Comments on: Comics: A Beginner’s Guide: Raw & the Avant Garde

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:24:50 +0000

Yeah, Spiegelman was a late entry into undergrounds, then he pulled in a somewhat different direction. Crumb certainly appeared in Raw, and so did a few of the other underground types, here and there. (Obviously I intend to write a piece on underground comix in this series.)

I don’t know if Katchor started out in Raw, but that was the first place I saw his work.

By: DV

DV — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:44:35 +0000

Maus is really good. You know that already, obviously, but I did not until I read it. Beforehand I had kind of taken against it, reckoning it would be one of those “OMG the Holocaust was so terrible” books. But it is just such a great book that it really shows up the other Holocaust memoirs that succeeded it.

By: henry s

henry s — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:06:27 +0000

before Raw, before “Maus”, even before “Arcade” was this:

http://www.wackypackages.org/index.php

Art Spiegelman’s first foray into the world of “comics”…

By: a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit

a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:59:20 +0000

o/t a bit but i saw the move of persepolis on sat, having never got round to readin the graf novel, and satrapi’s youth as a jaime hermandez reader LEAPS out at you (which wz nice)

(is it there in the book or is it something the film invented?)

By: Tracer Hand

Tracer Hand — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:58:56 +0000

ben katchor (and his most famous strip, “julius knipl, real estate photographer”) is a huge favorite of mine - i had no idea he got his start in raw! it’s as though an artistically talented luc sante tried his hand at “drunken bakers”

By: Dan M.

Dan M. — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:47:06 +0000

Ah… 60 seconds more of internet research reveals that Spiegelman co-edited “Arcade” with Bill Griffith in the mid-70s. As I remember, Arcade” featured the work of Crumb as well as other Underground artists. It was probably one of the last major Underground publications before Maus and Raw appeared.

By: Dan M.

Dan M. — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:44:11 +0000

I don’t think there was much if any cross-over in terms of the better known Underground artists showing up in Raw. But a 1971 exhibit, “75 Years of the Comics,” at the New York Cultural Center (I have the catalogue) included a 1969 strip by Art Spiegelman, “Grain of Sand Comix,” that is clearly in the “underground” hippy-trippy mode (as well as Windsor McCay-influenced). “Maus” first appeared in the late 70s, I believe, “Raw” in the early 80s? I haven’t seen any other samples of Spiegelman’s earlier work, but clearly he himself is a link between the two eras of alternative comics, as well as the medium’s guide to “New Yorker” cover respectability.

By: a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot

a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:56:00 +0000

one thing i’d like to have a better sense of — it may not be down on paper anywhere, except in people’s own collections — is the historical segue from “underground comix” in the late 60s (not just crummb, but moscoso and the chequered demon guy, all that crowd) into the RAW underground: was there crossover?

unmoored fact i’d like to do something with one day:
the smog monster — viz the reified eco-affect villain in my favorite godzilla movie, the one where the kids put on a rock festival to END POLLUTION and it DOESN’T WORK! — turns up as a character, along with his v.hott sister judy, in gary panter’s jimbo!