Let's get back to the Duck, shall we?
This weekend I picked up some underground comix. I've decided that it's perhaps time to expand the collection not so much in size, but in...depth, perhaps? I have a few comics that are considered either rare or valuable, but I've never made much effort to go after them. With the decided exception of The Doom Patrol. But I'm developing a liking for the undergrounds - they're so much more raw than other comics. And more expensive.
(I will say that it's nice to actually be at a point financially where I feel like I can do that, spend a bit more on single issues. It's been a while.)
But what I really want to say about Howard is that it reads in a lot of ways like an underground that's being published by a mainstream company. The parodic figures that Howard and Bev encounter (the Reverend Joon Moon Yuc, taking on the Moonie cult, a prime example) are exactly the sorts of commentaries that we see in the undergrounds. Though there's decidedly less swearing and nudity, much of the action (like the horse-riding real estate agent Heathcliff Rochester entering a battle) is over the top and very much, in both written and visual composition, seeming underground somehow. Of course, I find it very likely that much of the Marvel bullpen of the Seventies was consuming undergrounds. Perhaps Howard is one way that their influence filters through.
The aforementioned Reverend gets the best line of dialogue today, one that says so very, very much about fundamentalist belief systems: "Shield your eyes with your good books -- and join me in prayer!"
*sigh*
More to come...
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