Dirty Pictures: How Nerds, Feminists, Bikers, and Potheads Revolutionized Comix by Brian Doherty

Dirty Pictures: How Nerds, Feminists, Bikers, and Potheads Revolutionized Comix Reviews

• 
  Lydia Wallace

  Brian Doherty what an entertaining book. My husband couldn't wait for me to finish your book so he could read it. He and I enjoyed all the memories it brought back to us. Lots of flashbacks. "Dirty Pictures" serves as a history of comix and their eventual place in the field of literature, from the names you do know to the names you might not be as familiar with. How Nerds, Feminists, Bikers, and Potheads Revolutionized Comix by Brian Doherty is a history that will appeal to a wide range of readers. These are informative as history but also great reading as biographical accounts. The interactions between these artists as well as the paths they each took after the heyday of the 60s and 70s makes for a fascinating read. I highly recommend. Great job Brian Doherty for bringing back great memories in my younger days.
• 
  Emory

  It took me until about Chapter 6 to really get into the book and finally become familiar with all of the artists being mentioned. After that, the story flowed quickly and was sadly over before I knew it. R Crumb was the only person's name I had even kind of heard before, so everything in this was new and interesting to me! Throughout the book I discovered I was familiar with a lot of the artist's works but not their names. I now have tons of comix anthologies on hold at the library to read through when they come in.
  
  The most glaring weakness of this book is the lack of a photo section, or any photos throughout the book at all. You'd think a book about the history of a visual medium would include some photos so you could at least get an idea of the artist's animation style without having to put the book down and do a Google search. It would have also been nice to have pictures of the artists through the years and in some of their printing warehouses mentioned in the book.
  
  I also think some sort of graphic novel version of this that allows the drawing style to change into the style of each artist as they are being discussed would be useful and interesting.
• 
  Gary Sassaman

  4.5 stars, actually ... the author sometimes wears his heart on his sleeve when talking about certain creators and the lack of any examples of art takes a bit away.
  
  I have only a passing memory or two of underground comix as I was growing up, mainly relegated to those “forbidden fruit” images that blew my mind. But reading this book made me feel that the title—Dirty Pictures—is far beneath the revolutionary stories and art that categorize the underground comix movement. In fact, it’s almost insulting. Yes, there was sex, drugs, sex, violence, and sex in the early undergrounds; but the revolutionary part comes from the artists involved and how they threw off the yolk of comics oppression and rose above the tame and mundane world of mainstream comics to tell personal, provocative, and sometimes shocking stories. The art—sometimes startling and fresh, sometimes stale and amateurish—was secondary to the storytelling. Underground comix exploded the medium and took it in an entirely different direction, making budding—and professional—artists realize they could tell stories about anything. I sincerely believe superhero comics artists such as Frank Brunner and Jim Starlin were totally inspired by the underground artists … it shows in Dr. Strange, Howard the Duck, and Captain Marvel and Warlock. It was called “cosmic” over at Marvel, but we all knew it had a different meaning.
  
  Brian Doherty’s exhaustive study of underground comix is a personality-driven one, told in chronological order. It’s a dense and fascinating read, one that took me just about a month to get through in small, nightly installments, but one that I throughly enjoyed. I have always admired the drawing skills of R. Crumb, even if some of his subject matter—The Book of Genesis Illustrated, for example—is not exactly my cup of tea. Art Spiegelman definitely emerges as “king of the hill” in this book, with, of course, his amazing memoir Maus, but the book also pays notice to how undergrounds evolved from those early sex, drugs, and violence days to much more personal work, like that of Lynda Barry and Alison Bechdel, both “daughters” of the undergrounds.
  
  The other story told here is how the undergrounds carved out their own non-traditional distribution network, for better or worse. Books were sold via head shops (along with the direct sales market for mainstream comics). I guess no one knows how many hundreds of thousands—maybe millions—of copies were sold (particularly those featuring work by Crumb), and how many artists were stiffed of their rightful royalties.
  
  One major drawback to this book: no images. It’s difficult to imagine telling the story of a graphic phenomenon without actually showing any of it. I suppose the tangled rights of some of these artists’ work would be difficult to navigate, but like the recent book American Comics: A History, if you’re going to tell the story of a visual medium, you have to show examples.
  
