Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, and MAD Magazine from its inception in 1952 until 1964, as well as for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and work for Warren Publishing's Creepy. He drew a few early issues of Marvel's Daredevil and established the title character's distinctive red costume. Wood created and owned the long-running characters Sally Forth and Cannon.
Star Reach was an American science fiction and fantasy comics anthology published from 1974 to 1979 by Mike Friedrich.
Larry Hama is an American comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s.
Alfonso Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy.
Herbert William Trimpe was an American comics artist and occasional writer, best known as the seminal 1970s artist on The Incredible Hulk and as the first artist to draw for publication the character Wolverine, who later became a breakout star of the X-Men.
Linda Fite is an American writer and editor who wrote the entire run of the Marvel Comics series The Cat (1972).
Ralph Reese is an American artist who has illustrated for books, magazines, trading cards, comic books and comic strips, including a year drawing the Flash Gordon strip for King Features. Prolific from the 1960s to the 1990s, he is best known for his collaboration with Byron Preiss on the continuing feature "One Year Affair", serialized in the satiric magazine National Lampoon from 1973 to 1975 and then collected into a 1976 book.
Florence Steinberg was an American publisher of one of the first independent comic books, the underground/alternative comics hybrid Big Apple Comix, in 1975. Additionally, as the secretary for Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee and the fledgling company's receptionist and fan liaison during the 1960s Silver Age of Comic Books, she was a key participant of and witness to Marvel's expansion from a two-person staff to a pop culture conglomerate.
The Academy of Comic Book Arts (ACBA) was an American professional organization of the 1970s that was designed to be the comic book industry analog of such groups as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Composed of comic-book professionals and initially formed as an honorary society focused on discussing the comic-book craft and hosting an annual awards banquet, the ACBA evolved into an advocacy organization focused on creators' rights.
The Creator's Bill of Rights is a document drafted in November 1988 by a number of independent comic book artists, writers, and publishers, designed to protect their rights as creators and publishers and oppose exploitation by corporate work for hire practices and the power of distributors to dictate the means of distribution. Issues covered by the Bill included giving creators proper credit for their characters and stories, profit-sharing, distribution, fair contracts, licensing, and return of original artwork. The signing of the Bill spurred Cerebus creator and self-publisher Dave Sim and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators/self-publishers Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird to sell or continue selling collected volumes of their comics directly to readers via their periodic issues, rather than through direct market distributors selling the collections at comic book specialty shops. Comic book professionals that have commented on the Bill conclude that it had little or no impact on the comic book industry.
Tower of Shadows is a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by the American company Marvel Comics under this and a subsequent name from 1969 to 1975. It featured work by writer-artists Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, and Wally Wood, writer-editor Stan Lee, and artists John Buscema, Gene Colan, Tom Sutton, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson.
Chamber of Darkness is a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by the American company Marvel Comics. Under this and a subsequent name, it ran from 1969 to 1974. It featured work by creators such as writer-editor Stan Lee, writers Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Roy Thomas, and artists John Buscema, Johnny Craig, Jack Kirby, Tom Sutton, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson. Stories were generally hosted by either of the characters Digger, a gravedigger, or Headstone P. Gravely, in undertaker garb, or by one of the artists or writers.
John Verpoorten was an American comic book artist and editorial worker best known as Marvel Comics' production manager during the latter part of the Silver Age of Comic Books and afterward, during a seminal period of Marvel's expansion from a small publishing concern to a multinational popular culture corporation.
Notable events of 2002 in comics. See also List of years in comics.
The East Coast Comicon is an annual comic book fan convention that takes place in New Jersey. It began in 2011 as the Asbury Park Comicon, and took place in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Due to its expansion and the need for a larger venue, it was renamed the East Coast Comicon in 2015, and moved to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Michele Wrightson, also known as Michele Brand, was an American artist who worked in the comic book industry. The former wife of underground cartoonist Roger Brand, she started out as an underground comix cartoonist. Later, when she was married to comics artist Bernie Wrightson, she made her name as a colorist. She was a key contributor to the first all-female underground comic, It Ain't Me, Babe, as well as its follow-up series, Wimmen's Comix.
Notable events of 2017 in comics. See also List of years in comics. This is a list of comics-related events in 2017. It includes any relevant comics-related events, deaths of notable comics-related people, conventions and first issues by title.
