The Comic Book History of Comics (3 points)

     I thought this comic was an interesting read. I was really surprised with what I learned about how comics came to be and how much they were involved in historical revolutions. Comics evolved through a wild ride of rejection, popularity and even an underground market. The pop art movement tested what "art" could really be. This is where I noticed that money became such a large driving force to mass produce images and use them for marketing and products. The graphic look that Lichtenstein and Warhol brought to the art scene was marketable because of the limited color palettes and simple shapes that could easily be re-printed. Then in the 1960's, Robert Crumb showed up with out of the box images that pushed the limits of what was appropriate for the general public to consume. There became an entire underground market for Crumb's comics and it was incredibly popular among hippies and free spirits that wanted to see something crazy and weird to expand their minds with. This was new information to me. I am shocked and frankly entertained by the fact that a simple comic book caused such a large audience of people to form a secret distribution system just to be able to read and enjoy Crumb's ZAP comics. I also found it funny that he was basically doing drugs as he was creating which lead to a much more controversial style of cartoons for some, as well as a much more appealing style for the free lovers of the era. Comics have come a long way in terms of the artwork itself as well as content. Although, the superheroes are here to stay.

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