Interestingly, in one sense underground comix were in fact the first ones to be bought "in the conventional way", if by that you mean in comic book stores. In the 1960s, comic books were sold on spinner racks in grocery stores, drug stores, convenience stores, etc. Comic book stores did not yet exist. Of course "underground" comics could not be sold in such open venues as the spinner racks in neighborhood shops, so they were sold in instead in head shops, along with day-glow posters, bongs, roach clips, tie-dye, sandals, head bands, and other "hippie" paraphernalia. In a sense, these were the first "direct market" comics, in that you had to go to specialized stores in order to buy them (unless you purchased them from some guy who was selling them from out of the back of his car, along with the "other" material to go with the bongs and roach clips).