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

by Bob Adelman (Author), Art Spiegelman (Introduction), Richard Merkin (Contributor) "Cartoons have a way of crawling past our critical radar and getting right into the id..." (more)
Key Phrases: Tijuana Bibles, Mae West, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, and other Bay Area misfits first started producing "underground" comics in the '60s, they were considered to be highly innovative in their use of frank sexual themes. However, some 10 to 15 years before they commenced their explicit, often offensive cartoons, another genre of pornographic graphics was dying out, the so-called "Tijuana Bibles" (or sometimes "Cuban Bibles," "French Bibles," etc.). Simon & Schuster has released a collection of these antique obscenities that often featured famous political, show business, or cartoon figures having more fun than mainstream censors would have allowed. The introduction, by comic book apologist and New Yorker comics editor Art Spiegelman, is an amusing and sarcastic look at the history of this lost medium, with some interesting reflections on the genre, noting that "Though there are bound to be those who will loudly declaim that the Tijuana Bibles demean women, I think it important to note that they demean everyone ... it's what cartoons do best." While the reprinted comic strips are often amusing in being laughingly bad, the historical essays and asides by editor Bob Adelman provide fascinating historical context. A sociology of mid-century sexual mores and the love/hate relationship that Americans have with their celebrities is evinced by the combination of reprint and commentary.

From The New Yorker
...[C]harming and evocative, these artifacts present a little-known cultural history....

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684834618
• ISBN-13: 978-0684834610
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #668,314 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tijuana Bibles (Wr. by Bob Adelman), May 20, 2002

By	Charles Tatum (USA) - See all my reviews

From the 1930's through the 1950's, small eight page underground comics were distributed all over the United States. They were crudely drawn, even more crudely written, and usually involved popular icons of the day engaged in sexual acts, accompanied with some very blue humor in the form of dirty jokes and puns.

These were called Tijuana Bibles, and also known as Eight-Pagers, Two-by-Fours, Gray-Backs, Bluesies, Jo-Jo Books, Tillie-and-Mac Books, Jiggs-and-Maggie Books, and F**k Books, this according to introduction writer Art Spiegelman.

Author Bob Adelman has collected dozens of these rare bits of cartoon history and republished them here, adding a commentary by Richard Merkin, and putting these into a quasi-historical and sociological context.

Ever wonder what Popeye looked like while having sex? What about Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse talking dirty while going at it? What did Cary Grant and Alger Hiss look like during gay love? All of this and more are here.

This book does a better job of reprinting the Tijuana Bibles than anything, but reading a bunch of them in a row gets very tedious. The introduction warns against this, as well. The drawings are often very crude, and the humor is very old, since their prime era was in the 1930's. Also, all but a few of the artists were anonymous, and the printings were not done in the exotic locales of Havana, Tijuana, or London (as the little booklets claimed), but probably in some basement with a mob type watching over the production.

This is not just a book of dirty pictures, but a very interesting look at what the author calls early sex education. While body parts are rather exaggerated, young men could look at these in the days before government and school sponsored sex ed and have a vague idea of what to do.

If you have any of these dirty little books around, then hold on to them, they are rare. If you have this overview of the history of Tijuana Bibles around, keep it away from the kids, unless they are curious about the sex life of Dick Tracy or Dagwood Bumstead. I recommend this thin book to anyone who claims to be a fan of underground comics, or erotic art and cartoons.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lewd and crude, but very funny!, June 10, 1999

By A Customer

This collection of satiric and pornographic cartoons will alternately amuse and offend people everywhere. Nothing and no-one is sacred. Some of the strips are beautifully drawn and funny, some are crude and downright witless and others (note the strips believed to be those of Wesley Morse) are both witty and erotic. If nothing else, this collection serves as a potent reminder that sex, in all its permutations and manifestations, has been around for a lot longer than some people care to admit!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars XXXX, September 16, 1998

By A Customer

Yes it is pornographic, but that is what *Tijuana Bibles* were. I remember quite well when in high school in the 50's, a few were passed around until quite tattered. And, this was at a Catholic boys school. For fun and games and an introduction of a type of porno, this edition can't be beat. If the reader hasn't been totally brainwashed by a religion, purchase it and have fun..