Adult comics
Encyclopedia
Adult comics are comic books intended for adult
s. They may contain material that might be considered disturbing, horrifying, obscene, profane, immoral, and even pornographic, in contrast to the traditionally considered kid-friendly mainstream world of comics. Many adult comics, however, such as The Virgin Project, feature none of this, and simply tell stories of a more mature nature. Graphic novels are one specific subset of adult comics, but adult comics also include longer serialized comics, and shorter stories, which both fall outside the scope of graphic novels.
The term "adult comics" in the past generally referred to those with explicit sexual content, and was sometimes separated from comics labeled for "mature readers". The "mature readers" label is a relatively new invention (although adult comics have been around for decades), and has gained more acceptance in the average comic-book–reading demographics which are now aged far older than they were before the 1990s.
In Japan and Western Europe, adult comics are more common and more perceived to belong to mainstream culture than in North America.
) intended for adults are usually divided into Josei manga, comics for women and Seinen manga, comics for men. Pornographic (hentai
) comics intended for men are usually called seijin manga or eromanga and those intended for women are usually called ladies' comics.
#1, the first appearance of Superman. The adult comics of this time are sometimes called tijuana bibles - rectangular, eight page pamphlets with black printing on cheap white paper. The art was usually crude and sometimes also racist (Blacks were caricaturized with huge lips and extruding eyes). Their stories were explicit sexual escapades usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures or movie stars (used illegally without permission).
shifted the focus of his father's comic book Company, EC Comics
, from educational to gruesome, with a bevy of titles such as Tales From the Crypt
, Weird Science
, and Crime SuspenStories
, and became the best selling company of the time (and perhaps all time, although sales records from the period are imprecise). While none of the books featured nudity or profanity, they were undoubtedly of a mature nature. Gruesomeness and grotesquery could be found in almost every story, and sexual situations and illicit activities in many of them. At the time, no standard existed for dividing material for adults from material for all audiences. Consequently, EC Comics found their way into the hands of millions of American
children. This led to Dr. Fredric Wertham
's book Seduction of the Innocent
, which blamed violent media (but almost exclusively comic books) for the rising number of cases of juvenile delinquency
nationwide. After a large public outcry and even Senate
hearings
, most of the major publishers joined together to create the Comics Code Authority
.
The Comics Code Authority prohibited almost all mature subject matter from comic books. It was a voluntary system, and a comics company could publish whatever they liked without submitting it for approval to the CCA, however the public outcry had led many retail outlets to forbid selling anything without the CCA's code of approval for the foreseeable future. The mainstream, American comics industry had more or less neutered themselves, and reinforced the American belief that comics were for kids.
, Art Spiegelman
, Kim Deitch
, Spain Rodriguez
and Harvey Pekar
, and were often sold at head shops. When law enforcement cracked down on these establishments in the 1970s, many titles were left without a way to reach their audience.
took a major stride into the world of Adult/Mature Readers comics with the foundation of the Vertigo Comics line, which strictly produces Mature Reader material. Vertigo is the only line of adult comics that might be considered mainstream.
Adult
An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....
s. They may contain material that might be considered disturbing, horrifying, obscene, profane, immoral, and even pornographic, in contrast to the traditionally considered kid-friendly mainstream world of comics. Many adult comics, however, such as The Virgin Project, feature none of this, and simply tell stories of a more mature nature. Graphic novels are one specific subset of adult comics, but adult comics also include longer serialized comics, and shorter stories, which both fall outside the scope of graphic novels.
The term "adult comics" in the past generally referred to those with explicit sexual content, and was sometimes separated from comics labeled for "mature readers". The "mature readers" label is a relatively new invention (although adult comics have been around for decades), and has gained more acceptance in the average comic-book–reading demographics which are now aged far older than they were before the 1990s.
In Japan and Western Europe, adult comics are more common and more perceived to belong to mainstream culture than in North America.
Japan
In Japan comic books (mangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
) intended for adults are usually divided into Josei manga, comics for women and Seinen manga, comics for men. Pornographic (hentai
Hentai
is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and computer games. The word hentai is a kanji compound of 変 and 態...
) comics intended for men are usually called seijin manga or eromanga and those intended for women are usually called ladies' comics.
Early days
The history of adult comics can be traced as far back as the 1920s, over a decade before the premiere of what is traditionally considered the "first" comic book, Action ComicsAction Comics
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#1, the first appearance of Superman. The adult comics of this time are sometimes called tijuana bibles - rectangular, eight page pamphlets with black printing on cheap white paper. The art was usually crude and sometimes also racist (Blacks were caricaturized with huge lips and extruding eyes). Their stories were explicit sexual escapades usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures or movie stars (used illegally without permission).
