| Tijuana
Bible Basics Part 2 copyright© 2004, 2005 Tijuanabible.org |
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 Mae West & Popeye 
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Probably
in 1934 or 1935 the double sized books arrive. As large as two books with
16, 24 and even 32 pages, Popeye appeared in more of these than any
other character & starred in "Popeye & Bolochy Bill"
16pgs, "Coozing Around the World with Popeye" 24pgs, "Popeye
& Wimpy in Paris" 16pgs and "Mae West & Popeye"
16pgs. It's worth noting that "Mae
West & Popeye" is one of the few dated books (1935), and also
has a revised edition featuring jokes written in the margins, led by important
Tijuana Bible etiquette; " The Height of Stinginess - To Read
one of These and Not Buy It!".. Other 16 pagers give Betty
Boop, Flash Gordon, Snuffy Smith, Boots, Burns & Allen, and other
favorites, additional space for more complex story development. In "Around
the World with Mae West", the saucy Broadway star tells us, the
audience, of her search for a great lay, while the well known all star "Love
Guide" was also "directed" by Mae. She also the
starred in "The Hip Flipper" which actually had a cover
price of $10.00The 1940's
The War Years
 Wartime Winnie Winkle printed on blank rear of technical documents. |
Whether
or not Wesley Morse's 60 or so books have all been released by 1940
is hard to say, they must have been big sellers and seem to have sparked
more reprinting of earlier titles as well as a celebrity series by a copycat
artist. With the exception of a few odd propaganda books like "Hitler"
& "Mussolini" they seem to be the last new creative
efforts until after the war, though cheap reprints of older 8 pagers still
abound.The Wartime paper shortage
ended the era of the pulps, top magazines had their print runs cut, and
8 pagers were printed on anything available like used shipping tags and
obsolete books.The Tijuana Bible's finest
moment was during the second World War when thousands of American GI's
carried these little pieces of home along with their personal mementos.
Post War Production
 Amazing Stories 1947 |
 Amazing Stories 1952 |
After
the war, 8 pager production resumed but it would never be like the old days.
As mainstream girlie mags became more provocative, the 8 pager lost much
of it's titillation value and was relegated to "novelty item"
status.They were openly advertised
in the cheap classified sections of pulp magazines that would accept them,
as early as 1946, where usually three or four would mingle with tobacco
cures, business opportunities and other sundry merchandise. Note the second
ad, from 1952, boasts a new different line of comic booklets. Mom's daughters compete at whoring. |
One artist, dubbed "Mr.Dyslexic",
for mis-ordering the sequence of his pictures and word balloons, departed
from the usual 8 pager fare and produced books that were as offbeat and
twisted as his drawing were crude. A favorite, has Winston Churchill
fathering a three headed baby with his own daughter. "Our Ma"
is the story of three girls working in their Mother's whore house.Other series from the late
1940's include the "Rammit Home" books and the "Boarderless"
series,
 Boarderless Moon Mullins |
Another artist appeared
at the end of the 1940s who's minimalist
 South Seas Suntan |
The 1950's
 Alexander & Cookie in "Incest-Sational" These books are often reprinted without the "Barber Pole" borders. |
Sex
& violence in mainstream comic books reaches such an extreme, the US
Congress steps in to curb them. Harvey Kurtzman's "Mad"
elevates irreverent, rude, comic parody to virtuoso levels. The 8 pager
is still actively marketed through the mail and remains a border town standard
which will forever brand them as "Tijuana Bibles"Sometimes in the late 1950's
the "Barber Pole" series is released. There are 12 poorly
drawn books in this series that include comic book characters Supergirl
& Batwoman as well as newspaper standards. Most of the 8 pagers produced
in these later years ( 50's & up) are quite obscure as they are usually
distributed to a local audience.The 1960's
As the 8 pager limps on with sporadic releases, the next generation of cartoonists
are inspired to challenge the traditional boundaries of accepted taste.
 There are possibly 17 books in this lackluster 1960s series |
In 1967, "The Realist"
publishes "The
 Gothic Blimp Works 1969 |
Counterculture newspaper
"The East Village Other" hires Vaughn Bode to edit
their comic spin-off "The Gothic Blimp Works". Bode,
Crumb, Wilson, Speigleman, Deitch, Lynch and other contributors turn
out 8 issues. An issue #6, I illegally purchased in times square as a teenager,
remains in my archives to this day.Also
In '69, a printer and active comics fan began reprinting high quality 8
pagers from an Ann Street
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Though
Dagwood in "All in a Day's Work"
 |
The 1970's and Beyond
 |
As
the underground comics movement successfully overcome legal challenges,
alternative publishers
rise en' masse, reprinting the royalty free, public domain, 8 pagers under
the pretext of social enlightenment. Boasting to be the first of these is
Socio Library's "Little Dirty Comics" by R.G.Holt. Harlan
Ellison recounts his schoolboy encounter with 8 pagers in " Hot
Damn! The Kind Men Like",
 |
The
most recognized of the 70's books is the 4 volume set "Sex in Comics
A History of the Eight Pagers" by Donald H Gilmore PhD. Unfortunately
Gilmore's books are filled with obvious inaccuracies and misinformation,
His greatest sin is crediting the work of Wesley Morse to a trio
of lesbian women, a fallacy that would persist for years. Numerous
books reprinting the 8 pagers would come out in this period and follow in
later years, with the exception of Adelson's excellent hardcover, they are
just easy ways to make a quick buck. One can overlook the usual pseudo text
and commentaries as BS filler, but their general failure to find decent
source copies is unforgivable.Though
no longer profitable, 8 pagers still pop up, even in the 1980's Ronald
Regan, Star Wars and Pee Wee Herman can't escape the wit of subversive
artists. Cartoon Illustrator, Wayno,
only distributed his "Wee Wee's Playhouse" (1987), to
a dozen or so friends.In
1997, The Eight Pager pokes it's head into the public consciousness again!
As the subject of an Abrams Art Book, "Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in
America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s-1950s" by Robert Adelman,
the dirty little comics reach a fresh audience hungry for nostalgia and
offbeat vintage ephemera. Not just another collection of reprints, with
a brilliant introductory essay by Art Spieigelman (read it at Salon.com)
this volume is a genuine tribute to the genre, offering quality reproductions
of some of the most significant works as well as astute commentary from
Richard Merkin. Anyone interested in Tijuana Bibles should have a
copy of this book.
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