Early days Roger Sabin traces the history of adult comics back to the political cartoons published in broadsheets since the 19th century. In the 1930s, there were clandestinely produced
tijuana bibles – rectangular, eight page pamphlets with black printing on cheap white paper. The artwork ranged from excellent to utterly crude and the stories were explicit sexual escapades, usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures, or movie stars, without the subjects' consent. Sold under the counter in places such as tobacco stores and burlesque houses, millions of Tijuana Bibles were sold at the height of their popularity in the 1930s. They went into a steep decline after World War II and by the mid-1950s only a small trickle of new product was still appearing on the market, mainly in the form of cheaply printed, poorly drawn and tasteless little eight pagers which sold for 10 cents each in run-down candy stores and gas stations, circulating mainly among delinquent teenagers. Starting in 1932, Norman Pett drew a strip called
Jane for the British
Daily Mirror newspaper. The heroine would often find herself in awkward situations where she would lose her clothing for one reason or another. The strip was written to some extent for a military audience to boost the morale of troops away from home.
Winston Churchill said that
Jane was Britain's "secret weapon". In the United States,
pulp magazines such as
Harry Donenfeld's
Spicy Detective featured comics on heroines who lose their clothing, such as
Adolphe Barreaux's
Sally the Sleuth which debuted in 1934. Many of the early comic publishers got their start in the pulps with Donenfeld for instance going on to found
DC Comics.
Fiction House similarly started as a pulp magazine publisher, but in 1938, they released
Jumbo Comics featuring
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, the first of many scantily clad jungle girls. Fiction House comics routinely featured attractive women on the covers, a trend which later became referred to as '
good girl art'. In 1941,
Quality Comics put out
Police Comics featuring
Phantom Lady, a scantily clad crime fighter.
Fox Feature Syndicate eventually began publishing Phantom Lady where she was drawn by
Matt Baker.
Milton Caniff started producing the comic strip
Male Call in 1943, and
Bill Ward came out with
Torchy in 1944 featuring sexy heroines. Pulp magazines were also known for their violence.
The Shadow carried two guns for killing criminals, and
Batman also wielded a gun from 1939 through 1944 before giving it up. Crime and horror comics were popular genres in the late 1940s and early 1950s with such titles as
Lev Gleason Publications'
Crime Does Not Pay,
EC Comics'
Crime SuspenStories,
Tales From the Crypt and
Vault of Horror all enjoying brief spells of interest. It is believed that EC had one of the best-selling lines at the time.
Harvey Kurtzman was one of the key writers for EC, and artists such as
Wally Wood or
Al Williamson began to do research for each new story far beyond what had been seen in titles published up to that time. In the 1950s
Irving Klaw published a line of underground fetish and bondage comics by artists like
Eric Stanton,
John Willie, and
Gene Bilbrew. These never achieved widespread popularity but were kept in print for many years, sold through Klaw's mail order catalog to the same customers who bought his bondage photographs of
Bettie Page. Not quite obscene enough to warrant prosecution, they skirted the limits of legality by avoiding full frontal nudity in their depictions.
The Comics Code Authority In 1954, a psychologist Dr.
Fredric Wertham came out with a book
Seduction of the Innocent that claimed that the rise in juvenile delinquency being reported in the news at the time was fueled by comic books. He claimed that Batman and
Robin were encouraging homosexuality, and decried the bondage seen in
Wonder Woman's comic book. EC Comics came under criticism for the graphic violence and gore seen in its crime and horror books. EC publisher
William Gaines was called before a
Senate committee to testify, but he remained defensive saying that he was already censoring the more extreme things from his books. Partly in order to avoid the government imposing a solution, the other major publishers banded together to form the
Comics Code Authority which would screen comics before they went to press, and only allow the Code mark to appear if the comic passed their standards. The Code was strict. It barred publishers from using the words 'crime', 'horror' or 'terror' in their titles, thus forcing EC to abandon some of their most popular titles. Police officers could not be portrayed in a negative light, and if a villain committed murder, he would have to be caught and punished by the end of the story. No mention was allowed of vampires, werewolves or zombies, another swipe at EC. Years later when
Marvel introduced zombies into their books, they had to call them 'zuvembies' in order to pass the Code. In general,
DC and Marvel were supportive of the Code, but EC struggled to cope with the new rules, and eventually abandoned most of their titles to focus on
Mad magazine, which did not need Code approval. The code also contained provisions against suggestive or salacious illustration, and required that females be drawn realistically without undue exposure. This was a knock at Fiction House's good girl art covers, and may have contributed to Fiction House's closure.
