Praise for Dirty Pictures

“Brian Doherty’s Dirty Pictures is coming out right when it’s needed. As creative expression is increasingly attacked from across the political spectrum, this wonderful book is a reminder of how art, unrestricted and free, helps us process the mess. It’s impeccably researched, sharply written, and opens a portal back to that old, weird America that found its mind by losing it a little.”

“Tune in, read on, and know all. Brian Doherty's heroic and hilarious Dirty Pictures is a detail-rich history with insight from the giants—Robert Crumb through Art Spiegelman. The story of underground comix is not just important, it's as American as an apple pie laced with LSD.”

In order to develop the vast field of indie comics available today, where every style and subject under the sun is available to a reader, you need the foundation laid by the underground comix scene of the 60s and 70s. In Dirty Pictures, author Brian Doherty expertly details the players and events that led to an artistic renaissance.

“Dirty Pictures is a fascinating deep dig into a unique subculture populated by screwball eccentrics, whose rude, jarring, and far-out works of art changed the face of American humor in all its incarnations.”

About the Author

Brian Doherty was a journalist and cultural critic whose work explored the intersections of politics, art, and counterculture. He was a senior editor at Reason magazine and the author of several acclaimed books, including This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground, a definitive chronicle of the festival's origins and ethos. With Dirty Pictures, Doherty brought his signature blend of rigorous reporting and narrative drive to the story of underground comix, capturing the artists, ideas, and conflicts that reshaped American comics and challenged the boundaries of free expression. Doherty's reporting, essays, and reviews appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, and Fantagraphics's The Best American Comics Criticism, among others.

You May Also Like

View more