sn #01 hippy chicks
sn #01 Hippy Chicks
Apex Novelties October 1968
In San Francisco and other big cities across America, Zap Comix #1 and #2 were all the rage in the summer of 1968, but some people criticized the artists for “going too far” in their depictions of sex. Zap artists Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson responded by quickly producing Snatch Comics #1, which “went all the way” and then some. Published by Apex Novelties and Don Donahue, Snatch Comics #1 was the most lewd and indecent comic book seen in America since the heyday of the Tijuana Bibles back in the ’30s and ’40s. The front cover art entices the prurient reader with its provocative title and a buxom hippie chick strutting down the walk in her miniskirt, fishnet stockings and shiny black boots. “What do those hippy chicks do when they do their thing?”
Crumb and Wilson give their readers plenty of answers inside the book, with a wide variety of candid sexual snapshots and situations that are presented as much for laughs as they are for lechery. Sure, there’s a few squeamish scenes of choking, slapping and assault, but they happen with both men and women being victimized. Far more common are scenes of people enjoying sex in one form or another, with both males and females getting off on the action.
There is one six-page story by Crumb near the end of the book that is little more than a masturbatory fantasy of two athletic women (one black, one white) fighting like vicious cats, but except for the fact that their erogenous zones are abused it’s no worse than other fictional portrayals of women fighting.
I imagine me trying to play down the sexual crudity and violence in this book isn’t going to sit well with some people, and I’m certainly not doing a good job of putting the content of the book in context with society in 1968. As Robert Williams said decades after Snatch came out, “Now you look at it and it’s nothing. It’s nothing now, but boy in the late ’60s and early ’70s that stuff was just really hot potatoes. You just didn’t show those to everybody.”
But then again, this is an underground comics review site in the 21st century. It’s intended to give people an idea of what they can expect from these comic books today, along with some historical context and interesting anecdotes. Williams is right; it’s not such a big deal now, not when you consider everything that came after it and what is out there today.
That said, Snatch Comics #1 is still capable of rocking the boat even today. There’s Crumb’s drawing of a topless 13-year-old Honey Bunch Kaminski. There’s a huge orgy in the center spread of the book, and even though almost everyone seems to be having a blast, there is that cut-off penis flying through the air. There’s Wilson’s strip with a cat erupting out of a pussy. But the bottom line is, Snatch #1 is mostly bawdy slapstick and silly fantasy. And when you evaluate it on that basis, it’s still pretty damn effective.
COMIC CREATORS:
Robert Crumb – 1-8, 12-14, 16-22, 24-25, 27-36
S. Clay Wilson – 9-11, 15, 23, 26
sn #01 hippy chicks
