Underground Comixs

This week I read some underground comix and found a large variety to read. What I found interesting about these comics was their variety in subject matter as well as visual style. Somewhere very cartoony and others more serious, and others just straight up pornographic. What I read was a little of Gay Comix, Tits and Clits, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Yellow Submarine. When comparing these comics to above ground comics as a whole is a little hard to do when they are so varied, but one thing I noticed is that the story telling for a lot of the underground comics did not seem that different, relatively, to the above ground comics; the main difference is the content of the comics.

            It is not needed to be said that underground comixs dealt a lot more with graphic, sexual, and generally taboo subject matter while above ground comics where written with clear censorship of such topics. Yet even though content wise they are very different the comics themselves still seem somewhat similar. This is probably due to the fact that both are written in the episodic comic book style which limits that complexity of the story telling and the types of conflicts that arise in both. An example of this can be found in the Fabulous Furry Freaks and Geeks where they are trying to bust guys out of prison, The entire story is more graphic, but I could see a small comic of Donald Duck or some one else also trying get some one out of a ridiculous situation and finding in the end that it was all just a dream.

            The underground comics though could be seen as helpful in some aspects as well, because as above ground comics are censoring certain subject matter. Underground comix are embracing it. Comix seemed to promote more diversity in their characters and situations and in normal Comics everything seemed to be very white washed.  It can be even hard to find a single black person in archie comics, but in underground comics you can find people or all races, genders, and sexual orientation. By today’s standards comics back then seem sometimes less politically correct then the underground comixs.