A COMPLETE NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF UNDERGROUND COMIX

The first complete narrative history of Underground Comix, the countercultural movement from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s that forever changed comics

In Dirty Pictures: How Nerds, Feminists, Bikers, and Potheads Revolutionized Comix, author and journalist Brian Doherty tells the wild history of the outlaw, outsider, and sometimes illegal world of Underground Comix. This subterranean subgenre of comic strips and books was printed in lofts on out-of-date machinery, published in handbound zines and underground newspapers, and distributed in headshops, porno stores, and on street corners.

Comix—spelled that way to distinguish the work from its dime-store superhero contemporaries—presented tales of illicit sex, casual drug use, and a transgressive view of American society that was embraced by hippies, the fine-art world, and legions of future creatives. With a narrative that weaves together the stories of Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, and Art Spiegelman, among many others, Doherty details, in the first complete narrative history of this movement, the local scenes that sprang up in the 1960s and ’70s in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Chicago, and provides insight into the rivalries, ideological battles, and conflicts that flourished.

The book begins with the artists’ origin stories and follows them through major successes, including Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Maus and Robbins’s Wimmen’s Comix, and tragedies, from S. Clay Wilson’s spiral into alcohol abuse that resulted in career-ending brain damage to Crumb’s neurotic running from his own success (and his use of controversial race and gender imagery), and ends with an examination of these creators’ legacies.

Dirty Pictures is the essential exploration of a truly American art form that recontextualized the way people thought about war, race, sex, gender, and expression.

". . .given the exponential reach of this initially tiny cluster of transgressive artists, Doherty’s book is a welcome addition to an under-analyzed legacy of the free-spirited 1960s.” - San Francisco Chronicle

"A free-wheeling, frank account of the rise and fall of the underground comic scene. . . . Lively, well researched, and full of telling anecdotes; just the thing for comix aficionados and collectors.” - Kirkus Reviews

"As Doherty entertainingly traces the movement’s rise—from its humble beginnings in the 1960s to its uphill battle to be recognized as an art form—he captures how it perfectly reflected the rapidly changing norms of the baby boomer generation and its enduring impact on pop culture today. Comix fans and artists should make room on their shelves for this one." - Publishers Weekly

"...shines a light on a corner of the comics business that still hasn't received its due . . . If this topic interests you at all, Dirty Pictures is likely to be the most complete and authoritative account we’re going to get." - ICv2

"Dirty Pictures is a riveting look at the raunchy history of underground comix" - Boing Boing

"The book is simply the best and most comprehensive look at underground comics published to date." - Smash Pages

"Indispensable." - Shelf Awareness, starred review

"An immense work of comics fandom and a labor of love ... the most far-reaching history of underground comix that anyone will ever likely write." - Book & Film Globe