Marxism conceives of the new system of socialism as the necessary outcome of all previous history made possible and necessary only by that previous history. ↗
This radical transformation of world power relationships reflects primarily in the case of both the USA and the USSR the growth of the productive forces. ↗
I'd begun reading Crumb shortly before that, and other underground stuff, so that was an influence to some degree. Of course the Marvel and DC comics, they had been my main interests in my teenage years. ↗
There's a bit of debate about that; some say it was really Matthew, but the popular consensus is that Mark was the first one, so that's why I did that one first. And I was planning on doing all four. ↗