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Erotic Comics
Erotic Comics: A Graphic History from Tijuana Bibles to Underground Comix
This international survey of erotic comics chronicles a groundbreaking form of sexual expression up to 1970, the years when mainstream culture spurned explicit eroticism. In the 1930s, American “Tijuana Bibles,” little pornographic comic books that parodied popular comics and comic strips, were widely available. World War II gave a boost to erotic comics, especially illustrated pin-ups. This set the stage for men’s magazines such as Playboy, which included racy cartoons from the beginning, and fetish comics. The flowering of the counterculture in the next decade gave rise to underground comics, whose acknowledged master was Robert Crumb. A parallel development occurred in Europe, where erotic comics like Barbarella were suddenly the rage. Erotic Comics tells this story with hundreds of illustrations, informative text, and insights from key artists, writers, and publishers. It’s sexy, artistic, entertaining, intriguing, and informative.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2008
72 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 27, 2008
Pretty images combined with poorly written text and a noticeable absence of citations.
December 25, 2011
This is an excellent, if very NSFW and often nerdish, account of the graphic illustration of sex up until the late 1970s.
Much of the background to this era has already been covered in a series of book reviews elsewhere in GoodReads. We direct you to our sexuality and erotica list with special reference to McDonough's biography of Russ Meyer and to the Taschen edition of Men's Adventure covers.
The review of Gillian Freeman's 'Undergrowth of Literature' (written in the 1960s) and Paul Willetts' biography of Paul Raymond add a British perspective. You can read all these and more at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...
Lavishly illustrated, this is not a book to leave lying around the house if the vicar or a sheltered maiden aunt is coming to tea but the sexual representation is only half the story. The other half is what this material says about repressed male desire during a sexual dark age.
We see the role of war and the failure of mainstream entertainment to offer a realistic model for sexual relations when Hollywood, literature and advertising offered only a sensualised romanticism (at most), one that seemed constantly geared to female aspiration and a presumed male gentility.
The First World War and its aftermath appear to have allowed some form of male sexual expression that was not entirely vicious (though the Tijuana Bibles were scarcely kind, women appeared to be allowed a sexuality of their own) but this was crushed with the new puritanism of the 1930s.
What we think of as sexism probably reached its highest point from the 1930s to the 1970s when a repressive public morality shifted its gaze from alcohol suppression to sexual conduct, not for the first time in American history.
American puritanism is and always has been a deep neurosis in the American soul. Neither the British nor the Europeans were ever quite so obsessed with sexual rectitude, a position that still affects the rhetoric of politics in the three worlds today.
There is no doubt that this deliberate repression of both male and female desire resulted in an inability for honest dialogue between the sexes to take place, whose worst manifestations were female lack of fulfilment and a male rage that erotic comics fully expressed.
The objectifying pin-ups of the period were often delightful (there is reference to them here) but this book is about comics. Comics in America could be deeply unpleasant in their misogyny and in their attitude towards women as not objects of desire but objects of use, almost alien artefacts.
It might be said that, by denying the instinctive need of both sexes to be objects of desire (as the French do so well), Anglo-Saxon culture turned men and women into opposing forces who were obliged to see each other in terms solely of their use-value.
The result was a suppressed rage and hatred in some quarters - an entrapment of women that led to a vicious feminist reaction that would crush male desire further and a misogyny that became the blokish way of surviving sadness and a sense of loss of manhood under a feminising culture.
This degenerate farce of Judaeo-Christian misery was compounded by war. War (as we have seen in the case of Russ Meyer) liberated men to think new thoughts about comradeship and sex but the women of a defeated or dislocated Europe had presented a contradiction to the expectations of the home front.
Women went from relatively free spirits in the 1920s through the experience of war work to enforced domestic slavery just as men were returning to a mythic homeland of Norman Rockwell domesticity that was endorsed by magazines, churches, anti-communist politicians and advertisers.
Neither the women nor the men stood a chance against the dead weight of 'normality' where sexuality was presumed to be deviant if not straight, where women were supposed to be passive lest they become rapacious and a real man had to be a chivalrous (in public) brute (in private).
These comics represent a superb guide not to female but to male alienation. It might good for women to see this book not in order to lambast men as misogynistic apes (a first reaction) but to ask what it is that makes men want this cruel humour since most do not want it now.
