Bijou Funnies

Bijou Funnies was an American underground comix magazine which published eight issues between 1968 and 1973. Edited by Chicago-based cartoonist Jay Lynch, Bijou Funnies featured strong work by the core group of Lynch, Skip Williamson, Robert Crumb, and Jay Kinney,^[2] as well as Art Spiegelman, Gilbert Shelton, Justin Green, and Kim Deitch. Bijou Funnies was heavily influenced by Mad magazine,^[3] and, along with Zap Comix, is considered one of the titles to launch the underground comix movement.^[1]

Publication history

Bijou Funnies evolved from The Chicago Mirror, an

. . . a confluence of events formed the perfect storm and essentially ended the golden age of underground comics. The most critical event in that storm was the landmark Supreme Court decision on obscenity, which confirmed that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment and established subjective guidelines for determining what constituted obscene material. [See Miller test] The consequences of that ruling essentially destroyed the head shop distribution system that underground comics relied on to reach their audience.^[1]

Bijou Funnies #8 is notable for a number of reasons. The inside front page contained an editorial from Lynch condemning the Supreme Court obscenity ruling. The cover was by Harvey Kurtzman, paying homage to his early work for Mad (but with an R-rated twist), and the stories inside were all parodies by the title's regular cartoonists of each other's characters.^[6] In addition, the entire comic was in full-color, which was rare for underground comix of that era.

The British underground publisher Cozmic Comics/H. Bunch Associates reprinted issue #6 of Bijou Funnies in 1974.

Quick Fox/Links Books published a collection titled The Best of Bijou Funnies in 1975, which included work by Lynch, Williamson, Kinney, Green, Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, Deitch, Dan Clyne, Jim Osborne, Evert Geradts, and Rory Hayes. The book was re-issued in 1981 by Quick Fox as a "flip book" with The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics', which had originally been published in 1974. In the afterword of the 1975 collection, editor Lynch hints at future issues of Bijou Funnies, noting that "we only do an issue of Bijou Funnies when we feel like doing one",^[7] but no further issues of the title were published after November 1973. Eight issues of Bijou Funnies were published in all.

Characters and contributors

Lynch's Nard n' Pat, a human-cat duo, were featured characters in Bijou Funnies. Williamson's

1. (Bijou Publishing Empire, Summer 1968) — contributors: Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Kinney, Dave Herring (2nd printing by Print Mint)
2. (Print Mint, Sept. 1969) — contributors: Williamson, Lynch, Crumb, Kinney, Art Spiegelman, Jim Osborne, Shelton, John Thompson, Rory Hayes, Paul David Simon ("Paul Filth"), Kim Deitch
3. (Print Mint, Oct. 1969) — contributors: Lynch, Williamson, Roger Brand, Deitch, Kinney, Hayes, Dan Clyne, Crumb, Justin Green
4. (Print Mint, May 1970) — contributors: Crumb, Williamson, Lynch, Deitch, Kinney, Clyne, Green (2nd printing by Kitchen Sink)
5. (Kitchen Sink, Dec. 1970) — contributors: Williamson, Lynch, Osborne, Crumb, Green
6. (Kitchen Sink, Sept. 1971) — contributors: Crumb, Lynch, Green, Williamson
7. (Kitchen Sink, Nov. 1972) — contributors: Williamson, Spiegelman, Lynch, Crumb, Evert Geradts, Green, Clyne
8. (Kitchen Sink, Nov. 1973) — contributors:
   Dennis Kitchen, Pat Daley, Crumb, Bill Griffith, Deitch, Green, Willy Murphy, Kinney, Ralph Reese