Underground and Alternative Comics
Women Who Conquered the Comics World
By Lisa Hix — The day after she returns from the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, comics icon Trina Robbins sits down with me outside at a café just around the corner from her home in San Francisco’s Castro District. As we talk and eat, trains from the Muni Metro railway come thundering by. Robbins’ partner, Steve Leialoha, a comic artist for Marvel and an inker for the DC/Vertigo series “Fables,” arrives fresh from Comic Con with his bags and joins us at the table for half an hour or so. "When...
Fightin’ Femmes: Unmasking Comic Book Superheroines
By Lisa Hix — When I was growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, reading comics wasn't as popular as it had been in the ’40s or ’50s. But my older sister had comics, including a big collection of “Betty and Veronica.” Our parents encouraged us to read everything, so at 6 years old I was just one of those kids that never stopped reading comics. At a certain point my sister started throwing her comics away. I snagged what was left, and I still have them. The first time I saw "Supergirl" I was amazed because I'd...
Harvey Pekar: The Splendor of Ordinary Life
By Lisa Hix — Harvey Pekar carried himself with a slouch. He had a disheveled comb-over and dark, haunted eyes. A file clerk at the Veterans Administration hospital in Cleveland, he spoke with a cantankerous rasp. If you sat next to him on the bus, you might not even notice him. Yet this ordinary man, who died this week at age 70, made his unremarkable day-to-day life in a typical city immortal, thanks to his comic, "American Splendor." Through these autobiographical comic books, Pekar found a...
When Superheroes Took Over Comic Books
By Maribeth Keane — I’ve been interested in comic books since I was very young. My two older brothers had Spider-Man and Fantastic Four comic books. I grew up watching cartoons and my favorite ones were always Spider-Man and Superman. In seventh grade, some friends of mine bought some comic books and were really excited about them. They showed them to me and I started getting into it. My first comic book was Avengers 276, and I was pretty much hooked from then on. At first, I read superhero comics pretty...