Małgorzata Olsza
Feminist (and/as) Alternative Media Practices in Women’s Underground Comix in the 1970s
Polish Journal for American Studies, vol. 14 (Spring 2020), pp. 21-37

Abstract: The American underground comix scene in general, and women’s comix that flourished as a part of that scene in the 1970s in particular, grew out of and in response to the mainstream American comics scene, which, from its “Golden Age” to the 1970s, had been ruled and construed in accordance with commercial business practices and “assembly-line” processes. This article discusses underground comix created by women in the 1970s in the wider context of alternative and second-wave feminist media practices. I explain how women’s comix used “activist aesthetics” and parodic poetics, combining a radical political and social message with independent publishing and distributive networks.

Keywords: American comics, American comix, women’s comix, feminist art and theory, media practices

DOI: 10.7311/PJAS.14/1/2020.02

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