The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2265: Skull #6, 1972

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Yet more EC-inspired creepiness in today's issue. The story actually reminds me a lot of Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," albeit with a bit more sex and violence. It's a full-issue story, written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Greg Irons and Richard Corben. Mr. Veitch originally came to my attention as the writer of Animal Man after Peter Milligan's follow-up to Morrison's glorious run. His work on the title, incredibly ably assisted by Steve Dillon, is sadly amongst the more forgettable parts of the series. That said, it's been ages since I've read it, so perhaps it would read better now that I have some idea of where Mr. Veitch cut his teeth. I'd be ecstatic to see some underground influence in his tale of Buddy Baker returning to the life of a stunt man.

As for the story, the more I think about it, the more it really is Charles Dexter Ward's story. A warlock in the past figures out a way to inhabit his ancestor in the future in order to continue his arcane researches. Inbetween we have the unfortunate story of the woman who is impregnated by the warlock and who, at least on the surface, serves simply as a device to carry the story forward. There is a nice little twist at the end, however,  that redeems her somewhat.

----------------------------------------

In the couple of months I've been away, I've continued reading for the project, making my way through my "A" publishers. I'll continue on with that tomorrow, having exhausted my new pile of undergrounds.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2264: Mr. Natural #3, 1977

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Though he's considered the founder of the underground comix movement, I don't really enjoy R. Crumb's comics all that much. He's been rightly called out for his violent and misogynistic portrayals of women in his work, as well as his use of ethnic caricature, well into a time when he should have know that such things were not particularly acceptable.

Mr. Natural is a pretty OK character, an old Hippie trying to find the peace and cosmic tranquility promised by that generation. In today's issue, his quest for enlightenment causes him to be placed in an asylum, and that's actually the last we see of the titular hero. The next few pages are made up of slimy magazine editors trying to get the story on Mr. Natural and how this icon of the 60s ended up locked up in the 70s.

Some of the reading I did on Shamanism way back when points to the idea that, in tribal societies, the shaman often lives apart from the rest of the tribe, and evinces behaviours that we, in our spiritually-vacant scientific way, would label as schizophrenic. To this end, whenever I pass someone on the street who is obviously living in both our world and another one that only they can see, I tend to listen, just in case I glean a pearl of wisdom from them. We treat our extreme neuroatypical people like they're diseased, rather than touched by something that we cannot understand completely. These are the sorts of things I was thinking about while reading this comic. Mr. Natural is committed by his old friend Flaky Foont who, by the 70s, has moved on from enlightenment seeking and into the secular reactionary period of the late 70s and 1980s. The Hippie stuff didn't make its way back around until the 90s, when I was in high school.

This is, of course, not to say that when someone is suffering from a mental state that is dangerous to themselves and others that we shouldn't take some steps to keep everyone from harm. But perhaps we ought to be listening to what they're saying and not simply taking it as the ramblings of a diseased mind.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2263: Slow Death #2, 1970

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 I really love Dave Sheridan's work. He illustrates the first tale in this issue and, if I'm to be completely honest, it's the way he illustrates naked women that really gets me. They're just really well...rendered.

As with yesterday's Skull, this issue, and perhaps series, takes a good deal of inspiration from the old EC horror comics. I continue to be amazed at the influence that this relatively short-lived run of horror comics has had on the industry even to this day. Amazed, but not surprised. I've read enough of them to know that, literally, they're some of the best comics to have been produced in the West, despite their subject matter which might not sit well for all readers. Apparently it did sit well for the creators of these underground comix.

Further to that, the undergrounds themselves are hugely influential, highlighted in R. Crumb's dubious recognition as an American artistic icon. For my own education, then, I wonder if it behooves me to find out what it was that was influencing the writers of the old ECs. I've tried going back and reading some of the venerable newspaper strips of the time, but they don't really do much for me. It could be that the comics of 100 years ago don't speak to me the way they did to the artists they influenced, I guess.

