Underground Comics and then some.

Unfortunately for this week's reading I was unable to get the Crumb comics to work for me. I did take a look at the Air Pirates Funnies, the "Four Sketchbooks", and the Zap Comics 0-5. In class I also looked at the posted Tijuana Bibles and the Bizarre Sex comic.

I was really shocked at how wonderful the artwork was presented in these comics. I was expecting the artwork to be just as trashy as the subject matter but really, some of it was incredibly detailed and well thought out. It was something that made looking at this stuff more enjoyable. Its not anything that really shocked me, but I definitely found it all really amusing in a hilarious sort of way.

I think that seeing the Four Sketchbooks before looking at anything else really helped me to appreciate these types of comics even more. Getting a little insight to some of these artists when they're not illustrating for a story, but rather just doing their thing and playing with random styles shows just how versatile they can be. I was particularly intrigued with Art Spiegelman's portion. I love the fluidity that his figures take on. His style varies so radically and he doesn't try to make his sketches polished and beautiful which throws in so much personality and really makes these drawings unique.

The Air Pirates comic was very funny. Some of the subject matter was a bit shocking but overall I just had a few good laughs. It was strange for me to see Disney-esque characters in all these sexually explicit scenarios. Let me just say, that never in my life did I think I'd see Mickey Mouse going to town on Minnie in such an explicit manner. I didn't offend me, but I grew up with Mickey so when I saw that I was like just thinking in my head, "Mickey! What are you doing!?" That just gave me a good laugh.

The Tijuana Bibles were interesting to say the least. But unlike the other underground comics, the art was incredibly poor. The anatomy in all the figures was so far off that the subject matter was less of a shock than the way some of the hands were drawn. But I suppose that for somebody who isn't trained in the arts, the books serve their 'purposes' just fine.

The Bizarre Sex comic was something that I enjoyed reading. Just like the Air Pirates, it was a compilation of work from various artists. The stories were definitely bizarre. The opening short was about a werewolf that decided to go fishing, used a severed penis as bait to catch a mermaid. He finally hooks one in through her mouth and out through the center of her forehead. He then proceeds to pull her up on the dock and brutally hack her to pieces, walking away with his prize catch. After reading it I could only think, "What a way to start a book!!"

All the reading for this week was very entertaining. Really opened my eyes to another facet in the comics industry that formerly, I never had an opportunity to appreciate.