Although the opinions of underground comic historians are not unanimous, the publication of the first true underground comic book is widely credited to Jack Jackson (Jaxon), who produced and sold God Nose in 1964 at the University of Texas. Others credit Frank Stack, whose terrific Jesus strips were cobbled together by Gilbert Shelton in The Adventures of Jesus a few months earlier, but there were only about 50 copies of that book and they were handed out to a small circle of friends.

The first printing of God Nose produced 1,000 copies (surreptitiously printed in the Texas state government in-house print shop), and they were sold all around the colleg campus in Austin. Years later, Jaxon co-founded Rip Off Press, which reprinted his original classic three times.

Jaxon was an exceptionally talented artist who contributed some beautiful artwork to many underground comics, and he went on to create some memorable graphic novels about Texas history. God Nose presents us with Jaxon's early style, and it flows freely with a loose, fluid pen. God Nose features God and Jesus in a satirical look at modern life (in the '60s). Like most of the better media creations about God, Jaxon imbues his God character with a human personality, with certain flaws and self-doubts, yet He remains unmistakably the Supreme Being.

While there is certainly plenty in here to offend some straight-laced Christians, on the whole I tend to believe Jaxon's work is closer to a personal tribute to God than a mean-spirited skewering of religion. But Jaxon's God is a being of modern times, as he tackles such controversial issues as birth control and racism. And his son is a bit of a hep cat, rather cynical about the whole Dad thing and prone to pursuing such modern pleasures as surfing.

The scan of the first printing provided below is not from a book I own, but provided for informational purposes.



HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES:
There are four printings of this comic book. The 1st printing (1,000 copies) was self-published by Jack Jackson and sold to students at The University of Texas. The 1st printing is 42 pages, letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) and had purplish-pink construction paper covers stapled on cheap copy paper interior pages. The 2nd to 4th printings (unknown copies) are 44 pages, are standard comic book size (about 7 x 10 inches) and were produced by Rip Off Press. The 2nd printing has no cover price and a pink border on the front cover, the 3rd printing has a 50-cent cover price and a blue border on the cover, and the 4th printing has a 50-cent cover price and a red border on the cover.