@Stevie-J what kills me is that when you search ",comics". The channel not listed. Yet 5 ben 10 porn cartoon porn come up. Great channel get murdered by the algorithm
@@thespecial5169 I think human thumbs weigh heavily on the scales and those humans defer to "the algorithm" to dodge scrutiny and responsibility. Sort of like car salesmen pretending they're consulting with their manager, or those German fellows that were 'just following orders'
As a young kid I read histories of comics that were mainly triumphant about superheroes, but when you look at sales numbers from say the end of the 1960s Marvel wasn't the top selling company at all, really Marvel became top dog because it was the survivor of the industry going through one of its periodic collapses. A lot of the simple history of comics is really the history of what fervent fanboys remember, this is a welcome counternarrative
Marvel became notable only because of having somewhat less intelligence insulting stories in the 60s which is when the 2000-2015 45-60 year olds encounter comics for the first time. Note that DC properties are far bigger earlier as standalones(1978 Superman, 1989 Batman) and DC publishes 300, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Sandman... MCU was a great shared universe but it was held up by Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch and of course Tom Hiddleston who managed to end the MCU with the Loki series. While the Deadpool stuff is fun it's not possible to create that compelling shared universe on it. Warner/DC and Disney/Marvel are the past. This past generation has grown more attached to anime and video game origin characters. The video game versions of even the DC characters define them more & more, as the animation also always did. These characters are artifacts of the US empire arising in WW2 and after. They exist in specifically American contexts of that period and just do not make sense outside that. They are nostalgia and work best in period pieces. Captain America, Wonder Woman and WW84, Batman: Caped Crusader are set earlier for a reason. Someone should do that with Superman. SciFi worlds like Judge Dredd's Megacity-One, or magical sub universes like Sandman and Constantine exist in, have their continuing appeal. This stuff will continue to be made. Like Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes or the Greek gods, new stories will be told in "rebooted" worlds. Copyrights expire and trademarks don't stop ripoffs. What I suspect is that the riot of journalistic, biographic, historical, fantastical, futuristic & horror material, simply expands & continues.
I read a lot of "history of comics" books as a kid, you might get 50s horror comics, maybe 60s underground comix, but never the 80s bomb of black and white independent comics. The history was always very skewed
@@xibalbalon8668I had the enclyopida of comics from the 70s and they touched on the 60s underground comixs I don't think they coverd the 50s horror comics but they mostly focused on comic strips
@@crhu319superheros are the physical manifestation of the values and ethics of the 20th century amricia they reflect the amrician values of whatever time they are in
I'm a Europen, and I grew up with a mix of American, British and Franco-Belgian style comics (and the occasional manga), and I didn't really realize until I was an adult how heavily superhero-loaded the term "comics" is in English. I remember reading a shit-ton of detective thrillers, westerns, weird scifi, comedy hijinks, war stories, etc. etc. just all kinds of stuff in addition to superheroes.
In the early 80s, I stumbled upon the Bud Plant catalog, and discovered Cerebus, Captain Canuck, and First Kingdom through the catalog. What's especially interesting is how each of those titles went its own route. I continued buying Cerebus at comic shops. Captain Canuck actually managed to get on the comic racks--I was so excited to buy the Captain Canuck Summer Special off the rack, next to all the other mainstream titles! And First Kingdom I just kept buying through the Bud Plant catalog, because I never saw it anywhere else.
A brief history of the alternate publishers. I love it. Yes, superheroes were my gateway but once I got caught in the black and white explosion I never looked back. Job well done, sir
I'm reminded of something Robert Crumb said, he loved Pogo and much of the cartoony and funny animal comics in the 50s, but once those fell out of fashion during the silver age and superheroes came back in fashion, he fell out of love with comics. I feel like a lot of people felt there weren't any comics left aimed at their own tastes anymore. One part of comic history that's overlooked is how a lot of the earliest furries were making independent comics and zines in the 70s and 80s, people that Stan Sakai and even Dave Sims would rub shoulders with
On footnote 2, Zines to me highlight the importance of preservation. It makes me envious of the UKs compulsory publishing laws to be able to have some amount of record of printed material no matter how arbitrary. Who knows how many creators or lost stories are just gone forever. I grew up with a bit of a hipster revival of zines for a short time and I still appreciate them as small localized peices of artistic ephemera.
