Underground Comix and Webcomics: An Introduction
The internet is a great equalizer of information, a destroyer of canons. Anyone who types Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, or Bill Griffith into a Google search will not be told that they should be reading Marvel comics, or better yet, that they should be reading comics at all. They will be given a slew of URLs linking to sites ranging from useful to redundant to vapid -- just like they would if they had typed in Shakespeare or any other search term. The Underground Comix movement that began in the 1960s has been given a wider audience on the internet as a new generation of readers discover long-established artists and writers. These new readers are also able to buy comics on the internet that were nearly impossible to find in most markets when they came out, which are still difficult to find today, long after their publication. Whether as reprints, as electronic reproductions, or the genuine artifact on eBay or another auction site, these comics can circulate among those who have never even heard the term "Head Shop." But the internet is more than a distribution medium for classic Underground Comix and classic Underground Comix artists still producing new work. The internet has given rise to a new generation of comic artists who use the internet as their sole means of production and distribution. In many cases, these webcomic artists are working within the spirit of the Underground movement as reflected in their subversion of comic book conventions and their freedom of expression in content and form. In this paper, we explore some of the connections between Underground Comix and certain webcomics in terms of the themes they share, the types of issues they tackle, the style in which they address these issues, and the audiences they address.