• 
  Peter Landau

  I actually got choked up reading this.
• 
  J Earl

  Dirty Pictures: How Nerds, Feminists, Bikers, and Potheads Revolutionized Comix by Brian Doherty is a history that will appeal to a wide range of readers, from historians of popular culture to old folk (like me) who remember some of these comix (mainly the Furry Freak Brothers) from their high school years (in California in early to mid 70s).
  
  I admit I bumped the book rating from a four to a five specifically for the multiple flashbacks, um, I mean memories it brought back. Not just of the comix that were available but the publications like, in my area, the LA Free Press. It devolved into mostly sex ads but a high school student at the time didn't think of that as a step backwards. Anyway, I digress.
  
  At times the book almost seems like it is trying to cram too much info into a small space, but most of the time we are given a more evenly paced account of each of the principal cartoonists involved in the movement. These are informative as history but also great reading as biographical accounts. The interactions between these artists as well as the paths they each took after the heyday of the 60s and 70s makes for a fascinating read. I remember when Maus was assigned in a class in college in the early 90s I saw the name Art Spiegelman and did a double take.
  
  What made this a standout for me, aside from the nostalgic aspect, was the sheer enjoyment of reading it. Maybe part of my enjoyment was remembering the times, but I think the larger part was the writing and the care Doherty took to present a fairly balanced account of some very erratic and volatile personalities.
  
  In addition to others like myself who have fond memories of these comix, I would recommend this to those who like to read about where high and low culture meet and inform each other. Also anyone who simply enjoys reading about a bunch of interesting, albeit at times odd, people.
  
  Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
• 
  Tom Campbell

  This book tells the stories of the men and women who brought to life the underground comics movement (comix), detailing their struggles, both creatively and with life in general, placing their work in context within both comics as a whole and within society.
  
  I was born as the comix movement was taking off, only even becoming aware of them in my early teens as classmates managed to get their hands on issues of Freak Brothers, not even being introduced to the work of Robert Crumb until years later. This book is clearly thoroughly researched, featuring interviews with most of the major creators in that arena, and creating a comprehensive picture of the underground world that I'd really only ever dipped my toes into.
  
  Certainly, the very raw and personal nature of the work distinguishes comix from the mainstream comics industry, deserving of exploration like this. If I do have a particular criticism, it's in the lack of any example illustrations of the comix work itself. Describing the subject matter provides part of the picture, but seeing the type of art being produced, with unique, individual styles and sensibilities, would give a greater understanding in many cases, as well as context, to the attitudes towards the work, both in its time and today.
  
  Thanks to the publisher and Goodreads for providing the book in a giveaway.
• 
  Miguel

  This worked best when it was a biography of Crumb and to a lesser extent of Spiegelman as well. Covering such a wide range of characters it was inevitable that many would receive short shrift thus the book was diminished in these instances. And if ever a book called out for a photo or illustration inclusion this was one, so their absence was also a disappointment. But overall seemed to have a good grasp of the subject and informative on the movement.
• 
  Frank

  Very well-researched and detailed history of underground comics. However, there are no photos or examples of any of the works covered which really takes away a lot of the impact. I understand there were probably countless rights issues, but having to constantly look up the comics written about became tiresome.
• 
  XangemXV

  I was very interested in the topic of the underground comix movement when I studied graphic novels for a class last winter. I loved going in depth on the topic! The Comix movement was so important to the development of graphic novels today!
  
  The author is well written and informative. I had a good time with this one!
• 
  Michael Norwitz

  Doherty's history of the underground scene in American comics is exhaustively researched as it tracks the movers and shakers of the scene over a half century, even if it is a bit light on historical analysis. Certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the history of the form.
• 
  Alex Nagler

  "Dirty Pictures" serves as a history of comix and their eventual place in the field of literature, from the names you do know to the names you might not be as familiar with.
• 
  Lew

  This is a must for any Comix fans.
• 
  Jenn

  As a writer of comics myself, I appreciated this deep dive into the comics (or comix) and creators that shaped my own approach to the genre. Well researched and engagingly written.