cloud comics
cloud comics
Head Imports 1971/Kitchen Sink 1972
Cloud Comix (which changed to Cloud Comics for issue 2 for no discernable reason) is one of those comic titles that probably didn’t help the underground comic book movement prosper. By 1969, the comic revolution was well underway, and some pretty crappy books began to emerge on the market. All through the early 1970s, publishers were churning out one underground after another trying to capitalize on the movement, and they would take just about anybody and their half-dead grandmother to create an underground comic, whether they had any talent or not.
Make no mistake, Cloud Comix did have a few talented creators who contributed to the two comics (there were about 14 creators involved in the two books). But for the most part, the decent artists were far outweighed by some really amateurish hacks who never should have seen the light of day in a comic book. Worse yet, while other crappy undergrounds often appeared crappy from their front cover art, Cloud Comix #1 actually has a very nice front cover by Peter Bramley. But that was like false advertising, as the content inside never matched the quality standard established by the cover.
I am not against all mediocre comic creators. Giving Joe Schmoe a chance to contributed to a real comic book was part of the beauty of underground comics. Buckwheat Florida and Rory Hayes would’ve never gotten a chance to publish real comic books if it wasn’t for the underground revolution. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Joe Schmoes were lousy cartoonists and even worse storytellers.
Cloud Comix is not even close to the worst comics the underground era offers, and the second issue was significantly better than the first, but it remains in that group of comics that crowded the marketplace and helped obscure some of the best comic books that were ever published.
