underground comix
Countercultural comic books
Underground comix are self-published or small-press comic books that emerged in the 1960s counterculture, deliberately spelled with an x to distinguish them from mainstream comics.
They featured explicit content—sex, drugs, violence, political satire—that violated Comics Code restrictions.
Artists like R.
Crumb and Gilbert Shelton defined the movement.
He collected underground comix from the San Francisco scene.
- psychedeliaDrug-inspired artistic movement
- countercultureRejection of mainstream values
- satireMockery exposing vice
- political commentaryOpinion on governmental affairs
- social satireHumor exposing societal absurdities
zap · grotesque imagery · sexuality · mimeograph · caricature · zines · drug culture · head shop · DIY ethos · small press · lowbrow · anti-establishment · crosshatching · black and white · anti-authoritarianism · absurdity · transgressive · surrealism
- comicscomic books, comic book, comic strip, comic art, comic panel
- comic culturecomic art, comic strips, graphic novels, comic panels, fan conventions
- comic book topicssuperheroes, villains, origin stories, secret identities, superpowers
- popular fictionbestsellers, genre fiction, page-turners, popular novels, pulp fiction
- cartoon archivescomic strips, animation cels, storyboards, Sunday funnies, newspaper comics
- comic anthologiesgraphic novels, trade paperbacks, masterworks, essentials, compendiums
underground comixMarvel Comics
American superhero comic publisher
DC Comics · Archie Comics · superhero comics · newspaper comics