Broken Frontier

Part 2 - Underground and The Education of a Comics Artist

Michael Dooley is a creative director and longtime comics fan living in Southern California. He participated in events planning for the Masters of American Comics show currently on display at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood, CA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Most recently he has edited a book called The Education of a Comics Artist from Allworth Press.

BF: You recently presided over a talk about Underground Comix. How has the phrase “Underground” been important?

MD: For me the phrase represents that renegade, oppositional, anti-establishment spirit that helped nurture the climate of rebellion that was growing in the mid 1960s. Think of a metaphorical underground railroad, transporting enslaved minds to enlightenment and freedom.

Of course, the underground had its roots in the comics written, drawn, and edited by Harvey Kurtzman. His tales really were calculated to drive you mad, by exposing the realities that had heretofore been hidden beneath the fraudulent fantasies. And my mind was hardly the only one that was blown. Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, along with Mad, Humbug and Help, influenced a generation, not only of comics artists but of future hippies and yippies. They encouraged people to realize that the powers-that-be aren’t necessarily leveling with them.

So the underground press and the comix dealt with the lies promulgated by the government and perpetuated by the mainstream media during the Viet Nam war. And yeah, the form this material had to take was “underground.” At the time, there was no other choice. DC and Marvel were doing quite well with their jingoistic, all-American war hero comics, thank you very much, and they weren’t about to distribute Gilbert Shelton’s satirical “Smiling Sergeant Death and His Merciless Mayhem Patrol.” So it was up to Paul Buhle to create Radical America Komiks and run Gilbert’s story in there.

BF: How is the phrase “underground” misunderstood?

MD: The panel you mentioned took place in conjunction with the Masters of American Comics show at the UCLA Hammer Museum and MoCA in Los Angeles, and it included Robert Williams, who was part of the early Zap underground comix crew, but it also included Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez of Love and Rockets, who were creating their own form in the early 1980s, after the undergrounds had pretty much dried up. We also had Carol Lay, who currently does a wonderful strip called “WayLay” in the L.A Weekly.

What the Hernandez brothers did should be considered “alternative” comics rather than underground. It was coming from a different perspective. Those earlier comix were taking the whole list of things that the Comics Code Authority and Dr. Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent, said shouldn’t be done, and then doing them. And in going about smashing all the taboos, the undergrounds cleared the way for a fresh new approach that was initiated by Los Bros, Dan Clowes, and others. Their work took on a more human dimension, and dealt with more humanistic concerns, and utilized formats that expressed the rhythms of everyday life.

I had been given the title “Masters of L.A.’s Underground Comics” to work with, but since I wanted to include Gilbert and Jaime, I was hoping we could tweak it a bit. But the Hammer felt that “underground” was catchier, so it stayed.

I also wanted to include Carol Lay. And she deserves her own category, perhaps “independent.” She’s not as well appreciated as she should be, and I thought this forum would be a good opportunity to showcase her talents.

BF: I’ve been in love with her work for decades.

MD: Exactly! She’s worked in all these different styles and venues. She came up with her Irene character for The Stark Fist of Removal, published by the Church of the Subgenius.

BF: There was Good Girls.

MD: She would do Good Girls stories that resembled romance comics. And then she’d do a tale about spontaneous human combustion with these stippled dots that practically resemble burned ashes. She’s also able to do these “cute” comics that have an immediate attraction because they look so innocent and adorable, but after she pulls you in she does this clever bait-and-switch trick, where suddenly you’re hit with her darker, cynical underlying message. So I was excited about showing her vast range of illustration talents.

I served as moderator, asking questions while simultaneously projecting the work as we discussed it. It may have been a bit unnerving for some people who showed up at the venerable Hammer Museum, to be confronted with Robert Williams’ cover of Felch comics. And then Robert also went on to describe what the word means.

BF: Felch! (groaning)

MD: You could pretty much take that picture he drew and stick it in the dictionary as...

BF: The dictionary definition of Felching. I’m cringing at just the sound of the word felch.

MD: I think we managed to expose the audience to a lot more than they were expecting.

BF: How would you describe your new book, The Education of a Comics Artist?

MD: It’s part of a series that was begun by Steve Heller. It started with The Education of a Graphic Designer and continued with The Education of an Illustrator. When he decided to do one on the subject of comics art, he asked me to be his co-editor and naturally I jumped at the chance.

So we put together a book that’s intended to inspire comics teachers, students, and others interested in learning about all aspects of the profession, from magazine cartoons to political comics, super-hero, alternative, graphic novel, and so on. So we start off with New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, who did a very witty piece. And we have Eisner and Kubert, Spiegelman and Ware and Satrapi and Panter, Steranko and Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean and David Mack, Trina Robbins and Robert Williams, and on and on and on.

We also wanted to appeal to people who already knew about comics. It’s not in any way a beginner’s guide; it’s meant to benefit people with various degrees of knowledge.

Steve and I also hoped to provide little surprises for readers. So we have Jessica Abel talking about how Archie comics help her teaching, and Village Voice political cartoonist Ward Sutton offering his appreciation of Spider-Man, and journalist Colin Berry bringing graffiti artists into the comics mix. Unexpected stuff like that.

BF: What was your core group of ideas as you started the book?

MD: The core concept was to present an expansive picture of comics art education. Not to dictate a particular point of view, but to show that there are many different ways that you can come to the field and learn, which is one reason we offer essays, interviews, and cartoons from over sixty different contributors: professionals and editors, teachers and historians, critics, and such.

In my foreword I talk about how readers should imagine they’re at a comics convention, where they have the options of sitting in on all these different sessions. And my concluding sentence is, “And don’t forget to ask questions.” This relates back to our earlier discussion about the importance of not simply accepting authority blindly. At the very least, it keeps things lively.

For me, one of the more important interviews is the one Gunnar Swanson did with Scott McCloud. Scott discusses how he sees everyone involved in comics, pros and fans, as belonging to one of four different tribes, each with their own perspectives. It’s a controversial notion inasmuch as it’s somewhat reductive and open to dispute, and he was even reluctant to talk about it at first.

Anyway, Scott sees himself as belonging to the Formalist tribe, totally. Yet he grants that the others, whom he’s labeled Classicists, Animists, and Iconoclasts, also have valid approaches to working and learning. The great thing about Scott is that, although he propagandizes with great gusto for his own point of view, he’s also open ended enough in his thinking to respect these other sensibilities.

One of the benefits of that particular interview for readers is that they can go through all the other contributions and try to ascertain whether the writer is coming from the iconoclastic viewpoint or is more of an animist, and to see the dynamics of these different perspectives at work.

That’s one of the reasons I titled my foreword “What’s so Funny about Comics and Understanding?” I wanted to tip my hat not only to the Elvis Costello song, but also to Scott’s Understand Comics.

BF: For a casual comics reader, what do you hope they’ll learn?

MD: What they can take away from it beyond an impression of the vastness of the field is an appreciation of the diversity of ways to view the medium as well as a respect for its rich history.

BF: How has response been to the book?

MD: It’s been very positive. I love hearing the personal feedback when I do book signings. The write-ups have also been very favorable, flattering and encouraging. I posted links to a couple of the reviews at michaeldooley.com, if I may be so bold as to mention that. The site also has links to some of my online comics writing.

Of course, this has been a labor of love for me. The process has been as rewarding as the final product. I got to work with so many people who were contributing out of a passion for the medium and a strong desire to communicate that passion to others. And I think it shows. To the degree that the book succeeds in conveying that passion, I’m very proud and gratified.