By Tonio van Vugt and Natasja van Loon

(Cover image and this image both from Kuti 43).

Stripburger, Slovenia

Who would have thought that a little Balkan state like Slovenia is home to one of the most acclaimed underground magazines ever? Well, obviously everyone who has a taste for great sequential art born in obscurity, because Stripburger is kinda legendary in those circles. Not only is Stripburger currently one of Europe’s oldest zines –it was founded in 1992– but it is also one of the very few underground zines to be awarded ‘best fanzine’ in 2001 by the prestigious comics festival of Angoulême. Stripburger publishes comics in a wide variety of styles and techniques, but the quality of the artwork and storytelling has been consistently top notch. So it should hardly be surprising that the mag published many extremely talented comic artists like Jakob Klemenčič, Lars Fiske, Marcel Ruijters, Mike Diana and Julie Doucet. Hell, they even had Robert Crumb once.

La Cruda, Spain

La Cruda is a collective of comic artists based in Barcelona, more or less similar to the Dutch comic collective Lamelos in both artistic style and physical presentation. Like Lamelos they make cheerful, slightly anarchist artwork in bright colors. In 2010, when The Netherlands were the main guest at the Spanish comic festival Ficomic, both collectives collaborated in a grand Cardboard Robot Battle in the streets of Barcelona. They also co-created an exhibition that was as joyous, colorful and anarchistic as both their signature styles.

La Cruda is also the name of the magazine which was founded by the Spanish collective in 2008. It has played a big part in their extensive collaborations with international artists like Moebius, Brecht Evens, Alison Bechdel and Typex. Any issue of La Cruda is guaranteed to make you happy. (And while you’re at it, check out those Lamelos guys as well!)

Kutlul and Wobby, The Netherlands

How to explain the name of this Rotterdam-based underground comics magazine to the non-Dutch? ‘Kutlul’ is what we call a portmanteau, two separate words that form a new word with a new meaning. Kut means cunt and lul means dick – so in a sense it is a gender neutral word. The magazine itself is not for the faint of heart. The content is raw and edgy and the black and white drawings are vivid and explicit, conceived by authors like Joost Halbertsma, Dirk Verschure and Maia Matches, who ‘celebrate bad humor, weird comics and the pure joy of drawing’.

Kutlul is a striking counterpoint to another noteworthy Dutch small press zine, Wobby, made by Tilburg artist Jeroen de Leijer and featuring artists like Berend Vonk, Bart Schoofs, and Eva Stalinski. Wobby is much more focused on aesthetics in its exploration of the possibilities offered by the risograph – a new, hot printing technique that resembles a full color copier.

Fitting for a true underground zine, Kutlul has no website, but it can be purchased online at Staalplaat.

Bilderberg Konferenz, Germany

As a comics country Germany’s star is rising quickly. The amount of Germans interested in comics is booming, both books and fairs are increasingly popular and as a result more and more talented German artists, like former underground artist Ulli Lust, have found their way to an international audience. The German underground comics festival Bilderberg Konferenz is based in Berlin, a ‘100% DIY comic feast with absolutely no sponsors backing it up.’

The accompanying magazine with the same name reflects the punk-rawness and artistic autonomy the festival values so highly – you wil find for example a playful satirical appropriation of mainstream comic Garfield. Like the comics culture of its origin, Bilderberg Konferenz is young, only two issues thus far, but it is definitely one to watch.

As fitting for a true underground zine Bilderberg Konferenz has no website, but you can find more info here.

Kuti, Finland

The long term investments of the Finnish government in their comics culture have led to a steady level of high quality Finnish comics. As for instance those of the famous contemporary comics association Kuti Kuti, founded in 2006 by artist Tommi Musturi and based in Helsinki.

Kuti Kuti also produces the bilingual (Finnish and English) quarterly magazine Kuti, with Finnish artists like Jyrki Heikkinen, Matti Hagelberg and Musturi himself, as well as international avant-garde artists like Oliver Schrauwen, Tom Gauld, Brecht Vandenbroecke and Marc Bell.

Kuti is freely available (digitally on Issuu and in PDF format), so it’s easy accessible for a wide audience. It’s a perfect showcase of the central themes in Finnish comics, such as freedom, the relationship between people, very dark humor and wild imagination.

Noteworthy: one of Kuti’s star artists, Matti Hagelberg, who is famous for challenging the rules of storytelling and lay-out, also publishes a small press magazine called Läskimooses. Läskimooses can be purchased at the webshop of Kuti Kuti.

