The Surfer

Surfing culture got its own comic book in the early 1960s with The Surfer, a 16-issue series published from 1961 to 1962. Created by surfer-filmmaker John Severson, the title was defined by the trippy, fluid artwork of Rick Griffin and Mike Salisbury, who together captured the era's beachside vibe and nascent surf aesthetic. As one of the first comics to treat surfing as a lifestyle rather than just a sport, it remains a key artifact of the pre-psychedelic California counterculture.