EC Comics and the Comics Code Authority
In the early 1950s, William GainesWilliam Gaines
William Maxwell Gaines , better known as Bill Gaines, was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics...
shifted the focus of his father's comic book Company, EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
, from educational to gruesome, with a bevy of titles such as Tales From the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (comic)
Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror are three bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s...
, Weird Science
Weird Science (comic)
Weird Science was a science fiction anthology comic book that was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. Over a four-year span, the comic ran for 22 issues, ending with the November–December, 1953 issue...
, and Crime SuspenStories
Crime SuspenStories
Crime SuspenStories was a bi-monthly anthology crime comic published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title first arrived on newsstands with its October/November 1950 issue and ceased publication with its February/March 1955 issue, producing a total of 27 issues...
, and became the best selling company of the time (and perhaps all time, although sales records from the period are imprecise). While none of the books featured nudity or profanity, they were undoubtedly of a mature nature. Gruesomeness and grotesquery could be found in almost every story, and sexual situations and illicit activities in many of them. At the time, no standard existed for dividing material for adults from material for all audiences. Consequently, EC Comics found their way into the hands of millions of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
children. This led to Dr. Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...
's book Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...
, which blamed violent media (but almost exclusively comic books) for the rising number of cases of juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
nationwide. After a large public outcry and even Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
hearings
Hearing (law)
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency.A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and often less formal...
, most of the major publishers joined together to create the Comics Code Authority
Comics Code Authority
The Comics Code Authority was a body created as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America, as a tool for the comics-publishing industry to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Member publishers submitted comic books to the CCA, which screened them for adherence to...
.
The Comics Code Authority prohibited almost all mature subject matter from comic books. It was a voluntary system, and a comics company could publish whatever they liked without submitting it for approval to the CCA, however the public outcry had led many retail outlets to forbid selling anything without the CCA's code of approval for the foreseeable future. The mainstream, American comics industry had more or less neutered themselves, and reinforced the American belief that comics were for kids.
Underground comics
Adult comics continued underground in the late 1960s under the umbrella of the CCA. the underground comics movement was spearheaded by people like Robert CrumbRobert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
, Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch
-Sources:* at Lambiek's Comiclopedia-External links:* Ford, Jeffrey. *Heller, Steven. **...
, Spain Rodriguez
Spain Rodriguez
Manuel Rodriguez , better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, is an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the biker gang, the Road Vultures, provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics.-Biography:Born in Buffalo, New...
and Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
, and were often sold at head shops. When law enforcement cracked down on these establishments in the 1970s, many titles were left without a way to reach their audience.
Epic/MAX
in the early 80’s Marvel introduced their Epic Imprint which printed comics such as Moonshadow, Blood: A Tale, The One and many others that were made for adult audiences, containing sex, nudity, violence. The Epic line also printed Epic Illustrated, a sci-fi/adventure Heavy Metal like book. With the MAX line, Marvel released more comics that didn’t carry the Comics Code imprint, mostly due to violence. The presence of non-explicit alternative sexuality, such as including gay characters was also enough for a book to be included in the imprint, which caused controversy among both conservative and LGBT readers.Vertigo
In the mid to later 1980s, DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
took a major stride into the world of Adult/Mature Readers comics with the foundation of the Vertigo Comics line, which strictly produces Mature Reader material. Vertigo is the only line of adult comics that might be considered mainstream.
Publishers
- Carnal ComicsCarnal ComicsCarnal Comics is an adults-only comic book imprint which has so-far been published by three companies: Revolutionary Comics , Re-Visionary Press and Opus Graphics...
- EC ComicsEC ComicsEntertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
- ElvifranceElvifranceElvifrance was a French comic book publisher, specializing in digest-sized publications, often translations from Italian fumetti.Edited by Georges Bielec , it was founded in 1970 and owned by Giorgio Cavedon and Renzo Barbieri of Erregi. It ceased publication in 1992.-External links:*...
- Eros ComixEros ComixEros Comix is an adult-oriented imprint of Fantagraphics Books, established in 1990 to publish pornographic comic books. Eros Comix sells anime videos, DVDs, adult comic books, and books of erotic art and photography...
- Image ComicsImage ComicsImage Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
- VerotikVerotikVerotik is a mature-themed comic book company founded in the early 90's by heavy metal/punk musician Glenn Danzig . The comics are aimed toward adult readers as they often contain imagery of a sexual and/or violent nature...
- Vertigo Comics
See also
- DōjinshiDojinshiis the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
- FumettiFumettiFumetti is an Italian word which refers to all comics. In English, the term refers specifically to photonovels or photographic comics, a genre of comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. Italians call these fotoromanzi...
- Italian comicsItalian comicsItalian comics are comics made in Italy. They are locally known as fumetto – plural form fumetti – although this latter term is often used in English to describe a specific comic genre . The most popular Italian comics have been translated into many languages...