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Gilbert Shelton - Zap Comix #4, Complete 5-page S

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Comics Start Price:2,400.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,500.00 USD
Gilbert Shelton - Zap Comix #4, Complete 5-page S
<B>Gilbert Shelton - Zap Comix #4, Complete 5-page Story "Wonder Wart-Hog Breaks Up the Muthalode Smut Ring" Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1968).</B></I> <B>Zap</B></I> #4 stretched the Supreme Court's "community standards" doctrine, which allowed each community to define pornography in relation to the local consensus, beyond the limit. Between the front and back covers of this historic issue, the seeds of discontent were born. The police busted City Lights bookstore in San Francisco and in New York <B>Zap Comix</B></I> #4 was prohibited from being sold over the counter. Gilbert Shelton burlesques both the sexual dynamic of Superman and the lurid reputation of the Underground Comix in this five-pager from 1968. Like Clark Kent, Shelton's protagonist, mild-mannered reporter Philbert Desanex, hides a superpowered identity, in this case the ultraviolent right-wing crusader Wonder Wart-Hog ("The Hog of Steel"). Superman's heroic interventions become Wonder Wart-Hog's fascist totalitarianism, and the repressed sexuality of the Lois Lane/Clark Kent/Superman triangle comes uncorked with a hyperbolic vengeance. The sexual content and exaggerated violence of Shelton's story cannot hide its roots both in superhero comics themselves and in the comic that supplies the crucial link between the Code-approved comics and the undergrounds, <B>Mad</B></I> magazine. These five pages by Shelton have an image area of 9.5" x 14.5" and are in Excellent condition.