Alternative comics

The rise of underground comix

During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, the classic comic strips in newspapers were quickly becoming less and less popular to a point where the size of these comics were shrinking in their published newspapers. Creators felt that they were hindered by a lack of creative independence and that mainstream comics followed a single formula too strictly. This led to some creators moving away from major publishers and beginning to publish their own comics.

The underground comix movement emerged from the American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Its small-press and self-published comics challenged conventions associated with the Comics Code Authority.

The fall of underground comix

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, "head shops" were the most common places to buy underground comix. Beyond that, they were also places where fans of the underground culture could group together and bond over their shared interest. Many underground comix creators even became well known faces in the comic industry. Robert Crumb's Zap #1, released in 1968, was one of the most prominent underground comix of its time and really pushed this era forward. Crumb quickly became a leading figure during this era. New creators began popping up, inspired by the change. However, by the mid-1970s, artists within the underground comix scene felt that it had become less creative than it had been in the past. According to Art Spiegelman, "What had seemed like a revolution simply deflated into a lifestyle. Underground comics were stereotyped as dealing only with sex, dope and cheap thrills. They got stuffed back into the closet, along with bong pipes and love beads, as things started to get uglier." In an attempt to address this, underground cartoonists moved to start magazines that anthologized new, artistically ambitious comics in the 1980s. RAW, a lavishly produced, large format anthology that was clearly intended to be seen as a work of art was founded by Spiegelman and his wife Françoise Mouly in 1980. Another magazine, Weirdo, was started by Crumb in 1981.

These magazines reflected changes from the days of the underground comix. They had different formats from the old comix, and the selection of artists differed, too. RAW featured many European artists, while Weirdo included photo-funnies and outsider art-type material. Elfquest was based on a science fiction/fantasy theme with powerful female and male characters of varied races and cultures, and done in a bright and colourful manga-like style. The underground staples of sex, drugs and revolution were much less in evidence. More emphasis was placed on developing the craft of comics drawing and storytelling, with many artists aiming for work that was both subtler and more complex than was typical in the underground. This was true of much of the new work done by established comix artists as well as newcomers. Art Spiegelman's Maus was serialized in RAW.

The underground-alternative transition

Dave Sim was an influential figure in independent comics publishing. His series Cerebus the Aardvark was published through his own company, Aardvark-Vanaheim, from 1977 to 2004, completing a run of 300 issues. The series became an early example of successful long-form self-publishing in comics.

Wendy and Richard Pini created the fantasy comic series Elfquest, which first appeared in Fantasy Quarterly in 1978. After the magazine ceased publication, the Pinis established WaRP Graphics to publish the series independently. WaRP Graphics also published other independent comics, including MythAdventures, Thunder Bunny, and Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil. The first self-published issue of Elfquest had an initial print run of 10,000 copies, and by the conclusion of its original series in 1984, circulation had reached approximately 100,000 copies per issue. The series has been recognized as an important development in the history of independent and self-published comics.

The "black-and-white boom" of the 1980s contributed to the growth of independent comics publishing. One of its most commercially successful titles was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and self-published through Mirage Studios. Its first issue, released in 1984, had an initial print run of 3,275 copies, followed by subsequent printings as the series gained popularity.

Jeff Smith created Bone, a long-running comic series first published through his own imprint, Cartoon Books, in 1991.

The publishing house Fantagraphics published the work of a new generation of artists, notably Love and Rockets by the brothers Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez.

Dan DeBono published Indy – The Independent Comic Guide, a magazine covering only independent comics starting in 1994. It ran for 18 issues and featured covers by Daniel Clowes, Tim Vigil, Drew Hayes, William Tucci, Jeff Smith and Wendy and Richard Pini.

Alternative comics have also reached wider audiences through film adaptations and graphic novels. The film Ghost World (2001), directed by Terry Zwigoff, was adapted from Daniel Clowes's graphic novel of the same name. Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth was assembled from material previously published in Acme Novelty Library and New City.

Oni Press, founded in 1997, became an established publisher of independent comics and graphic novels, including titles such as Scott Pilgrim, The Sixth Gun, and Gender Queer. Top Shelf Productions has published many notable alternative comics such as Craig Thompson's Blankets and Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison. In 2010, Top Shelf published AX: Alternative Manga, a 400-page anthology of Japanese alternative comics edited by Sean Michael Wilson and Mitsuhiro Asakawa.

Culture

The underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s emerged from American counterculture and preceded the development of alternative comics. Alternative comics subsequently explored a broad range of subjects and genres, including themes of politics, identity, and personal experience, often departing from the conventions of mainstream superhero comics.

List of publishers

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Though categories might overlap, this list makes a division between more strictly "alternative" comics and independent publishers operating primarily in the action-adventure, crime, horror and movie/TV-tie in genres.