Comix Reading List #12-#15: Underground Comix Online Part I

 12. VIPER (Rip Off Press, 1985) Internet Archive

A great opportunity to explore our transgressive comix history can be found on the Internet Archive. There are hundreds of underground comix from world famous to regional amateurs. This one turned out to be a good first choice. Edited by Erick Gilbert of the French version of Viper, this Rip Off Press version has a wide selection of international and US cartoonists. Kicked off by a highly unusual cover effort from Carol Lay, continuing with UK legend Mike Matthews' scatalogical excretions to an early English-language appearance of Spanish cartoonist Max.

13-15. CAPTAIN GUTS 1-3 (Print Mint, 1969-71) Internet Archive

It's not surprising Larry Welz gained fame for Cherry Poptart (still being published on kickstarter, btw) rather than this character! Even by underground standards, a superhero powered by beer and with the stereotypical racism and misogyny of a hard working blue collar white guy of the 60s is a hard sell (not to mention his superpowered hard on). The outrageous second issue with "Captain Guts Meets Black Power" rises above these fairly average efforts with Captain Guts battling Ambrosia Sweetmeat, while definitely ringing the bell of the title of this blog.

Comix Reading List #5-#11: Hoopla, Fantagraphics, and more!

 5. TIME UNDER TENSION by M.S. Harkness (Fantagraphics Books) Hoopla

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It's been awhile since I read these, however I remember liking this one quite a bit. This strain of introspective, character development heavy autobiographical story is probably overdone today. Nobody does it better than M.S. Harkness, though.

6. YOU AND A BIKE AND A ROAD by Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics Books) Hoopla

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Loved the overall minimalism of the writing and art, also very rare for an autobiographical book to have any sort of dramatic tension without it feeling manufactured. Eleanor Davis is an influence on some of my favorite cartoonists, and I can see why.

7. CARAVAGGIO: THE PALETTE AND THE SWORD: BOOK 1 by Milo Manara (Fantagraphics Books) Hoopla

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I remember not liking the episodic story of Caravaggio's early struggles, it falls apart from "and then this happened"-itis. Beautiful art from Manara, of course, very unusual staging and nudity actually essential to the plot. Maybe it would be stronger reading both Book 1and 2 together.

8. BIZARRO COMICS: THE DELUXE EDITION (DC Comics) Hoopla

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Alternative cartoonists take on DC licensed superheroes to varied results. Mostly if you like a certain cartoonist you will want to check out their take on tired old retreads. Kyle Baker steals the show with the infamous (and oft-reprinted) "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter".

9. THE MARVEL COMICS COVERS OF JACK KIRBY: VOLUME 1 1961-1964 (Dark Horse Comics) Hoopla

darkhorse.com

Dark Horse jumps on the Marvel reprint bandwagon with this nice collection of remastered Jack Kirby covers. Aesthetically, I would have preferred photos of the actual covers rather than these reprocessed versions from Marvel Masterworks. Penty of fun to look through, in any case.

10. ALL MY BICYCLES by Powerpaola (Fantagraphics Books) Hoopla

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I read this as research for my review of La Poderosa #1 on Broken Frontier, as I embarrassingly hadn't read any of her work before. This is a wonderfully constructed autobiography through bicycles owned by the author. What a great idea! The ethereal, non-linear story and art set this above most other autobiographical graphic novels.

11. A TREASURY OF XXth CENTURY MURDER: LOVER' LANE by Rick Geary (NBM Graphic Novels) Hoopla

I'm not going to lie, I read all of Rick Geary's books through the library not only because I'm cheap but I'd have to open my own library to house all of them! Geary has been around since the 70s and he's been doing these murder books for decades now. I haven't read all of them, but would highly recommend any of them. His detailed, yet cartoony, art is perfect for these period pieces and the intricate storytelling some of them require.

Comix Reading List #4: Cranium Frenzy #1

 4. CRANIUM FRENZY #1 by Steve Willis (Proof of Concept Edition) 2025 (Phoenix Productions) online store

Phoenix Productions

Tom Fellrath of Phoenix Productions announced on February 4, 2025 video that he was collecting all forty issues of CRANIUM FRENZY by Steve Willis into four omnibus editions of, I'm guessing, several hundred b/w pages each. I already own every issue in physical format, except for #9 published right after I dropped out of the Obscuro comix scene, as Steve reprinted the early issues in the 90s. The last thirty issues were released in a flurry of creativity from 2022-24 after a two decade intermission.

