Underground Comics

Surprisingly, I thought I'd hate every single underground comic that I came across online or in class. Which, I really do to some extent since 'adult' or porn comics are a big no-no for me, but I can't get past the fact that these comics are unedited and uncensored and telling of the world as it is to these comic book artists. There's always a hard truth behind every comic, no matter how raunchy or intensionally offensive it is. Of course, some I don't even understand because it's so random and blotted with conscious thoughts here and there, but there's always a will and motivation behind each story and panel that the original 'artist' was trying to jot down. Not all of the 'artists' were even experienced with drawing before, as we discussed that one line of comics were drawn by people who use to take LSD (or some other hard drug). But each artist has been known mostly of the middle-class, and what their personal experience with life or drugs leech out and form some kind of obtuse idea of a comic for other people to read.

Some of Robert Crumb's Mr. Natural highly restates events of uncensored truths and denied responsibilities. I think of these comics as personal diary entries of ideas of whatever comes across this man's brain (whether or not he was high or not, since I don't know the details). No one would ever steal money from a Buddhist homeless man, give it to a young girl of color, and then it would somehow cascade to a gang wanting that homeless man's income of free money which would lead to that man going to an insane asylum to find inner peace. BUT, it's a radical way of getting someone thinking of the poverties of today, of seeing homeless on the street, and thinking that there really are people out there that steal money from homeless people and a constant threat of gangs and racism. None of these comics paint a pretty color of the world, but it does make perceiving the world sharper and clearer and expectant of what's to come from certain outcomes.