Week 6

For Week 6, I read some of The Complete Cheech Wizard. 

First off, I understand and believe wholeheartedly that the underground comics of the 60s where needed to break out of the "goody-two shoes" stereotype that comics had to be, as well as open people minds to the amount of potential the medium has as a whole.  These underground comics were the extreme counter to what the medium already had produced, and without them we don't truly know which direction comics would've gone. These comics more than anything were a freedom of media that many people of oppression found solace in (whether they were of the LGBT+ community, women, or people of color), but they also were a complete freedom that wasn't aloud in main stream media.

That being said, and the importance of these comics acknowledged--

I don't really see the enjoyment in them personally.

I am not a stranger to raunchy jokes or sexual humor myself, but I found these comics to be too abrasive for me to truly enjoy. I personally didn't enjoy the art, and I found most of the jokes to be more gross than funny most of the time. 

Now with that being said, I feel like these comics also had a type of acceptance that media didn't really have in any other form at the time-- especially in main stream media. And although I didn't enjoy most of these comics myself, I will always remember the panel with the Russian and American astronauts just chilling out with each other on the moon.  Being produced during the space race and one of the heights of the cold war, it was more than nice to see these two kinds of people humanized instead of demonized.

Overall the underground comics were very strange but needed. I don't think I'll be picking up any to read any time soon, but I see the importance of them in History and thank the authors for producing something I personally would've made if I was around at the time. I applaud them for being so off beat- the industry needed it.