[en] During the 1960s of the 20th century, The United States become the genuine cradle of underground comics. These publications emerged outside of the large publishing, printing and distribution industries on the day, concentrating on the major topics of the counterculture, such as politics, rock and jazz music, recreational drug use and sex. They developed outside the comic strips of the most popular daily characters, notebooks, magazines and comic books that presented the adventures of cartoons and romantics, war and police, as well as those of the most popular fantastic superheroes, such Superman, created in 1938 by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. In San Francisco, at the beginning of 1968, Zap Comix published the first complete underground comic book by cartoonist Robert Crumb, the emblematic pioneer of this type of publications. Precisely, in the fall of 1962, a second-hand jazz record market in Cleveland led to the meeting between Robert Crumb, then a modest postcard artist, and Harvey Pekar, a bland individual, unkempt and unsuccessful who would end up working until his retirement as a file clerk in a federal government veterans hospital. This is how American Splendor was conceived, Harvey Pekar?s autobiography written as a poetic personal catharsis, and which would be illustrated by representative authors of underground comics such as Robert Crumb himself, Gary Dumb, Joe Sacco, Frank Stack and Joe Zabel. In 1987, the first collection of American Splendor won the American Book Award. In 1994, the graphic novel Our Cancer Year, the particular cancerous experience suffered by Harvey Pekar, written in collaborations with his wife Joyce Brabner, was awarded the prestigious Harvey Award of the American comics industry. All these adventures have been brought to the cinema screens in the docudrama American Splendor (2003) by Shari Springer German and Robert Pulcini.

[es] Durante la d?cada de los 60, la aut?ntica cuna del c?mic underground estaba en los Estados Unidos. Estas publicaciones surgieron al margen de las grandes potencias de la edici?n, impresi?n y distribuci?n de la ?poca, concentr?ndose en los temas preferidos por la contracultura: pol?tica, jazz, m?sica rock, uso recreativo de las drogas y sexo. Se desarrollaron al margen de las tiras c?micas de los diarios m?s populares, los cuadernos, las revistas y los comic books que presentaban las caricaturas y las aventuras de personajes rom?nticos, b?licos y policiacos. Pero tambi?n las de los superh?roes fant?sticos favoritos del p?blico, como Superman, materializadas por primera vez en 1938 gracias a la maestr?a de Joe Shuster y Jerry Siegel. En San Francisco, a comienzos de 1968, Zap Comix edit? el primer comic book underground completo del dibujante Robert Crumb, emblem?tico pionero de estas publicaciones. Precisamente en el oto?o de 1962, un mercadillo de discos de jazz de segunda mano en Cleveland propici? el primer encuentro entre Robert Crumb, a la saz?n un modesto dibujante de postales, y Harvey Pekar, un anodino individuo desali?ado y fracasado, que acabar?a trabajando hasta su jubilaci?n como archivero en un hospital de veteranos del gobierno federal. As? se gest? American Splendor, la autobiograf?a de Harvey Pekar, po?tica catarsis personal que ser?a ilustrada por algunos de los autores m?s representativos del c?mic underground, como el propio Robert Crumb, Gary Dumm, Joe Sacco, Frank Stack y Joe Zabel. En 1987, la primera recopilaci?n de American Splendor gan? el American Book Award. En 1994, la novela gr?fica Our Cancer Year, la experiencia del c?ncer padecida por Harvey Pekar en primera persona, fue escrita en colaboraci?n con su esposa Joyce Brabner, siendo galardonada con el prestigioso premio Harvey de la industria estadounidense del c?mic. Todas estas peripecias han sido llevadas a la pantalla cinematogr?fica en el docudrama American Splendor (2003) de Shari Springer Berman y Robert Pulcini.