Many of the cartoons (in particular) express a paradox - the women are strong and emasculating. The men may have formal power but they are psychologically weak, putty in the hands of feminine sexual power or what is now called their erotic capital. The misogyny is linked to weakness and fear.
The dominance of fetish and bondage imagery (represented in the pin-up sector by the now oddly charming and innocent representations of Betty Page), if for only small minorities of the male public in practice, constantly remind us that many males were fetishised by their condition.
One trope is the strong and frightening female - Wonder Woman was the creation of such an acknowledged fetishist - crushing the will or body of a weaker girlish figure in an avowedly sado-masochistic lesbian relationship.
Where is the male here. He is not just observer but secret participant. He has become the woman in a fantasy of revenge where the powerful are brought into play to bring to heel the 'feminine' that oppresses through subtle means that confuse a male who has no language for what is happening to him.
The situation changes again with the 1960s. The 'sexual liberation' took rather a long time to work through the culture, certainly for women. The first fruits were in popular culture where Playboy, then Penthouse, developed a gentler pornography until Hustler returned to old misogynistic ways.
To an extent, the last part of the book shows a culture that allowed liberation to mean merely the more effective artistic licensing of cruelty, although, in Europe, the bondage culture shifts gear into a type of sado-masochistic eroticism that is so fantastic as to become appealing to women.
It is often women who lap up the Sadean 'Histoire d'O' because we see a reversal of the 'Wonder Woman' theme of revolt against submission. In modern female eroticism, women are seeking the fantasy of safe submission because they miss the romantic strength of the male.
It is not that men have become 'wimps' but that they have no longer a sphere (war and industry) where they were strong so that they came home to a feminised environment but from a presumed masculine culture where their strength could be presumed (or their failure despised).
The whole elite world has become partially feminised (not entirely since women have learned 'male strength' in the public sphere) but the men have given up without much of a fight, perhaps almost with relief at not having to fight any longer.
There is a point in the late 1970s where you can see the seeds of what will become sex-positive feminism, something reaching out to the world we have today where it is women as much as men who decide the nature of erotic representation at the smarter end of popular culture.
It has to be said that there are some very sick and deviant minds present in this book, much darker than the relatively benign Russ Meyer and Paul Raymond. On the other hand, there is some genuine humour and some genuine eroticism and beauty but it is a long way from Violet Blue and Coco de Mer.
What this excellently produced and detailed account tells us is that these erotic and pornographic comics were reflections of a very mentally disturbed mid-twentieth century culture that, it must not be forgotten, coped with two world wars and human slaughter on an industrial scale.
We Anglo-Saxons may still not have resolved ourselves into a civilised stance on desire and transgression but at least the two sexes are talking to each other and allowing space for phantasy and (despite feminist idiocy) mutual objectification. The cruelty is proportionately disappearing.
It is to be hoped that our current troubles do not turn us back to those days of repression. Sadly, a malign alliance of faith-based groups and progressive feminism against sex workers and male desire suggests that the seeds of a new hell are in the making.
The fact that Google has foolishly directed funds towards faith-based groups involved in the sex-trafficking lobby (according to SWAAY) should fill us all with trepidation that the new capitalism will follow the old capitalism into making alliances with the devil.
Now a word for the British who get honourable mentions not only as providing some fine artists but for wartime contributions like 'Jane' and the comic seaside postcards of the persecuted Donald McGill, lauded by no less than George Orwell.
The authorities here were pragmatic about sexuality, seeking to contain it when it was disruptive, mobilise it (as did the American military) when it was useful and ignore it when it was harmless and hidden. Social mores did the rest in that way the British have of ignoring troublesome things.
This did not mean that sexual life was any less painful and repressed than in America but at least it was enforced by something closer to a Japanese style of mutual conformity - a shame culture - rather than the unpleasant guilt culture perpetrated on Americans by puritan miserabilism.
In America, that beacon of light and idealism, there was always some organising lobby for 'decency' with a hold on the political process who would add ideology to the pot. Sexually, America was a cesspit trying to pretend that it was an ornamental lake.
It was not only sex, American attitudes to alcohol, drugs and gambling are and were much the same. Somewhere there is always a schoolmistress or a priest or a politician trying to tell people in the land of the free how to live their lives. The result is a swing to cruel excess in response.
