Voices from the Underground Press

I recently read "Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press, Part 1", an impressive series of first-person essays from underground press veterans. Publications include "Muhammad Speaks", "The San Francisco Oracle", "The Liberation News Service", and "The Paper". It took me back to my own youthful days long past, when the world was in turmoil yet ripe with exciting possibilities for progressive change.

From 1966-1968, my comics appeared in East Lansing, Michigan's "The Paper", one of the original underground newspapers from the Vietnam era. After that, they appeared in Detroit's "Fifth Estate", another pioneering publication from that time. And throughout the late sixties to mid-seventies, my comics were reprinted through the Liberation News Service syndicate in other newspapers like "The Chicago Seed", "The Milwaukee Bugle-American", and New York's "East Village Other."

This first volume is part of "Voices from the Underground", a series of four volumes about 1960s and 1970s underground publications that had represented groups that include socialists, hippies, feminists, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, gays and lesbians. Ken Wachsberger, an underground press veteran, is the editor of the series as well as a contributor.

All entries in "Part 1" are well-written and very fair, avoiding some of the more strident writing styles from the times. Essays include "The San Francisco Oracle: A Brief History" by founder Allen Cohen; "The Joy of Liberation News Service" by Harvey Wasserman; "A Fowl in the Vortices of Consciousness, the Birth of the Great Speckled Bird" by Sally Gabb; and "Messaging the Blackman" by John Woodford.

For me, the most interesting essays were the insider stories that I didn't know about. While at the time I didn't consider "Muhammad Speaks" to be a part of the underground press only because of its occasional forays into anti-Semitic rhetoric, it did succeed in reaching an untapped and underserved audience as much as any other underground publication.

In "Messaging the Blackman", one-time "Muhammad Speaks" staff writer John Woodford explains the black nationalist press of the Vietnam era through the cooler perspective of time past and owns up to the paper's examples of reverse-racism.

"The Joy of Liberation News Service" by Harvey Wasserman includes an interesting sidebar essay by Allen Young about the life and suicide of LNS co-founder Marshall Bloom that made me want to know more.

In recent years, the underground press has evolved (or devolved depending on whom you ask) into what is now known as "the alternative press", a highly commercial version of what once was. Today's alternative press papers, such as "The LA Weekly", are freebies filled with feature articles and advertisements that are an accepted part of every major city's media landscape. However, some of the original underground papers like "The Fifth Estate" and "Muhammad Speaks" are diehards and still publish.

The second volume in the "Voices from the Underground" series will be published soon, and will include even more essays from other underground press pioneers.