Big Apple Comix is an early independent comic book published by Flo Steinberg in 1975. A historically important link between underground comix and what would later be called alternative comics, this 36-page, 63⁄4" × 93⁄4" hybrid with glossy color covers and black-and-white interiors contains 11 sometimes sexually frank stories by such mainstream creators as Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Herb Trimpe, Al Williamson, and Wally Wood. The creators were mainly friends of Steinberg, working for a low page rate.[1] Most of its stories revolve around New York City (colloquially known as the Big Apple) during a particularly low ebb in the city's finances, crime situation, race relations, and infrastructure.
Publication history
The one-shot comic book was among a handful of 1960s-1970s precursors of the independently produced comics that first proliferated with the 1980s rise of "direct market" comic-book stores. Other such early links between underground comix and modern independents include Mike Friedrich's Star*Reach and Wood's own witzend. Critic Ken Jones, in a 1986 retrospective review, suggested that Big Apple Comix and Mark Evanier's High Adventure may have been "the first true alternative comics".[2]
Steinberg printed 20,000 copies. Warren Publishing, for which she ran its mail-order Captain Company division, allowed her to store inventory in the company's storage space. She recalled in 1984 that, "I did make my expenses and a little besides". Afterward, the men's magazine Cheri and the French magazine L'Echo each reprinted "My Word" and "Over & Under", with Steinberg passing along the reprint fees to the creators.[4]
