Moore Collection of Underground Comix - Scope

The Moore Underground Comix Collection contains the comic books, comic strips, pre-press proofs, books, catalogs, advertisements, rock n’ roll flyers and artwork donated by Michael Moore, underground comix publisher and collector in 1993. Moore was a part of the underground comix scene and with others started the Los Angeles Comic Book Company in 1971, which published and distributed comix such as Mickey Rat and Weird Fantasies.

The collection includes a multitude of titles that emerged during the turbulent 1960s and is an excellent overall chronicle of underground comix, with the heavy bulk of its issues representing the surges in their popularity from 1969 to 1973, and again from 1984 to 1991.

Of particular interest are the underground comix published in late 1960s and early ‘70s. The Bijou Funnies include Gilbert Shelton’s “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” and Robert Crumb’s crusty, white-haired “Mr. Natural.”

The New York Herald comic strips “Loony Literature” by Quincy Scott and “Little Nemo in Slumberland” by Winsor McCay comic strips, both published in 1907, are the earliest examples of comics in the collection. There are also comics from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Captain George Presents. The resurgence of creative comix in the latter part of the 1980s as a graphic and diverse alternative to mainstream comic books is well represented in the collection.

The last few years have seen a rebirth of interest, both popular and scholarly, in the anti-war and countercultural movements of the 1960s. And, while the Vietnam war is long over, we still struggle with many of the same issues that galvanized that decade: war, social justice, feminism, gay rights, and environmental issues.

The collection is housed in 21 boxes. The collection is partially processed and arranged alphabetically by title. Intellectual access to the processed portion of the collection is available via an online database.