The doctrine that offensive material is justified by redeeming value needs the added rule that someone being offended by something demonstrates that it has artistic or social value. The road forward is discussion, not repression.

[@Trollificusv2]

" The road forward is discussion, not repression." Would that this were true. Sadly, SOME people can't resist using repression to gain virtue points.

[@princeminski47]

A good historical reference here would be Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." It is unlikely that Swift actually thought that eating Irish children would be the ideal solution to the problem of hunger. Likewise, Crumb's portrayal of African Americans and other minorities in the visual language of Thirties cartoons us by no means an endorsement of bigotry and paranoia but an exposure of same with images that highlight the extent to which these ideas were embedded in the culture and had been for a very long time. A party line menu of correctness pretty much negates satire.

[@KClouisville]

Yeah, reminds me of a discussion I heard during a podcast interview about pornography....I believe it was with porn actor Tom Byron. He was talking about the federal obscenity bust (mainly I believe due to violent content in the porn.....but all with consenting adults...not like it was an underage actor thing or something like that) of the company he was affiliated with, Extreme Associates. The host basically opined that free speech as an ideal and concept isn't worth much unless it also defends the types of speech that exists along the margins.

[@victorsalazar7166]

😎👍😉🤟🎼☠🖤🍻 Smile. \m/ ' [-_-] ' \m/....Bye... Bottoms up and cheers...Stay loud, stay proud, stay heavy. Take care, and be safe ....... #Adanporsiempre ......

[@curtisconrad3668]

Grass will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no grass freewheelin Franklin freak

[@Brabbs]

Why do i feel like this is too big for one video?

[@StrangeBrainParts]

I believe you're right. Just the evolution of Zap itself is quite a long topic. Not to mention, all the work that preceded the publication of that comic.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

@@StrangeBrainParts That said, this is excellent reference to refer those interested in learning. Thank you for making it.

[@pillarheights1130]

Help! where are the images from at 9:30 the AAAAAooooMMM 3 images?

[@robertafierro5592]

I forgot about Joe!!!

[@dscarty]

I was subverted 😀

[@ropeyarn]

Hydrogen Bomb And Chemical Warfare Funnies No.1