MINESHAFT #32

I've written about the magazine Mineshaft before. There's not much left of the old underground comic book scene, but the editors/publishers are doing their best to keep the ancient tradition alive with their digest appearing all too infrequently.

The new issue arrived in my mailbox this week. It didn't take long for me to consume the contents and I've gone back and read it all a second time, trying to pick out little details I may have missed the first time around. Alas, I do not know when the next issue will appear. Not soon enough, though.

Old faces are present along with some new artists who are unknown to me. There's Crumb and Fleener and Griffith and Stack and Moriarity and Lynch for the hard core nostalgists among us. And there are some folk displaying inventive material who are new to the scene for me. It could be that these "new" folk are not that at all, but I have been out of the comix loop for so long that I would not know. What I can say is that there's not a misfire in the issue.

As always, highly recommended.

The front cover to MINESHAFT #32. (Tip of the hat to Harvey Kurtzman?)

Back cover complete with a Mr. Natural yarn.

This interior page from R. Crumb struck me for one big reason: it reminded me of  the philosophical musings of Steve Ditko. Not in content, but in form. The illustration, the hand-lettered rambling.

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MINESHAFT #31

When I was a young man you could find amazing underground comics at any number of venues. In those days the world of independent comic book publishing was pretty tough, but quality seemed to find a home and a way. Some comic book shops carried the work of the creators we now think of as masters of the subversive comic book world. And the old head shops almost always had shelves full of comic book works by the likes of Crumb, Spain, Lynch, Irons, London, and the many others who filled pages of amazing comix with disturbing fiction and dangerous facts.

These days there is still something of an alternative comics marketplace, but in relation to what was here from the 60s through the late 80s, it's pretty tame and frankly no more dangerous or expansive than watching a kitten at play. The good ol' days in the world of politics and comics are unfortunately faded.

Except for one digest magazine.

MINESHAFT. This publication is produced right here in my current home state of North Carolina. Within the pages of this booklet one can find some of the great old underground cartoonists and some of the best from recent years and some who are completely new to me.

It's like discovering the old magazines for the first time when I was a young man. Within these covers (and actually on the covers!) you can discover some of that old danger that made the undergrounds so exciting and important.

I highly recommend the magazine and suggest that you subscribe. (They accept Paypal!) It's the only place I've discovered in recent years that publishes the type of comics used to set us all on edge.

A new Jay Lynch cover (and interiors!)

Crumb!

Where else can you find a comic starring and quoting Slajov Zizek?!

And exquisite renderings from Robert Crumb's sketchbooks.