The term "underground comics" or "comix" describes the self-published or small press comic books that sprang up in the US in the late 1960s. The movement was centered in San Francisco, but also included important artists and publishers in New York, Chicago and Austin, Texas. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Robert Crumb, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch , Spain Rodriguez, Bill Griffith, Justin Green, and Trina Robbins . Typically, all aspects of a particular comic were created by a single person, as opposed to mainstream comics that were typically produced by a team of people, including a writer, a penciler, an inker, a letterer, and an editor. The assumption of all these roles by a single person reduced the rate at which the comics could be produced. Underground artists typically adapted by producing shorter works that were collected into anthology comic books along with other artist's works.

Underground comix reflect the concerns of the 1960s counterculture: experimentation in all things, drug-altered states of mind, rejection of sexual taboos, ridicule of "the establishment." The spelling "comix" is preferred as this was established to differentiate these publications from maintstream "comics".

The underground comix were largely distributed though a network of "head shops" which also sold underground newspapers, psychedelic posters, and drug paraphernalia. In the mid-1970s, the Vietnam War was over, no longer a rallying cause, sales of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up. Although many of the underground artists continued to produce work, the underground comix movement is considered by most historians to have ended by 1976, to be replaced by a rise in independent, non-Comics Code compliant publishing companies in the 1980s and the resulting increase in acceptance of adult-oriented comic books (see "alternative comics").

Notable Underground Comix

• Air Pirates Funnies (Dan O'Neill, others. Sparked a famous copyright lawsuit from Disney)
• Arcade (anthology edited by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman)
• Bijou Funnies (Chicago-based anthology, Jay Lynch and others)
• Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary (Justin Green)
• Bogeyman (Rory Hayes and others)
• Comix Book - Marvel Comics attempt at 'mainstream' underground comics
• Coochie Cootie's Men's Comics (Robert Williams)
• Corn Fed (Kim Deitch)
• The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Gilbert Shelton)
• Gothic Blimp Works - anthology produced by the East Village Other newspaper
• Hytone , Despair , Big Ass , XYZ (Robert Crumb)
• It Ain't Me Babe (anthology edited by Trina Robbins )
• Tales from the Tube (Rick Griffin)
• Wimmen's Comix (anthology edited by the Wimmen's Comix Collective )
• Witzend (edited by Wallace Wood and Bill Pearson)
• Zap Comix (Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Robert Williams, Victor Moscoso)

Publishers

• Print Mint
• Rip Off press
• Last Gasp
• Kitchen Sink

Further reading

• Patrick Rosenkranz; Rebel Visions : the Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975; Fantagraphics Books; ISBN 1-56097-464-8 (hardcover, 2002)
• Brian Tucker;"The Legacy of Underground Comix," an article about the Rosenkranz book plus a book by Robert Williams, available online at http://x-traonline.org/vol6_2/comix_review.html

See also

• alternative comics
• underground newspapers
• Tijuana bible