For all its faults, I am glad I live on this side of the Atlantic ... and these comics help to tell me why ...
Much of the background to this era has already been covered in a series of book reviews elsewhere in GoodReads. We direct you to our sexuality and erotica list with special reference to McDonough's biography of Russ Meyer and to the Taschen edition of Men's Adventure covers.
The review of Gillian Freeman's 'Undergrowth of Literature' (written in the 1960s) and Paul Willetts' biography of Paul Raymond add a British perspective. You can read all these and more at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...
Lavishly illustrated, this is not a book to leave lying around the house if the vicar or a sheltered maiden aunt is coming to tea but the sexual representation is only half the story. The other half is what this material says about repressed male desire during a sexual dark age.
We see the role of war and the failure of mainstream entertainment to offer a realistic model for sexual relations when Hollywood, literature and advertising offered only a sensualised romanticism (at most), one that seemed constantly geared to female aspiration and a presumed male gentility.
The First World War and its aftermath appear to have allowed some form of male sexual expression that was not entirely vicious (though the Tijuana Bibles were scarcely kind, women appeared to be allowed a sexuality of their own) but this was crushed with the new puritanism of the 1930s.
What we think of as sexism probably reached its highest point from the 1930s to the 1970s when a repressive public morality shifted its gaze from alcohol suppression to sexual conduct, not for the first time in American history.
American puritanism is and always has been a deep neurosis in the American soul. Neither the British nor the Europeans were ever quite so obsessed with sexual rectitude, a position that still affects the rhetoric of politics in the three worlds today.
There is no doubt that this deliberate repression of both male and female desire resulted in an inability for honest dialogue between the sexes to take place, whose worst manifestations were female lack of fulfilment and a male rage that erotic comics fully expressed.
The objectifying pin-ups of the period were often delightful (there is reference to them here) but this book is about comics. Comics in America could be deeply unpleasant in their misogyny and in their attitude towards women as not objects of desire but objects of use, almost alien artefacts.
It might be said that, by denying the instinctive need of both sexes to be objects of desire (as the French do so well), Anglo-Saxon culture turned men and women into opposing forces who were obliged to see each other in terms solely of their use-value.
The result was a suppressed rage and hatred in some quarters - an entrapment of women that led to a vicious feminist reaction that would crush male desire further and a misogyny that became the blokish way of surviving sadness and a sense of loss of manhood under a feminising culture.
This degenerate farce of Judaeo-Christian misery was compounded by war. War (as we have seen in the case of Russ Meyer) liberated men to think new thoughts about comradeship and sex but the women of a defeated or dislocated Europe had presented a contradiction to the expectations of the home front.
Women went from relatively free spirits in the 1920s through the experience of war work to enforced domestic slavery just as men were returning to a mythic homeland of Norman Rockwell domesticity that was endorsed by magazines, churches, anti-communist politicians and advertisers.
Neither the women nor the men stood a chance against the dead weight of 'normality' where sexuality was presumed to be deviant if not straight, where women were supposed to be passive lest they become rapacious and a real man had to be a chivalrous (in public) brute (in private).
These comics represent a superb guide not to female but to male alienation. It might good for women to see this book not in order to lambast men as misogynistic apes (a first reaction) but to ask what it is that makes men want this cruel humour since most do not want it now.
Many of the cartoons (in particular) express a paradox - the women are strong and emasculating. The men may have formal power but they are psychologically weak, putty in the hands of feminine sexual power or what is now called their erotic capital. The misogyny is linked to weakness and fear.
The dominance of fetish and bondage imagery (represented in the pin-up sector by the now oddly charming and innocent representations of Betty Page), if for only small minorities of the male public in practice, constantly remind us that many males were fetishised by their condition.
One trope is the strong and frightening female - Wonder Woman was the creation of such an acknowledged fetishist - crushing the will or body of a weaker girlish figure in an avowedly sado-masochistic lesbian relationship.
Where is the male here. He is not just observer but secret participant. He has become the woman in a fantasy of revenge where the powerful are brought into play to bring to heel the 'feminine' that oppresses through subtle means that confuse a male who has no language for what is happening to him.
