The final book of De Haven’s Comic Book Trilogy is Dugan Under Ground. This book deals with the end of Derby Dugan during the rise of underground comix. Overall I enjoyed the series, but Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies(my review) is still my favorite of the three. The first and third one are more loosely organized and ultimately don’t deliver the same impact as the second one. I don’t know if it’s the changing narrators or the scope, but they just didn’t resonate the same with me. So, let’s see how the little imp Derby Dugan ends up.

The book really has two main stories. The first one deals with the fall of Derby Dugan, as shown in the life of Candy Biggs. Candy took over as Derby’s writer/artist after being stabbed by the prior artist. Candy started off with dreams of how to make Derby Dugan a relevant comic again and he slowly watches as none of his ideas make even a dent in the falling readership. He’s forced to change story lines in the middle of the story and slowly turns to drinking. His wife takes regular lovers until she becomes so unhinged that they call up Candy to take her back. As the 60s wear on, Candy takes on a young intern named Roy Looby (a fictionalized Robert Crumb).

Roy is helped by his brother Nick who can ink better than Roy even if he can’t create or pencil half as well. Roy moves out to San Francisco and gets known for his creation, The Imp Eugene (which is an x-rated version of Derby Dugan). Roy slowly goes insane until Nick finds him hiding out in an old camp working on a giant Imp Eugene story. It’s a non-sensical story, but Roy and Nick are determined to finish it…eventually.

The two stories are almost like a transition from the 50s to the 60s and a primer on the underground comix. However, the story just can’t measure up to what De Haven is trying to do. Roy is always kept at arms length and we only see him through the eyes of others. So, we have little sympathy for what he is going through or trying to create. Since that creation is one of the main story points for the last half of the book, the lack of sympathy dooms the character. Like I mentioned above, I loved the idea of what De Haven was doing, but felt that he failed on the execution (although I would love to see him do a fourth Derby Dugan book set in the 1980s). Mildly recommended.