Of course, I ought to mention Richard Corben, or Gore, whose story in this issue contains his trademark large boobs and disgusting revenants. A neat little horror tale that looks a little too close to home if I think about it hard enough.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

 As I was searching for links, I found out that Mr. Corben died in December of last year (2020). As if it wasn't a bad enough time. Check out his official website, the digital ghost that lingers from his passing.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2262: Skull #5, 1972

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  When I picked this comic up, I had no idea that it was a collection of adaptations of Lovecraft's tales. Though I'm having a bit of a tough time with old HPL these days, given that his work is just brimming over with disgusting racism, but it's undeniable the influence he's had on writers and artists in the 100 or so years that his work has been in publication. And, in the fifty or so years since this comic was published, the ways we think about, and recognize, racism have become much more sophisticated.

That said, not many of the gross parts of Lovecraft's stories, ideologically speaking, show up in this comic. In fact, they're all pretty excellent adaptations, the Larry Todd "Shadow Out of the Abyss," an adaptation of "The Shadow Out of Time," is definitely the stand out. I've always liked that story. It also turns out that, potentially, the previous issue of this series is the first appearance of Cthulhu in a comic book. That basically immediately shoots it to the top of the hunt list. Always a good feeling.

For those, like myself, who may be wrestling with Lovecraft's racism, here's one way of doing it. I find such attitudes thoroughly repugnant, so when I read one of his stories, because it is undeniable that there is something brilliant and incredible about them, the layer of racism actually ads a level of horror for me. Rather than simply being scared or titillated by the actual events of the story, the added inflection of racism, when it becomes apparent, makes the stories even more horrifying. The excellent Internet critic hbomberguy does some cool stuff with Lovecraft, including talking about being queer and liking HPL's work. In the final analysis, he suggests also that it would thoroughly piss off the old racist to know that we're reading and talking about his work the way we are. And that's what racists deserve.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

Check out the rest of hbomberguy's stuff on YouTube.

Unsurprisingly, Lovecraft shows up quite a bit in my writing. Shocking, I know. 

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2261: Rip Off Comix #1, 1977

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I've had some thoughts on anthology comics over the years. They often simply don't work, owing to an uneven quality of story, or a poor choice of mixture. Dark Horse Presents is the only one I can think of that had a successful run. Most others, like the excellent Oni Double Feature lasted less than a year, despite having luminaries like Neil Gaiman, Paul Dini, and Kevin Smith writing for them.

The thing is, many underground comix are anthologies, and they don't seem to suffer from the same problems, as far as I can see. Yes, they tend to have short runs (because they're self-published, dontcha know?), though today's title managed to survive about 15 years. Now, it only published 31 issues in that time, but still.

So what it is that makes an underground anthology work as opposed to a ground level or mainstream anthology? I don't actually think it has too much to do with the actual art and story, not from a quality perspective, as we might think with more recent attempts at anthologies. Instead, I'd argue that it stems from a focus of perspective and context from the artists. Underground creators tend to spring from the Hippie movement, and their stories, despite their disparity, have a constancy of philosophy that makes the anthology work. Here we have creators who are not afraid to put their social ideologies right there on the page, and who are also not afraid to laugh at and critique those very philosophies. They tell us what they believe in but also that it's okay to not take these philosophies, and by dint of that any philosophies, very seriously. I think that it we all took our personal philosophies a little less seriously, the world, pandemic aside, would be in much better shape.

So much good stuff in here, but the Wonder Warthog cover with all my fave superheroes, and the story within in which he has to apply for welfare, are the standouts. The unemployment stuff covered in that story is chillingly similar to what we face these days. No wonder these comics are talking to me now.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

If you've never read the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, or The Griffith Observatory, or Wonder Warthog, head over to Rip Off Press and give them a try. You won't be disappointed. 

 

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2260: Compost Comics #1, 1973

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As Abed says at the beginning of Community season 2, "And we're back." I've decided that it's time I get back to my routines - they're very helpful for someone with ADHD, and I've let them, and my mental health, slide, for far too long. So I'm really going to try this time.

I posted a picture of this comic and some others that I bought last week on my Instagram, which I'll also be getting back to. I think I may open up a Twitter and Facebook page for the GBoC as well. And, I'd forgotten, but there's a GBoC Pinterest page too. Just gotta make sure I don't get sucked into them again.

Soooo....this was a pretty great comic. Honestly, in much the same way that the EC horror comics are, it's difficult to find an underground comic that isn't great. Sometimes they're off-putting and awful, but that's the whole point and they say what they want to say, and what they mean to say, without too much obfuscation.

