Underground Comics

This week I read parts of Mr. Natural, Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Hytone Comix, and Mother Oats Comix.

Speaking from a very broad point of view the biggest difference I've noticed between these comics and everything else I've read so far is that they don't hold back or restrain their thoughts at all; they know it's vulgar and if anything they embrace it.

Mr. Natural seemed to be the most tame of the things I was reading. He takes the role of the wise old man, who is quite famous but predominately appears in the life of Flakey Foont. From the portions I read, I found myself slightly intrigued by how he is very focused on Flakey. Throughout some of the stories Crumb lets on to how famous Mr. Natural really is. Notably this was seen when he ditches Flakey for a while, finds himself surrounded by diehard fans, and tries to disguise himself to go undercover for a while. Of course, at the end we find that he goes back to being Mr. Natural and uses that fact to get laid. Crumb utilizes exaggeration in his work, especially when it comes to women and how big their breasts are. Every woman seen in these comics wears tight clothes and has abnormally large breasts among other things. All of Crumb's work seems to embrace absurdism and guiltless living. The absurdity is carried on throughout Hytone Comix. These stories seem to push boundaries even further, notably with the comic "Horny Harriet Hotpants", a story about an "oversexed" woman who seems to constantly crave sexual interaction with men at all times. Even their PSA styled ads which seem to poke fun at those that are seen in mainstream comics push the barriers, using a talking toilet that reminds everyone to wipe their ass and "join the clean asshole club". It's hilarious, but also explains why it would never exist in mainstream comics.

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was more focused on the drug scene. The series follows three drugged-out hippies named Franklin, Freddie, and Phineas on their drug fueled adventures. The characters are all very convinced that whatever reality they're hallucinating is actually real life. The opening comic was especially telling of this, as it saw them attempting to break their friend Cowfreak out of prison, when in reality Freddie had just eaten all of their hash cookies and was getting his ass kicked for it. It also jumps back and forth between the main storyline and small comic-strip styled excursions about Freddie's cat, who carries a "don't take shit from anyone" sort of attitude; he doesn't let himself feel weaker or less than any human. The brother's stories are generally short lived, mostly dealing with whether or not they were running out of drugs or how soon they could get them. However, the story that carries on the longest is that of their eviction and eventual splitting of paths to find a new home. I found this to be one of the more interesting parts of this story; the author explores what happens when they're each left to their own devices.

Mother Oats took the drug craze in a different direction. While Furry Freak Brothers were more interested in finding drugs, characters in the stories in Mother Oak were shown experiencing their hallucinations. Although very abstract, I thought that some of the better illustrations from underground comics were in the vivid imagery of the drugged-out mind. The 3rd piece of this comic was particularly interesting to me, where the main character started to visualize different aspects of his psyche (I.E. his ego, his conscience). It's a different viewpoint of self-examination. I think illustrating what goes on in one's head is something that is going to be abstract to begin with, so the way the main character ends up interacting with his drug trip is something that stood out to me from these comics. While these comics are beautiful to look at, they can also be very overwhelming. There are large patches of text, combined with very complicated and strong visuals. It becomes difficult to focus on just one thing, and it really completely overwhelms me as a reader. I think that I would need to spend more time really taking a closer look at these to really understand them better.