Magazines and comic strips North American comic books tend to be around 7 by 10 inches in size. Magazines vary, but are usually larger. Comic books tended to have a Comic Code label marking them as suitable for children, while magazines had no such requirement. This led to magazines becoming one of the most common formats for adult comics.
Playboy magazine first came out in 1953. It would feature single panel cartoons by artists such as
Alberto Vargas,
Archie Comics artist
Dan DeCarlo,
Plastic Man creator
Jack Cole,
LeRoy Neiman and later
Olivia De Berardinis and
Dean Yeagle. In the mid-1960s,
Playboy magazine started including a multipage strip called
Little Annie Fanny by EC alumni Harvey Kurtzman and
Will Elder with an occasional assist from artist
Frank Frazetta. Annie had trouble keeping her clothes on, a trend seen also in the strips
The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, Wally Wood's
Sally Forth, and
Penthouses
Oh Wicked Wanda by
Ron Embleton and
Frederic Mullally. Penthouse would later put out a number of erotic comic magazines:
Penthouse Comix, ''Penthouse Men's Adventure
and Penthouse Max
with the likes of Adam Hughes contributing artwork. Penthouse
later revived the series as the bi-monthly series Penthouse Comics'' in 2024. From 1965,
Warren Publishing started publishing two black and white magazines,
Creepy and
Eerie, commissioning work from the artists who had worked on EC's horror line. Warren added
Vampirella in 1969, and then the science fiction magazine titled
1984 (later
1994) starting in the year 1978. The large format of these titles meant that they could be sold with other magazines aimed at adults rather than displayed in comic racks where the child-oriented titles were found. The publishers of the American humor magazine
National Lampoon discovered the French adult magazine
Métal Hurlant, and in 1977 started publishing
Heavy Metal translating the work of
Milo Manara,
Caza,
Vittorio Giardino,
Jean-Claude Forest,
Jean Giraud and
Guido Crepax for an English audience.
Heavy Metal also provided a forum for the work of American creators such as
Richard Corben and
Howard Chaykin. In 1974,
Larry Flynt came out with
Hustler magazine, which featured a strip called
Honey Hooker with art originally by James McQuade and later by Tom Garst. Starting in the early 1970s, McQuade drew a series of erotic comic stories featuring the character Misty. In 1983, Warren went bankrupt, but more recently,
Dark Horse Comics has been reprinting some of Warren's old stories, and has revived the
Creepy and
Eerie magazines.
Underground comics Adult comics continued underground in the late 1960s outside the umbrella of the CCA. The
underground comics movement was spearheaded by creators such as
Art Spiegelman,
Robert Crumb,
Harvey Pekar,
Kim Deitch and
Spain Rodriguez.
Larry Welz appeared in the 1980s with his
Cherry book, an underground-style erotic parody of Archie Comics. These titles were often sold at
head shops, but these establishments were often at loggerheads with the police, sometimes making distribution difficult.
Independent publishers In 1966, Wally Wood hit upon the idea of publishing his own comic, and selling it through comic book specialty shops. Recruiting star creators from among his friends,
witzend featured one-off strips on a wide variety of themes by the likes of
Jack Kirby,
Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta,
Gil Kane and Art Spiegelman.
Fantagraphics began in 1976, publishing the
Comics Journal and later
Amazing Heroes with text articles about the comics field, but they began publishing actual comics in 1982, notably
Love and Rockets by
Gilbert and
Jaime Hernandez. In 1990, Fantagraphics established their
Eros Comix imprint, reprinting titles by Wally Wood and
Frank Thorne as well as Gilbert's
Birdland. Canadian
Dave Sim began publishing
Cerebus the Aardvark in 1977, and
Wendy and Richard Pini put out
Elfquest starting in 1978, initially through their own WaRP company.
Pacific Comics was formed in 1981, and became the first publisher of
Dave Stevens's
Rocketeer which was eventually made into a
film. Stevens modeled one of the characters on Bettie Page harkening back to an earlier era of clandestine publishing.
