FILTHY LITTLE BOOKLETS: THE TIJUANA BIBLES

By Wayne Swanson

In the depths of despair during The Great Depression, Americans (along with food and shelter of course) were seeking cheap and easily attained escapism. Pulp Fiction magazines, hand-medown books, jigsaw puzzles and the funny pages were some of the cheapest and most popular means for that escapism. And somewhere between all those mainstream avenues - something else was born. The dirty little 8-pagers, now known as Tijuana Bibles - more on that moniker in a bit. These were simply-drawn, often terribly-written, underground comics featuring many beloved funny pages characters, movie stars and politicians printed on 8 pages (4 pieces folded in half and stapled) of cheap pulp paper and sold under the counter.

Why? Because in these funny pages… everyone was having sex. And I mean everyone. No one knows for sure who started these tiny spoof porn comic tracts - and that’s part of the allure for the modern collectors and researchers.

The mystery of it all.

Most Tijuana Bible experts agree that the mob was likely behind a large portion of these filthy little books, at least from a distribution standpoint. As you can imagine though, nobody involved with creating them was stupid enough to put their name on the cover. There were made-up publishing companies sure, but no artist or writing credits, and for good reason.

The shops, bowling alleys, bars and underground clubs bold enough to stock the 8-pagers would often get raided with the specific intention of finding and confiscating these comics. I know that sounds insane but, this was the 1930s and the thought of anything depicting Dagwood giving Blondie HIS Dagwood while the dog watched was simply too much for the powers that be to get behind. Ahem. But, because of their cheapness, small size and - let’s face it - multipurpose functionality, the little tracts spread like a fine VD across the country.

It wasn’t all fun and games of course, the grotesque racial stereotypes prevalent in even mainstream media of the day is rampant in some of these books. Ruthless misogyny was always a given. As was homophobia, incest and bestiality among other atrocities that should never be depicted or seen even as crude line art. But the bulk of them were just… people humpin’. In the office, on a boat, in church, in the air while parachuting. Yeah, that was drawn.

What I find the most interesting (and at times troubling) is that these crude little drawings were actually being used - yes used - as pornography. I mean, sure…some of them are quite funny, even looking at them nearly 100 years later - but most of them feel like they were written by uneducated children who didn’t really know how sex worked.

“Hey big boy. I bet you’re even a bigger boy in those trousers. I’m so horny and you should make that stop.” ~ “Gosh! I’m gonna pecker you!” Actual dialog I came across in my…research. Between the lame dialog, pointless setups and absurd typos, it was clear that this was porn, and really little else. And in many ways they were actually quite ahead of their time. The idea of seeing your favorite characters and stars doing things they’d never do in the New York Times or up on the silver screen must have been pretty neat for the stone age folks suffering through that miserable era. Even decades later, spoof porn is a staple. Who hasn’t seen Edward Penis Hands, A Tale Of Two Titties, Tits a Wonderful Life, Forest Hump or Her Ass-Lick Park? Ok, I made that last one up - but I bet it exists.

But more importantly, these kooky booklets were the foundation of the Underground Comix movement that would poke into the mainstream some 30 years later. One such member of this underground scene, Art Spieglemen (Maus, Raw, Arcade), has spoken about this and even collects Tijuana Bibles and continues to research who was behind the creations. While there are many records showing busts and seizures of the bibles (according to Wikipedia, one guy caught shipping the bibles was sentenced to 5 years in prison for doing so), Spiegelmen has yet to find any record of the actual creators being found and charged.

There are a few artists who we do know of though, most notably - Wesley Morse, creator of the Bazooka Joe comics that came wrapped around that waxy, tooth-busting pink shit brick of bubblegum. But we can only guess as to who the other artists were cranking these things out in the early days. Surprisingly, while the success of the Tijuana Bibles waned after the Great Depression, they continued to be reprinted all the way up to the 1960s - new ones were even being made up to the 1970s. It was around this time that they started to be called Tijuana Bibles - simply because the colorful border town sold them along with other assorted goods you couldn’t easily get in the States. Obscenity laws had laxed and more people were putting their names on them by this time. But as the glossy full nude magazines were moving in, and later hardcore porno flicks - it was inevitable that the Tijuana Bible would slip into a bizarre little place in history.

The first one I ever discovered in the early 90s was a reprint of one of the Dagwood & Blondie numbers. Now, being a teenage boy in the age before the internet - you can bet your bottom dollar I held onto that thing. Sometimes with just one handrimshot. TMI? Sure, but at least we are past it now.

You never forget your first Tijuana Bible.