'I Was a Sex Junkie' (Tits & Clits #3, February 1977).
Dot Bucher is an American alternative comic artist, who flourished in the 1970s with her contributions to the underground magazines Wimmen's Comix and Tits 'n' Clits Comix. Many of Bucher's stories were witty satirical parodies, though she also made the more serious short biopic 'Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad' (1975). She is based in Eugene, Oregon.
Wimmen's Comix
Dorothy Bucher first got noticed in 1972, when she contributed to several issues of Wimmen's Comix, an underground comic book launched at the initiative of Trina Robbins, who felt that too many underground comix were made by only men, offering a male-centered perspective on women that was often plainly sexist.
In issue #3, Bucher's satirical short story 'A Sordid Affair' (October 1973) appeared. In the fourth issue (1974), 'When a Woman Is a Man' and in the fifth, 'Tiger Lily of Saigon' (June 1975). For issue #6 (December 1975), she drew the biographical comic 'Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad', chronicling the life of the African-American former slave Harriet Tubman, who in the mid-19th century helped several enslaved people escape from the U.S. South to the North. To the 7th issue of Wimmen's Comix, Bucher contributed the two-page story 'Temporary Sanity' (December 1976) and a pin-up illustration of billionaire's daughter Patty Hearst, who had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Front, but then joined them during their bank robbings and terrorist activities. According to Mrs. Bucher, in a mail she wrote to the Comiclopedia on 16 February 2024, she eventually left Wimmen's Comix because she felt her colleagues were increasingly jealous of her drawing talent. When the compilation book 'The Complete Wimmen's Comix' (Fantagraphics, 2016) was released, her art was included.
'Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad' (Wimmen's Comix #6, December 1975).
Tits and Clits Comix
Btween 1972 and 1976, Dot Bucher contributed to Tits and Clits Comix (Nanny Goat Productions, later distributed by Last Gasp), the all-female underground comix book title launched by Lyn Chevli and Joyce Farmer. Her story 'I Was a Sex Junkie!' appeared in issue #3 (February 1977), spoofing educational propaganda media. The title character exposes her life as a nymphomaniac, but eventually gives up her vice to find a better addiction: drugs! The satirical story was praised by journalist and fellow artist Clay Geerdes, who named Bucher “a genius”. The fourth issue (December 1977) featured Bucher's memorable parody of the TV show 'The Bionic Woman', titled 'The Bosomic Woman', in which a colossal-breasted woman fights crime and injustice. She made a follow-up story using the same character in issue #5 (July 1979), titled 'Bosomic Woman meets the Hunk'.
'A Study: Violence Says: "Love Me, America".
Other underground comix work
In 1973, Bucher contributed a one-page story to El Perfecto Comics (Print Mint, 1973), a collective comic book launched by Aline Kominsky to raise funds for the trial of Timothy Leary, the famous drug guru who was facing 25 years in prison for drug possession. The book featured short story comics about drugs, but eventually Leary gave the police the names of his dealers to avoid the trial, making the entire project useless. In the Winter of 1975, Bucher contributed a comic story about the reasons for becoming an underground comic artist to the second issue of Simpleton, published by Homestead Press.
In the second half of the 1970s, Dot Bucher's art continued to appear in a variety of underground publications and DIY mini-comics. For several issues of the Star-Reach Productions title Quack, she created the one-page funny animal feature 'Tales of the Oregon Bobcat' (1977). Later in the decade, Dot Bucher's art appeared in a variety of solo mini-comics for the Comix World/Comix Wave imprint of publisher Clay Geerdes, including 'A Humour' (1979) and 'Violence Says: Love Me, America!' (1979). She also contributed to the Vibratory Provincial News (1975), Imagine (1978) and Alien Cumshot (1980).
'The Busomic Woman' (Tits & Clits #4, December 1977).