I spent a few years teaching English in Istanbul, Turkey and became quite jealous of the amount of magazines and broadsheets on the newsstands devoted to political cartoons and alternative graphic novels & illustrations! Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Quarterly....imagine the Village Voice but 100% illustrated. I taught myself Turkish by reading them. Sigh. I deeply envy Europe's culture of graphic novels, its much more appreciated than here in the US.
Just to note that Judge Dredd's first appearance was actually in 2000AD issue 2, 5th March 1977. The headline star of the book was suppose to be the revamp of the 1950s UK comic SF hero Dan Dare, who had been extraordinarily popular after WWII.
Superb review. As a brit, it's a nice surprise to see 2000AD included, and of all 'mainstream' creators, Pat Mills is perhaps the one person most difficult to pigeonhole. Following on from Arcade, Raw had an interesting life, starting off as something I saw by chance on a desk at art college ending up as something I could buy in a high street WH Smiths.
My first exposure on independent comics was from Warren comics Eerie and Creepy and Nightmare in 1977. I thought at the time (I was ten) that they had much better storylines than the regular DC and Marvel comics . and of those I only read DC horror comics such as House of Mystery , House of Secrets, Weird war tales, Witching Hour. and Unknown Soldier. The only Marvel comic I read was Tomb of Dracula.
Always love it when Grimjack gets mentioned. A comic about a mercenary who is a hardboiled detective, living a sci fi world that also has magic, while trying overcome PTSD from his childhood and a war he fought in. Also you showed Elfquest, Strangers In Paradise and Poison Elves. Some of my favorite comics.
I'm a lifelong Marvel Comics fan NYC resident & i remember when Comic Book stores were a new phenomenon here back in the 80s ..& my local Comic Book store would recommend MANY independent books..by people like R Crumb & others..& i became a fan of them titles as well Anyways great video brother..im looking forward to more of your Comic Book history videos 👑
I would definitely love to see a video on Daniel Clowes and his work like Eightball and Monica. Also a video on Tank Girl would also be really cool to see! :)
Other avenues of exploration: Fantagraphics, Eightball, Acme Novelty Library, Howard Chaykin's constant battles with the mainstream, mini comics like Cynical Man by Matt Feazell, my Action Geek / Chapel Zone / Ghetto Blaster / SPUN Magazine indie publications since 1986... so many different avenues to pursue...
DC’s very first direct market comic was Superboy Spectacular, a 64 page reprint comic published in the fall of 1979. (It was also offered through channels that distributed books to grade schools, the way Scholastic did. There is a variant edition of that comic denoting its different distribution.)
While I realize the Algorithm gods don't always approve, I like how your scope of this medium goes beyond superhero comics. Not only that, but you cover different (sometimes obscure) genres and subgenres that a casual comic fan like me can learn about.
I got to attend one of the last years that APE happend in San Francisco; this included an after party at what was once the Last Gasp warehouse. They not only had free booze and nosh, but they allowed patrons to wander the back issue stacks and buy anything for cover price. This meant that I found original Vaughn Bode comics that cost around seventy five cents. They are still treasures in my collection.
Another great video! I appreciate what you said about building upon this history. In that regard, the work of Dark Horse in the late 80's and early 90's was part of this movement. It should also be noted that Los Bros. Hernandez were putting out books of superior quality in what was a predominantly white comics landscape, indie or otherwise.
I wonder how the industry would have benefitted creatively and commercially if Image comics had not chosen Diamond Comic Distributors as their distributor in 1995 but instead chose Capital City Distribution or Heroes World Distribution.
I remember several years ago talking to you right here in “Comments” about independent comics of the 80s’. In particular “Whisper”. You said you were working on a related topic. I guess it finally got here. I'm a Martin Fan, so I understand that quality takes time. Well done. VIVAT!
I'll never forget the first time walking into a comic specialty store in 1984. I discovered that a title I had recently brought at a newsstand was 2 issues behind what was being sold at the specialty shop. Back in the early '80s, buying comics from local newsstands was horrible!!
