The roots of the underground comics lay in the hippy counterculture and the unrest that arose out of the Vietnam war. This is a highfalutin' way of saying that there were a bunch of guys (and a few gals too) who didn't want to relive the fifties and who were pissed off with being drafted to Vietnam to die when they actually preferred to smoke dope and generally goof around.

Comics were a good way of goofing around. In the past if you did cartoons you either worked for production line companies such as Marvel or DC or else tried to sell a syndicated strip to newspapers.

The underground scene was less of a straightjacket. You could use your own characters, the deadlines were flexible according to how stoned you were and when it came to subject matter, anything went - though the "anything went" was chiefly restricted to sex and drugs and rock and roll and the odd copyright infringement.

This stereotype does not fit all artists. Some were more radical than others, some were more stoned. Some had a deep knowledge of past comic book history whilst others had scarcely read a comic book before. Whatever their motivation a whole slew of comic strips began appearing in counterculture publications such as "The Berkeley Barb" and the East Village Other".

The underground comics truly scene began in February 1968 when Robert Crumb drew, wrote and published the first issue of Zap. There had been underground comics before - Jack Jackson's "God Nose" for example - but Zap proved the catalyst for a whole bunch of cartoonists to start and contribute to their own comics.

Crumb was living in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, the hippy centre centre of the world. The promise of a new art form coupled with a good time drew cartoonists from all over America including New York, Texas, Cleveland and British Columbia.

The family of underground cartoonists grew. Names like Robert Crumb, S Clay Wilson, Frank Stack, Jaxon, Rick Griffin, Dan O'Neill, Kim Deitch (son of UPA animator Gene Deitch), Jay Lynch,Greg Irons, Roger Brand, Gilbert Shelton, Vaughn Bode, Guy Colwell, Trina Robbins, Dave Sheridan, Melinda Gebbie, Bill Griffith, Victor Moscoso, Justin Green, Richard Corben, Spain, Rory Hayes, Rand Holmes, Art Spiegleman, willy Murphy and George Metzger.

And Within a short time a whole slew of underground comics followed - Binky Brown meets the Holy Virgin Mary, Insect Fear, Air Pirates Funnies, the Fabulous Fury Freak Brothers, Bijou Funnies, Tits and Clits, Slow Death, Trashman, Insect Fear, Commies from Mars, Young Lust and Arcade Funnies. The scene was deluged with comics. Good, bad, ugly and unreadable comics. At first it didn't matter.

Hippies bought their comics with their dope smoking equipment, often from the same place. Some of the cartoonists began to think about being rich. There was talk of the undergrounds even usurping the established comics such as DC and Marvel (Marvel and Dennis Kitchen actually collaborated on "Comix Book" but it was unsuccessful) but with the end of the Vietnam War suddenly underground comix went out of fashion.

Some artists stayed in the industry, some died and some moved on. By 1975 it was all over bar a few isolated corpses that didn't know they were dead yet.

But the undergrounds left a legacy of independent publishing. Others began to challenge the traditional comic structure. Comics themselves are in decline in terms of readership but there is a much greater diversity of comics available. Today there is still an audience for super heroes but there are also audiences for the likes of "Love and Rockets" "Cerebus", Dan clowes and Chris Ware.

And there are also the independents…

Independent comics are the punk rock bastard child of the undergrounds. They are cheaply produced, are low circulation, often have incompetent artwork and stories that are pathetic and juvenile but they have the spirit of punk fanzines. Sort of "Hey - anyone can make a comic so why not me." Getting someone to read it is another matter as the remaindered racks in comic stores often show. But if you see any in a store give them the once over. You might be surprised.

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