SOURCE: "Icons of the Alternate Culture: The Themes and Functions of Underground Comix," in Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. VIII, No. 4, Spring, 1975, pp. 836-52.

In the following excerpt, Sanders considers the social, political, and commercial aspects of underground comic books.

Much of the popular culture literature is devoted to the discussion of the theoretical constructs and methodological approaches which are most useful in the study of "non-elite" cultural products. I agree with Gillespie that clarity will not be achieved until standardized interpretive concepts are developed. This framework can be built only when the foci and explanatory perspectives employed are clearly and consistently presented.

This paper deals with a relatively new cultural product—underground comix. It is a study of an artistic phenomenon which focuses on the socially constructed definitions of reality which shape both form and content. In that the effect of this medium/message on the perceptions...