Also, the comic says "Vegetarians Only" on the cover, so I was wooed immediately. Published in 1973 (a year before my own advent), the comic deals with the Hippie movement pretty much full on. Though often associated with the previous decade, the Hippies really came into their own in the wake of the Summer of Love (1969, for those of you who are very young), and spent the first few years of the 70s trying to bring about the perfect world they envisioned. Then cocaine happened, and the Hippies started on their downward journey to becoming Boomers. *sigh*

For me, the highlight (pun intended) is a Larry Todd "Dr. Atomic" story. I like the doctor. He reminds me of me, had I been a scientifically-inclined pot-head in the early years of the 70s. The rest of the pieces are entertaining, especially the weird little alternate history tale at the end, giving us the "true origin of civilization" while still sticking, at least geographically, to the very fertile valley towhich we often assign the earliest of civilizations. Some history along with our drug-fuelled insanity.

I have to admit, I'd gotten out of comics for a bit. When Doom Patrol: Weight of Worlds and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ended, I really couldn't find anything to interest me anymore. It happens occasionally. But I'm back in, with continuation of the absolutely brilliant The Wrong Earth and the very strange Ice Cream Man. Check them out. They're really good.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

There's not much out there about Larry Todd, one of today's artists. Here's his Wikipedia page. 

But if you're interested in what I've had to say about Underground comics, here it all is.

 

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1958: The Adventures of the Little Green Dinosaur #1, 1972

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For the first time in about 6 months, I got out to Purple Gorilla Comics yesterday and dropped some cash. This was the most expensive of the things I picked up, a lovely little underground from the early 70s. It's got everything you could possibly want in an underground comic - humour, satire, drugs, sex, and a lovable, cartoonish focal character who stumbles through a series of magic carpet directed adventures. I wonder if it's worth looking at the picaresque in terms of underground comics? 

 

I can't find any information on Johnny Chambers, who is primarily responsible for today's comic. He's ably assisted by Bob Inwood, credited with "atmosphere," and each of the dinosaur's adventures certainly has a very different one, both thanks to Inwood's backgrounds (I think) and Chambers' story.

 

There's something about a lot of the underground stuff I read that seems very naive now, but, really, everything does with the benefit of time. This comic is almost 50 years old. When I think of that number, I do a good job of showing where in time I myself have become stuck - to me, the 1950s are 50 years ago, not the 1970s. And if I think about the attitudes, even the most liberal ones, expressed in much literature from the 50s, it, too, sounds naive. Just as we will in 2070. If we make it that far. What's interesting is that attached to the naivety is also a crudity of language. This is not to disparage the writers, of course, but just to note that our language has evolved significantly in the last 50 years, and, as the Disney+ warnings tell us, sometimes we're going to be exposed to archaic ideas that we find distasteful. This, sadly, is the price of reading older works, be they comics, magazines, or paragons of literary achievement. I'm reading a book about Lemuria from the 1930s right now, and the use of the terms "superior" and "inferior" races is just awful.

 

I tell myself that they didn't know any better. But, y'know, they should have.

 

More to follow.

 

 Further Reading and Related Posts

 

 I am slowly discovering the undergrounds - they're weird and angry and psychedelic and I love them. But they're definitely not comics for everyone.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1658: Girl Fight Comics #2, 1974

It's Trina Robbins. That's just about all you need to know about this comic. Her art is, as always, just stunningly beautiful, the stories biting and witty.

I've been reading a lot of undergrounds over the last couple of days, which is not always a good thing. They can be very heavy, either from social commentary or from the density of the art. Ms. Robbins' art is not dense, but the issues she deals with in this comic are. The worst part is that they're issues that we're still talking about, 45 years later. That said, I'd totally read more stories featuring any of the characters introduced in this issue. I'll have to do a bit of research to see if they make any more appearances.

I think that tomorrow I may dip my toes into some of the comics that bridge the undergrounds and the indies of the 80s, stuff like Star*Reach or Arik Khan. Been a while since I read some good, solid Sci-Fi or Fantasy.

