''Anarchy Comics'' is a series of underground
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s published by
Last Gasp
Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to
* Last Gasp (publisher)
* ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode
* '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled
* ''The Last Gasp'' (novel)
* "Last Gasp" (song)
{{dab ...
between 1978 and 1987, as part of the
underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
subculture of the era. Edited by
Jay Kinney
Jay Kinney (born 1950) is an American author, editor, and former underground cartoonist. Kinney has been noted for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the underground comix press of the 1970s and '80s.
Kinney was a member, along w ...
(#1-3) and
Paul Mavrides
Paul Mavrides (born 1952) is an American artist, best known for his critique-laden comics, cartoons, paintings, graphics, performances and writings that encompass a disturbing yet humorous catalog of the social ills and shortcomings of human ...
(#4), regular contributors to ''Anarchy Comics'' included
Melinda Gebbie
Melinda Gebbie (born 1937) is an American comics artist and writer, known for her participation in the underground comix movement. She is also known for creating the controversial work ''Fresca Zizis'' and her contributions to ''Wimmen's Comix ...
,
Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper (born 13 July 1949 in Chiswick, West London) is a worker, illustrator, and militant anarchist. He wrote ''Anarchy: A Graphic Guide'' in 1987. He is a long-term contributor to ''The Guardian'' newspaper and many other publications. ...
, and
Spain Rodriguez
Manuel Rodriguez (March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012), better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M ...
, as well as Kinney and Mavrides. (Kinney, Mavrides, and Rodriguez had been noted for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the
underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
press of the 1970s and '80s.)
Publication history
A total of four issues of ''Anarchy Comics'' were published between 1978 and 1987, with individual issues appearing in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1987. Each issue of ''Anarchy Comics'' was created by an international cast of
anarchist or sympathetic contributors. Each issue included a mixture of fiction, history, commentary, and artwork, with wide ranges in style and format.
Only the first issue remains in print. A collected edition titled ''Anarchy Comics: The Complete Collection'' () was published in December 2012 by
PM Press.
Contributors
Each issue of ''Anarchy Comics'' showcased an international cast of artists who identified as anarchists or
nonsectarian
Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group.
Academic sphere
Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adelp ...
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
. An example of this is
Spain Rodriguez
Manuel Rodriguez (March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012), better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M ...
, a
Marxist, who was considered of "sufficient
libertarian bent" to be included.
List of contributors
The following is a list of each contributor in alphabetical order.
Themes
Anarchism
Overtly anarchist in its bent, all content included was based on anarchist philosophy and history.
The humor of each anthology was satirical in nature, mocking both mainstream culture as well as traditional leftist ideas of revolution.
Punk rock
Roger Sabin
Roger Sabin is an English writer about comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech ba ...
, an English historian of comics and subculture, noted a number of connections between the comic and the
Punk rock subculture of the '70s, suggesting that Jay Kinney "clearly hoped to pick up a share of the punk market with this very political comic." The covers of issues No.2 and No.3 both feature archetypal "punk" characters, and issue No. 2 features the short comic "Kultur Documents", a punk rock parody of
Archie Comics. Sabin also analyzes "Too Real", Jay Kinney's short comic from the first issue, as being jointly inspired by a combination of
Situationist
The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...
and punk rock imagery. Sabin noted that many of the comics didn't have any relationship to Punk culture, but thought that the comic may have introduced radical ideas to a generation of new, young punks.
Issues
*
**"Too Real" by Jay Kinney
**"Nestor Makhno" by Spain Rodriguez (originally published in T.R.A.; 1976)
**"Smarmy Comics" by Jay Kinney
**"The Quilting Bee" by Melinda Gebbie
**"Blood and Sky" by Spain Rodriguez
**"Gilbert Shelton's Advanced International Motoring Tips" by Gilbert Shelton
**"Liberty Through The Ages" by Epistolier and Volny, with translation by Berangere Lomont (originally published in ''L'Echo Des Savanes'' No.29; 1977)
**"What's The Difference" by J.R. Burnham
**"Owd Nancy's Petticoat" by Clifford Harper
**"Safehouse" by Dohrn
**"On Contradiction" by M. Tsetung
**"Today's Rhetoric" by 'Spud' Silber
**"Some Straight Talk About Anarchy" by Paul Mavrides
*
*
*
See also
*
Anarchism and the arts
Anarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly with visual art, music and literature. This can be dated back to the start of anarchism as a named political concept, and the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on the French rea ...
*
Anarky — DC Comics supervillain
*
Leonard Rifas
Leonard Rifas (b. April 16, 1951) is an American cartoonist, critic, editor, and publisher associated with underground comix, comics journalism, left-wing politics, and the anti-nuclear movement. He is notable for his contributions to the form of ...
— cartoonist, editor, and publisher focused on similar themes
*
Trashman — comics character with Marxist-anarchist overtones, created by
Spain Rodriguez
Manuel Rodriguez (March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012), better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M ...
References
External links
Anarchy Comics distributed by AK Press.
Anarchy Comics: The Complete Collection published by PM Press.
{{Underground comix works
1978 comics debuts
1987 comics endings
Anarchist comics
Anarchist fiction
Comics magazines published in the United States
Last Gasp titles
Underground comix