Sunday, December 2, 2012

Cheech Wizard

I read Vaughn Bode's Cheech Wizard and it was... definitely an experience. It's very obvious that the comic-makers of the underground reveled in their freedom to include whatever material they wanted, as there's no limit of profanity, drug references, and sexual content. Cheech Wizard himself is a very bizarre character, utterly deplorable and spiteful toward everyone, yet also treated in-universe (mostly by himself) as a sort of mystical Christ-like figure.
While there were some clever moments, such as the running gag of no one knowing what Cheech Wizard's face looks like (there are two stories that imply that seeing his face drives men mad or catatonic or blind), on the whole, a lot of it feels purely self-gratifying as a comic. Women show up almost exclusively as scantily-clad objects to be used by Cheech Wizard and then left unsatisfied and offended, for instance. I'm not really a big fan of the whole period in general, as a feel like the sudden influx of people suddenly having the opportunity to publish through underground channels, without having to deal with censorship, meant that sometimes things went in the opposite direction, and focused too much on the crude and lewd.
I can understand the cultural significance of comics like Cheech Wizard and the works of Robert Crumb, but I don't think I'll personally be seeking them out on my own time.

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