Underground Comics/ Tits and Clits, Mr. Natural

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This week was a very interesting one because I had not had any previous experience with the content of underground comics. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed parts of the Tits and Clits comics. Over all this one felt different from the other samples, almost tamer in a way. While still very explicit, the content behind the explicitness was less predatory, making it a more comfortable read. I also liked how there was a Varity of styles included in the issues, each with their own way of pushing their drawing styles to extremes. The stories felt like they were written to relate to woman, and often seemed to have more emotionally centered segments where we the reader are inside of the character’s head. Other underground comics seemed to be more centered on shock value, slapstick, and confrontations between characters and opposed to these more interment moments. Looking through some of Robert Crumb’s Mr. Natural, I felt disgusted. Much of the explicitness was dirtier and felt predatory toward women, like the punch line for the average reader was the visualization of the fantasizing of controlling women and making them do things. It was strange that while reading it It was almost like I felt unsafe rather than just uncomfortable. I can’t think of another artist or author that has pulled that kind of response from me, and while I understand that it is his goal to make his readers uncomfortable some of the content seems to be just sick combinations that no one else would think to put on paper.

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