Review: ‘Erotic Comics’ by Tim Pilcher

Andrew Wheeler

Andrew Wheeler spent 16 years as a book club editor, most notably for the Science Fiction Book Club, and has been a judge for the 2005 World Fantasy Awards and the 2009 Eisner Awards. He is now Marketing Manager for John Wiley & Sons.

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5 Responses

  1. Steve Chaput says:

    Having not seen the book I must say that the choice of where to place certain types of material or creators does seem at editorial whim. Plus, I'm not familiar with Pilcher so wonder at his expertise in the field.Personally, I don't know that I'd purchase a volume like this that totally ignored the Japanese manga scene. I realise there are books that specifically look at manga, but there are also several books on Tijuana Bibles, so I don't know that this book fills a necessary niche.No offense to the publishers!

  2. Russ Rogers says:

    Tim Pilcher also wrote "The Essential Guide to World Comics" with Brad Brooks (which features Manga). And, "The Complete Cartooning Course" by Steve Edgell, Brad Brooks and Tim Pilcher. He's also written three or four books on marijuana (including a cookbook) and book about Ecstasy (the drug). The British Title for this book is Erotic Comics: A Graphic History, Volume 1. So, maybe Pilcher has plans to cover Manga extensively in Volume 2.

  3. Tim Pilcher says:

    Hi Chaps,Yes indeed, there is another volume due out in March '09 which will cover gay and lesbian comix (Andrew – you forgot to mention those were missing!), plus US erotic comics since the Seventies, European comics since the Seventies, online erotic comics (invariably the weakest chapter through lack of quality), and of course your beloved erotic manga/hentai. You'll probably be disappointed with the amount of imagery in the latter chapter, simply because it is very difficult (nigh on impossible) to get reprint permission rights for this material. I had a team of four Japanese speakers working for four months in Japan, and everything in the book is all that we could get permission for (which is just scraping the surface). I am aware that we could do a whole book on any one of the chapters previously mentioned in both volumes, but that was never my intention. Rather, it was to flag up the diverse range of material out there, put it into a global context and to act as a sign post for people to go and discover new titles for themselves. It's all about the broad, wider picture. Breadth, not Depth. Alan Moore has written a fantastic foreword for Volume 2 and the two books should definitely be seen as set. Even so, it is impossible to encapsulate every single erotic comic and artist so your bound to find a flaw somewhere, but without dedicating a 5-volume set this is the best I can do in the space allocated.Ross – Thanks for flagging up my previous work. I have been involved in the comic industry for over 20 years and was an assistant editor at Vertigo UK many moons ago. I do know what I'm talking about, I just don't often have the space to write about it! Hence my blog: http://sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com/Best,Tim.

  4. Daniel Sanchez Verde says:

    Daniel Verdejo EL EROTISMO EN LA PREHISTORIA EROTIC ART – PREHISTORY As we can see through different images, they had sexual intercourse with animals, homosexual relations and more than two people at the same time. http://www.arterupestre-c.com/1000.htm Venus – Venuses http://www.arterupestre-c.com/1000ven.htm There is one sculpture that is emblematic, found in 1908, after lots of research and different epochs being affirmed as the real ones about this sculpture, now they believe it was done around 24,000-22,000 BC. It shows a woman with a large stomach that overhangs but does not hide her pubic area. A roll of fat extends around her middle, joining with large but rather flat buttocks, there's no face and seems that at this place there is a hat or even hair rolled up on the head. Her genital area would appear to have been deliberately emphasized with the labia of the vulva carefully detailed and made clearly visible, perhaps unnaturally so, and as if she had no pubic hair. This, combined with her large breasts and the roundness of her stomach, suggests that the "subject" of the sculpture is female procreativity and nurture and the piece has long been identified as some sort of fertility idol. The fact that numerous examples like that of a female figure. All generally exhibiting the same essential characteristics – large stomachs and breasts, featureless faces, minuscule or missing feet – have been found over a broad geographical area ranging from France to Siberia. That suggests that some system of shared understanding and perception of a particular type of woman existed during the Paleolithic. Daniel Verdejo – Barcelona España arterupestresi@hotmail.com

    • Russ Rogers says:

      Huh? What does this have to do with anything, Daniel Sanchez Verdejo? Oh, I see, you're trying to generate interest in your own book about Prehistoric Erotic Art. I would keep the SPAM comments shorter and more to the point. Like, "If you are interested in the history of erotic art, I have written a book about Prehistoric Erotic Art. You can find it …" This was a case of overkill.