"Lissen, buster, the name is Katherine Black, but my friends call me Kat!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1555: Army Surplus Komikz feat. Cutey Bunny #5, 1985

The final issue of Cutey Bunny's series participates in the time-honoured tradition of independent/underground comix taking a strip out of mainstream supehero fare. Today's issue basically boils down to anthropomorphic versions of the X-Men versus an amalgam of Justice League, Avengers, and Fantastic Four parodies. Once again, though, the story occurs almost tangentially to the fact that Kelly O'Hare is supposed to be starring in the Army Surplus comic. A between jobs visit to Fatty Tubbins' grandmother turns into a superhero slugfest. The usual cast of Kelly's stories are joined here by her comic co-stars the Space Beavers, and the usual kinds of parodic shenanigans ensue. Though entertaining, I'd have to say this isn't my favourite of the series. To this point, I'd found the stories to be novel in and of themselves, carving out a unique niche in the early indie comics landscape of the 80s. But this issue doesn't do much to distinguish itself from other superhero parodies, and is indeed not quite on par with some of the more nuanced and amusing ones (Dave Sim's Roach character was doing similar things at the time, and doing them to much greater effect).

This is not to say, certainly, that there's nothing to recommend this issue. Quagmire's art is glorious as always, and he most certainly has a level of respect for both his own creations and those that he is aping. But the flair I would associate with the previous issues seems lacking here.

Kelly's adventures continue in the Fantagraphics anthology series Critters, though I've only managed to track down a single issue featuring the buxom bunny. But they're on the list.

"The transmogrification synthesizer...it alterd our molecular structure, so we're just like the characters in the comix...neet, huh?"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1554: Army Surplus Komikz feat. Cutey Bunny #4, 1985

Ahh, who doesn't love a good origin story? Or sort-of-origin story? Today we meet Ra (yes, that Ra) who comes to critique exactly how Kelly is using the powers he bestowed upon her. With divinely-powered heroes, this kind of thing happens all the time. How many times has Deadman had to deal with this kind of criticism from Rama Kushna? How many times has Dr. Fate had to defy a ridiculous edict from the Lords of Order? I mean, I get it. If you're a deity that's empowered a mere mortal to carry out your divine will, you expect some results - but it's not like the person has agreed to be enslaved to you or your ideas. What's the point of being empowered (in any sense of the term) if you can't use that empowerment for your own fulfillment as well?

Ra is depicted amusingly, however, in that he's a 4000 year old deity who has absolutely no sense of how the modern world works. And this applies not just to social mores but also to much simpler things, like mistaking a small coffee pot for Kelly's home. He's a deity out of time, which is actually kind of a cool story to be telling. How would an ancient Egyptian deity adjust to life in the 1980s?

"Ra is omnipo...ummmm...*cof, cof* eh...what did you say your name was again, kid...?

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1553: Army Surplus Komikz feat. Cutey Bunny #3, 1984

I think one of the things that stands out for me about this comic is that the stories are very organic. In some ways, it feels like the adventures of Cutey Bunny and her friends that we're reading are tales happening between their regular adventures. Often we'll meet up with Kelly when she's visiting the offices of the comic book she stars in and then something crazy will happen, sidetracking us from finding out what her regularly-scheduled adventure would have been. There's something of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern here, in that we're following characters in the interstices of "official" adventures. We have to presume that, in the fictional universe, Kelly's comic book adventures are quite different from the ones that we're witnessing.

Today the team goes international, combatting lake monsters in Scotland. Oh, and the space gophers continue to try to make their way to Dirty Zelda's, a bar that sounds like the best place in the galaxy.

One other note: I didn't skip an issue. #2 got reviewed a couple of years ago.

"By Jove Kelly,...must you be so vivacious..!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1552: Army Surplus Komikz feat. Cutey Bunny #1, 1982

Jumping back into the late underground with Joshua Quagmire and his buxom bunny. Last time I reviewed an issue of this series, I noted how it hearkened back to the older undergrounds, rather than the new vanguard that was quickly morphing into the alternative comics scene. It's also a forerunner in many ways for the diverging yet linked subgenres of anthropomorphic animal comics (Usagi Yojimbo, TMNT, etc, etc.) and furry porn (Genus, Filthy Animals). Kelly O'Hare is meant to be ogled, though she's well aware of the fact and doesn't let those who do (including the audience) get away with it. As comics collectors, fans, scholars, we're prone to dividing things up so that they're easier to talk about. The Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Marshmallow Age, etc, or Alternative Comics, Mainstream Comics, Underground Comix. One thing I've started to notice is that there are a multitude that refuse such categorization. Army Surplus is such a one, I think.