The situation changes again with the 1960s. The 'sexual liberation' took rather a long time to work through the culture, certainly for women. The first fruits were in popular culture where Playboy, then Penthouse, developed a gentler pornography until Hustler returned to old misogynistic ways.
To an extent, the last part of the book shows a culture that allowed liberation to mean merely the more effective artistic licensing of cruelty, although, in Europe, the bondage culture shifts gear into a type of sado-masochistic eroticism that is so fantastic as to become appealing to women.
It is often women who lap up the Sadean 'Histoire d'O' because we see a reversal of the 'Wonder Woman' theme of revolt against submission. In modern female eroticism, women are seeking the fantasy of safe submission because they miss the romantic strength of the male.
It is not that men have become 'wimps' but that they have no longer a sphere (war and industry) where they were strong so that they came home to a feminised environment but from a presumed masculine culture where their strength could be presumed (or their failure despised).
The whole elite world has become partially feminised (not entirely since women have learned 'male strength' in the public sphere) but the men have given up without much of a fight, perhaps almost with relief at not having to fight any longer.
There is a point in the late 1970s where you can see the seeds of what will become sex-positive feminism, something reaching out to the world we have today where it is women as much as men who decide the nature of erotic representation at the smarter end of popular culture.
It has to be said that there are some very sick and deviant minds present in this book, much darker than the relatively benign Russ Meyer and Paul Raymond. On the other hand, there is some genuine humour and some genuine eroticism and beauty but it is a long way from Violet Blue and Coco de Mer.
What this excellently produced and detailed account tells us is that these erotic and pornographic comics were reflections of a very mentally disturbed mid-twentieth century culture that, it must not be forgotten, coped with two world wars and human slaughter on an industrial scale.
We Anglo-Saxons may still not have resolved ourselves into a civilised stance on desire and transgression but at least the two sexes are talking to each other and allowing space for phantasy and (despite feminist idiocy) mutual objectification. The cruelty is proportionately disappearing.
It is to be hoped that our current troubles do not turn us back to those days of repression. Sadly, a malign alliance of faith-based groups and progressive feminism against sex workers and male desire suggests that the seeds of a new hell are in the making.
The fact that Google has foolishly directed funds towards faith-based groups involved in the sex-trafficking lobby (according to SWAAY) should fill us all with trepidation that the new capitalism will follow the old capitalism into making alliances with the devil.
Now a word for the British who get honourable mentions not only as providing some fine artists but for wartime contributions like 'Jane' and the comic seaside postcards of the persecuted Donald McGill, lauded by no less than George Orwell.
The authorities here were pragmatic about sexuality, seeking to contain it when it was disruptive, mobilise it (as did the American military) when it was useful and ignore it when it was harmless and hidden. Social mores did the rest in that way the British have of ignoring troublesome things.
This did not mean that sexual life was any less painful and repressed than in America but at least it was enforced by something closer to a Japanese style of mutual conformity - a shame culture - rather than the unpleasant guilt culture perpetrated on Americans by puritan miserabilism.
In America, that beacon of light and idealism, there was always some organising lobby for 'decency' with a hold on the political process who would add ideology to the pot. Sexually, America was a cesspit trying to pretend that it was an ornamental lake.
It was not only sex, American attitudes to alcohol, drugs and gambling are and were much the same. Somewhere there is always a schoolmistress or a priest or a politician trying to tell people in the land of the free how to live their lives. The result is a swing to cruel excess in response.
For all its faults, I am glad I live on this side of the Atlantic ... and these comics help to tell me why ...
December 22, 2011
Ok so maybe it's not your cup of tea. Maybe you're not interested in the history of erotic comics and how they're constantly changing. But I can tell you this collection of comics are not for the faint of heart. They are graceful, vulgar, lush, and striking all at once. Alan Moore writes a great forward, softly pushing the reader into the dark and gorgeous world of quality erotica. I'm not even going into detail on the artists. Just pick it up and read. Then read Volume 2.
July 13, 2016
Interesting overview of the subject. I would argue that much of the work isn't erotic in the slightest (women being murdered while pleasuring men is disturbing, not erotic), but I suppose somebody somewhere must have deemed it so, unfortunately.
Also, it seemed very straight. If I were a gay man in the 1950s I'm sure I would have found L'il Abner or Terry and the Pirates quite erotic, to say nothing of those many hunky superheroes out there, but nothing like that was explored--it was pretty much sexy women all the time, with the exception of two Victorian images and one Tiajuana Bible.
