WEEK SIX - UNDERGROUND COMICS

WEEK SIX - UNDERGROUND COMICS

        

When I took my first look at Robert Crumb's work I was shocked and mildly offended at the outright misogynistic themes. I took a brief look at a Tijuana Bibles and Air Pirates as well and was a little shocked at what I was reading. Oddly enough, I wasn't entirely hating it. In fact, I found it pretty entertaining. As I read on i understood why comics like these should and do exist.

The idea of underground comics is really quite exciting. Though some of the content may be highly questionable, I feel that this freedom of creation and content is also liberating. Some artists may incorporate severely offending material with misogyny, racism, sexism or anything else of the likes, but that doesn't mean that a lot of them actually contribute something positive that is deemed 'inappropriate' in society at the time. I quite enjoyed Tits and Clits because it was made by and for women primarily. It was honest, relatable, and I imagine liberating for women considering the pressures they had to go through at the time. I believe that censoring this type of material is ultimately counterproductive to the children that may be 'in danger' of reading them. Having these adult-themes and controversial subjects in an art-form like comics actually causes readers to handle heavy/touchy subjects, and explore other peoples ideas freely. Aside from all the logical reasons why underground comics aren't necessarily as bad as I'd originally thought, is the fact that they are exciting to read. 

They are underground, exclusive, and locally produced and distributed. There were probably communities that surrounded around the circulation of these comics, and the creative freedom that these young artists had was entirely unique. There were no pressures from the censorship laws and the art wasn't expected to be visually appealing but rather stimulating, interesting, and totally personal. I believe that in these conditions, truly original and exciting content can be created. Underground comics are pretty cool!