Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s-1950s

by Adelman, Bob

First Paperback Edition

[30 Day Return Guarantee] Price: £7.98 ($ 13.23)

Book Description

New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. A first-ever collection of America's underground pornographic comics from the 1930s to the 1950s. Known as "Tijuana Bibles" these highly explicit comic books constitute a fascinating view of the unknown, erotic America of that turbulent era. Tijuana, the Mexican border town just south of Los Angeles, was made infamous by two things: it's reputation as the American tourist's Sodom and Gomorrah (think Prohibition days and live sex shows with donkeys) and the eponymous Bible. "Tijuana Bibles" (known also as 'eight-pagers') were pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950s. Printed in black on cheap white paper and eight pages long, their popularity peaked during the time of the Great Depression. They were drawn and written by anonymous artists and printed and distributed by no less shady publishers. The art is crude but executed with immense vitality. The subject matter usually consists of explicit sexual encounters featuring popular cartoon characters, as well as famous film stars and politicians. In introduction Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman writes that these 'cheerfully pornographic and downright illegal booklets...probably weren't produced in Tijuana (or Havana or Paris or London, as some of the covers imply)'. Nor were they bibles. The location was more likely ironic. As wry and raunchy as the subject it celebrates, this inspired volume introduces a new generation to the "Tijuana Bibles", underground comic art above ground for the first time since they were produced. Still unexpectedly shocking and devoted to making a sexual mockery of every sacred cow in the pasture, the Bibles are unveiled here with 100 classic examples in full. It's folk art with a subversive edge.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Fine. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.

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