Anarchy Comics is a series of underground comic books published by Last Gasp between 1978 and 1987, as part of the underground comix subculture of the era. Edited by Jay Kinney (#1-3) and Paul Mavrides (#4), regular contributors to Anarchy Comics included Melinda Gebbie, Clifford Harper, and Spain Rodriguez, as well as Kinney and Mavrides. (Kinney, Mavrides, and Rodriguez had been noted for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the underground comix press of the 1970s and '80s.)[1]
Anarchy Comics | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Last Gasp |
Schedule | Irregular |
Format | Ongoing series |
Genre | |
Publication date | 1978 – 1987 |
No. of issues | 4 |
Creative team | |
Created by | Jay Kinney |
Artist(s) | Various (see Contributors sub-section) |
Editor(s) | Jay Kinney and Paul Mavrides |
A total of four issues of Anarchy Comics were published between 1978 and 1987, with individual issues appearing in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1987. Each issue of Anarchy Comics was created by an international cast of anarchist or sympathetic contributors. Each issue included a mixture of fiction, history, commentary, and artwork, with wide ranges in style and format.
Only the first issue remains in print. A collected edition titled Anarchy Comics: The Complete Collection (ISBN 9781604865318) was published in December 2012 by PM Press.
Each issue of Anarchy Comics showcased an international cast of artists who identified as anarchists or nonsectarian socialists. An example of this is Spain Rodriguez, a Marxist, who was considered of "sufficient libertarian bent" to be included.[2]
The following is a list of each contributor in alphabetical order.
All of the work in this issue has been inspired by - or based on - anarchist ideas and history. As it becomes increasingly clear that the real 'terrorists' are not a few isolated leftists but are the governments and corporations of this world who hold us hostage with their armaments, militaries & intelligence activities, anarchism becomes more & more relevant!
Jay Kinney,
Anarchy Comics No. 1 introduction. (1978)[3]
Overtly anarchist in its bent, all content included was based on anarchist philosophy and history.[3] The humor of each anthology was satirical in nature, mocking both mainstream culture as well as traditional leftist ideas of revolution.[4]
Roger Sabin, an English historian of comics and subculture, noted a number of connections between the comic and the punk rock subculture of the '70s, suggesting that Jay Kinney "clearly hoped to pick up a share of the punk market with this very political comic." The covers of issues No.2 and No.3 both feature archetypal "punk" characters, and issue No. 2 features the short comic "Kultur Documents", a punk rock parody of Archie Comics. Sabin also analyzes "Too Real", Jay Kinney's short comic from the first issue, as being jointly inspired by a combination of Situationist and punk rock imagery. Sabin noted that many of the comics didn't have any relationship to Punk culture, but thought that the comic may have introduced radical ideas to a generation of new, young punks.[5]