Erotic Comics: A Graphic History: Volume 1 [Paperback]

"It makes me laugh to imagine anyone finding my comic work erotic," states Aline Kominsky Crumb, "and in general I can say the same thing about most Underground comic art." She's got a point. Other people's erotic fantasies and obsessions are ridiculous, unless they happen to turn you on, too.

If Sturgeon's Law is true, then ninety per cent of all the erotic comics drawn, then and now, are crap. Tim Pilcher's brief but informative history of the remaining ten per cent revels in the allure of that minority of comics, those drawn with a powerful personal style. What's weirdly consistent about powerful personal styles (and this is an observation Pilcher never quite manages to articulate, though he comes close) is that going public with one's sexual fantasies means going public with one's fascination with the grotesque as well. It's as if artists can't choose which boundaries not to cross in their work, not if they're being honest with themselves as well as dedicated to cartooning as a professional pursuit. That dedication, and society's expectations of us, however hypocritical, may explain why the history of erotic comics (at least up to this volume's cutoff date of the early 'seventies) is a history of artists getting screwed -- by their publishers, usually, but also by the police and the courts.

This is a picture book, and Pilcher's selection of images is very good indeed. The first of five chapters covers the prehistory of underground comics, from the bounty of the 18th century (Hogarth, Rowlandson, Japanese shunga prints, and illustrations for the Kama Sutra), through saucy postcards, Tijuana Bibles, pin-up paintings, and risque comic strips for servicemen. Chapter 2 covers the rise of Playboy magazine and its low rent competitors, but it's too bad Pilcher couldn't get the rights to reproduce any of Kurtzman and Elder's delicious "Little Annie Fanny" panels.

Chapter 3 focuses on bondage comics, while the fourth chapter is devoted to the underground comix of the 'sixties, dominated by the Picasso of the counterculture, R. Crumb. The final chapter is a brief survey of the rise of the French and Italian erotic comics industries, with their daunting standards of draftsmanship, as well as a glimpse of the Mexican sensacionale, which sells twenty million copies a month while satisfying what seems to be a national taste for erotica that's both gratuitous and moralistic -- rather like American sitcoms, now that I think of it.

This well illustrated and nicely designed book traces the history of erotic comics from the early days before comics had been invented to the 1970's. There are many surprises and interesting snippets along the way. The book does not confine itself to just the US and UK, revealing the universal and timeless nature of eroticism - our ancestors and neighbours were just as naughty.

Many famous and talented artists have produced erotic works and they are well represented and displayed here, examples include Wally Wood, Crumb, Will Elder and Trina Robbins. There is a huge range of material here - you would need a very extensive collection to have seen it all.

Definitely recommended.

"As you might expect with a book called Erotic Comics: A Graphic History, I've not had much chance to read the text but I have looked at the pictures... and I'm still managing to type with both hands. That's not meant as a criticism. This is 'erotic' comics rather than outright pornography so, as they say in Bladerunner, reaction time is a factor. It's actually a very good book covering the history of erotic comics from pre-history, via Victorian prints and the Tijuana bibles, through adult magazines like the relatively tame gentleman's mag Playboy and the courser, specialist bondage magazines of Irving Claw, to Robert Crumb's underground comics of the 1970s.

As far as Britain is concerned, erotic comics seem to jump from Thomas Rowlandson to Frederick Mullally & Ron Embleton's 'Wicked Wanda' with very little of note in between except Arthur Ferrier cartoons and Donald McGill postcards. Europe (France and Italy especially) has had a rich history of erotic comics to cater for all tastes while here you couldn't legally read Lady Chatterley's Lover until 1960. However much Channel 5 wants you to think otherwise, sex is still something of a guilty pleasure over here in the UK and you're more likely to hear a joke about sex than a serious conversation. Innuendo and humour are our way of coping with the risqué ("This girl asked me for a double entendre, so I gave her one") and Britain's major contribution to art, when it comes to sex, is the smutty seaside postcard and the accidental striptease (Jane losing her skirt after it gets caught on a branch or a stile or a door handle).

After the infamous trial of Lady C., it became almost impossible to prosecute books for obscenity; visual material, on the other hand, was another matter: much was made at the Oz trial in 1971 of a six-panel strip which juxtaposed Rupert Bear with images from a Robert Crumb comic; Nasty Tales was prosecuted in 1973; Savoy Books was regularly raided and prosecuted but a 1991 ban on the novel Lord Horror was overturned at appeal in 1992--the destruction of the comic Meng & Ecker, however, went ahead.

Maybe this is why erotic and pornographic comics have never appeared in any great numbers in the UK: the Obscene Publications Act allows for literary merit and, time and time again, this has proven a valid defence for novels where cases have been brought on that woolly charge of "a tendency to deprave and corrupt". Comics and visual material, on the other hand, are probably thought an easier target as a jury might be persuaded that an image of Rupert Bear ejaculating does have that tendency.

So... that's why there's not much British content in this book. All the more space for a greater range of material from elsewhere, ranging from Japanese prints to Vargas pin-ups, from Harvey Kurtzman and the late Will Elder's sophisticated 'Little Annie Fanny' to John Willie's bondage comics. Heavily illustrated and with an introduction by Aline Kominsky Crumb, author Tim Pilcher has managed to uncover the incredible variety of ways the female body has been stripped (double meaning intended). It's a fascinating journey into a sub-culture of comics that we've not seen much of in Britain. From the statuesque 'Miss Geewhiz', who leaves much to the imagination, to the bizarre sexual exploits of a gay Jimmy Cagney, there's going to be something in here for all tastes.

There's a promised second volume which picks up the story of the underground comix in the 1970s and takes it forward to show how erotic comics continue to flourish in the first decade of the 21st century. They're not called the noughties for nothing."

By Steve Holland

And a note from me: All the UK stuff Steve mentioned above that isn't in Volume 1, will appear in Volume 2.

Tim.