at loose Sunday Funnees/https://medium.com/@fxandersen

at loose Sunday Funnees/https://medium.com/@fxandersen

ZAP COMIX!

Started in 1968 by R. Crumb and a collective of artistic revolutionaries/reprobates from the thriving San Francisco avant-garde scene, the original run only lasted about two years before the sexually explicit Issue #4 was banned, the publishers raided, and the artists prosecuted for obscenity. That it is obscene rather than erotic is beyond question — even a description of the stories is pretty repellant — but the point that S. Clay Wilson, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Moscoso and Crumb seemed to be making was, we can draw whatever we want, and not good taste, good business, nor even the law will stop us. “Underground” comics were quickly gaining popularity anyway, and the notoriety of prosecution made Zap #4 a huge seller.