RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Your favorite underground/adult comics

I was recently looking through my collection of Corben books, and his early work (1970-1974) was all in the undergrounds. It was through his work in anthology books that I inadvertantly gained an appreciation for guys like Jaxon, Sheridan, Spain, Irons, Holmes and many more, and expanded to other underground work.


This cover (ALL-CANADIAN BEAVER COMIX # 1, by Rand Holmes) in particular is among my favorites:



I still enjoy the Corben stuff the best, books like FANTAGOR, SLOW DEATH, SKULL COMICS, and GRIM WIT.







The best one I read recently was DILLINGER (Last Gasp, 1991, by Bill Lee), well written and nice art. It tells the story of 1930's outlaw John Dillinger, with a few fantasy-element twists where Dillinger sells his soul to the devil on his path to fame as an outlaw.

I love the quiet power of this cover also, from SLOW DEATH 4 (1972)

Yep. Those look like the good christian comics that you're always blabbing about.

Another favorite series of mine is ANDROMEDA, a six-issue anthology series with beautifully detailed art, in adaptations of popular science fiction authors of the period.



One in particular I love from ANDROMEDA 3 is "Exile of the Aeons" by Arthur C. Clarke, with lavishly detailed airbrush art by Paul Rivoche. (I didn't see Rivoche's art again until his MISTER X series, which was in a far less appealing minimalist LOVE & ROCKETS style I didn't like at all.
But this ANDROMEDA story is great stuff. He must have spent an entire year doing this story!

I used to read Shitbag VonFanny.

When I was about ten, my mom bought me this book for Christmas one year: http://www.amazon.com/Comix-History-Comic-Books-America/dp/0517110377

She apparently didn't look inside too carefully because, along with the chapters reproducing DC, Marvel and Disney comics, there was a lengthy section devoted to reprinting underground comics like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and even Tiajuana Bibles.

I collected the Heavy Metal magazine for years, back when I was a teen. Loved all the T&A in those, as well as the fantastic stories and artwork from international talent (i.e. Corbin, Frazetta, Moebius, etc.)

I used to read this comic about an angry, alcoholic, philandering, wife punching soccer hooligan.

Steve Ditko's Mr A and similar (usually Objectivist-themed ) comics by him.

There's a B/W Wally Wood comic about an American (I think) who flew around the world and fought commies and had sex with women. Kinda like a softcore porn version of James Bond. One comic had WWI, WWII and Cold War fighter planes taking on each other.

Milo Manara and Guido Crepax are great artists, but I'm not so keen on BDSM. Gulliveriana by Manara seems funny. Might buy that one, though I've heard it's not one of his best.

I bought a TPB copy of Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss, appropriately titled Thick Black Kiss, not too long ago at the LCS. (Not 2nd hand, but it must have been in the store for a long time.) Art looks great though I prefer Chaykin's art when it's coloured, like American Flagg!, Time2 and his Blackhawk mini-series. (Probably his The Shadow mini as well.) As I said, not a big fan of BDSM, but I love Chaykin's art enough and there's an actual plot in the story so it will hopefully be awesome anyway.

The OG Black and white Ninja Turtles.

I read Garfield until Lyman died of AIDS.

I loved the sixties Blondie strips where Dagwood was a cuckold.

The infamous rape scene from the Wizard of ID.

Are any of these really "underground comics"? Most, if not all, of the examples you cite are by mainstream creators and/or publishers.

I also remember when Cathy took James Caan hostage and forced him to write a book.

Remember when Beetle Baily got chlamydia? I do.

What about ze Germans, Tommy?

Don't be silly, he was rape-killed by Jon Arbuckle and hidden in the basement.

THE GOD DAMN GERMANS AIN'T GOT NUTHIN TO DO WITH IT!

I'm told Lil Abner was full of incest.

Herman asphyxiated his wife of 65 years with a pillow in the last one of those.

I have the lost Peanuts where Peppermint Patty gets her first period in class.

The B/W Steve Ditko and Wallace Wood comics certainly are. You think underground is only for hippies?

On that note, I've read some of Art Spiegelman's pre-Maus comics; they were pretty... interesting, at least.

Oh! Almost forgot! Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb! Hilarious stuff!

The others may not be "underground", but they sure are "adult"... Also, define "mainstream", since most US comics fans seem to consider anything outside DC and Marvel as not being "mainstream".

