Week 6: Underground Comix

This week's selection proved to be surprising and occasionally offensive, as promised. The audio tracks really set the mood for the 1960s/1970s "sexual revolution," a common theme in many of the comics.

The majority of what I read was from Tits and Clits, admittedly because the name stands out so much. Within the same publication, there's a wide variety of comics by artists from different backgrounds and points of view. A common thread throughout each is that all of the comics in Tits and Clits, as is evident through the name, were created by women. Knowing this makes it more apparent in the work that they were written by women.

I had some mixed feelings about the variety of comics in Tits and Clits. Some of them I really enjoyed; the ones that touched on empowering female sexuality, normalizing lesbian relationships, etc. were enjoyable and more meaningful to me, especially if they were also done in a humorous way.

On that note, there were some comics that were shocking even from a 21st century perspective. I expected a lot of nudity, sex, drugs, etc., but what I did not expect was the fetishization and glorification of rape, or the sexualization of a child (the latter of which was in an ad featured in the comic, not a comic itself). In a way, I suppose this means even today, the publication remains successful in its original purpose -- to shock and offend.

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