The New Underground

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If comic is the art of sequence then Trash mountain’s usage of gifs is one with a Harry Potter twist. Every panel in the comic does more than just alluding to movement, in fact it constantly moves one action in a loop. This reminds me of the newspaper photographs from Harry Potter. Hence, instead of interpreting the event that unfolds in each panel, readers are watching it happen. It is as if all the clips from a video are taken apart and rearranged side by side so that everyone can see every clip all at once. It is a comic art form that treats each moving clip as a single panel. 

Personally, what makes the comic successful in making fun of “capitalistic crimes”, like support big oil pipelines, is its crudeness and absurdity. The style and color of it look like it was made in ms paint. Everything is filled in with bright neon colors and the characters are made if triangle heads. I do not know the true skill level of the artist but based on what is shown, the style mimics an amateur digital artist. This makes the readers not take the art as seriously and enhances the comedy and absurdity of the story, one about defeating a capitalistic overlord. In mere words, one of the comedies lies in the amateurish design of the comic. If not for this style choice, the scenes where the protagonist falls of the mountain butt naked or cuts the pipe genitalia of a giant oil factory will appear too graphically concerning. Instead of focusing on the story, the readers will be too distracted by the absurdity of the situation. Without the comedic drawings, the story will fail to poke holes into heavier political subjects. Once you get the audience entertained and amused by the comedy, they will stay for the message. 

What I like about the comic is that it also gives an impression of a hallucinating trip. It reminds me of the “drug trips” that are very popular in the late sixties-seventies, or at least my interpretation of it. The constant moving gifs, neon colors and alien inspired characters are ingredients for a 70s psychedelic aesthetic. Considering the context, the style of the comic alludes to the environmental moment of the 70s against big corporate greed. Additionally, the comic is made by a small self-published team. The comic is shared trough a web link and uses sexual tones to make fun of the corporate  world. How it is published and its tone reminds of underground comics, you could say that webcomics might be the new kind of underground comics. 

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