Though I won't delve into it too much here, I think there must be a sub-genre of comics in which the actual writers of the comic itself are either disparaged or outright killed by the character in the comic over the course of the story. Quagmire seems to be working through some deep self-loathing in these comics. Or, of course, he's not, and this is an effort in humility.

Or it's just a silly comic with silly stories in it. Let's read some more tomorrow.

"Now all I need is somebody's swash to buckle...!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1545: Cud Comics #1, November 1995

I was, I'll admit, very disparaging of Terry LaBan's The Unseen Hand, a series I reviewed earlier this month. I just didn't think it was very good, but that's just my opinion. I was intrigued, however, by the mention in Mr. LaBan's biography of his "Archie meets underground" series Cud Comics. That very weekend, the always-reliable Purple Gorilla Comics had this lovely example hanging on the wall. Of course I snatched it up.

Of course I did.

And now I'll have to track down every issue, because I love Eno and Plum. LaBan is telling stories here of people who were my age in the mid-90s, in their early-20s trying to figure shit out. I think Generation X had a bit of a crisis around this point. We had that youthful optimism that generations have, that we could effect real change, but we were also realizing that we were a small generation. A lot of pop culture from the 90s is very grim, and I think it's from a recognition of not being able to change things. Cud Comics is an extreme reaction to that, moving from anger to irony, trying to find the humour in a feeling of ineffectualness.

Damn. Sorry. That was a downer.

Eno and Plum are great characters, and I cannot wait to read more about them.

"If we have sex, it'll lower my sperm count!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1340: Meef Comix #2, May 1973

I read this comic while I was pretty high.

It's kind of cool to be able to say that, and not worry for the repercussions or ramifications.

Something I've always had an inkling about is that some art is made to be appreciated in a different state of consciousness. There is an undeniable influence of recreational drugs on the comix of the underground movement, and on the greater cultural movement of which they were a part. So while it's certainly not the case that we all need to be high to appreciate the guitar wizardry of Jimi Hendrix, perhaps being high offers a previously unattainable perspective on the piece.

For today's comic, my altered state was particularly appropriate for the remarkable fluidity of Fred Schrier's art. As I've been making my way through my various undergrounds, I've been looking for a writer or artist to latch onto, one whose particular version of this genre jibes with my own thoughts of feelings on reality. Mr. Schrier's really pretty close. The first story, of a mind-bending electronic music concert, is a celebration of weirdness of Doom Patrol levels (and I don't use that comparison lightly), a lovely mesh of tale and art.

Gonna have to keep my eyes open for more of his work, methinks.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1298: Meef Comix #1, 1972

I picked this up today, along with a collection of old Harvey horror comics, at the Purple Gorilla, my absolute favourite comic store ever.

And I mean that.

Today's comic, featuring the talents of Fred Schrier and Dave Sheridan, is beautiful and strange, a journey through dreams and nightmares in the quest to shrink an over-sized head. No metaphors here...move along!

What I love about the undergrounds is that although they're very often grouped together, they're all really so disparate. The content of today's comic is so different from what R. Crumb was producing at the same time, though both definitely take aim at the problems of contemporary society. If not art, if not genre, then perhaps politics has to be seen at the through line in the undergrounds.  Well, and sex, of course. Though there wasn't a lot of that in today's issue.

Dream comics are an interesting sub-genre. Rick Veitch's Rarebit Fiends springs immediately to mind, though I'm sure I've read some others. I used to teach a course that used the literature of dreams as its locus. It was fun, but I never really delved into any of the really weird dream literature that's out there. It was, after all, only a first year class!

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 26: The First Kingdom #1, 1974

It's been half a year since I did a Friday magazine. It's been a busy few months, and something had to give, unfortunately. I'm feeling a bit more on top of things lately, so I'm going to try to get ahead on these and make them more regular. Let's shoot for bi-weekly, for now, shall we?

