The study of all types of artwork, including comix, should be taken into account when comprising a history of art from the 1960 through 1970, according to James Danky. He argues, “Artists and writers who worked in the mainstream comic book industry of the day were typically older men who rarely communicated with their younger audiences. Their output was largely contrived from the market. Underground cartoonists were directly connected with their readership and shared organizational lines…largely focused on addressing the burning issues of the day.” An example of mainstream art connected with underground art may be drawn from Little Annie Fannie from the July 1970 issue of Playboy.
In those pictures, Annie’s sometime boyfriend Ralphie Towzer is editing The East Village Mother, based on New York’s East Village Other, one of many underground newspapers flourishing a the time. The “Angelfood McSpade” and “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” cartoons were created especially for this sequence by underground cartoonists Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton.
The transgressant art that comixs represent was both a means for expressing the precariousness of the underground industry towards the end of the 1970s and for their accuracy accounting history. Danky says, “Comic books are not trash. Garish, sometimes tasteless or violent frequently non-comic book, yet they can also be needle sharp, provocative and brimming with fresh language of new ideas.” However, apart from popular art, the insecurity is not held in explosive quality, even though subjects broached were often full of violence, sex, and rock n’ roll. The worlds created are attached to reality, and not fictionalized such as in a Superman comic.
“Jackson Pollock’s drippings constitute a pure form of this iconography of the explosion, which we meet again win the imagery of Pop Art, for which—even more than Roy Lichtenstein’s literal references to comic strip explosions—enlargements (“blow ups”) and multiplication represent pictorial equivalents of detonation…it is the image of a world that is infinitely decomposable by nuclear fission.” (Bourriaud, 178)
The world of Superman seems to always be on the brink of collapse. The original Action comics #1 issue that rake in one million dollars cost only 10 cents when first printed.
7 comments:
The world is on the brink of collapse. As far as we're concerned it very well could ed tomorrow. That's why the comix represent something so important. Throw caution to the wind, draw what you wanna draw, damnit.
This is what i was expecting to see from Danky's presentation, more comic images and stories of his work.
Comics are the real stories being told. I agree that it a unique way of appealing to all readers in funny way but yet sending the message across.
agreed, all forms should be examined.. it makes the pool of variety better for discusiion. I think its also good to notice what other topics such as sexism, racism,an the like in history were often portrayed in comics, and still today in politics we see similar racial charactures that artists though in the media to get attention.
Someone posed the question of online comics taking the main stage or something like that. I think Dinosaur Comics is a very good example of today's expression of wit and humor. The artist, Ryan North, uses the same graphic strip for every single issue. It's really funny.
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php
fari...dinosaur comics is really philosophical. i don't know if it would be suited for the mainstream public audience. however, i like it and think that it does capture today's wit and humor. i'm pumped up about the "t-rex's busy day" tee in the "sexy awesome merchandise. this is what it reminded me of from Calvin and Hobbes, http://jkbaker.com/gallery/d/538-2/tyrannosaurs-in-f-14s.jpg
We're glad you brought up the million dollar comic. Fascinating case in point to contemplate how society or individuals ascribe meaning and value to objects. Objects that are fragile and vulnerable at that.
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