Underground Comics

The underground comics movement revels in adult humor and topics. Reading Zap and the Gay Comics collection, it’s apparent that the underground comics allowed creators that weren’t straight, white, and male to have a chance at letting their voices be heard (at least in the Gay Comics, Zap leaned more into the racism and sexism). The range of styles (from highly detailed to cruder drawings), and of the stories (from coming out, to humor, to dealing with internalized homophobia). While sex may have been a large focus in those comics, they were never really depicted as something abnormal, or at least they were shown to be in support to what the writers and artists were trying to express. In contrast to Zap, the sexuality of the characters was used as mainly a fodder for jokes that relied on stereotypes. In all honesty, I didn’t find Zap to be funny, and instead gravitated to the stories that were written by those who didn’t necessarily fit societies norm. Did I also find some of the stories funny? No, but I did appreciate the sincerity and dry wit that made the stories more compelling. 

In terms of the nature of the underground comics, I find that the strips who try too hard to be offensive (one particular one is from Tits and Clits, in which the artists try to juxtapose the rape with almost romantic undertones, that did not work at all), to be almost less bold than the ones that try to add some form of subtleness into their stories. It might be a matter of taste situation, but one thing is certain. The cultural impact of the underground comics might have helped pave the way to loosening the fear of the comics code in creators. And to ultimately fight against the censorship that society has put in place.