The post European Underground Comic Mags appeared first on Submarine Channel.

By Natasja van Loon & Tonio van Vugt

Drawing the Times

Since its foundation in 2015, Dutch platform Drawing the Times has addressed several big themes of this age. There is a climate change special, a human rights special, a feminism special, a stories of the Arab world special, and a special called Scribble Your Story: a graphic journalism contest for journalists from six African countries. They even have two meta-specials on graphic journalism: one explaining how it works, and another one on the future of graphic journalism, being one of the fastest rising comic disciplines in the world. Also noteworthy is their ongoing dossier with refugee stories. The huge collection of comics that can be found here is guaranteed to keep you busy for weeks. And although this platform is Dutch in origin, the comics are all in English, because Drawing the Times’ ambitions are unmistakably far wider. Among its ranks are internationally renowned artists like Olivier Kugler (Germany), Josh Neufeld (USA) and Victoria Lomasko (Russia). Another remarkable thing: the editorial board is 100% female.

Oliver Kugler on Drawing the Times ‘Domiz Refugee Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan‘ (detail)

Cartoon Movement

Even more ambitious is Cartoon Movement, at least in regard to scope. ‘The Internet’s #1 publishing platform for high quality political cartoons and comics journalism’ is the tagline and they are probably right about that. If you thought Drawing the Times had a large pool of various collaborating artists, then take a look at Cartoon Movement. Literally every country is represented here, although you won’t find any really long stories. The comics section is of substantial quality but small. However, you won’t find a larger collection of political cartoons anywhere else, with new additions at least four times a week. Salient detail: this platform may be an international organization, but its origins are also Dutch. The Netherlands may be a tiny country, but it is truly big in comics journalism, thanks to government support. The platform was founded in 2010 to ‘promote the political cartoon as a fundamental style of journalism’ and it did early projects on both the Haiti Earthquake and the Occupy movement. They also actively support free press and the rights of editorial cartoonists.

Graphic Journalism

Graphic Journalism is the personal project of the Lebanese-Swiss comics journalist David Chappatte, who was born in Pakistan. He draws for Le Temps, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Sunday edition) and the International New York Times, and publishes both in English and in French on Graphic Journalism. The subjects he addresses on Graphic Journalism are, among other things, life on death row, the Guatemalan war, the current situation in Gaza and Lebanon, the empty capitol of Myanmar, and memories of The Wall in Berlin twenty-five years after it fell. Some of these stories can be found on the site itself, others consist of links to the digital newspapers that published them. Graphic Journalism is not a joint venture like Drawing the Times or Cartoon Movement, who try to collect as many different artists as possible, so it’s not as varied, but Chappatte’s work is important and interesting enough to warrant its place in this list.

David Chappatte with Anne-Frédérique Widmann, New York Times (2016), ‘Inside Death Row‘

The Nib

The Nib is an American online non-fiction comics publisher edited by Eleri Harris and award winning graphic journalist Matt Bors. It was founded in 2013 and relaunched in 2016, and delivers engaging and provocative social commentary in the form of political cartoons and satire, comics journalism, and non-fiction writing (like essays) from a diverse team of contributors. Their focus is mostly the American perspective and American news, like the GOP tax cuts, the machinations of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and how nationalism is re-inventing history, subjects that probably sound pretty familiar to viewers of satirical news shows like The Daily Show and the former Colbert Report. That’s hardly surprising, since the The Nib’s content is heavily based on those satirical traditions, with titles like ‘Trump’s Twitter Was Deleted And For A Brief 11 Minutes, We Were All Happy Again’. The light comical touch of The Nib is a welcome change to the usually rather heavy load of serious world news.

Symbolia

Although Symbolia is not currently active anymore, the digital comics journalism magazine, that was developed for tablet computers like the iPad and the Kindle, still contains many pieces that warrant its place in this list. Symbolia existed for only two years, from 2012 until 2014, but during its short life span it helped both legitimize an industry and change the way people think about what journalism can be. It has published hundreds of pages of illustrated journalism in those two years, on stuff like the Affordable Care Act, terraforming on Mars, and the future of skilled labor. It also launched the careers of quite a few important artists like Jon Chad (on making the future by 3D printing), science journalist Roxanne Palmer and Dutch graphic journalist Eva Hilhorst (the latter would initiate the above mentioned Drawing the Times). Like Drawing the Times, Symbolia – founded by Erin Polgreen and Joyce Rice – was a mostly female venture.

Symbolia on Tumblr

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