Newave !: The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980's - Tapa dura

[A] fascinating treasure trove of an anthology... In addition to work by greats like Artie Romero, Rick Geary, and Mary Fleener, and 50 or so others, the book serves as the history of a movement.

Bug your local shop to order about a thousand of these.--Marc Arsenault

More than just a collection of mini-comics, the book features interviews and insightful commentary from some of the creators as well as the lovingly-reproduced source material.

Newave! is a wonderful sampler of what the mini comix of the 1980s where all about. ... Now, at last, Michael Dowers and Fantagraphics have brought those little-known 8-pagers out into the light and given them an appropriate place in comix history. --Richard Krauss

Newave!: The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980's is a gigantic collection of the best small press cartoonists to emerge in the 1970s after the first generation of underground cartoonists (such as R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman) paved the way. These cartoonists, inspired by the freewheeling creative energy of the underground commix movement, began drawing and printing their own comics. The most popular format was an 8 ½" x 11" sheet, folded twice, and printed at local print shops on letter-size paper; because of the small size, they were dubbed "mini comix." By the 1980s they became known as Newave Comix, a term taken from England's Newave rock 'n' roll movement. An explosion of do-it-yourself artists emerged. Many talented artists went onto bigger and better things: others have disappeared. Inspired by the creative freedom of their underground predecessors and unrestrained by commercial boundaries or editorial edicts, their work was particularly innovative and experimental.