Alternative comics

The term "alternative comics" is one of several labels applied to a range of comic books, graphic novels, and allied forms that have appeared since about 1980, in the wake of the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 70s. Typically, these are authored independently by a single creator; they are aimed at adult readers and are often formally experimental. The works in question have variously been labelled "post-underground," "independent,", "small press," "new wave," or "art comics." Many self-published "minicomics" also fall under the "alternative" umbrella.

These works present an alternative to the "mainstream" comics which dominate the US comic book industry (such as the superhero-themed products of Marvel and DC comic companies). Those comics are typically produced by a team of workers operating on tight deadlines: a writer, a penciler, an inker, a letterer, a colorist, and an editor. The subject matter and style of "mainstream" comics is in large part dictated by their publisher, who hires the personnel to produce the comics according to well established conventions of a genre. By contrast, alternative comics are often independently authored and drawn by a single creator and they are published when deemed complete by the author, with little regard for regular distribution schedules. Where the content of "mainstream" comics is influenced by corporate managers attempting to maximize sales, "alternative" comics are often published in small numbers for specialized audiences, which allows for the publication of material that many in a more general readership would likely find obscure or offensive. In all of these ways, "alternative" comics build directly on the precedent set by underground comix.

From underground to alternative

The hippie counterculture, and the underground comix distribution system associated with it, had largely collapsed by the late 1970s. At that juncture, the artists who had emerged as part of the comix underground found it increasingly difficult to find publishers, and those that did continue to publish found that their audience had shrunk dramatically.

Two of the leading artists of underground comix addressed this situation in the early 1980s by starting magazines that anthologized new, artistically ambitious comics. RAW, a lavishly produced, large format anthology that was clearly intended to be seen as a work of art was founded by artist Art Spiegelman and his wife Françoise Mouly in 1980. Another magazine, Weirdo, was started by the leading figure in underground comix, Robert Crumb, in 1981.

Both of 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, Weirdo included photo-funnies and strange outsider art-type documents. 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 the established comix artists as well as the newcomers: Spiegelman's Maus, much celebrated for bringing a new seriousness to comics, was serialized in RAW.

Another important factor in the establishment of alternative comics was the emergence in the late 1970s of the publishing house Fantagraphics. This small company, headed by Gary Groth and Kim Thompson, was instrumental in establishing a new audience for seriously intended comics. They created a magazine for the critical discussion of comics, The Comics Journal, reprinted a number of historical comics that had fallen into obscurity, and they published the work of a new generation of artists, notably Love and Rockets by the brothers Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez.

Alternative comics have increasingly established themselves within the larger culture, as evidenced by the success of the feature film Ghost World based on one of the best selling alternative titles, Eightball, by Daniel Clowes and the cross-genre success of the book Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware, a story that was serialized in Ware's comic, Acme Novelty Library.

Notable alternative comics

• Acme Novelty Library (Chris Ware)
• Angry Youth Comics (Johnny Ryan)
• American Splendor (Harvey Pekar)
• Bad Boys (JR Williams)
• Blab (anthology)
• Bipolar (Tomer Hanuka, Asaf Hanuka, and Etgar Keret)
• Centrifugal Bumblepuppy (anthology edited by Joe Sacco)
• Cerebus the Aardvark (Dave Sim)
• Doofus (Rick Altergott)
• Dork (Evan Dorkin)
• Dirty Plotte (Julie Doucet)
• Drawn and Quarterly (anthology)
• Dykes to Watch Out For (Alison Bechdel)
• Eightball (Daniel Clowes)
• Hate, Neat Stuff (Peter Bagge)
• Hopeless Savages
• Hutch Owen (Tom Hart)
• Inside Vineyland (Lauren Weinstein)
• King-Cat Comics (John Porcellino)
• Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl (Roman Dirge)
• Love and Rockets (Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez)
• Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (Jhonen Vasquez)
• Low Jinx (anthology edited by Kurt Wolfgang)
• The Magic Whistle (Sam Henderson)
• Meatcake (Dame Darcy)
• Meathaus (anthology edited by the Meathaus Collective)
• Milk and Cheese (Evan Dorkin)
• Naughty Bits (Roberta Gregory)
• NON (anthology edited by Jordan Crane)
• Optic Nerve (Adrian Tomine)
• Palookaville (Seth)
• Palestine (Joe Sacco)
• Peep Show (Joe Matt)
• Pop Gun War (Farel Dalrymple)
• Prime Cuts (anthology edited by Gary Groth)
• RAW (anthology edited by Art Spiegelman)
• Schizo (Ivan Brunetti)
• Shrimpy and Paul and Friends (Marc Bell)
• Steven (Doug Allen)
• Stickboy (Dennis Worden)
• Taboo (anthology edited by Steve Bissette)
• Tank Girl (Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin)
• Underworld (Kaz)
• Weirdo (anthology edited by Robert Crumb, later by Peter Bagge, still later by Aline Kominsky-Crumb)
• Yummy Fur (Chester Brown)
• Zero zero (anthology edited by Kim Thompson)
• Zot! (Scott McCloud)
• Various comics about German Queer culture by Ralf König