Great video! I’d like to add that ‘74 also saw Orb #1 which the importance of cannot be understated. Orb is often considered the Canadian equivalent of Star⭐️Reach. At the same time Gamut was being published at Sheridan Collage. Like S ⭐️ R, Orb also contained the art of Gene Day and Ken Steacy.
As a Usagi fan, he's not hit on par with the Turtles. TMNT has freak occurrences with the Action Figure line, then led to turning an underground adult(ish) comic into a kids cartoon that became a major boom (and of note is that every TMNT carton aside of Rise included a guest appearance by Usagi and often other UY characters). Usagi might have gotten that if the Space Usagi cartoon took off, but it was killed of before it started by failure of Bucky O'Hare cartoon.
I was there for all of this from the late '70s on. I helped a buddy of mine start the Wizard's Asylum franchise in Oklahoma in 1990. There were a lot of great underground/alternative comics back in the day. I was an early CAPTAIN CANUCK and GRIMJACK fan! However, IMO, the dominance of the direct market eventually killed the overall market. The disappearance of comics from groceries and convenient stores essentially "ate the seed corn". You create life-long comics fans during their pre-teen years. The eventual monopoly of the direct market short-circuited that process.
both his underground ec derived work and his historical work are great, one of those artists that is of the highest quality but just never found a big audience.
I grew up on 2000AD . Also In 1983 Last Gasp reprinted the first four issues in the Junkwaffel series, they were amazing books. I had graffiti artist friends and Bode's characters were popular with them.
Thank you do much for making your videos. They've led me towards are greater appreciation for the medium as a whole, and directed me towards works that I may have never come across otherwise. You are my favorite youtuber in this space. Thank you for everything you've created.
@2:23 ACG kept making horror comics; they just toned down the violence. Shoot, the Spider-Man's first issue only had one story with Spider-Man; the rest were mild horror or sci-fi tales. And don't forget about film adaptions; Dell & Gold Key continued to adapt horror films. The Comics Code Authority was an industry group; publishers didn't have to join Dell\Gold Key didn't; they made their own pledge to produce "good comics". This was printed on the first page of each book. And they were more successful than Marvel or DC at the time.
This is an incredibly important comics story to tell. Thank you for doing so! Also: you are the only comics youtuber that I don't get the urge to punch in the head.
It is a crime that Jack Katz is not more widely known. His art is excellent and reminds me of He-Man and other 80s cartoons. Doubtless they were inspired by his work.
Hi Allan, I love your video! I do feel that you seems to perceive alternative comics as a thread that should separated from the mainstream. I think one cannot exist without the other. For instance there is no mention of mention of Dark Horse, alternative imprints of Marvel and DC and especially the British invasion of writers that changed the field drastically. Also I think that during the early 00's many indie writers started working at the Big 2 (Bendis, Brubaker, Ellis, Ennis, Millar etc.) and were very influential on comics and pop culture in general. Furthermore, it strikes me that the American market was (up until quite recently) dominated my American publishers. So mainstream European comics also seem to be a niche market in the US.
Excellent work on a subject that needs talking about! And yeah, as you mention, this is of course an American comic history. In my native Sweden, for instance, superhero comics were an American import that was just a minority of the mainstream titles produced, with almost no such material produced locally, just translated. Didn't stop us from having alternative comics challenging the cultural commercial norm - or having people crusading against the danger of comics! Thanks again for this excellent essay.
It might be of interest to look into publishers that came out between the end of the black and white boom and image. Malibu and I think Calibur started and managed to survive a number of years after image.
Great video, I really liked what ut added to my understanding of comics history. You should do something on the anti-comics hysteria that lead to the comics code. That's something we all could learn from.
I was fascinated to see where alot of quirky titles I picked up over the years fit into an actual time line. I loved Quack: The Wraith by Michael Gilbert, On The Skids by Chaykin, Newton The Rabbit Wonder by Brunner, etc.. It was one title that bucked the perceived notion that with out the editorial oversight provided at the big two, creators would produce incoherent, solipsistic nonsense focused on dirty jokes and angsty outbursts.
