Editing Zap Comix (section)

== Overview ==
Labeled "Fair Warning: For Adult Intellectuals Only", ''Zap'' #1 featured the publishing debut of [[Robert Crumb]]'s much-bootlegged ''[[Keep on Truckin' (comics)|Keep on Truckin']]'' imagery, an early appearance of unreliable holy man [[Mr. Natural (comics)|Mr. Natural]] and his neurotic disciple Flakey Foont, and the first of innumerable self-caricatures (in which Crumb calls himself "a raving lunatic", and "one of the world's last great medieval thinkers"). The debut issue included the story "Whiteman", which detailed the inner torment seething within the lusty, fearful heart of an outwardly upright American.

Crumb reached out to Griffin asking him to collaborate on issue #2. Griffin suggested bringing fellow poster artist [[Victor Moscoso]] on board. Crumb added [[S. Clay Wilson]] and the four of them formed the Zap collective. [[Gilbert Shelton]] joined the crew with issue #3, and [[Robert Williams (artist)|Robert Williams]] and [[Spain Rodriguez|"Spain" Rodriguez]] joined with issue #4. This group of artists remained mostly constant throughout the history of Zap.<ref name="comixjoint_zap_all" />

''Zap''{{'}}s new publisher the [[Print Mint]] weathered a lawsuit filed over the ''Zap'' #4, released in 1969, which featured among other things, Crumb's depiction of [[incest]] in a middle-class family. The publishers, Don & Alice Schenker, were arrested and charged with publishing pornography by the [[Berkeley Police Department]]. Previous to that, Simon Lowinsky, who had a gallery on College Avenue in Berkeley and had put up an exhibition of the Crumb's original drawings, had been arrested on the same charge. His case came to trial first. He was acquitted<ref>Gilbert Shelton quoted in ROSENKRANZ, PATRICK. [http://www.tcj.com/zap-censorship-and-suppression/ "Zap: Censorship and Suppression"], ''The Comics Journal'' website (NOV 10, 2014): "Over in Berkeley there was Si [Simon] Lowinsky who had an art gallery and he had an exhibition, and was selling copies of Snatch Comics and he got busted for that. It went to court. It went to trial. The definition of pornography in California is that it has to be of prurient interest and no one on the jury would admit to being aroused by Snatch Comics. It got a not guilty verdict".</ref> after supportive testimony from [[Peter Selz]], a prominent figure in the art world. At that point the city dropped the charges against the Print Mint.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} In a related case, however — also brought on by ''Zap'' #4 —  the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in 1973 that local communities could decide their own [[First Amendment]] standards with reference to obscenity.<ref>Sergi, Joe. [http://cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/obscenity-case-files/obscenity-case-files-people-of-new-york-v-kirkpatrick-zap-comix-4/ "Obscenity Case Files: People of New York v. Kirkpatrick (Zap Comix #4)"], Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website.Accessed Nov. 17, 2016.</ref> In the mid-1970s, sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up, leaving [[mail order]] as the only commercial outlet for underground titles.<ref name="Estren-7">Estren, Mark James (1993). "Foreword: Backward!". ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=w7tOX1ntlGcC&pg=PA7 A History of Underground Comics]''. [[Ronin Publishing]]. p. 7. {{ISBN|0-914171-64-X}}.</ref>

Contributor Rick Griffin died in 1991; [[Paul Mavrides]] made his debut as a ''Zap'' contributor in issue #14 (1998). Mavrides was invited to contribute when Crumb announced that he no longer wanted to work on ''Zap'', although Crumb never did actually quit the title.<ref>Fox, M. Steven. [http://comixjoint.com/zapcomix14.html "Zap Comix #14"], ComixJoint. Accessed Nov. 19, 2016.</ref>