Also, it seemed very straight. If I were a gay man in the 1950s I'm sure I would have found L'il Abner or Terry and the Pirates quite erotic, to say nothing of those many hunky superheroes out there, but nothing like that was explored--it was pretty much sexy women all the time, with the exception of two Victorian images and one Tiajuana Bible.
Read
July 31, 2011Historic timeline of erotic comics, with a page or two on each genre or artist. Good contextualization of some of the materials we have been working with at Alta-Glamour. Plus it's a big beautiful color-illustrated book for your coffee table.
Want to read
August 25, 2015http://www.betterworldbooks.com/eroti...
or perhaps look on this one?
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/best-...
[ inconjuction we shall see]
or perhaps look on this one?
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/best-...
[ inconjuction we shall see]
Read
July 14, 2009cool
Read
August 14, 2009Comics and erotica go together like dogs and Michael Vick. At least I imagine they would... as I will never read this.
July 2, 2013
A book full of large, glossy illustrations; suitable as a coffee table book.
May 11, 2017
This was an interesting book, with a lot of great images and information. It's kind of bitty and less a history than a lot of information about important people and images. Still, fun to read.
February 27, 2022
This is rather fascinating summary of erotica in art since forever, it was a nice lesson in history and reminder that bodies and sex are more tabu nowdays than ever before. Would recommend for sure, but dont really know how to rate since I can not compare it anything alike.
July 10, 2023
I'm not sure what I expected, but being bored and slightly cringed up because of antiquated heteronormative cartoons from the 1930's thru 1950's wasn't it. I finished out of morbid curiosity but sped-read most of it.
November 23, 2020
Pilcher has compiled a most worthy book on the subject of erotic comics, combining informative and entertaining text with numerous illustrations that help provide context and visual reference points. That he has done so without straying too far into sensationalist prurience nor over-intellectualising his subject is a commendable achievement. There is enough thoughtful consideration and critical rigour to sustain his textual arguments whilst simultaneously reiterating the visual appeal of the art and artists he chronicles.
That Pilcher makes a point of covering so many erotic comic artists and their associated work means that he has had to make some hard decisions regarding the scope of the text. Generally I would like to think he has hit the mark with enough coverage of the art and artists to give insight, with perhaps an incentive for the neophyte reader to explore more. For example, the section on Tijuana Bibles is comprehensive enough to give one insights into the genre's history, whilst also celebrating the raw sexual energy of the comics. I would also like to add that Pilcher's coverage of one of my favourite erotic comics, Jane of the Daily Mirror, mostly met my expectations. I would've liked more on her post-war history, however the author hits the salient points about the strip's creators and history.
It might be argued that the work that is covered towards the end of the book is less interesting than the art and artists reviewed in the first two thirds of this book, however that is a personal observation that can be detached from Pilcher's text. I would suggest the strips pre-dating the more liberal 1960s and onward held more charm and relied less on graphic sexual depiction to engage with the viewer. Pilcher certainly marks the transition by looking at how female artists and other influences on erotic comics changed the medium, and he is honest enough to recognise the latent misogyny in some of the artists' works.
In summary, if one is interested in popular art history and/or erotica, then Pilcher's first volume is well worth a read.
That Pilcher makes a point of covering so many erotic comic artists and their associated work means that he has had to make some hard decisions regarding the scope of the text. Generally I would like to think he has hit the mark with enough coverage of the art and artists to give insight, with perhaps an incentive for the neophyte reader to explore more. For example, the section on Tijuana Bibles is comprehensive enough to give one insights into the genre's history, whilst also celebrating the raw sexual energy of the comics. I would also like to add that Pilcher's coverage of one of my favourite erotic comics, Jane of the Daily Mirror, mostly met my expectations. I would've liked more on her post-war history, however the author hits the salient points about the strip's creators and history.
It might be argued that the work that is covered towards the end of the book is less interesting than the art and artists reviewed in the first two thirds of this book, however that is a personal observation that can be detached from Pilcher's text. I would suggest the strips pre-dating the more liberal 1960s and onward held more charm and relied less on graphic sexual depiction to engage with the viewer. Pilcher certainly marks the transition by looking at how female artists and other influences on erotic comics changed the medium, and he is honest enough to recognise the latent misogyny in some of the artists' works.
