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Product Identifiers

PublisherSimon & Schuster

ISBN-100684834618

ISBN-139780684834610

eBay Product ID (ePID)12038792119

Product Key Features

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

Number of Pages160 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1997

TopicErotica / General, Subjects & Themes / Erotica, General, Comics & Graphic Novels

IllustratorYes

GenreLiterary Criticism, Art, Fiction

AuthorBob Adelman

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight36.6 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width12.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN97-030672

ReviewsP.J. O'RourkeAuthor of All the Trouble in the WorldI first saw a Tijuana Bible as a kid, and to this day I think these little comics are everything pornography ought to be -- dirty, antisocial, funny, borderline psychotic. What an art form! Pants off for reintroducing authentic smut to a jaded America., Ira GlasserCivil-liberties advocate and author of Visions of LibertyCartoons have always been a potent, if curved, reflection of American society, but there's nothing quite like the Tijuana Bibles for zany irreverence, satire, and social commentary. Poking holes (literally!) in iconic characters from Donald Duck to Popeye to Hollywood celebrities, the Bibles exposed the phony chastity of official Hollywood while committing the ultimate sin of portraying sex as good, clean fun. There was one small problem: it was a crime to publish this stuff. Certainly no one thought at the time that the First Amendment protected this sort of thing, but half a century of litigation now makes it possible to examine Tijuana Bibles openly., Roy LichtensteinArtistBesides viewing sex as a divine union communicating love, sex can be seen as absurd and comical. From the latter perspective, the Tijuana Bibles have a charming, harmless naughtiness that portrays a hidden side of their era.

Dewey Edition22

Commentaries byMerkin, Richard

Dewey Decimal741.5973

Table Of ContentTABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory Essay: Those Dirty Little Comics Art SpiegelmanThe Lingo of the Tijuana Bibles Madeline KripkeCommentary Richard MerkinSee You in the Funny PagesOur Fellow Americans: Heebs, Wops, Traveling Salesmen, and the Farmer's DaughterTheres's No Bizness Like Show Bizness!Gun Molls, Heavyweights, and Assorted TyrantsOdds 'n' Ends; or, Hot nuts and Wild GoosesThe Wide Stylistic Range of the Tijuana Bibles Richard MerkinTalking Dirty: The Vocabulary of the Tijuana Bibles Madeline KripkeThose Naughty End Pages Richard MerkinBibliography Madeline KripkeList of Titles and Index of Subjects Parodied

SynopsisHidden in a corner among the great sacred texts of the world lies a series of exuberantly ribald underground comics known as the Tijuana Bibles. Iconoclastic, hilarious, and sexy, these anonymous little books, written from the 1930s through the 1950s, are revered among scholars and aficionados of American folk art, and devotees of comics as well as collectors of erotica. The primitive energy of their vigorous, often crude line, combined with their gonzo sensibilities, has given the Bibles a tremendous if largely unacknowledged influence on such talents as Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, and Lenny Bruce.Comic strips in general were an American phenomenon, and at their zenith the Sunday funnies were as important as breakfast. But the anonymous creators of the Tijuana Bibles turned the saccharine tradition of the comics on its head, cheerfully savaging every sacred cow in the pasture in their pursuit of satire and sex. Political leaders, cartoon heroes, storybook legends, and American folk icons -- no one was safe from the glowering wit and smutty irreverence of these eight- and sixteen-page booklets, cranked out illicitly in basements and sold under counters across the country. From Donald Duck, Al Capone, and Greta Garbo to Lou Gehrig, Mahatama Gandhi, and the Fuller Brush Man, the pure and the impure were burlesqued with equal inspiration.Aboveground for the first time, these subverive comic masterworks are presented here in all their brilliant and raunchy glory. Author Bob Adelman reviewed almost 1,000 of the Tijuana Bibles before selecting 100 of the most lively and important examples of the genre. The book opens with an introductory essay by Art Spiegelman, America's most famous comic artist and a man who proudly acknowledges the impact these rollicking and scandalous little booklets have had on his own work.Paging through reproductions of the Bibles, the reader discovers that there is more to the Tijuana Bibles than good dirty fun. Indeed these tremendously entertaining comics also tell us fascinating things about American attitudes toward celebrity, about the hypocrisy of certain social and political values, and about the hypocrisy of certain social and political values, and about the ability of artists working outside the establishment of effectively tweak its sensibilities in a way few others can. For anyone who believes irreverence can be patriotic and sex can be just plain fun, Tijuana Bibles showcases American comic art at its untamed finest.

LC Classification NumberPN6726.T49 1997

As told toMerkin, Richard