Pretty Adult Book Of Some Other Day

[BassGMan]

Comicwiz, you'd be the guy to know this. Are undergrounds still being published today? I mean, a book like the one I showed above will not have made it to many comic stores. Due to the subject matter and extreme low print run of these books, maybe 2,000 - 5,000 each they did not get any widespread distribution. However, I imagine that they probably did get listed in a Diamond catalog when they were first published as High Impact had released some general audiences material before. Perhaps that would mean it could not be considered an underground?

 

But I am seeing this and that adult book in Ebay's mature comics section (many people don't even know this section on Ebay exists) that I KNOW never saw the light of day in any comic store as a newly published book. Most collectors don't even know these Huerta books exist. Interesting stuff. -----Sid

[comicwiz]

Comicwiz, you'd be the guy to know this. Are undergrounds still being published today? I mean, a book like the one I showed above will not have made it to many comic stores. Due to the subject matter and extreme low print run of these books, maybe 2,000 - 5,000 each they did not get any widespread distribution. However, I imagine that they probably did get listed in a Diamond catalog when they were first published as High Impact had released some general audiences material before. Perhaps that would mean it could not be considered an underground?

 

But I am seeing this and that adult book in Ebay's mature comics section (many people don't even know this section on Ebay exists) that I KNOW never saw the light of day in any comic store as a newly published book. Most collectors don't even know these Huerta books exist. Interesting stuff. -----Sid

 

Hey Sid

 

If you ever have a chance, you should pick up a copy of UG! 3K from Fogel Comix. UG! 3K is an Underground Comix Anthology covering 160 pages of the best in Underground Comix (I'm not 100% sure about the acutal distribution of this book, but you can contact Dan Fogel at fogelcomix@aol.com to find our more on how to obtain a copy). One of the hidden gems of this publication is a special thanks piece at the end of the book. The article is really fascinating, and if anything, you should take some time to source the book to read through the life and times of one of the Underground Comix mediums pioneers Don Donahue. The article entitled "A Beatnik Presses On" is an especially interesting read because it briefly discusses the history of the distribution of underground comix in the SF area.

 

Back in the heyday of undergrounds, most of the comix were being printed manually, hand-assembled and distributed to friends, on college campuses. It was only when they where starting to be mass-produced (when quantities began exceeding the 5K-10K mark) that they began distributing them through "head-shops" and/or in the back of "hip" record shops. Because of the legal ban on undergrounds from the get-go, you would be hard-pressed to find ANY unless you had friends that were into music, drugs, or were somehow connected to the artists themselves. And even then, you weren't really assured that you could get a copy of a certain book because you either had to be friends with the owners of these head-shops, or be referred to them to get your hands on some of the counter-culture themed material that pops-up so freely on eBay these days.

 

Make no mistake about it. The reason why they were coined "undergrounds" is because you had to obtain them through the clandestine underground network. The books were literally being confiscated by the feds, and most of them destroyed before any historical record of their existence.

 

New underground-themed comic books are still being printed today, along with numerous reprints of the classic titles. Although many would disagree on this issue, one can say that the newstuff may be somewhat inspired by the same level of free-thinking as their underground predecessors. Remember, the comix medium was the only vehicle for free-expression prior to the comics code getting tossed by the mainstream (ever notice how the stuff being printed by DC and Marvel in the last few years no longer bears a little comic code seal of approval).

 

When you take away the appeal for unsanitized stories and subject matter with the deregulation of the comics code on the medium as a whole, the only line of demarcation is that the new adult-oriented stuff being produced today is using more modern and commercialized approaches to production and distribution. It is in my opinion, that because of the calculating aspect of production vis-a-vis distribution strategies, that it becomes really difficult to call anything being published today an "underground", regardless of content, artwork or subject matter.

 

It's also debatable whether one could attribute the difficulty in locating "new" adult-oriented material to low production numbers. It may well have more to do with marketing and retailing approaches. I firmly believe that adult-oriented material ought to be marketed strictly to adults over 18 years of age, and retailed by carding each of their customers. The mistake many dealers continue to make is to market comics with adult content as "undergrounds-themed" material and confusing their approach to marketing and retailing them with a spirit and bravado found in people enthusing their views on freedon of expression.

 

And finally, there is also a considerable level of mystique attached to books that relatively "uknown" artists like Huerta create. Perhaps not so much in the present day, but lets use the example of and artist like Richard Corben. Corben started in the underground comix medium (see Fantagor and Up from the Deep) and went on to become a prolific artist in the area of fantasy art. It goes without saying that the collectiblity factor of Corbens first works become far more interesting to an audience that has never heard of him, but really dig his work. In some ways, this is good for the collector who considers themselves a purist, and for the hobby as a whole, but not so good for the artist who would prefer to break through, and transcend the hourly grind for a paycheque and perhaps too, their meager quality of enjoyable living standard.