In summary, if one is interested in popular art history and/or erotica, then Pilcher's first volume is well worth a read.
June 11, 2019
A good resource.
I thought the book was interesting. Tracing explicit comic art from the 17th Century (England, Japan) to the explosion of erotic comics in the 1960s in France, America, and Mexico to name a few.
It was especially interesting to learn about the first successful female authors and artists in the industry. Most notably, Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely who conceived and produced “Tits & Clits”, a series of comics that delt with previously taboo subjects like pregnancy. They were arrested and threatened with jail, $400,000 in fines, loss of their homes and their children - this was in 1972! Eventually the issue was dropped and they went on to make more erotic comics. Many artist and authors left the mainstream comic industry for the more lucrative erotic side of the business.
There might be better books on the history of blue comics but this was my first look at the industry so I think the book is informative. The references are plentiful and linked to the net. The illustrations can be enlarged for better viewing.
I thought the book was interesting. Tracing explicit comic art from the 17th Century (England, Japan) to the explosion of erotic comics in the 1960s in France, America, and Mexico to name a few.
It was especially interesting to learn about the first successful female authors and artists in the industry. Most notably, Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely who conceived and produced “Tits & Clits”, a series of comics that delt with previously taboo subjects like pregnancy. They were arrested and threatened with jail, $400,000 in fines, loss of their homes and their children - this was in 1972! Eventually the issue was dropped and they went on to make more erotic comics. Many artist and authors left the mainstream comic industry for the more lucrative erotic side of the business.
There might be better books on the history of blue comics but this was my first look at the industry so I think the book is informative. The references are plentiful and linked to the net. The illustrations can be enlarged for better viewing.
December 17, 2012
It was interesting, I just felt like it was lacking in something I can't really pin point.
January 26, 2025
(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)
Классическая a coffee table book с огромным количеством изображений и небольшим количеством текста который по своей сути является не чем иным как краткой биографией того или иного художника. Каких-то авторских мыслей на тему эротического комикса как явления или комментарий к качеству того или иного комикса, т.е. анализа с точки зрения искусства, в книге нет. Это просто биография художника, причём очень короткая, плюс несколько примеров его работы.
Что касается самих примеров эротических комиксов, то большая часть напоминает работы самоучек, а не профессиональных художников. Но это и понятно, ведь долгое время распространение таких комиксов было незаконным. Но почему же качество рисунков не улучшилось со временем? Улучшилось, но не сильно. Думаю, причиной является низкая оплата этих комиксов, наличие монопольных дистрибьюторов, таких как порнографические и эротически журналы для взрослых и, возможно, малое количество способов платного распространения. Ещё одной причиной, возможно, является специфический жанр, т.к. многие мужчины – а это главная целевая аудитория – предпочитают любоваться реальными женщинами, а не нарисованными. В итоге это ведёт к слабой финансовой отдачи для художников и как следствие, довольно слабым эротическим комиксам как таковым, что и можно обнаружить, листая эту книгу.
It is a classic coffee table book with a huge number of images and a small amount of text, which, in essence, is nothing but a brief biography of this or that artist. There are no author's thoughts on the subject of erotic comics as a phenomenon or commentary on the quality of this or that comic, i.e. analysis from the point of view of art, in the book. It's just a biography of the artist, and a very short one at that, plus a few examples of his work.
As for the examples of erotic comics themselves, most of them resemble the work of self-taught artists rather than professional artists. But this is understandable because, for a long time, the distribution of such comics was illegal. But why hasn't the quality of the drawings improved over time? It has, but not much. I think the reason is the low payment for these comics, the presence of monopoly distributors like pornographic and erotic adult magazines, and perhaps the few options for paid distribution. Another reason may be the specific genre, as many men - and this is the main target audience - prefer to admire real women rather than painted ones. As a result, this leads to poor financial returns for artists and, as a consequence, rather weak erotic comics as such, which is what you will find when you leaf through this book.
Классическая a coffee table book с огромным количеством изображений и небольшим количеством текста который по своей сути является не чем иным как краткой биографией того или иного художника. Каких-то авторских мыслей на тему эротического комикса как явления или комментарий к качеству того или иного комикса, т.е. анализа с точки зрения искусства, в книге нет. Это просто биография художника, причём очень короткая, плюс несколько примеров его работы.
