Strong Message Then, Peculiar Now: Underground Comics of the 1960s

The underground comics found in alternate newspapers of the 1960s were interesting for the most part. Society was driven in a different direction at that time, and as a product of that these were made to push the norms of it onto its reading audience. Looking back at it now, one would see these comics and look at it as a mosh pit of profanity and innuendos off the wall in obscene ways. To be more precise in terms of things most commonly found in these illustrations, there are traces of drug use, alcoholic use, perversive manners, lack of censorship both physically and verbally, and racism both in terms of visuals and slurs. This would be a parallel to the rebellious phases of our youth, yet for that time it was more loosely handled and due to the constant use of drugs to make these, were very surreal. For this look-over, I read some of the Air Pirates short sub-stories in the series.

There was nothing held back for these graphic novels. For most, they'd be offended that such child-friendly looking characters did such horrible things, but also bear in mind comics weren't just for children, and at the time, things people looked for in a very "driven" society were very different than today. Interestingly enough, despite all the subplots, no censorship, drug and alcoholic references, there were still references to current events or problems at the time. Essentially this was almost used as a vent for those who had to push their views and opinions out, high at the time, but still noticeable points and opinions. Playing off of how people got uncomfortable was normal, but then again, the writers also expected the readers to be doped up listening to music while reading these. Even animations were made to be like being on a trip (often for the purpose of being viewed while on a trip) purely because drugs were a large thing at the time in communities.

Interestingly, there were subliminal messages in each of these, and it's intriguing that in order to find them today, you have to endure the hardcore heavy-duty no-limits non-censorship of these comics. Intriguingly, I almost feel like such raw opinions could only be found in such raw formatting.