Thank you, this is a healthy exercise as the big two did a lot of work to write their own comicbook history leaving a lot of it untold, underground and indie lore are well-known but I didn't know about most of the overground.
I’m a silent fan of your channel but I love your work, I’m reading toomorrows publishing books on American comics and I’m reading the 70s now, this video works in so many ways as a complement to that book. Do you have any knowledge on Argentinian comics history or present scene?
Excellent, and well researched! I particularly like the additional on screen examples that are not called out in the narration, a mature presentation technique that makes it feel well researched, and not someone reading out power point slides. I also liked the call for additional input. Perhaps some focus on the print lists and catalogues that were produced to allow early sales of 'alternative' and 'underground' comics, along with regular back issues, to those without access to comic shops and head shops? Jaime Hernandez speaks about it in his 'Shoot Interview' for Comics Kayfabe.
Good video. It's a vast subject so it's good you put a callout for the many other links or gaps or historical strands that the subject contains that couldn't possibly all be covered in one video.
Another great installment. "The Adventures of Phil Seuling" was a long-overdue story. I think that he was more instrumental in the changed structure of the comic book market than any individual publisher, including Marvel. Speaking of which, I worked in the Direct Sales Market when Marvel (and possibly DC) distinguished the labelling of their Direct Sales comics and their Newstand comics. Direct Sales books had Spider-Man's head posted on the lower left corner of the books and the Newstand books posted a UPC barcode on that corner. I know because my employer at the time was offered Newstand left-overs for less than half the cover price. This might have contributed to the eventual death of the Newstand market...
You are the best comic youtuber that youtube hates.
One of the best. Hope his channel grows
Yeah the format is great and he has good insights. Comfy channel 🫠
@Stevie-J what kills me is that when you search ",comics". The channel not listed. Yet 5 ben 10 porn cartoon porn come up. Great channel get murdered by the algorithm
@@thespecial5169 I think human thumbs weigh heavily on the scales and those humans defer to "the algorithm" to dodge scrutiny and responsibility. Sort of like car salesmen pretending they're consulting with their manager, or those German fellows that were 'just following orders'
It should love.😊
As a young kid I read histories of comics that were mainly triumphant about superheroes, but when you look at sales numbers from say the end of the 1960s Marvel wasn't the top selling company at all, really Marvel became top dog because it was the survivor of the industry going through one of its periodic collapses. A lot of the simple history of comics is really the history of what fervent fanboys remember, this is a welcome counternarrative
Marvel became notable only because of having somewhat less intelligence insulting stories in the 60s which is when the 2000-2015 45-60 year olds encounter comics for the first time.
Note that DC properties are far bigger earlier as standalones(1978 Superman, 1989 Batman) and DC publishes 300, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Sandman...
MCU was a great shared universe but it was held up by Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch and of course Tom Hiddleston who managed to end the MCU with the Loki series. While the Deadpool stuff is fun it's not possible to create that compelling shared universe on it.
Warner/DC and Disney/Marvel are the past. This past generation has grown more attached to anime and video game origin characters. The video game versions of even the DC characters define them more & more, as the animation also always did.
These characters are artifacts of the US empire arising in WW2 and after. They exist in specifically American contexts of that period and just do not make sense outside that. They are nostalgia and work best in period pieces. Captain America, Wonder Woman and WW84, Batman: Caped Crusader are set earlier for a reason. Someone should do that with Superman.
SciFi worlds like Judge Dredd's Megacity-One, or magical sub universes like Sandman and Constantine exist in, have their continuing appeal.
This stuff will continue to be made. Like Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes or the Greek gods, new stories will be told in "rebooted" worlds. Copyrights expire and trademarks don't stop ripoffs.
What I suspect is that the riot of journalistic, biographic, historical, fantastical, futuristic & horror material, simply expands & continues.
