Download Death Rattle v2 #3
A little over a decade after the triumphant return of the superheroes to mainstream comics, underground comix were born. Irreverent, iconoclastic, independent, bawdy, and vigorously drawn, this new wave of comic books spoke to, and for, a lot of young people who were coming of age in the turbulent decade of the 1960s. Hip young readers who weren't especially interested in the fortunes of the Fantastic Four or the latest incarnation of Green Lantern.
Unhampered by allegiance to the Comics Code, titles such as Zap Comix, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Death Rattle dealt with sex, drugs, and government corruption, the Viet Nam War, women's rights, gay and lesbian issues, and other taboo topics to cause quite a few official attempts at censorship and suppression.
The acknowledged patron saint of the underground movement was Harvey Kurtzman who'd championed a more polite anti-establishment worldview in Mad and then Humbug. He also, in Help, published the early work of suc
h founding fathers of comix as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. Another influence was Basil Wolverton, no only for his many bizarre 1940s comic-book burlesques such as Powerhouse Pepper but for his later grotesque style of drawing as seen in Mad.
Crumb, inventor of Zap, was the leading practitioner and the one who got the most national attention. Others who were important to the movement were Shelton, creator of Wonder Warthog and the Freak Brothers, Denis Kitchen, Rick Griffin, Trina Robbins, Bobby London, Skip Williamson, Vaughn Bode, and Shary Flenniken. The undergrounds, for the most part, flourished for only a few years. They did, however, pave the way for the creation of such varied titles as Love and Rockets, Elfquest, Cerebus the Aardvark, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Credits
Cover: Doug Hansen
Script: Steve Stiles
Pencils: Steve Stiles
Inks: Steve Stiles
Colors: Ray Fehrenbach
Letters: Don Simpson
Editing:Dave Schreiner
