Overview

A complete narrative history of the weird and wonderful world of underground comix In the 1950s, comics meant POW! BAM! superheroes, family-friendly gags, and Sunday funnies, but in the 1960s, inspired by these strips and the satire of MAD magazine, a new generation of creators set out to subvert the medium, and with it, American culture. Their comix--spelled that way to distinguish the work from their dime-store contemporaries--presented tales of taboo sex, casual drug use, and a transgressive view of society. Embraced by hippies and legions of future creatives, this subgenre of comic books and strips was printed on out-of-date machinery, published in zines and underground newspapers, and distributed in head shops, in porno stores, and on street corners. Comix often ran afoul of the law, but that would not stop them from casting cultural ripples for decades to come, eventually moving the entire comics form out of the gutter and into fine-art galleries. Author Brian Doherty weaves together the stories of R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Harvey Pekar, and Howard Cruse among many others, detailing the complete narrative history of this movement that came to define cool. Via dozens of new interviews and archival research, Doherty chronicles the scenes that sprang up around the country in the 1960s and '70s and the rivalries, ideological battles, and conflicts that flourished. Dirty Pictures is the essential exploration of a truly American art form that re-contextualized the way people thought about war, race, sex, gender, and expression.

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Reviews

[An] illuminating history of the counterculture comics movement and...how it perfectly reflected the rapidly changing norms of the baby boomer generation and its enduring impact on pop culture today. -- Publishers Weekly A fascinating deep dig into a unique subculture populated...whose rude, jarring, and far-out works of art changed the face of American humor. -- Gregg Turkinton, comedian/actor A free-wheeling, frank account...Doherty pokes into every corner of the scene...Lively, well researched, and full of telling anecdotes. -- Kirkus Reviews A welcome addition to an under-analyzed legacy of the free-spirited 1960s. -- San Francisco Chronicle Doherty expertly details the players and events that led to an artistic renaissance. -- Ho Che Anderson, creator of Sand & Fury It's impeccably researched, sharply written, and opens a portal back to that old, weird America that found its mind by losing it a little. -- Reid Mitenbuler, author of Wild Minds The story of underground comix is not just important, it's as American as an apple pie laced with LSD. -- Kliph Nesteroff, author of We Had a Little Real Estate Problem

Author Information

Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine and is the author of This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground (Little, Brown, 2004). His reporting, essays, and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, and Fantagraphics's The Best American Comics Criticism, among others. He has also served as a judge for the comics industry's Eisner Awards. Liam Dicosimo is an in-demand narrator with a background in film and stage acting.

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