I read a lot of "history of comics" books as a kid, you might get 50s horror comics, maybe 60s underground comix, but never the 80s bomb of black and white independent comics. The history was always very skewed
@@xibalbalon8668I had the enclyopida of comics from the 70s and they touched on the 60s underground comixs I don't think they coverd the 50s horror comics but they mostly focused on comic strips
@@crhu319superheros are the physical manifestation of the values and ethics of the 20th century amricia they reflect the amrician values of whatever time they are in
I'm a Europen, and I grew up with a mix of American, British and Franco-Belgian style comics (and the occasional manga), and I didn't really realize until I was an adult how heavily superhero-loaded the term "comics" is in English. I remember reading a shit-ton of detective thrillers, westerns, weird scifi, comedy hijinks, war stories, etc. etc. just all kinds of stuff in addition to superheroes.
Thanks for highlighting ElfQuest and its role in comics history!
Thanks go to you for creating the series! It is not recognized as often as it should be.
I truly appreciate that you spotlight the medium overall and not just the Big Two!
Im glad my library's comic section was mostly non superhero stories its small but it expanded my taste
In the early 80s, I stumbled upon the Bud Plant catalog, and discovered Cerebus, Captain Canuck, and First Kingdom through the catalog. What's especially interesting is how each of those titles went its own route. I continued buying Cerebus at comic shops. Captain Canuck actually managed to get on the comic racks--I was so excited to buy the Captain Canuck Summer Special off the rack, next to all the other mainstream titles! And First Kingdom I just kept buying through the Bud Plant catalog, because I never saw it anywhere else.
I think Vertigo Comics, for a time, was also trying to synthesize the non mainstream and mainstream comics as well.
A brief history of the alternate publishers. I love it. Yes, superheroes were my gateway but once I got caught in the black and white explosion I never looked back. Job well done, sir
I'm reminded of something Robert Crumb said, he loved Pogo and much of the cartoony and funny animal comics in the 50s, but once those fell out of fashion during the silver age and superheroes came back in fashion, he fell out of love with comics. I feel like a lot of people felt there weren't any comics left aimed at their own tastes anymore.
One part of comic history that's overlooked is how a lot of the earliest furries were making independent comics and zines in the 70s and 80s, people that Stan Sakai and even Dave Sims would rub shoulders with
On footnote 2, Zines to me highlight the importance of preservation. It makes me envious of the UKs compulsory publishing laws to be able to have some amount of record of printed material no matter how arbitrary. Who knows how many creators or lost stories are just gone forever. I grew up with a bit of a hipster revival of zines for a short time and I still appreciate them as small localized peices of artistic ephemera.
I spent a few years teaching English in Istanbul, Turkey and became quite jealous of the amount of magazines and broadsheets on the newsstands devoted to political cartoons and alternative graphic novels & illustrations! Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Quarterly....imagine the Village Voice but 100% illustrated. I taught myself Turkish by reading them. Sigh. I deeply envy Europe's culture of graphic novels, its much more appreciated than here in the US.
Wild to think abiut how different things were in Europe, Argentina, Mexico, and Japan during the same period
Just to note that Judge Dredd's first appearance was actually in 2000AD issue 2, 5th March 1977. The headline star of the book was suppose to be the revamp of the 1950s UK comic SF hero Dan Dare, who had been extraordinarily popular after WWII.
Superb review. As a brit, it's a nice surprise to see 2000AD included, and of all 'mainstream' creators, Pat Mills is perhaps the one person most difficult to pigeonhole. Following on from Arcade, Raw had an interesting life, starting off as something I saw by chance on a desk at art college ending up as something I could buy in a high street WH Smiths.
My first exposure on independent comics was from Warren comics Eerie and Creepy and Nightmare in 1977. I thought at the time (I was ten) that they had much better storylines than the regular DC and Marvel comics . and of those I only read DC horror comics such as House of Mystery , House of Secrets, Weird war tales, Witching Hour. and Unknown Soldier. The only Marvel comic I read was Tomb of Dracula.
Nice list! That's a really solid comics background in my opinion
2000AD was available at a news agent CNA when i was young and it opened my eyes to what comics could be. Brilliant video. Cheers.
Always love it when Grimjack gets mentioned. A comic about a mercenary who is a hardboiled detective, living a sci fi world that also has magic, while trying overcome PTSD from his childhood and a war he fought in. Also you showed Elfquest, Strangers In Paradise and Poison Elves. Some of my favorite comics.
