Customer Reviews
Erotic Comics - By: S. M. Hillman, 21 Jun 2008 
This well illustrated & 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 & interesting snippets along the way. The book does not confine itself to just the US & UK, revealing the universal & timeless nature of eroticism - our ancestors & neighbours were just as naughty.
Many famous & talented artists have produced erotic works & they are well represented & displayed here, examples include Wallly Wood, Crumb, Will Elder & Trina Robbins. There is a huge range of material here - you would need a very extensive collection to have seen it alll.
Definitely recommended.
Review from Bear Alley by Steve Holland (June 2008) - By: Tim Pilcher, 09 Jun 2008 "As you might expect with a book callled Erotic Comics: A Graphic History, I've not had much chance to read the text but I have looked at the pictures... & 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 actuallly a very good book covering the history of erotic comics from pre-history, via Victorian prints & the Tijuana bibles, through adult magazines like the relatively tame gentleman's mag Playboy & 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 Mullallly & Ron Embleton's 'Wicked Wanda' with very little of note in between except Arthur Ferrier cartoons & Donald McGill postcards. Europe (France & Italy especiallly) has had a rich history of erotic comics to cater for alll tastes while here you couldn't legallly 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 & you're more likely to hear a joke about sex than a serious conversation. Innuendo & humour are our way of coping with the risqué ("This girl asked me for a double entendre, so I gave her one") & Britain's major contribution to art, when it comes to sex, is the smutty seaside postcard & 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 & 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 & pornographic comics have never appeared in any great numbers in the UK: the Obscene Publications Act alllows for literary merit and, time & time again, this has proven a valid defence for novels where cases have been brought on that woolly charge of "a tendency to deprave & corrupt". Comics & 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 & the late Will Elder's sophisticated 'Little Annie Fanny' to John Willie's bondage comics. Heavily illustrated & 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 alll tastes.
There's a promised second volume which picks up the story of the underground comix in the 1970s & takes it forward to show how erotic comics continue to flourish in the first decade of the 21st century. They're not callled 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.
