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5 Underground Comics (3 Points)

 Air Pirates: This set of comics were very uncomfortable to read. It took many famous cartoon characters and turned them into what is essentially porn. In most cases, the women would take the brunt of the sexuality in these comics, yet they would (most of the time) end up 'wanting it'. To me, this shows the horrible mindset of the artists making these comics. In addition to being super raunchy, the comics were also just difficult to read along to. The panels were laid out in a way that was counterintuitive to where my eye wanted to go. I do not see much similarities of this comic in comparison to comics today other than the characters, 

Gay Comics No. 1: This was much more pleasant to read than the first link of comics. One important detail to remember when reading this set of comics is that it was created by and for gay people. Keeping this in mind, these comics were actually relatable as well as enjoyable. These comics, while still having sexual themes and scenes, came off more as telling a story, rather than the comics before reading as a pervert's sexual fantasy. 

Girl Fight Comics No. 1: Some of these comics necessitate the readers to look into the authors, and I felt that this was one of them. I found her characterization of black people- women in particular- unsettling. She seems to use them more so as a prop for diversity (if you could call it that) rather than an actual character. She gives most of her characters this treatment, in fact, as they are only their seemingly for the shock factor or for a specific audience, which in this comic's case, it seems like this was geared towards men with very particular fetishes. Being as though this is one of the first comics we are learning about that is created by a woman, it is possible that she had to include content like this as a way to 'fit in', but I do not think that excuses her portrayal of racial and female characters. 

Come Out Comix: Comparing this comic to the previous ones, it was pretty good. It was similar to Gay Comics No. 1 in that it dealt with sexuality and contained sexual content, but it was not anywhere close to the borderline porn that Air Pirates was. It has a lot of similar themes to coming out stories, like owning who you are and being confident in your sexuality. Seeing that these kinds of topics existed beyond modern years is cool.

Naked Hostility: I wanted to get a good range of comics, so I chose this for my last comic of this set. The images in between the actual comics were a bit odd, but a good chunk were mostly tame. However, I feel that this story, just like Air Pirates, uses their position as a creator as an excuse to create something that is offensive towards women. This comic does not seem to push that power as far as Air Pirates did, but it still is off-putting at times.


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