Alternative Visions
Alternative Visions |
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Page 24 of 29  From Hell (Tundra, 1991) Biographical titles were less evident on the alternative racks, but nevertheless produced some impressive entries, ranging from historical studies to contemporary hagiographies. The best examples of the former were Jack Jackson's Comanche Moon (Last Gasp, 1978), about Comanche leader Quanah Parker and Los Tejanos (Fantagraphics, 1982), about Texan freedom fighter Juan Seguin. Both comics were remarkable works of realism, presented in a quasi-photographic style, and were accompanied by documentary evidence and full bibliographies. As one commentator wrote of them: 'An alternative writing of American history demands an alternative narrative medium, and the suppressed stories of minority figures such as Quanah Parker and Juan Seguin find an appropriate home in the culturally marginalised form of comic books. The latter kind of biography was probably best exemplified by the series of unauthorized profiles of rock bands and rock stars put out by Revolutionary Comics, entitled Rock N' Roll Comics (1989), which included Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Alice Cooper and others. The new political titles only differed from the old 'committed' undergrounds such as Slow Death and Anarchy insofar as the causes they espoused had moved on. Vietnam had ended, but there were new wars to protest against - particularly the Falklands and the Gulf. Similarly, the fear of atomic war decreased with the collapse of Eastern bloc communism: now, the destruction of the planet's resources came more to the fore. Finally, the movements for women's, black and gay rights moved into new areas of debate, and were fortified by having to face the challenge of a post-1980 backlash against the advances they had made in the 1960s and 1970s.  Pages from Cosmic Retribution (Fantagraphics, 1999). Art/script: Joe Coleman. A gut-churning vignette, based on fact.  Cosmic Retribution |