Mammoth Cave: Everything You Need About Underground’s Inspiration

The comic Underground, formerly of Image Comics, features a destination I think tourists will like. Hopefully this can lead to travel affiliates for some more income. Anyway, the comic’s setting, Stillwater Cave, seems to take inspiration from Mammoth Cave. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Underground By Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber

Underground is a series first appearing in Image Comics. Like most comics, its development took a long time to develop and get out to the publishers. Also after publishing all of the issues, the series was left obscure. Only to turn up more than a decade later in a new publisher, Oni Press, as a graphic novel. The reason, at the time of this post, is unknown. But if I had to guess, it was probably to find as large an audience as possible. Comic stores are good and all, especially for small-time publishers just starting out. But look at any data in comic sales and you might notice book stores do an (ironically) better job selling them. Since Oni Press seems to have a working relationship with Bookshop.org, this might have something to do with it.

Anyway… Underground covers the story of two park rangers and the Stillwater Cave they try to preserve; among other things. Only problem is, the town’s economy might need the cave to become a tourist trap. Which considering these places are often filled with litter for how commodified they are, this is a legitimate concern. I mean just at convenience stores, I find litter all around. As for trash, well one of the more entrepreneurial residents of the area hires some cons to blow up parts of the cave to make it more tourist friendly. So when the rangers Wesley and Seth stumble upon their operation, they end up getting lost and have to rely on Wesley’s caving skills to survive.

Mammoth Cave Has Stillwater

Sounds exciting doesn’t it? Well, here’s the kicker, Stillwater Cave serves as an analogue to the real life Mammoth Cave. As far as I know, Mammoth never had the drama from Underground. For better and worse, it’s been a tourist destination since the 19th century. So notable, that by the early twentieth century was the Kentucky Cave Wars over cave tours. Unlike Underground that takes place in relatively modern times. What does Stillwater Cave have in common with Mammoth; let’s find out.

Mammoth Cave Fauna

In Mammoth Cave, you’ll find a large number of bats of varying species. Mammoth was one of the largest bat hibernacula until modern times. Fortunately this isn’t so much because of the tourists as much as it because of a fungal disease. Which might explain why there are big brown bats present in Underground, they’re the most resistant to the “white-nose syndrome”. But of course bat guano can be a factor affecting tours. I mean the most trigger-happy thug attacking the rangers caused the nitrate rich poop to explode with a gunshot.

As for the other creatures tourists might meet if they ever take the caving tours is the cave fish. These eyeless fish rely on their papillae to navigate the dark and cold waters they live in. Because in a place that’s pitch black, what good are eyes? Hence why Wesley and Seth rely on a sense of touch to move through the cold waters of the cave.

What Underground Doesn’t Tell You

Because it’s not a one-to-one comparison, there are some parts of Underground that don’t allude to Mammoth Cave’s history. For one, there’re the mummies of pre-Columbian burials. Apparently some woodland peoples have made passage through the caves but not much else. Kind of like the legends of the bear-trapping Houchin family’s discovery of the cave. Only for ownership to go from people to people over the saltpeter and calcium-nitrate reserves inside. Naturally most of the mining was African-American slave labor, which in turn lead to the touring industry. Fortunately, by the official end of slave trade, salaries and jobs take over.

By the time of the Cave Wars, people uncover more and more of the cave. Only for one explorer to die of starvation before his rescue. This in turn causes mass media coverage of the cave to initiate the National Park Movement. Ironically, that’s rather similar to the conclusion of Underground barring the decades long battle with landowners. The deaths as well, because if people can be safe in the cave, maybe they can better protect it.

Mammoth Cave Underground!

What do you all think? Does this warrant a visit to Mammoth Cave to see the similarities in Underground? Did Parker and Lieber take a few history lessons in preparation for this product? Could Underground actually take inspirations from the smaller caves around Mammoth? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for coming, and as always, remember to look between the panels.