wk5 Counter Culture

The post war generation came out with new types of art work which were controversial at the time because they often looked at sex and drugs. The new magazines of the time were explicit with this with pictures of penises on the front cover, they didn’t care about how people outside of the culture thought they wanted the shock factor.


GEE-WHIZ! Is a Humorama magazine, it was started in the mid-fifties and finished in the mid-sixties. It featured cartoons and black and white images of pinups, they were a mixture of soft core pornography and funny cartoons, teen boys probably got the most out of this magazine. The Humorama publication probably helped break the ice of explicit art for later publications like ZAP! Being able to show off women’s bodies would have been more acceptable then later artists created work with male bodies.

With the rise of hippie culture people started to create art to go with the scene, making psychedelic art to imitate the experience of being on hallucinogenic drugs, the art started becoming a big part of the culture. The hippie culture came about to comeback the ongoing trauma of the Vietnam War the hippies had a message of free love and peace. Hippies were the outcasts of society they were seeking spiritual experiences through the use of drugs.
Victor Mosocoso’s work is a key example of some of the psychedelic art which came out of the 60-70s, filling up the page in patterns, bright clashing colours, and the iconic font which now then people see it making them think of the hippie era.


I’m inspired by Mosocoso’s work because of his use of pictures and illistrations, although I have never mixed illustration and photography together in this style I have done it previously. It does make me want to try the style in my future work. The Zap and Gee-Whizz Magazine also make me want to try drawing in the vintage cartoon style.

Gee Whizz Comic Cover july (1958), Ward, Hamilton, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/7857599358

Zap Comix, R. Crumb, Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/incognita/underground-comix-1381706

The Chambers brothers Iron Butterfly (1967) Moscoso

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