Jay Lynch, an American cartoonist who was instrumental in the underground comix movement, died on March 5, according to the New York Times. He passed away at home, reportedly of lung cancer.
At 72 years old, Lynch had culminated an impressive body of work. From “Phoebe and the Pigeon People,” a weekly syndicated comic strip, to some of Topps Chewing Gum’s more humorous collectibles like Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages. His impact on comics can be felt today, and it all started with underground comix.
The X in comix was established in the 1960s by the youth counterculture as a reaction to the Comics Code Authority. The comics in these magazines separated themselves from more mainstream offerings with their inclusion of adult content. Sex, drugs, violence, and biting social commentary were the cornerstones of this anti-establishment, achieving peak popularity from 1968 to 1975 in the United States.
Before Lynch helped pioneer the underground comix scene, the seeds of free press were planted in his youth with magazines like The Realist, which proved to him how integral unrestricted commentary was in influencing society at large. In an interview conducted by The Comics Journal in 1987, Lynch remarks, "Here was a magazine that pointed out, through satire, the hypocrisies in the society that nobody else dared even speak of, let alone print discussions of." For Lynch, satire through art was more about poking fun at societal institutions, it was a means to form connections with humanity.
One of Lynch’s earliest milestones was launching the “Bijou Funnies,” a “Mad” inspired comix magazine that is considered one of the key titles in igniting the underground movement. Eight issues were published, featuring work from Lynch himself, along with greats like Skip Williamson, Jay Kinney, Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, and Gilbert Shelton. It was within the “Bijou Funnies” that Lynch created two of his most iconic characters, Nard n’ Pat, an unlikely pairing between a bald middle-aged man and a talking cat.
Comics like these changed the industry for the better. They helped normalize a rapidly evolving status quo, in which mature themes and complex characters would become the torch bearers for a business that was too comfortable suppressing free-spirited expression. Creator rights were improved as well, with many underground comix paying royalties to creators on subsequent printings. This turned the best sellers list into a financial motivation, creating competition for quality. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, copyright ownership was refined. Creators at underground comix magazines kept the rights to their own stories, including the characters and the art, when it had been a standard for publishers to reap those elements in the past. Publishers like Image Comics may not have existed without the societal shifts brought fourth by underground comix creators.
Lynch believed in the power of free language to bring people together, to unite against a common cause, to make us laugh. Thank you to the trailblazers. Thank you Jay Lynch.
