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

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

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

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Millions of Tijuana bibles were printed and sold in the 1930s, the heyday of the bibles. But the number of new Tijuana bible titles being produced took a nosedive at the beginning of World War II, and the industry never recovered. Factors in the decline of the Tijuana bibles at this time may have included police raids and the retirement of Doc Rankin, who was called up by the military at the beginning of the war, along with wartime shortages of paper and printing supplies. Printing plates of older bibles were worn down through continued reprintings until they were nearly blank, and original plates lost in police raids had to be replaced with new plates crudely recut by hamfisted, untrained amateur engravers. The quality of Tijuana bibles available on the market suffered, and prices dropped as sales plummeted. The 1996 novel The Green Mile by Stephen King, features a scene in which guard Percy Wetmore is caught reading a Tijuana bible with fictional character "Lotta Leadpipe", and is asked what his mother would think of such material; this is included in the film version. In a 2018 issue of Howard Chaykin's scathing satire of the comics industry, Hey Kids! Comics!, two freelance comic book artists are shown furtively delivering artwork for upcoming Tijuana bibles to the (fictional) offices of the Tobasco Publishing Co. During Year Six (2007) of the webcomic Something Positive, lead character Davan MacIntire discovers that the man whom he is named after, a cousin of his grandfather, had worked as a writer/artist of Tijuana bibles in the late 1930s. Randy Milholland, the creator of Something Positive, then created a spin-off series called Something Positive 1937 [36] to tell the story of the first Davan.

Cultural references [ edit ] The cover of a typical Tijuana bible, this one features Wimpy, and is drawn in the style of the anonymous "Mr. Prolific". Adelman, Bob; etal. (1997). Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s–1950s. New York: Simon & Schuster Editions. ISBN 978-0-684-83461-0.The Tijuana Bibles Collection consists of about 400 Tijuana bibles, some printed material about the bibles and the phenomenon as a whole, and an anonymous author's sketches and drawings of characters and plots. The rarity of the Tijuana bibles was part of what made them so influential. They are a predecessor to the underground comics movement and zines. Their style even influenced Playboy magazine. Shining Knight in "A Dead Night" (Tijuana Bible) via Hang Fire Books with usage type - Public Domain. 1945 Tijuana bibles were sold under the counter for 25 cents in places where men congregated: barrooms, bowling alleys, garages, tobacco shops, barber shops, and burlesque houses. One commentator reminisces:

The manuscript materials accompanying the bibles consist of drafts and sketches for two strips, one featuring Wahoo and the other featuring Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae. Also included is a draft of "Fritzi Ritz in 'Kisses for Sale'." This series also includes pornographic drawings of generic female characters, some with and some without text. These do not appear to be taken from any particular Tijuana bible. All of the manuscript material is anonymous and undated.Finally, the collection also includes a series of books about Tijuana bibles, compiled by the collector, including reprints of some of the bibles as well as essays or historical introductions to the genre. These books were published between 1971 and 1998. Biographical / Historical: Hairbreadth Harry in "The Rescue" (Tijuana Bible) via Hang Fire Books with usage type - Public Domain. 1935

According to the FBI, four tons of material were ready to ship across the country, and seven tons had already gone out and were being rounded up at regional distribution centers in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland/ Akron, Indianapolis, and Kansas City. Jacob Brotman was identified as one of the main players in the Tijuana bible trade in Jay Gertzman's Bookleggers and Smuthounds, and he had previously been arrested in a similar raid on a Lower East Side loft reported in the New York City papers in 1936 which produced a large haul of bibles, erotic fiction "readers", pornographic playing cards, and nude photos, along with cutting and binding equipment and an expensive modern printing press which police could not confiscate because it turned out to be leased. The firm had been operating under the guise of a playing card manufacturer. [21] Spiegelman, Art. "Those Dirty Little Books" in Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies, ed. Bob Adelman, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 5-6.E. T. Inth' Loop Presents Rosie's Beau (Tijuana Bible) via Hang Fire Books with usage type - Public Domain. 1930 Baby Face" Nelson in "Oh Yeah" VI (Tijuana Bible) via Hang Fire Books with usage type - Public Domain. 1935



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