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.
Richard Corben was an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine, especially the Den series which was featured in the magazine's first film adaptation in 1981. He was the winner of the 2009 Spectrum Grand Master Award and the 2018 Grand Prix at Angoulême. In 2012 he was elected to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. Alternative comic books span a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.
Steven Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise Sam & Max, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games.
A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less.
Sam Kieth is an American comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl.
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, and Wonder Wart-Hog.
Jeremiah Ordway is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books.
A revolver is a type of firearm.
Malachy Coney is a comics writer and cartoonist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Ardoyne in the north of the city.
Michael Christopher Diana is an American underground cartoonist. His work, which is largely self-published, deals with themes including sexuality, violence, and religion. He is the first person to receive a criminal conviction in the United States for artistic obscenity for his comic Boiled Angel.
Howard Eugene Day was a Canadian comics artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' Star Wars licensed series and Master of Kung Fu. He was considered a mentor by independent comic writer/artist Dave Sim.
Brendan McCarthy is a British artist and designer who has worked for comic books, film and television. He co-wrote the film Mad Max: Fury Road. He is the brother of Jim McCarthy.
Jack Edward Jackson, better known by his pen name Jaxon, was an American cartoonist, illustrator, historian, and writer. He co-founded Rip Off Press, and some consider him to be the first underground comix artist, due to his most well-known comic strip God Nose.
Steve Pugh is a British comic book artist who has worked for American and British comic producers including DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and 2000 AD.
Bernard Edward Mireault is a Canadian comic book artist and writer.
Michael Terry Gilbert is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked for both mainstream and underground comic book companies.
John Workman is an American editor, writer, artist, designer, colorist and letterer in the comic book industry. He is known for his frequent partnerships with writer/artist Walter Simonson and also for lettering the entire run of Grant Morrison/Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol.
Bud Plant was a wholesale comics distributor active in the 1970s and 1980s during the growth of the direct market. He also published a selection of comics and zines during the same period. Starting in 1970 as a mail-order distributor specializing in underground comix, Plant absorbed some of his smaller rivals in the 1980s, and then sold his business to Diamond Comics Distributors in 1988. He still, as Bud Plant's Art Books, sells quality reprints and graphic novels.
Snappy Sammy Smoot is an American underground comix character created by Skip Williamson in 1968. A counterculture Candide who never loses his innocence, Snappy Sammy Smoot appeared in his own strips in a number of comix titles, most notably Bijou Funnies, Comix Book, and Blab!. Cultural critic David Manning White wrote about the strip, "But what is. .. interesting about 'Snappy Sammy Smoot' is that it manages to be politically radical at the same time it is satirical and funny," and that it is "one of more highly stylized in the field".