Adult, like when Loretta got a glass dildo for Christmas in The Lockhorns.

You somehow have feline HIV, Charlie Brown.

I dunno whether Snoopy is disappoint (sic!) or relieved.

There have been a lot of mainstream publishers besides DC/Marvel over the years: Charleton, Image, Dark Horse, etc.

In fact, if you want to argue that anything but DC and Marvel is underground, you just declared Archie and Gold Key to be "underground" comics.

And if "adult" = "underground" then the Vertigo and Max books are "underground"...and I don't think anyone would believe that Time Warner and Disney are in the underground comics business.

There is no "e" in Charlton.

Also, if you read the original post title, Wonderboy/Dave wrote "underground/adult". IIRC, slash means "or", not "and". (Not that it really matters.) Which means I can use Frank Miller's "Sin City" as an example if I want to. Because, y'know, boobs.

G-man, you haven't put Wonderboy on ignore, have you? How "underground" and/or "adult" do you reckon an adaptation of an Arthur C. Clarke story is?

Not that I fault Wonderboy on that, as long as it was a good comic. Perhaps he meant that the themes were "adult" in the sense that they required a level of intelligence and/or experience not met by young readers.

On that note, Marshall Roger's adaptation of Harlan Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand is awesome, as I've mentioned in another thread.

If WB had mentioned only Andromeda you might have a point in saying "WB did it first." But he also mentioned stuff that was generally more accepted as examples of "underground" than, for example, a series by the co-creator of Spider-man.

Yeah, Capt Sweden, I did mean it to be inclusive of 60's/70's underground material (and later stuff following in that tradition, like Eros comics from Fantagraphics) or adult material in comics (like HEAVY METAL, European Graphic novels that have a similar nudity and adult themes)

I normally would exclude most fantasy/adventure stuff from, say, First Comics, Pacific, and Eclipse. But AMERICAN FLAGG is so overtly sexual that I'd say it qualifies.

Wally Wood's CANNON you mentioned (re-released by Eros/Fantagraphics in the early 1990s, I don't know where it was previously published) is the example you've given so far that comes closest to what I view as "underground adult comics".



Likewise Wood's self-published fanzine WITZEND, which has quite a bit of nudity, and is an underground rose by another name.

MR A. by Ditko, while not sexually explicit, is a small-press release with mature themes that is clearly not for a mainstream audience, and was probably distributed through underground channels. Much of the stuff in, for example, SKULL COMICS, is not sexually explicit, but aimed at an older audience (pre-code-style horror stories, and H.P. Lovecraft adaptations).
In content, I would not consider MR. A. "underground/adult", but it squeaks into that category by being intended for an adult audience, and by the way it was distributed. But generally, I mean 70's underground or boobies.

ANDROMEDA that I listed for the most part is just sophisticated storytelling in a magazine that had underground-style distribution. Although it does have some nudity as well.

A similar magazine, STAR REACH, and its companion books IMAGINE, PARSIFAL and QUACK, are considered "middle ground" or "over ground" comics, but have similar bits of sex and playful nudity, even though much of it was done by mostly mainstream artists.

My apologies to G-man for my ambiguity, I should have been more clear. But as I often do, I left it vague for all-inclusiveness, to make for a more broad and interesting topic.

Well... comic strips are mainstream and don't have any "adult" material, in terms of nudity, non-mainstream distribution, or complex storytelling.

I know you and Jaburg are just havin' fun, and if that's something everyone's really interested in, I'll start another topic for it.

To this day, I'm still scrounging Comic shops for a vintage horror series that was published from mid-80s to early 90s. It was an anthology book featuring stories that covered fantasy, noir, and sci-fi subject matter. I read it when I was younger and just getting into comicbooks, but I threw out the issues that I had because they were so depressing. Now I'm regretting it.

The only solid thing I can remember about it is that every cover had a cobra snake on it. Not even a smidgen of a recollection of the title is within my grasp.

Id rather ruin this topic, thanks.

Was it GI Joe? Cuz it sounds like GI Joe.

So you're saying that if you worked in the mainstream biz, you were barred from being "underground"?

And I did post a few examples of *adult*-themed comics and creators.

At least these websites calls Mr A etc creator-owned Steve Ditko comics as well as the title it was published in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzend

http://schulzlibrary.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/steve-ditko-and-mr-a/

(I could have sworn I had seen that remark in other website, but there ya go.)