I know we received a warning in class, but I truly still was unprepared for most of the content within the comics that I read. For the most part, I jumped between Zap, Arcade, Barefoots, and I also looked at Four Sketchbooks and Gay Comic. I also listened to most of the songs provided, but my favorite was Strange Brew while I read. I think it's safe to say, because of some of the content in comics, that it was hard to enjoy most of the comics even while being pretty immersed just because of my own personal tastes. (Gay Comics actually being an exception to this rule.) So I want to talk about what I did like about the comics.
I thought the art style and graphics linework was wildly energetic, and a lot of the illustrations were extreme caricature that had been pushed to the brink of stylization and exaggeration in order to depict a character's most important physical traits or to help stereotype characters in away. I found that especially in Zap and Four Sketchbooks. The drawings overall where what impressed me the most, and while I sometimes found some of the comic stories to be humorous or entertaining, I couldn't truly relate to any other comic other than Gay Comix.
Gay Comix was blunt and brutally honest about the gay and queer experience, and even though there were still parts of the comic that were a little... too much for me, I supremely enjoyed a lot of the storytelling and felt like these were glorified or romanticized stories that I can often see today, but rather the comic artist sat me down in their living rooms and simply told me how being queer was and how their life had unfolded. The best way I can put reading Gay Comix was that it was a conversation. One that I really enjoyed out of all the rest, and inspires me to keep reading it.
I agree that it's hard to enjoy some of the Underground Comix, at least when it comes to stuff like Zap. Basically, the comics made by (presumably straight and white) men is only palatable because of the art. I didn't get to read any Gay Comix, but I read some Wimmen's Comix and that was much better. The art from what I read wasn't as good, but the stories are much better. In addition to women's experiences, there are some abstract female-centric stories. They feel very fairly tale-esque, and I recommend them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I was not prepare for what I was going to see in the comics that we read. I didn't read Gay Comix but I can relate to what you said about it being blunt and brutally honest with the comic that I read. I liked that the comics started a conversation and in a way, I'm glad we got to read them and got away from the comic styles that we are used to seeing.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to continue reading very entertaining but really racist, sexist things, I'd read Drool because I felt like the racial profiling in this work kicked it up to 11. I wish I could admire this comic the way you did yours, but the way they depicted the African Americans in Harlem I couldn't get past. I'll read some Gay Comix and give the underground comics another chance because you talked about them in such a positive light.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post, it is important to have conversations like these. Otherwise, we can't grow as a society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that despite the warnings we received for the underground comics, they still came as a large shock. Despite this though, I also agree with you in the conversational feeling that was in Gay Comix. The lack of thorough editing, I think, really allowed for the creation of content without a need to comply to what the general people wanted to hear. Shocking as some of these underground comics were, they're all what these authors wanted to say.
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