Что касается самих примеров эротических комиксов, то большая часть напоминает работы самоучек, а не профессиональных художников. Но это и понятно, ведь долгое время распространение таких комиксов было незаконным. Но почему же качество рисунков не улучшилось со временем? Улучшилось, но не сильно. Думаю, причиной является низкая оплата этих комиксов, наличие монопольных дистрибьюторов, таких как порнографические и эротически журналы для взрослых и, возможно, малое количество способов платного распространения. Ещё одной причиной, возможно, является специфический жанр, т.к. многие мужчины – а это главная целевая аудитория – предпочитают любоваться реальными женщинами, а не нарисованными. В итоге это ведёт к слабой финансовой отдачи для художников и как следствие, довольно слабым эротическим комиксам как таковым, что и можно обнаружить, листая эту книгу.
It is a classic coffee table book with a huge number of images and a small amount of text, which, in essence, is nothing but a brief biography of this or that artist. There are no author's thoughts on the subject of erotic comics as a phenomenon or commentary on the quality of this or that comic, i.e. analysis from the point of view of art, in the book. It's just a biography of the artist, and a very short one at that, plus a few examples of his work.
As for the examples of erotic comics themselves, most of them resemble the work of self-taught artists rather than professional artists. But this is understandable because, for a long time, the distribution of such comics was illegal. But why hasn't the quality of the drawings improved over time? It has, but not much. I think the reason is the low payment for these comics, the presence of monopoly distributors like pornographic and erotic adult magazines, and perhaps the few options for paid distribution. Another reason may be the specific genre, as many men - and this is the main target audience - prefer to admire real women rather than painted ones. As a result, this leads to poor financial returns for artists and, as a consequence, rather weak erotic comics as such, which is what you will find when you leaf through this book.
October 6, 2019
Fazia tempo que eu estava buscando encontrar livros que falassem sobre quadrinhos eróticos e, principalmente que abordassem a sua história e desenvolvimento de maneira crítica. Me deparei com este livro de Tim Pilcher, que é ricamente ilustrado, mas que, infelizmente eu só consegui achar na versão em formato EPUB, que eu acho horrível de ler no desktop. Foi por isso que enrolei para ler um livro simples por vários meses. Mas ainda assim o conteúdo do livro fica mediano, merecendo três estrelas de cinco. Isso porque o texto começa todo analítico sobre as origens do erotismo visual na cultura humana, explorando diversas culturas e depois dessa explicação, como todo livro norte-americano, se foca no seu umbigo e praticamente só fala do desenvolvimento dessa indústria nos Estados Unidos. Além disso, os textos passam a ser menos analíticos e pensados para serem mais pontuais e explanativos, descritivos, sem o mesmo aprofundamento que acabamos nos deparando no começo do livro. Existe uma segunda parte deste livro, que vou partir para a leitura em breve, que dá conta dos quadrinhos eróticos a partir dos anos 1970. Vamos ver se essa segunda parte logra mais sucesso comigo!
September 28, 2021
Způsob jakým to bylo napsáno mi nepřišel úplně šťastný. Jen jsem to dával za vinu primárně lokalizaci (do očí bijící překlepy, záměny podnětů), ale podle dalších recenzí vidím, že i v originále s tím mohl být problém.
S lepší editací by se jednalo o skvělou záležitost.
S lepší editací by se jednalo o skvělou záležitost.
August 29, 2020
History with a twist
I loved the book. It was a real page turner. Different, but a good different. I now know more than I did before.
I loved the book. It was a real page turner. Different, but a good different. I now know more than I did before.
September 9, 2014
OMG I MUST buy this book! (Proof positive ebook borrowing DOES generate print sales.) An amazing overview of all the erotic comic greats with a few choice examples from each starting from the pre-history of ancient civilizations to the modern era. I think my only complaint is the occasional omission of artwork on a subject discussed in an individual's or publisher's biography, like Annie Fannie not being depicted in her section. (I assume this has to do with Playboy and others not willing to release copyright.) But aside from that, simply AWESOME and VERY enlightening.
February 10, 2016
Some history, some examples. I started looking into Wally Wood art because of this. Very graphic at times.
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