Always a good night when SBP posts a new video
The "Weird Mysteries" cover art in the intro is BANANAS! Giant skull, equally massive dagger, ant-man creature... what am I looking at? I love it 😆
I'm a lifelong Marvel Comics fan NYC resident & i remember when Comic Book stores were a new phenomenon here back in the 80s ..& my local Comic Book store would recommend MANY independent books..by people like R Crumb & others..& i became a fan of them titles as well
Anyways great video brother..im looking forward to more of your Comic Book history videos 👑
Ah, the black and white magazine!
I would definitely love to see a video on Daniel Clowes and his work like Eightball and Monica. Also a video on Tank Girl would also be really cool to see! :)
Other avenues of exploration: Fantagraphics, Eightball, Acme Novelty Library, Howard Chaykin's constant battles with the mainstream, mini comics like Cynical Man by Matt Feazell, my Action Geek / Chapel Zone / Ghetto Blaster / SPUN Magazine indie publications since 1986... so many different avenues to pursue...
DC’s very first direct market comic was Superboy Spectacular, a 64 page reprint comic published in the fall of 1979. (It was also offered through channels that distributed books to grade schools, the way Scholastic did. There is a variant edition of that comic denoting its different distribution.)
It's admirable how much effort you dedicate to the neglected corners of comic history
Keeping the old stories alive. Right on
Can't wait to see your videos on Hellboy!
While I realize the Algorithm gods don't always approve, I like how your scope of this medium goes beyond superhero comics.
Not only that, but you cover different (sometimes obscure) genres and subgenres that a casual comic fan like me can learn about.
I got to attend one of the last years that APE happend in San Francisco; this included an after party at what was once the Last Gasp warehouse. They not only had free booze and nosh, but they allowed patrons to wander the back issue stacks and buy anything for cover price. This meant that I found original Vaughn Bode comics that cost around seventy five cents. They are still treasures in my collection.
Wow,
Another brilliant PHD level comic book history lesson. Bravo 👏.
I could watch this stuff all day
Another great video! I appreciate what you said about building upon this history. In that regard, the work of Dark Horse in the late 80's and early 90's was part of this movement. It should also be noted that Los Bros. Hernandez were putting out books of superior quality in what was a predominantly white comics landscape, indie or otherwise.
Crumb didn't start Arcade, he merely contributed, it was started by Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffiths.
I wonder how the industry would have benefitted creatively and commercially if Image comics had not chosen Diamond Comic Distributors as their distributor in 1995 but instead chose Capital City Distribution or Heroes World Distribution.
I remember several years ago talking to you right here in “Comments” about independent comics of the 80s’. In particular “Whisper”. You said you were working on a related topic. I guess it finally got here. I'm a Martin Fan, so I understand that quality takes time. Well done. VIVAT!
15:40 & 15:50, I'd forgotten that feeling of cover art just GRABBING ME by the imagination!
Fantastic. A new video. Again you are the best channel on comics period. Thank you for the great content.
Agreed, completely.
I concur
@@TitularHeroineoh yeah for sure. This is such a great channel for those of us that want to learn more about the medium.
@@Arseface-X80Yep. He just goes to places where others don’t, and I have learned a lot from this channel.
This might be your best video ever. Everyone, not just comics fanboys like us, will gain something from it if they're willing to listen.
Love supporting your channel, love your love for the vast history and tapestry of comics. ❤
I'll never forget the first time walking into a comic specialty store in 1984. I discovered that a title I had recently brought at a newsstand was 2 issues behind what was being sold at the specialty shop. Back in the early '80s, buying comics from local newsstands was horrible!!
Your best video yet.
On a re-watch, I'd like to add: the pages from Witzend passing by -- those pages, those names! An honored litany. It's both inspiring and humbling.
Fantastic spotlight on the origins of alternative comics! Thank you for putting this out.
Great video! I’d like to add that ‘74 also saw Orb #1 which the importance of cannot be understated. Orb is often considered the Canadian equivalent of Star⭐️Reach.