The First Kingdom was amongst the magazines that I procured with my large Heavy Metal purchase in 2012. I didn't know anything about it, but educated myself as to its genesis thanks to the mighty Internet. Jack Katz began this story in 1974 and finished it in 1986 with the 24th installment. The First Kingdom is a sprawling, generational future history story, set after the inevitable nuclear war that seemed to be just around the corner throughout the 70s and 80s. It reminds me, as much as I'm familiar with them, of those big, epic fantasy series, like the George R.R. Martin ones, or Robert Jordan. There's all kinds of people and names that you know you're going to be expected to remember in someone's lineage 10 issues down the line. This feeling is intensified by the style in which the story is told. Having read this first issue, I wonder if Don McGregor didn't have it in mind when he did the Killraven comics. In the introduction, Katz himself calls it a "novel in which the characters live in front of you," and cites Hal Foster's Prince Valiant as an inspiration. There's definitely more of the novel to this graphic novel. That said, the characters do speak, though in an unbounded way. Katz does not do speech bubbles. The one off-putting thing for me about the text, however, is that it's all typeset. Narration is in block, dialogue in lower case, but still typeset. I'd never really thought about it before, but the organic look of a font is a way that we equate the text we see upon the page with a spoken voice. And if that text is typeset, the whole thing sound like a robot.

To me, at least.

But perhaps that really works, almost as if we're experiencing this narrative through some holographic future technology that allows us to relive the beginnings of this civilization. They just can't get the voices right?

Did I say that it's pretty cool?

It's pretty cool. If you can get your hands on a copy, it's worthwhile. It's just different enough from the usual comics fare that I think anyone would be entertained by it.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1281: Cherry Poptart #1, May 1993

Though there is a preponderance of Betty and Veronica erotic fan art, Larry Welz's Cherry is really, really the girl from the wrong side of the tracks from Riverdale. Cherry and her cohorts fuck their way through everyone and everything, and think nothing of it. I think that's really the magic of Cherry and her world - she's the original girl who gives no fucks. If something feels good, or has the potential to feel good, she's good to go. I think I'd have to think a lot more about the series before I said it was a feminist comic, but Cherry definitely has a significant amount of agency in her life. While titillation is definitely one of the intents of the series, there's also a slight dissonance as we watch a female character pursue sex the way that we're used to seeing male characters pursue sex. From that perspective, I suppose, we can see this as espousing feminist ideals.

And I'm gonna stop there before I inevitably put my foot in my mouth.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1278: All Canadian Beaver Comix, 1973

As I delve back into the underground, we'll have to hide this particular cover.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1256: The People's Comics, April 1976

As I've noted, I've been getting into undergrounds lately, and I picked this one up today at Purple Gorilla Comics, my go to place for things weird and wonderful.

I'm never quite sure about Robert Crumb. But I think that's partially the point. The inside of his head is a very strange place, but I think the insides of all of our heads are. Crumb just has the guts to share it with the rest of us.

Of course, sometimes, perhaps, the things in our heads should stay there.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 15: Best of San Francisco Ball Comics #2, 1974

This weird little mag was tucked in with a huge collection of Heavy Metal, Eerie, Epic, and other magazines that I bought years ago. There were a number of underground comix and adult publications in with that collection, of which today's magazine is one.

It's not the greatest, nor the most intelligent, of publications. There's some very troubling references to rape in some of the comics, though what's unclear from the context of the collection is how much irony and critique is being leveled through these comics.

Today's magazine is a collection of comics from an underground newspaper from the late 60s and early 70s called San Francisco Ball. An ad on the inside front cover of today's magazine calls Ball "The world's funkiest underground sex paper." So it was definitely connected to the underground, and to the Summer of Love by virtue of both location and time period. If this is the case, I would have expected the jokes in their comics to skew a little more toward liberal views, rather than the strangely masculine conservatism that creeps into a few of the comics. Again, in context with the content of the newspaper, maybe it was understood that all of these off-colour (pun intended) jokes and offensive sexual references are meant to be taken with a king-size dose of irony. But read simply as comics in this collection, they come across as cruel and patriarchal in a lot of ways. Not all of them, mind you, and some of the comics, especially the parodies of popular strips, are quite amusing.

I've been unable to find too much info on the parent newspaper of this collection, unfortunately. It seems like it would be amusing to have a browse through.

Onward.