UNDERGROUND, OVERGROUND - BUT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WOMBLES...

Copyright relevant owner

I have to be honest and say that I'm not really a fan of underground comics, the only one I ever purchased being COMIX BOOK #1 back in 1974 or '75.  I'm unable to give the precise year due to the fact that, as U.S. comics and mags came over here as ballast on ships, sometimes they could lie around in warehouses for months - if not years.  (Though, on occasion, they reached newsagents' spinner-racks on or around the actual month on the cover - don't ask me how.)  I don't suppose it much matters to you, but as I tend to use comics as a calendar to chart my life, I prefer to be able to pinpoint events with unerring accuracy.

I yet recall the long-gone little newsagent's shop on the far reaches of my home town's old village quarter where I bought the above periodical - as well as quite a few other fondly-remembered comicbooks and magazines.  I browsed through it and saw that it had a STAN LEE connection, though, truth to tell, I wasn't too impressed by it.  It was a 'compromise' comic - in that it didn't really feature the same kind of content as 'real' underground comics (or 'comix' as they're usually called), but it looked like one even if it didn't quite read like one.

I bought it mainly because it was a first issue, but I soon decided to ditch it, first extracting the only strip I considered worth keeping - the four-page ALICE In WATERGATELAND - which you can read below as I was savvy enough to hang onto it for those 38-plus years.  Just as well I did, because it's not featured in the new tome, The BEST Of COMIX BOOK, a collection of the 'best' strips from the five issue run of the '70s mag - the first three of which were published by Marvel.  I only ever saw #1, not knowing that there were others until fairly recently.

If you're into underground comix, then you'll more than likely enjoy this little piece of history.  I bought it because I wanted to see the cover again, the better to lose myself in memories of yesteryear, and a much-missed shop that could always be relied upon to provide me with some four-colour treasures in which I could lose myself in the magical realms of fantasy for a few fanciful hours.  However, I plan on actually reading the stories contained within this handsome volume, just to see what I missed all those many years ago.

  

And below, just for you Crivvies, is the front cover of the new hardback book, featuring the work of various nigh-legendary luminaries such as ART SPIEGELMAN, JUSTIN GREEN, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL PLOOG, S. CLAY WILSON, HOWARD CRUSE, HARVEY PEKAR, TRINA ROBBINS, BASIL WOLVERTON - and many more!