Main track

This is a time after the Vietnam War and the Kennedy assassination and there is a great dissatisfaction that triggers the hippie movement and the growing underground culture.

What distinguishes underground publishers from established publishers is that the content, editing and publishing of the magazines is usually handled by one and the same person, or a small group of cartoonists. And the content does not follow any given rules either. Underground titles such as Zap Comics and Chequered Demon have provocative content with a lot of sex, drugs, violence and political satire. Underground comics also become a powerful tool for the budding feminism in the USA. Comic creators such as Sherry Flenniken, Aline Kominsky and Trina Robbins used the freedom of underground comics to produce the first feminist comic books, deliberately provocative and sexually explicit. The title Wimens Comix becomes a feminist struggle magazine in comic form.

One of the leading figures in the underground comics movement in San Francisco's Haight Asbury is Robert Crumb, who is now declared a genius. Crumb contributes to the now classic magazine Zap Comix, a success in alternative circles in the US. Robert Crumbs gains rebel status and becomes a role model for many during the 1960s. The Stockholm Toy Museum has a number of examples of Robert Crumb's work. One who admires Crumb is the Swedish all-round artist Jan Lööf, who has created the cult series "Felix" which is clearly inspired by Crumb's work. He later creates series such as Ville, Bellman and the TV series about Scrap Nisse and his friends. Together with his Konstfacks colleague Carl Johan de Geer, he is also behind the iconic TV series "Tårtan".

In 1975, Lööf travels to San Francisco to look for his idol, the recluse Crumb, and together they create a series. Lööf writes the story and Crumb draws. The series has long been lost but is found by chance and is today a unique document of the time. Partly because it is the only collaboration between a Swedish comic creator and Robert Crumb, and partly because it clearly shows the importance that Crumb has had for the development of Swedish underground comics.

The current feminist comic wave in Sweden and Swedish publishers such as Kartago and Galago would probably not have existed without the hippie movement and underground comics from San Francisco. But the first Swedish underground magazine came into being long before Galago and Kartago. Behind the magazine Puss is the provocateur, debater and communist Lars Hillersbergs. The magazine Puss can be seen as both an underground comic book and a political manifesto. The ambition is from the beginning to be uncomfortable and unpleasant, according to the editorial column. Accusations that the magazine is pornographic and threats of legal proceedings have followed Puss through the years, and provocations and political controversies are exactly what Hillersberg and the magazine Puss are looking for. Puss is the first magazine in Sweden to carry Robert Crumb and his comics. In this way, it becomes a catalyst for a whole generation of independent Swedish comic book creators.

Puss is only published in just over 20 issues between 1968-1973. But many major cultural figures manage to contribute in various ways. For example, Carl Johan de Geer, Marie Louise Ekman and Karin Frostensson.