Antarctic Press was founded in 1984, and publishes American manga and independent creators, notably
Terry Moore's
Strangers in Paradise. Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986. Its first comic book was the adult-oriented anthology,
Dark Horse Presents, which published
Frank Miller's noirish
Sin City, later made into a
feature film.
Avatar Press began providing a showcase for the works of
Alan Moore and
Al Rio in 1996.
Top Shelf Productions was formed in 1997, publishing Moore and
Melinda Gebbie's
Lost Girls erotic graphic novel.
Mainstream publishers The publisher of Marvel Comics in the 1960s,
Martin Goodman, was also the publisher for a number of
men's adventure magazines:
Men,
Male and
Stag. In these magazines, they included a strip called
The Adventures of Pussycat drawn by Wally Wood and Bill Ward. These strips were eventually collected, and released as a one-shot magazine in 1968. Inside, it is listed as being printed by Marvel Comics, but there is no Marvel logo on the cover, nor any Comics Code mark. The lack of a Comics Code mark came to be a subtle sign that one might find adult content inside. Intrigued by Warren's success with their black and white titles, Marvel Comics tried their hand at this field as well releasing
Savage Tales starting in 1971,
The Tomb of Dracula in 1972 and
Savage Sword of Conan in 1974. In 1974, Marvel even released three issues of
Comix Book under their Curtis imprint featuring the work of underground creators.
Heavy Metals success with glossy color science fiction and fantasy did not go unnoticed either, and in 1980, Marvel released their
Epic Illustrated magazine as well as a number of adult themed graphic novels under the Epic label. By 1986 though, they had cancelled
Epic Illustrated, although
Savage Sword of Conan continued running until 1995. By the 1980s, there was a growing trend towards grim and gritty anti-heroes and increasing violence in comics. Marvel Comics'
Punisher received his own title in 1985, and in 1986, DC Comics'
Watchmen by Alan Moore and
The Dark Knight Returns by
Frank Miller explored issues related to vigilantes. In 1986, DC Comics started publishing comics with the words "For Mature Readers" or "Suggested for Mature Readers" on their covers. These mature readers titles included
The Shadow (1986),
The Question (from #8 1987-),
Slash Maraud (1987-8),
Swamp Thing (from #57 1987-),
Vigilante (from #44 1987-8),
Wasteland (1987-),
Batman: The Killing Joke (1988),
Green Arrow (#1-62 1988-92),
Haywire (1988-9),
Hellblazer (1988-),
Tailgunner Jo (1988-9),
V for Vendetta (1988-),
Blackhawk (1989–90),
Deadman: Love After Death (1989),
Gilgamesh II (1989),
The Sandman (1989-),
Doom Patrol (1990-),
Shade, the Changing Man (1990-),
Twilight (1990),
World Without End (1990-1),
Mister E (1991),
Animal Man (1992-),
Deadman: Exorcism (1992) and
Mighty Love (2004). In 1993, DC started up their
Vertigo imprint that allowed explicit content in selected titles, grouping a number of their mature readers titles together. Notable Vertigo titles include the
Fables,
100 Bullets,
Preacher and
The Sandman as well as several books that have been adapted into feature films, such as
Hellblazer,
A History of Violence,
Stardust and
V for Vendetta. In 2001, Marvel Comics withdrew from the Comics Code Authority, and set up their own content rating system, and an adult-oriented
Max imprint. In 2011, DC withdrew from the Comics Code as well, and the sole remaining CCA member
Archie Comics withdrew soon after, bringing the code to its end.
Erotic comics Some adult comics are
pornographic, focusing substantially on sexual activity, either for its own sake or as a major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be legally sold to minors. Some examples grew out of the underground comix scene, such as
Cherry by Larry Welz, which parodied Archie Comics.
"Omaha" the Cat Dancer by
Kate Worley and Reed Waller combined sexually explicit material with a melodrama featuring
anthropomorphic animals.
XXXenophile by
Phil Foglio blended science fiction and fantasy scenarios with sexual situations. Early comics produced for gay and bisexual male readers often focused on sexual situations, such as
Kake by
Tom of Finland and
Harry Chess by
Al Shapiro. Although
gay comics have expanded to cover a variety of genres, erotica has continued to be popular sometimes incorporated into other genres, such as the erotic superheroes published by
Class Comics, the wordless graphic novels written by
Dale Lazarov, and
yaoi hentai produced in Japan. ==Europe==