Week Six: Underground Comics
This was an interesting week of discussion in Comics and I felt like I needed to elaborate on my thoughts. The previous week, when briefly touching on how we were going to get into Underground Comics, I really did not understand exactly what that entailed. Comics are pretty foreign to me, as I have never read one before this class. However, six weeks in, I really have learned more than I thought.
I had no idea that there was a genre within Comics that was so raunchy. For some reason I figured such explicit things could not be published for the sake of legal (and moral?) reasons.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I was thrown off guard when I first read the sex scene in Whiteman by Robert Crumb. In class I got to read some more Robert Crumb; Street Corner Daze and Hairy. Although these were not necessarily about sex like Whiteman, I see why they fit into the Underground category because they were revolved around drugs.
I believe that Underground Comics are not solely for erotic entertainment but are for personal expression, freedom in the form of literature, and maybe even personal confessions? It was mentioned in class that this opens the doors for (I hate to be so cliche) freedom of speech.
I noticed that a few people in class were surprised by the rawness of these comics, which I can't blame them. I also noticed a couple people in class were not as suprised but were more understanding of why they were written. These opinions opened my eyes to the idea that these are personal expression opposed to maybe being just offensive? I feel like there are two groups, those full of surprise vs. those full of understanding?
After our in class discussion, I can definitely say I hopped from the surprised group to the more understanding, and intrigued.
Overall, interesting week.
I had no idea that there was a genre within Comics that was so raunchy. For some reason I figured such explicit things could not be published for the sake of legal (and moral?) reasons.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I was thrown off guard when I first read the sex scene in Whiteman by Robert Crumb. In class I got to read some more Robert Crumb; Street Corner Daze and Hairy. Although these were not necessarily about sex like Whiteman, I see why they fit into the Underground category because they were revolved around drugs.
I believe that Underground Comics are not solely for erotic entertainment but are for personal expression, freedom in the form of literature, and maybe even personal confessions? It was mentioned in class that this opens the doors for (I hate to be so cliche) freedom of speech.
I noticed that a few people in class were surprised by the rawness of these comics, which I can't blame them. I also noticed a couple people in class were not as suprised but were more understanding of why they were written. These opinions opened my eyes to the idea that these are personal expression opposed to maybe being just offensive? I feel like there are two groups, those full of surprise vs. those full of understanding?
After our in class discussion, I can definitely say I hopped from the surprised group to the more understanding, and intrigued.
Overall, interesting week.
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