At the same time Gamut was being published at Sheridan Collage. Like S ⭐️ R, Orb also contained the art of Gene Day and Ken Steacy.
"A hit on par with the Turtles never was found"?
Usagi Yojimbo fans: You don't say!
As a Usagi fan, he's not hit on par with the Turtles.
TMNT has freak occurrences with the Action Figure line, then led to turning an underground adult(ish) comic into a kids cartoon that became a major boom (and of note is that every TMNT carton aside of Rise included a guest appearance by Usagi and often other UY characters). Usagi might have gotten that if the Space Usagi cartoon took off, but it was killed of before it started by failure of Bucky O'Hare cartoon.
TMNT made Usagi Yojimbo popular.
I was there for all of this from the late '70s on. I helped a buddy of mine start the Wizard's Asylum franchise in Oklahoma in 1990.
There were a lot of great underground/alternative comics back in the day. I was an early CAPTAIN CANUCK and GRIMJACK fan! However, IMO, the dominance of the direct market eventually killed the overall market. The disappearance of comics from groceries and convenient stores essentially "ate the seed corn". You create life-long comics fans during their pre-teen years. The eventual monopoly of the direct market short-circuited that process.
Excellent video! Seriously! I'm impressed!
I know I"ve mentioned this before, but bideos like this are why I love your channel.
P.s. Andromeda! I haven't read those in years.
Jaxon was a great cartoonist. Totally underrated.
both his underground ec derived work and his historical work are great, one of those artists that is of the highest quality but just never found a big audience.
I grew up on 2000AD . Also In 1983 Last Gasp reprinted the first four issues in the Junkwaffel series, they were amazing books. I had graffiti artist friends and Bode's characters were popular with them.
Thank you do much for making your videos. They've led me towards are greater appreciation for the medium as a whole, and directed me towards works that I may have never come across otherwise. You are my favorite youtuber in this space. Thank you for everything you've created.
Another great video 👏🏽 🫡👍🏾 one tiny point of pedantry - 2000ad didn’t premiere with Judge Dredd as he didn’t make his appearance until issue 2
That was a very informative and enjoyable perspective on the history of comics. Thank you for taking the time and energy to create this video.
@2:23 ACG kept making horror comics; they just toned down the violence. Shoot, the Spider-Man's first issue only had one story with Spider-Man; the rest were mild horror or sci-fi tales.
And don't forget about film adaptions; Dell & Gold Key continued to adapt horror films.
The Comics Code Authority was an industry group; publishers didn't have to join Dell\Gold Key didn't; they made their own pledge to produce "good comics". This was printed on the first page of each book. And they were more successful than Marvel or DC at the time.
This is an incredibly important comics story to tell. Thank you for doing so!
Also: you are the only comics youtuber that I don't get the urge to punch in the head.
Great video! It provides insight to an area of the comic space that is ignored and often forgotten
I really miss Comico and Eclipse, some good books very few people know about these days.
I'd add First to that list.
I'm trying to collect old eclipse comics
@@aspetty from Miracle Man to Airboy, some really good books.
@@V-wo8np no doubt! Loved Groo!
@@aspetty Don't forget the graphic novels. Some real gems . Some of my faves are Airboy and Scout.
Very informative video.
The most educational video of yours, sir.
I enjoyed that Alan. Thankyou.
Wonder how comics would have developed if there wasn't mass censorship in the 50s
It is a crime that Jack Katz is not more widely known. His art is excellent and reminds me of He-Man and other 80s cartoons. Doubtless they were inspired by his work.
Hi Allan, I love your video! I do feel that you seems to perceive alternative comics as a thread that should separated from the mainstream. I think one cannot exist without the other. For instance there is no mention of mention of Dark Horse, alternative imprints of Marvel and DC and especially the British invasion of writers that changed the field drastically. Also I think that during the early 00's many indie writers started working at the Big 2 (Bendis, Brubaker, Ellis, Ennis, Millar etc.) and were very influential on comics and pop culture in general. Furthermore, it strikes me that the American market was (up until quite recently) dominated my American publishers. So mainstream European comics also seem to be a niche market in the US.
