'Underground' comic for pandemic days

In an article published in EL PAÍS in 1988 within the

, the renowned American popular culture specialist Javier Coma (1939-2017) points out that within the genre, we refer to the underground as “marginal publications” that “abjured the more or less accepted aesthetic rules and, above all, of social norms”.

The text by Coma, who directed the collection, was entitled

, and placed the Californian city in the 1960s at the height of the hippy movement, with a leader of that provocative style, as the epicenter of the underground scene. in line and script: Robert Crumb.

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An explosion of ideas floods the non-fiction comic to portray the world of the pandemic

The Fulgencio Pimentel publishing house in collaboration with La Casa Encendida publishes

, which refers to that mixture of acid drawings with countercultural realism.

The illustrator Alex Graham (Denver, 1987), places the action, a love triangle, in a dog biscuit store in full confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic, through three characters: Gussy, the

about to turn 50, characterized as a dog;

Rosie, a shop assistant in her twenties open to experiences after leaving behind a Trumpist home, like a rabbit;

and Hissy, her roommate and activist in movements such as Black Lives Matter, characterized as a frog.

Graham, who responds by email, comments on her way of working: “I am very influenced by Crumb's style.

Also because of all the Nickelodeon (youth television channel) cartoons that she watched as a child.

And literarily by Kurt Vonnegut, who was my first literary hero and made me want to become a novelist."

Graham writes from the city of Seattle, where she lives and

is located .

Cover of 'Dog Biscuits'. Alex Graham (Fulgencio Pimentel)

The comic, which exceeds 400 pages with a brilliant translation by Joana Carro and César Sánchez, is sharp and provocative.

The lives of the characters are crossed by sexual desire, drugs, police violence and the obligation to remain locked up at home, except for essential businesses.

“Just before I decided to start drawing I was reading

, from Bukowski.

I came across a paragraph where the protagonist starts working in a dog biscuit factory.

It was at that moment that I decided to start drawing, and the first panel was a dog biscuit store.

I had no idea what would come next.

The first pages are completely improvised, I was following the events, because it seemed like something new was happening every day and I wanted it to be extremely instant.”

Graham posted his cartoons on Instagram, as a

, at a rate of three posts a day.

She was echoed on the network and the flow of visits and comments came from different parts of the world, at a time when many people were also locked up due to the pandemic.

“The three main characters are facets of me.

Rosie is me in my early 20s, Gussy is me a little older, more bitter and worried about the trajectory of my life, and Hissy is my arrogance and pride.

To the three main characters he adds a plot of police abuse: “The design of the policemen is based on something I invented years ago and dug up for

.

I didn't realize the cops looked like asses and balls, people started pointing it out on Instagram and I thought it was appropriate.

Pig-faced officers yes, it was on purpose for obvious reasons,” she notes.

Underground comics with anti-authoritarian overtones stood out in our country thanks to cartoonists such as Mariscal, Ceesepe, Gallardo, Max or Nazario, among others, and had publications such as

(1979) as one of its leading titles.

In the United States the explosion was a decade earlier, but the impact of illustrators such as Crumb or Gilbert Shelton was considerable in the development of the most irreverent comic.

Also in black and white, from the perspective that Coma pointed out of reneging on the “accepted aesthetic rules”, the Alpha Comic publishing house has published

, by the American illustrator Keiler Roberts (Milwaukee, 1980), with a translation by Alberto Gª Frames.

A more intimate work, which recounts the relationship between the author and her daughter in the days of the pandemic.

Through vignettes with clear strokes, a look around everyday life, imaginary conversations and thoughts about parenting and friends in times of uncertainty is unraveled.

atmosphere

and less punk than Graham's, and places the accent on silences and thoughts.

"The comic talks about the relationship with our daughters in a time of pandemic that seems to have locked us in an inner journey with our day to day," Roberts also points out by email, in a back and forth conversation, and adds in relation to his point of view: “In stories and in life, people tend to prioritize action, dialogue, changes, and strong emotions.

I choose to believe that moments of stillness, of inaction, even without meaning, have value."

Cover of 'My supplication table'. Keiler Roberts (Alpha Comic)

In that atmosphere of "stillness" that Roberts poses in

and in the fast-paced action of

, music is a very present transversal element.

For Alex Graham, whose book features musicians like T-Rex, The Rolling Stones and Herbie Hancock, his inclusion is almost a declaration of intent: “I love music more than any other artistic discipline.

I constantly fantasize about being a musician, I have no talent but I'm obsessed with

”.

For Keiler Roberts, music was an existential safeguard: “When the pandemic shutdowns began in the United States, only essential workers were allowed to go to work.

No type of artist is an essential worker, but art is what made that time bearable and even enjoyable for many people."

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