This particular book is a free digital edition of the scans for the 1981 CRANIUM FRENZY #1 taken from Steve's photocopy masters (he didn't keep his original back then). There's a mission statement from Tom as an introduction, and a very valuable five pages of notes from Steve on the issue. The contents are pretty much the same freewheeling absurdity you expect from Willis, even at this early days stage of his comix output.

Best of luck to Tom Fellrath, he's going to need it!

Here's Tom's video introduction to this publishing project:

Five Highlights From The Comics Journal #48

 

Front cover: John Buscema, Rudy

Nebres, and Peter Ledger

Back cover: Kenneth Smith

THE COMICS JOURNAL 48 (Summer 1979)

1. NEWSWATCH: FANTAGRAPHICS FORGOTTEN LINE: PART II.

The never-to-appear ELSEWHEN science fiction anthology is announced. Harlan Ellison's "Eyes of Dust" was published in an incomplete adaptation by Steve Niles and Curt Swan in HARLAN ELLISON'S DREAM CORRIDOR #2 (Dark Horse, 2007). I'm not aware of any of the Gene Colan version surfacing. Stay tuned. 

2. REVIEW: STAR WARS & CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: FILMS FOR THE '70S by Dale Luciano.

The first published TCJ review of longtime Journal critic Dale Luciano.

3. MARILYN BETHKE WATCH: FANDOM REVIEW: THE COMICS JOURNAL.

4. UNDERGROUND COMIX: A GLIMPSE AT BRITISH UNDERGROUNDS by Bill Sherman.

Bill Sherman looks at some really obscure UK underground comix, although the first two contain many well-known creators.

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comixjoint

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5. KENNETH SMITH INTERVIEW conducted by Gary Groth.

I don't think you can even consider any history of The Comics Journal without philosopher, artist, columnist Kenneth Smith. The one Journal writer Journal readers loved to hate.

Bonus Spot Illo: I love this old Scott McCloud art, he definitely stands out among this era of fan artists.

Comix Reading List #3: American Cartoonist: The Comic Art of Noah Van Sciver

 3. AMERICAN CARTOONIST: THE COMIC ART OF NOAH VAN SCIVER (Athenaeum Comic Art, Canon Fodder Books) Mail

I may be the only person who's favorite Noah Van Sciver book is JOSEPH SMITH AND THE MORMONS! That particular book had beautiful visuals in service of an engrossing historical treatment of a subject very little known to me. Noah is himself little known to me, even though he is well-known in alternative comics circles I've never actively sought out his work. So this artist's edition type book was a welcome surprise from co-publisher Colin Blanchette.

We start off with an introduction by Professor of English Andrew J. Kunka and an interview with the artist conducted by Blanchette. Both do a good job getting us up to speed on Van Sciver's comics to date.

The book is divided into eight sections: JOURNAL DRAWINGS (EARLY CAREER) consisting of color images from 2007-12 sketchbooks, 4 QUESTIONS (NEWSPAPER STRIP) ten samples of a comic strip from 2012-14, SHORT NARRATIVES "Dress Up" "The Town Mouse & The Country Mouse" "A Mormon Romance" "Charles F. Browne" "Qu'est-ce que te penses de ca", BLAMMO COVERS, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL COMICS "Il Nostro Albero" "[Hey, Man.]" "What Was He Doing?" " There's Too Much" "This Book's Introduction" " There's a memory..." "Remy" "Beverly New Jersey" "When I turned 30 years old...", SINGLE IMAGES (COLOR PICTURES) six unknown color full page illustrations, SINGLE IMAGES [B/W] twenty-two full page illustrations (some published, like the cover to CANON ANNUAL 2024), and HISTORY OF COMICS (DRAWN IN 2023) color and b/w versions of the pages to this unpublished illustrated article.

