Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix

This has greatly broadened my knowledge of comix and was delightful to read. I am not an art expert, but it seems quite scholarly, even heavy in some of the text. Almost 9" x 12". Of the 144 pages, nearly all have cartoons on them, first examples to go with the text, and then one or two pages to each of many artists with explanation of each artist's place.It is suggested that underground comics may have a major role in 20th century art, or at least in American art of the latter half of the century. That makes sense to me. Getting rid of repression is good for one's mental health.The impatient may want to skip the latter part of the text, and the faint of heart may stop before they get to Robert Williams and S. Clay Wilson.

I purchased this after seeing the art exhibit at the Chazen Art Museum on campus at University of Wisconsin. The exhibit is terrific. Who would guess that the underground comix I read in alternative press and in comic books would one day be treated as legitimate art? The book comes close to being at the exhibit and does a nice job of displaying the range of items in this exhibit. The show made me go out and by a copy of the Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus which includes all of the Brothers' stories under one cover.  The Freak Brothers Omnibus

Good collectable, thank you.

Buy it. Look at it. Read it. Enjoy it. You're welcome.Nine more words are/ were "required" for this review.

Very pleased

The underground comix of the 1960s and 1970s have always fascinated me for their rule-breaking, ground-breaking attitudes and counterculture artistic sensibilities. I've read more than a few of them over the years, although tracking them down, and understanding their context 20 to 30 years after their publication, has never been as easy task.That's partly why this oversized book from James Danky and Denis Kitchen is so welcome. It not only presents samples of the best underground art but also gives us a series of informative essays that put the whole underground comix scene in its historical context. With the art and text combined, the book shows how important these publications were in establishing comic books as a legitimate art form.Underground Classics the book actually got its start as an art exhibit assembled by Danky and Kitchen for the Chazen Museum of Art. As such, the bulk of this book is made up of gorgeous reproductions of original artwork by Robert Crumb, Bill Griffith, Howard Cruse, Gilbert Shelton, and dozens of other artists from the period. Each plate is accompanied by a paragraph of text that presents the history of the piece, the artist, the publication it came from, or the impact the strip had on the broader cultural movement.The essays--including an introduction by Jay Lynch, a retrospective by the editors, and an essay about the "wimmen's comix" movement by Trina Robbins--put the artwork in further perspective. We see how the movement got its start, how the artists struggled to fulfill their artistic visions in the broader context of the drug-fueled, peace and free-love '70s, and how the undergrounds had both an enormous impact and a limited legacy (they essentially burned themselves out on by 1980).As a historical document and an art book, Underground Classics is worth a look for any serious lover of the comic arts.-- John R. Platt

As someone who is fairly new to comics I was skeptical when one of my friends suggested I look at this book. I was familiar with R. Crumb but I wasn't even alive when the Underground Comix movement was taking place. But as I started flipping through the art and reading the essays at the beginning, I found myself laughing out loud and nodding my head. It's pretty amazing how much the comics that were made forty years ago are still relevant today. They deal with sex and drugs, but also race, political organizing, money, the lameness of the establishment, all that good stuff. To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the book is the fact that all of the art is shown in its original state, so you get to see some of the artists' thought processes and it just feels more accessible and real.After hoarding my friend's copy for a while, I not only bought a copy for myself but I gave one to my parents who were actually around for the heyday of the underground movement. They both got all nostalgic about where they were when they first read Zap or Snarf magazine and it sparked some interesting conversations. I highly recommend this book for just about anyone who is interested in not only comics and art, but sarcasm, subversive humor, and fun.

This book is one of a kind. It situates the rise of underground comics into the broader history of the 1960s/1970s (or, with the 1960s/1970s at the center of the narrative -- it really covers the 1950s to the present). There are some superb essays -- one by the editors, one by comix buff and radical historian Paul Buhle. Trina Robbins ties together feminism and comix. The book is worth buying for the written material alone, but the scores of large, colorful pages depicting the work (sometimes in rare original and draft form) of well-known (and less well-known) artists is the real treat. Cumulatively, these images and the text accompanying them provide one of the best surveys of underground comics history. It's a hugely fun read. Anyone interested in comics, the 1960s, art history, feminism, etc., should check this book out.