Echo [The Echo], Vol. I, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 -

[Karviná]: self-published, 1969-1970. Octavos (A5). Original side-stapled mimeographed wrappers; ca. 12-14 leaves of mimeographed comics to rectos only. Occasionally with added text in ink due to blurry reproduction quality. Varying pagination. Some rust to staples; else very good. Scarce samizdat journal of American-style comics, published for internal use for member of the Karvinská Trojka campsite organization in Karviná, in Eastern Bohemia. The majority of issues, such as the present group, contained only comics. The first three issues feature the camping- and tramping-focused series "Modří racci" and the later issues contain other adventure-themed series, including one titled "Jim Carter." Other types of comics that are known to have been featured in the series include American Western-based strips. The illustrators are not credited. The journal is an intriguing document of the "tramping" movement that grew shortly before the Czechoslovak Prague Spring of 1968. Tramping had developed in the 1930s as the local equivalent to the worldwide scouting movement, as well as a predecessor of Czech environmentalism. Its participants toured the Czech countryside with knapsacks and guitars, acting out a particular kind of counter culture viewed with suspicion by later governments, especially the Husák regime of the Normalization era. Tramping was heavily influenced by American culture, especially in its fascination with the Wild West. The journal was issued semi-illegally as a samizdat, for members only. Not in KVK, OCLC. Not held by the Czech National Library.