It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the underground tradition of Zap and Arcade.

Calling Raw a "graphix magazine", they hoped their unprecedented approach would bypass readers' prejudices against comics and force them to look at the work with new eyes.

[9] As an editor, Mouly was hands-on, suggesting ideas and changes — an approach considered anathema to the editor-adverse underground spirit, but artists welcomed her input as in the end she did not interfere with their autonomy.

[10] Raw featured a mix of American and European contributors (including some of Spiegelman's students at the School of Visual Arts), as well as various contributors from other parts of the world, including the Argentine duo of José Antonio Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo, the Congolese painter Chéri Samba, and several Japanese cartoonists known for their work in Garo.

Each issue contained a broad variety of styles linked by a common theme, be it urban despair, suicide, or a vision of America through foreign eyes.

[12] The best-known work to run in Raw was a serialization of Spiegelman's (eventual) Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel Maus,[13] which ran as an insert for the duration of the magazine[14] from the December 1980 second issue.

[3] Individual chapters were packaged as small comic books bound within each issue of Raw Volume 1; starting with Raw Volume 2 (a few color comics, such as Spiegelman's "Two-Fisted Painters: The Matisse Falcon" and Yoshiharu Tsuge's "Red Flowers", were also packaged as inserts).

Raw also frequently reprinted public domain works by cartoonists and illustrators of historical significance such as George Herriman, Gustave Doré, and Winsor McCay.

[19] Pioneer underground cartoonist Robert Crumb responded in 1981 with the magazine Weirdo, intended to remain free of editorial intrusion and stay true to comics' lowbrow roots.