Here are a couple of my favorite pages from the book:

I'm partial to Noah's history comics

Perfect depiction of the Artist's Life

Colin Blanchette interviews Noah Van Sciver at Partners & Son bookstore in Philadelphia, PA. You can see a portion of the exhibit this book was released in conjunction with in the background.

An earlier conversation between Colin Blanchette, Sean Watkins, and Noah Van Sciver with some early discussion of AMERICAN CARTOONIST.

Tana Oshima Storyteller Spotlight

 

Tana Oshima

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Ryan Carey interviews the artist

Tana Oshima is an elusive cartoonist to me, as I've seen their comics on the Domino site for years at a passing glance but have never felt a strong enough connection to pick up any of her work. So, in honor of their newest comic published by Comics Blogger here's a primer of sorts exploring a cartoonist pushing the limits of sequential storytelling to places we didn't know we wanted to go. The comix critic Ryan Carey (Patreon) is the leading proponent and authority on Tana Oshima's comics career, he has reviewed most of her comics to date forming a concurrent commentary on one our most intense cartoonists.

BEFORE AFTER (Comics Blogger) Description by publisher Thomas Campbell: "BEFORE AFTER is a avant garde sci-fi tale about space, time, bodily function and alienation. Oshima's organic shapes, ballpoint lines and evocative patterns drag the reader through while raising questions of purpose, femininity and perspective. It's an otherworldly transmission from an emerging talent of experimental comics."

Review by Ryan Carey

comicsblogger.net

THIS PLACE SUCKS SO MUCH (Bootleg Books) also available here. Review by Ryan Carey: "Here's something different, the first (to my knowledge, at any rate) autobio/memoir comic from the iconoclastic Tana Oshima, whose work more often than not falls somewhere along the axis between visual poetry and pure abstraction."

Bootleg Books

16 RUBBER DUCKS (Self-published) also available here. Austin English at Domino Books: "This strikes me as a comic that I wish we saw more of these days: a personal reflection zine, a container of the authors reckoning with the world. Oshima presents thoughts and ideas with clarity and heart, the mark of all important art. Much to chew on here as we follow Oshima's thinking, beautifully translated into the comics form."

Domino Books

THE LADDER (Self-published) also available here. Review by Ryan Carey: "Oshima illustrates these proceedings loosely, giving a sense of immediacy to them that is subtly different than urgency, and definitely what is called for in a zine that is every bit as much about the spaces in between the ladder's rungs as it is the rungs themselves."

 

Store

I AM THAT SHAPE AGAIN (Paper View Books) also available here. Review by Ryan Carey: "Standing on its own but also functioning as an effective companion piece to THE LADDER is I'M THAT SHAPE AGAIN, which in essence internalizes the same themes and uses a LITERAL twist on the Gysin/Burroughs "cut-up" technique to present its text in forms one could argue are both DEconstructed and REconstructed simultaneously, each phrase more coalescing within, as opposed to directly addressing or even complementing, the art around it."

Store

DE LO ERRANTE Y ABERRANTE [OF THE WANDERING AND ABERRANT] (Rialta Ediciones) Spanish-language reissue of VAGABOND, NABOKOVA, MASQUERADE, THEATER OF CRUELTY, and an interview conducted by Legna Rodriguez. Translated from a review by Mario Cardenas: "This book is, then, extending the meaning of it's title, a way of walking, of moving, and assuming transit while going from one place to another, at the same time that the wanderer deviates or departs from the usual."

Revista Blast

THE BOOK OF ICE (Self-published) OOP. I couldn't find any commentary on this particular Oshima book.

 

Cargo Collective

ISOLATED (lulu.com) Review by Ryan Carey: "Everyone is given four pages to work with (apart from Galvan, who only uses two), and as one would expect, pretty much all these strips are autobiographical in nature, but even the ones that aren’t in form are in spirit, given the same thing was resting heavy on everybody’s shoulders all over the world at the time — which rather brings me to my main point here : expect a uniquely unpleasant and harrowing reading experience with this as you look back on a time that absolutely no one is nostalgic for."

lulu.com

UNBOUND (Self-published) OOP. Review by Ryan Carey: "But there are layers upon layers of meaning and import to unpack over, above, and beyond what’s happening on a liminal level, and to that end we find ourselves grappling with questions of identity, displacement, emotional bonding, the meaning of community and belonging, and even power dynamics and inequality — as with all things Oshima, the real journey is within, no matter how far afield events may take us."

