Komix Kountermedia (1969)

The Greatest Team-Up Never Told? Paul Buhle Theorizes the New Left and Underground Comix

“…Comic books were familiar material texts, commonplace objects already lurking under beds or on waiting room tables, and by adopting the comic book format underground comix were poised to follow their predecessors into the nooks and crannies of US society, taking a "subversive" anti-capitalist message with them. 29 Extending this line of thought, Buhle believed comix represented a singular opportunity to reconstitute autonomous spaces of working-class cultural production. He contended that, in the 1920s and 1930s, the commodification of popular culture and capitalist rationalization of society had undercut the traditional spaces in which activism might ferment, such as union halls.…”

“…"Komix Kountermedia" describes Shelton as "the finest narrative artist" of the underground "and apparently the most 'political,'" 9 and after reading Shelton's Feds 'n' Heads in the summer of 1968 Buhle bought multiple copies to sell at the SDS Literature Table on his campus. Upon being awarded $2000 by the "high-minded Old Left institution" the Louis M.…”

“…24 The symbolism of the Trojan Horse encapsulated Buhle's thinking, that by working within popular genres and everyday material objects the comix would allow the masses to recognize their conditions of oppression. 25 This was espoused in "Komix Kountermedia" in July-August 1969, an essay that shared the spirit of C. L. R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Grace Lee's publication The Invading Socialist Society (1947). The Invading Socialist Society took its theme from Frederick Engels's notion that, in Buhle's words, "the nucleus of a real socialist society […] already existed under capitalism" and revolutionary hope rests on the "concept that a new society exists within the shell of the old."…”

“…Now, with the emergence of underground comix, creators had seized control of the production process and were "grasping an alternative […] medium for uncensored expression." 28 Buhle rhapsodized over the revolutionary potential of underground comix as a result of their migration into comic book-style periodicals. Easily reproduced, widely circulating, and quick to read, the political importance of "distinct komix books" stemmed from the existing ubiquity of periodical comics in everyday life.…”

“…As Buhle saw it, by providing "a means of self-expression for the artist's inner compulsions" the comix could articulate "attitudes" that "correspond to the needs of the larger movement," through which the "masses" might "see their own lives" anew. 31 Buhle did not want to see "humorless attempts to put a Left message in palatable terms," and he noted approvingly that many creators refused "traditional" narrative forms that would "offer the easiest road to an overtly political message," 32 but he never outlined programmatically what kinds of comix would allow the masses to recognize their authentic needs. One method might be visual iconoclasm, shocking readers out of their habits of looking and reading: in January 1969 Buhle described the comix tabloid Yellow Dog as "a hand grenade thrown into the living room of America's visual sensibility."…”