Underground - FA Online

Richard Corben, 1940-2020

Corben’s frank and enthusiastic attitude towards nudity, eroticism and violent physicality won him notoriety and acclaim in equal measure

Pregnant Butch

‘Sex is what’s between your legs, gender’s what’s between your ears’ – and maybe what’s gestating in your belly too.

Bumf Vol 1

Sacco’s returned to his comix roots and unleashed a raging, surreal, stream of conscious that rips into the awful excesses of American power.

Fuff 1-9

Andrew Moreton waxes lyrical (appropriately enough) over the work of Jeffrey Lewis, lyricist, cartoonist and enviably workaholic multitasker.

Andrew Moreton reviews a new comic which innovates, not merely in content, but in format… The shtick, the gimmick, the unqualified USP of The Black Project is that Garth Brookes has lino cut and embroidered every panel of its two hundred or so pages.

Prison Pit 1-3

Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit is a breathless unbroken run of extraordinary violence, foul language, and weird cosmic shit that is as inventive and awesome as it is ugly and puerile. It’s 300+ pages so far of non-stop mayhem and the pace doesn’t appear to be easing off, the themes aren’t changing, but in its unerring commitment to all-out carnage and roller-coaster pacing, it’s a masterpiece of sustained vision not seen since the glory days of 2000AD.

Fuzz and Pluck – Splitsville

Stern renders this world in a fairly sparse scratchy line, all in black and white, and the end result is folksy, rather than arty. Despite a notable (and desirable) lack of slickness to his style he conveys the world he’s conjuring up with considerable deftness – it’s a world full of carnies and pirates and broken junk, shacks and sideshows and charabancs – and his ability to suggest character and mood is excellent.

The Comix Reader 1

This is a 24-page tabloid newsprint comic, mostly in colour, for £1, seeking the old underground spirit. A noble aim, and I am all for the format and price, but is it any good?