Tijuana Bibles (also known as "eight-pagers") were pornographic comic books produced in the US from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Their popularity peaked during the Depression era. The typical "bible" is 4 by 6 inches, with black printing on cheap white paper, and eight pages long. In most cases the artists, writers and publishers of these tracts are unknown. The art is usually crude. Their subject is explicit sexual escapades, usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures or movie stars (used without permission).

The origin of the term Tijuana Bible is obscure. The connection to Tijuana, Mexico may refer to Tijuana being an important distribution point for these made-in-USA (but illegal-in-USA) booklets. It is also possible that the name is simply an ironic coinage, Tijuana being stereotypically seen in the US as uncivilized and debauched, while the Bible, perceived as the pinnacle of chaste morality, stands as far removed from pornography as possible.

They were sold illicitly, often passed among soldiers and schoolboys. Tijuana Bibles rapidly declined in popularity as the photographic pornography in magazines like Playboy became more widely available in the late 1950s. In some senses, these comics were the first underground comix, and they featured original material at a time when legitimate American comic books were still exclusively reprinting material from newspaper strips.

However, in the modern day, there is at least one comic book company, Shanda Fantasy Arts, that publishes a variant of Tijuana Bibles, the XXX Files. These are small books which feature characters from their regular comics in explicitly erotic situations that the main publications generally gloss over. However, these publications differ not only by being approved and published by the company, but the talent, who have no discomfort with the subject matter, is fully credited for their work.

External link

• tijuanabibles.org - many scanned bibles from an enthusiast

Further reading

• Bob Andelman, Tijuana Bibles : Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s-1950s, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997, ISBN 0684834618
• Susie Bright; "Dogeared Style," Salon.com [1]
• Art Spiegelman; "Those Dirty Little Comics," Salon.com [2]