Great work as always! The term, "overground comics" was new to me and I've been collecting for more than 40 years.
Excellent work on a subject that needs talking about! And yeah, as you mention, this is of course an American comic history. In my native Sweden, for instance, superhero comics were an American import that was just a minority of the mainstream titles produced, with almost no such material produced locally, just translated. Didn't stop us from having alternative comics challenging the cultural commercial norm - or having people crusading against the danger of comics! Thanks again for this excellent essay.
It might be of interest to look into publishers that came out between the end of the black and white boom and image. Malibu and I think Calibur started and managed to survive a number of years after image.
Is Valiant around that time also?
Great stuff as always
My gods. This is excellently well researched and produced. Awesome!
Great video, I really liked what ut added to my understanding of comics history. You should do something on the anti-comics hysteria that lead to the comics code. That's something we all could learn from.
Great Video
You're pretty Awesome.
Best comics channel. You put'em all to shame kid.
You've got to be one of the most real UA-cam channels that talks about comic history.
This is great
I was fascinated to see where alot of quirky titles I picked up over the years fit into an actual time line. I loved Quack: The Wraith by Michael Gilbert, On The Skids by Chaykin, Newton The Rabbit Wonder by Brunner, etc.. It was one title that bucked the perceived notion that with out the editorial oversight provided at the big two, creators would produce incoherent, solipsistic nonsense focused on dirty jokes and angsty outbursts.
Thank you, this is a healthy exercise as the big two did a lot of work to write their own comicbook history leaving a lot of it untold, underground and indie lore are well-known but I didn't know about most of the overground.
Another great video from a great channel
Incredible video Pal, it's fascinating all those comics! Great work!
Thunder Agents is good stuff.
Thought Denis Kitchen could've got a mention. Other than that minor quibble, great video.
I’m a silent fan of your channel but I love your work, I’m reading toomorrows publishing books on American comics and I’m reading the 70s now, this video works in so many ways as a complement to that book. Do you have any knowledge on Argentinian comics history or present scene?
Excellent video! Worth the wait.
didn't know that the direct market came about because alternative comics. great as always.
Great overview!
Good show! You could connect Wood with EC, whose artists influenced Zap cartoonists and others before the Code, then went Mad!
You are the best comic channel out there
Excellent, and well researched! I particularly like the additional on screen examples that are not called out in the narration, a mature presentation technique that makes it feel well researched, and not someone reading out power point slides. I also liked the call for additional input.
Perhaps some focus on the print lists and catalogues that were produced to allow early sales of 'alternative' and 'underground' comics, along with regular back issues, to those without access to comic shops and head shops? Jaime Hernandez speaks about it in his 'Shoot Interview' for Comics Kayfabe.
No idea why I wasn't subscribed tp this dude's channel. Loved his videos on Doom Patrol and Incal. Subscribed now tho!
Good video. It's a vast subject so it's good you put a callout for the many other links or gaps or historical strands that the subject contains that couldn't possibly all be covered in one video.
So many comics I now want to read!
Another great installment. "The Adventures of Phil Seuling" was a long-overdue story. I think that he was more instrumental in the changed structure of the comic book market than any individual publisher, including Marvel. Speaking of which, I worked in the Direct Sales Market when Marvel (and possibly DC) distinguished the labelling of their Direct Sales comics and their Newstand comics. Direct Sales books had Spider-Man's head posted on the lower left corner of the books and the Newstand books posted a UPC barcode on that corner. I know because my employer at the time was offered Newstand left-overs for less than half the cover price. This might have contributed to the eventual death of the Newstand market...
reid fleming was so good :)
now WHERE'S THAT DANIEL CLOWES VIDEO!?
Loved this one. Well done.
Incredible video. Picking up Star Reach/Hot Stuff/The First Kingdom now!
Love you videos you deserve more recognition
I love your channel. Really well done. Much appreciated.
Fascinating!
1 of the best comic UA-cam.
Thank you for displaying the past in a unique format.. the story comes first..
You should make
An appendum and add the recent/ current history of alternative Comics digitally and Comics Gate including the death of Ed Piskor.