Editing Underground comix (section)

====1972–1975: Controversy and recognition====
By 1972–1973, the city's [[Mission District, San Francisco|Mission District]] was "underground headquarters": living and operating out of The Mission in that period were [[Gary Arlington]], [[Roger Brand]], [[Kim Deitch]], [[Don Donahue]], [[Shary Flenniken]], [[Justin Green (cartoonist)|Justin Green]], [[Bill Griffith]] & [[Diane Noomin]], [[Rory Hayes]], [[Jay Kinney]], [[Bobby London]], [[Ted Richards (artist)|Ted Richards]], [[Trina Robbins]], [[Joe Schenkman]], [[Larry Todd]], Patricia Moodian and [[Art Spiegelman]].<ref>[[Jay Kinney|Kinney, Jay]]. [http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Rise_and_Fall_of_Underground_Comix "The Rise and Fall of Underground Comix in San Francisco and Beyond"] from ''Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78'' (City Lights Foundation, 2011), edited by Chris Carlsson.</ref>

Mainstream publications such as ''[[Playboy]]'' and ''[[National Lampoon (magazine)|National Lampoon]]'' began to publish comics and art similar to that of underground comix.<ref name="Sabin-92"/> The underground movement also prompted older professional comic book artists to try their hand in the alternate press. [[Wally Wood]] published ''[[witzend]]'' in 1966, soon passing the title on to artist-editor [[Bill Pearson (American writer)|Bill Pearson]]. In 1969, Wood created ''[[Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon]]'', intended for distribution to armed forces bases. [[Steve Ditko]] gave full vent to his [[Ayn Rand]]-inspired philosophy in ''[[Mr. A]]'' and ''Avenging World'' (1973). In 1975, [[Flo Steinberg]], Stan Lee's former secretary at [[Marvel Comics]], published ''[[Big Apple Comix]]'', featuring underground work by ostensibly "mainstream" artists she knew from Marvel.

Film and television began to reflect the influence of underground comix in the 1970s, starting with the release of [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s Crumb adaptation, ''[[Fritz the Cat (film)|Fritz the Cat]]'', the first animated film to receive an [[X-rated|X rating]] from the [[Motion Picture Association of America|MPAA]].<ref name="Estren-7"/> Further [[adult animation|adult-oriented animated films]] based on or influenced by underground comix followed, including ''[[The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat]]'' and ''[[Down and Dirty Duck]]''.<ref name="Estren-7"/> The influence of underground comix has also been attributed to films such as ''[[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' (1978) and ''[[Forbidden Zone]]'' (1980).<ref name="Estren-7"/> The animation sequences – created by ''Help!'' contributor [[Terry Gilliam]] – and surrealistic humor of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' have also been partly attributed to the influence of the underground comix scene.<ref name="Sabin-92"/><ref name="Estren-7"/>

Despite the form's influence on the culture at large, however, by 1972, only four major underground publishers remained in operation: the [[Print Mint]], [[Rip Off Press]], [[Last Gasp (publisher)|Last Gasp]], and [[Krupp Comic Works]] (Kitchen Sink Press).<ref>"New Comix!" ''Bijou Funnies'' #7 (Krupp Comic Works, Inc., 1972).</ref> For much of the 1970s, Rip Off Press operated a [[Comic strip syndication|syndication service]], managed by cartoonist and co-owner [[Gilbert Shelton]], that sold weekly comix content to [[alternative newspaper]]s and [[student publication]]s.<ref name=comixjoint>Fox, M. Steven. [https://comixjoint.com/ripoffcomix.html "Rip Off Comix — 1977-1991 / Rip Off Press"], Comixjoint. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2022.</ref> Each Friday, the company sent out a distribution sheet with the strips it was selling, by such cartoonists as Shelton, [[Joel Beck]], [[Dave Sheridan (cartoonist)|Dave Sheridan]], [[Ted Richards (artist)|Ted Richards]], [[Bill Griffith]], and [[Harry Driggs]] (as R. Diggs). The syndicate petered out by 1979; much of the material produced for it was eventually published in the company's long-running [[Comics anthology|anthology]] ''[[Rip Off Comix]]'', which had debuted in 1977. Griffith's strip, ''[[Zippy the Pinhead|Zippy]]'', which had debuted in 1976 as a weekly strip with the syndicate,<ref name=ROP>"Zippy Congratulates Rip-Off Press", ''Rip Off Comix'' #21 (Winter 1988), p. 50.</ref> was eventually picked up for daily syndication by [[King Features Syndicate]] in 1986.

Critics of the underground comix scene claimed that the publications were socially irresponsible, and glorified violence, sex and drug use.<ref name="Sabin-92"/> In 1973, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], in ''[[Miller v. California]]'', ruled that local communities could decide their own First Amendment standards with reference to obscenity. In the mid-1970s, sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up, leaving mail order as the only commercial outlet for underground titles.<ref name="Estren-7"/>

In 1974, Marvel launched ''[[Comix Book]]'', requesting that underground artists submit significantly less explicit work appropriate for newsstands sales.<ref name="Sabin-92"/> A number of underground artists agreed to contribute work, including Spiegelman, Robbins and [[S. Clay Wilson]], but ''Comix Book'' did not sell well and lasted only five issues.<ref name="Sabin-92"/><ref name="Sabin-151">{{cite book |last=Sabin |first=Roger |year=1996 |title=Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art |chapter=Picking up the pieces |publisher=[[Phaidon Press]] |location=[[London]], [[United Kingdom]] |isbn=0-7148-3008-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/comicscomixgraph00sabi/page/151 151] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/comicscomixgraph00sabi/page/151}}</ref> In 1976, Marvel achieved success with ''[[Howard the Duck]]'', a satirical comic aimed at adult audiences that was inspired by the underground comix scene. While it did not depict the explicit content that was often featured in underground comix, it was more socially relevant than anything Marvel had previously published.<ref name="Sabin-92"/>

By the mid-1970s, independent publishers began to release book-length collections of underground comics. Quick Fox/Links Books released two important collections, ''The [[Apex Novelties|Apex]] Treasury of Underground Comics'', published in 1974, and ''The Best of Bijou Funnies'', released in 1975. The ''Apex Treasury'' featured work by Crumb, Deitch, Griffith, Spain, Shelton, Spiegelman, Lynch, [[Shary Flenniken]], [[Justin Green (cartoonist)|Justin Green]], [[Bobby London]], and [[Willy Murphy]];<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/944657/ "The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics"], Grand Comics Database. Accessed Dec. 2, 2016.</ref> while the ''[[Bijou Funnies]]'' book highlighted comics by Lynch, Green, Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, Deitch, [[Skip Williamson]], [[Jay Kinney]], [[Evert Geradts]], [[Rory Hayes]], Dan Clyne, and Jim Osborne.<ref>''The Best of Bijou Funnies'' (Links Books/Quick Fox, 1975) {{ISBN|9780825630545}}.</ref> Similarly, and around this time, the publishing cooperative [[And/Or Press]] published ''The Young Lust Reader'' (1974), a "best-of" collection from Griffith and Kinney's ''[[Young Lust (comics)|Young Lust]]'' anthology, and [[Dave Sheridan (cartoonist)|Dave Sheridan]] and [[Fred Schrier]]'s ''The Overland Vegetable Stagecoach presents Mindwarp: An Anthology'' (1975). And/Or Press later published the first paperback collections of Griffith's [[Zippy the Pinhead]] comics.