Something that has plagued me, in a creative sense, is how comic books are intrinsically tied to early feminism and lesbianism. The feminist scene entered the comic scene with a deep desire to tell reasonably comedic stories on sex and femininity and that would spread to such creations as DC’s Wonder Woman, to the 1970s with Supergirl becoming a romantic character and vocal feminist. So with such a powerful grip on the industry, it’s no surprise why Fantagraphics would republish Tits & Clits, a feminist porn series by Nancy Goat Productions, published around 1972 to 1987.
The comic series is a fascinating look into comic books of this era due to how blasphemous the material is. Despite the rude and often crude sexual humor, the series allowed readers and creators to focus on the storytelling freedom that sex in comics allows and how it was essential to have comic books like this be published and now republished for the modern eye. This book is created by many women, more notably Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli, who paved the way for sex in underground comics. The underground comic book scene is known for being weird and oftentimes considered “bad for business” despite being the cause for comics such as Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For and many of Art Spiegelman’s early works such as Arcade: The Comics Revue. What also helped push this kind of comic into the limelight was the early rise of rebellious men and women of all ages in the early-’70s to mid-’80s.
Fantagraphics
Multiple comic creators in the underground scene thrived off of being crude and oftentimes socially unacceptable. They weren’t writing for Marvel or DC, and they didn’t want to. It was a thriving piece of the industry that wanted you to think and be like this because this is what they felt like and what you should feel like as the stories go on. Many underground comix were never as sexual or drastic as Tits & Clits, as many took an everyday life approach like American Splendor, but many existed as a usual black comedy like Fritz the Cat, a comic series known for being wildly sexual.
What Tits & Clits does is play with the idea of sexual expression in ways that most indie comics wouldn’t dare showcase due to the absurdity of what’s hidden away in the devilish pages of this collection. If comic books are meant to be rebellious, then Tits & Clits is the definition of an “artistic rebellion”. However, what should be said about the comic is that while erotica used to rule the comic book industry, it’s not for everyone.
Fantagraphics
This is a comic that leans into its crude humor and sexual deviancy through a feminist lens and there are many outdated stereotypes in this that may offend a lot of readers. It’s a very clear time capsule and it’s best to treat it as such. I wouldn’t recommend this collection to everyone, but it is a must-have comic for those with a deep love for the sexually chaotic world of underground comix. From the feminist humor to the crude and oftentimes demonic situations these characters go through, this is an important collection with a lot to say about comic book history.
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