It took me a while to get into what I interpreted to be the spirit of underground comics. I'm afraid I've been spoiled by modern sensibilities and internet culture, where there's nothing left that's truly shocking, and censorship is a purely academic concept (well, not really, but that's a whole other discussion). Anyway, from that perspective, it seemed as if these comics didn't really have much to offer me: In general, none of them are particularly funny, sexy, or well-drawn. I also got the distinct impression that these comics weren't really intended to be read sober, which might have been another barrier to my properly appreciating them.
I just didn't "get it", until I finally started to relate it to my own (far tamer) experiences with rebellion and counter-culture: sitting in the back row of the classroom with my friends, sniggering into our textbooks as we passed doodles back and forth of dicks and boobs and non-sequitur cartoons that we thought were absolutely hilarious. I remembered what it felt like to do things just because we weren't allowed to.
These artists aren't trying to push some new-age philosophy, or stand up against oppression, or even fight for freedom of speech and press. They aren't making these comics for anyone but themselves and each-other. They're acting out because they're trapped in a world they don't belong, and they're all just sharing in the big joke that is society. Society, man!
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