Four Color Apocalypse

PULP FRICTION (Self-published) still available here and here. Review by Ryan Carey of a reissue of Oshima's first comic: "What I do know for certain is this: as a bona fide and unabashed fan of Oshima’s comics, this is equally interesting for what it is and what it isn’t, for how it fits into her overall body of work and how it doesn’t, and as a skeletal roadmap that shows the directions she ended up taking, and those she steered clear of. I was transfixed by it for all these reasons and more, but I’m not certain Oshima herself would recommend this as a 'jumping-on point' for readers new to her stuff. But what the hell do I know? I only work here."

Four Color Apocalypse

THEATER OF CRUELTY (Self-published) OOP. Review by Ryan Carey: "Is the medium the message? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it is: herein Oshima certainly employs a lot of the former in service of the latter, utilizing pen and ink, paints, sumi inks, possibly toilet paper(?), and even stuff from the kitchen cabinet to convey — primarily in English but also in Spanish and, momentarily, about a dozen other languages — a sense of loss of self from the self, whether this exile is precipitated by a noisy neighbor, a vivid dream, a reality that seems like a vivid dream, or a purely metaphorical construct."

 

Four Color Apocalypse

Filthy (Self-published) Review by Ryan Carey: "Yes, elements of the fantastic abound herein — those tubes Oshima populates her strips with sure do bring to mind Jeff Nicholson’s criminally under-appreciated THROUGH THE HABITRAILS — but they feel like they “belong,” whereas the protagonist/authorial stand-in herself frequently doesn’t."

Store

MASQUERADE (Self-published) still available from here. Review by Ryan Carey: "There’s even more than a not-so-simple examination of identity going on here, though — Oshima is also, by means of the farmhouse, examining whether or not the act of making art can possibly bridge and/or resolve the gulf between herself and her understanding of herself."

Four Color Apocalypse

NABOKOVA (Self-published) OOP. Review by Ryan Carey: "Literary references, visual metaphors, and text that can be read and interpreted in any number of ways are all par for the course on these pages, and understanding of this book is both earned and absolutely unique to each reader."

Four Color Apocalypse

VAGABOND (Self-published) still available from here and here. Review by Ryan Carey: "As an exploration of imposed loneliness, VAGABOND is almost without equal in terms of its impact — an economy of quickly-scrawled lines lends visual immediacy and balance to words that are obviously chosen with care and precision and that even employ, by accident or design, a kind of measured tempo and meter, the cumulative effect being that both visual and narrative “languages” coalesce into an organic whole that is certainly unique to Oshima’s own experience and perspective, but one that holds within it, and consequently expresses, something universally understood and felt."

Four Color Apocalypse

THE THINGS I WROTE ON TOILET PAPER (Self-published) OOP. Austin English at Domino Books: "Oshima presents thoughts and ideas with clarity and heart, the mark of all important art. Much to chew on here as we follow Oshima's thinking, beautifully translated into the comics form. One of the most consistent and direct zine makers out there right now."

Cargo Collective

Tana Oshima is a literary translator, specializing in translating Japanese fiction into Spanish. Her most recent effort was this collection of short stories from Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata. The synopsis translates as: 

"Ten stories, a country in ruins.

This book contains ten stories with intertwined stories, sometimes because the protagonists share the same name, sometimes because of their subtly supernatural character, and almost always because they have love—and the pain that is born from it—as their central theme. Unpublished until now in Spanish, Seix Barral presents it this time in direct translation from Japanese. Each of these stories was first published in literary magazines between 1951 and 1956, years in which the poverty and desolation of a ruined Japan traumatized a generation devastated by defeat in World War II. This is the historical context in which the author develops these stories. In them, as in many of his later works, the war and the surrender of Japan mark a before and after in the lives of the characters and it is a historical fact that is omnipresent as a background landscape."

Planeta de Libros

Interview with Tana Oshima on the translation process on an earlier project.