In 1975 I attended the first Bay Con Comic Convention held in Berkeley.
Somehow in the wandering about the Con, I made the acquaintance of other similar ‘loose ends’. I think we all felt a bit like masterless Samurai. I could not possibly recall the chronology of events, what order I might have met which cartoonist, but it included Kevin Brady, Michael T. Gilbert, Marc Miyashiro, Kevin East, and last but never least when it came to leaving an impression, Roger May.
The two Kevins were recent graduates of Dan O’Niell’s cartooning class and drawing for Pandemonium Express Funnies. Gilbert (later creator of Mr. Monster and contributor to familiar titles such as Superman, Dr. Strange and Mickey Mouse) was just making his way into “ground-level” comics at that time, Marc was drawing The Dream Book of Xeno (for the Berkeley Barb and elsewhere) and Roger was already churning out self-published zines such as Vibratory Provincial News.
We chatted, showed off portfolios and made our way to the hotel bar. All of us were on the periphery of the Bay Area comic art scene which was largely made up of the underground comix scene and other emerging alternative forms of comic art of the day.
I think we recognized some commonality in our outsider status and concluded we should get together again.
Kevin Brady, prime mover and congenial host, offered up his place in the Sunset district of San Francisco for our meetings (probably because he was the only one of us who lived in an actual house).
The group didn’t remain a boy’s club very long. Very soon we were joined by women cartoonists including Shelby Sampson, Dot Bucher, future renowned Melinda Gebbie and one of my flat mates of the time, Trina Robbins. (Trina of course already had an established reputation, and the others were starting to contribute of Wimmen’s Comix and other titles).
Here are a few snaps:
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There are handfuls of cool little drawings:
Occasionally, other casual visitors came by. I remember future New Yorker cartoonist, Mick Stevens passed through. I recall Harry Driggs (aka political cartoonist R. Diggs) and a large party of cartoonists getting together for an after comic con party one year that included the likes of Gilbert Shelton, Alex Nino and other stellar figures all of whom contributed to a wall sized jam that I believe Kevin Brady organized (and still has the originals?). But the core "membership" remained the original roster.
The Ground Under Cartoonists Logo:
Apparently, there was a lot of thought put into creating an identity for our little group. I don’t actually recall much about that but there were a number of different names and logos and such suggested. Some contenders included Famous Unknown Cartoonist Kartel, Pacific Ocean Cartoonists, Krazy Kartoonist’s Klub, People’s Unknown Cartoonists, Famous Unknown Nocturnal Cartoonists (aka FUNK) and even Terminal Aggravation of Cartoonish Offenders (!).
We did a series of self-caricatures and Roger created a silkscreen poster and a T-shirt of the image.
Over the years many of us stayed in touch, others not so much.
Kevin Brady is up in the Sierras and still actively making art, last time I heard, Marc Miyashiro was running his own graphic art studio, Michael T. Gilbert is now an Inkpot Award winning old-timer in the realm of mainstream comic books, Melinda went on to considerable fame and apparently lives in the United Kingdom, Shelby served at one time as the curator of the Richmond Museum of History, I've completely lost track of Dot Bucher, Roger May died in 2016. Trina became an internationally renowned “Herstorian” documenting the history of women in comic art. She passed in 2024.
For a cartoonist, San Francisco in the 1970’s was the ultimate hub for trailblazing comic art.
The opportunities to connect and work with fellow cartoonists was plentiful.
I’ve posted here in the past about Barry Gantt’s monthly Loonies get together in San Francisco and the graphic artist guild Artists in Print meetings and events. There was even a short lived, attempted union, the United Cartoon Workers of America. But the GroundUnder Cartoonists evenings belonged to our little group and was a quite wacky, much needed, and very special time.
Work copyright respective artists
