Print Mint 1972
Rude Chuckles with a Negative Charge • 3rd Rail Black Dog • To Have Loved… and Lost • Tales From the Golden Age of America • A Letter Home • Addictive Personality • Mr. Toad • Street Corner Daze • Tainted Blood • Johnny Carter • Old Shootin’ Pooper • While You’re Up… Get Me Some Smack • Junkie No! • White Slavery • “You fuckers think I get some ‘wobble-in-the-ass’ over some (more…)
Print Mint 1973-74
These two remarkable undergrounds primarily feature Fred Schrier, who teamed up with Dave Sheridan to make Mother Oats Comix and The Balloon Vendor such memorable head trips. Meef came along after those early-’70s comics but matches them hallucinogenic fantasy for hallucinogenic fantasy. Among the highlights are “The Electronic Music Concert,” “A Zen Fable,” and “The Late Show.” (more…)
Print Mint August 1973
Any underground comic book that came along towards the end of 1973 had really bad timing. The Supreme Court decision that established the definition of obscenity was handed down in June of that year. After that landmark ruling, selling “head comix” at your head shop became potentially dangerous not only to your livelihood, but your freedom. There were other factors that led to the demise of the underground comic movement, but the bottom line was that as a commercial venture, it was dying. (more…)
Print Mint June 1972 (1st printing 1966)
Vaughn Bodé created the character known only as “Man” in 1963, around the same time he produced Das Kampf in Utica, New York. At the time, he and his wife Barbara were living on welfare in a shitty little apartment. Bodé drew 17 pages of comics featuring Man, but figured nobody would really like it, so he shelved the project. (more…)
Print Mint February 1970
A true classic from the golden age of the undergrounds, featuring 44 pages of Greg Irons at his best. There are three major stories: “The Story of Fou,” “The Rape of Mother Earth” and “Revolution.” Not to be missed. (more…)
Print Mint 1973
Guano Comix #4 is one of those underground mysteries wrapped in a blanket of enigma. Be prepared to get bored as I attempt to unravel the deep secrets of this comic book in this lengthy review. (more…)
Print Mint February 1969
Wendell Allen Pugh has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University, which had to help when he decided to create an underground comic book, right? Well, Pugh didn’t think so. As he relayed to Mark James Estren in A History of Underground Comics, “My stuff is all fucked up because I went to school for six years and got all involved in aesthetics and professionalism, which I’ve decided is all bullshit. Wish I’d never learned to draw.” (more…)
Rip-Off Press 1969-71
This is Larry Welz’s first one-man comic book (at the age of 21), and it is a marvelously entertaining serial. The three issues feature Fillmore Grinchbottom, who is little more than a pudgy everyman until he drinks his magic potion (beer), which transforms him into Captain Guts, the “raging avenger of the establishment.” The serial progresses from Captain Guts taking on hippie revolutionaries to a fierce battle with a sexually charged black woman and finally to a cosmic battle with Wyatt Winghead and his dope smugglers. (more…)
Apex Novelties 1969
Cunt Comics is probably the most notorious title of any underground comic book in history, and its reputation as an obscene, misogynist comic work is readily accepted by many people who peruse its pages. The comic is digest size (six by nine inches) and contains virtually no stories, but rather presents a series of raw, graphic and often brutally violent scenes with naked men and women. There are horrific sequences of violence and mutilations against women and crude depictions of vaginas, penises, female breasts and their various functions. (more…)
Print Mint 1971-72
In the golden age of underground comix, The Print Mint published a bunch of undergrounds, many of them among the best of all time (e.g., Deviant Slice, Feds ‘n’ Heads, Uneeda Comix, Young Lust). A few are overlooked classics (Occult Laff Parade, Captain Guts, Tales of Toad, Real Pulp), while a few are mostly crap (Suds, The Captain, Savage Humor). And some are just solid undergrounds that are representative of the era, a category that would include Rubber Duck #1. What is a bit surprising is that the second issue, even with its goofy front cover art, earns its place amongst the overlooked classics. (more…)