Tijuana bible
Tijuana Bibles (a.k.a. "eight-pagers") were pornographic comic bookss produced in the US from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Their peak of popularity was during the Depression era. The typical "bible" is 4 by 6 inches, printed in black and white on cheap paper, and eight pages long. In most cases the artists, writers and publishers of these tracts are unknown. The art is usually crude. Their subject is explicit sexual escapades, usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures or movie stars.The origin of the name Tijuana bible is obscure. The connection of the comics to Tijuana, Mexico may be a reference to the fact that Tijuana was an important distribution point for these made-in-USA (but illegal in USA) booklets. It is also possible that the name is simply an ironic coinage, Tijuana being stereotypically seen in the US as uncivilized, while the Bible, the pinnacle of chaste morality, stands as far removed from pornography as possible.
They were sold illicitly, often passed among soldiers and schoolboys. Tijuana bibles rapidly disappeared as the photographic pornography in magazines like Playboy became more widely available in the late 1950s. In some senses, these comics were the first underground comix--indeed, they were the first American comic books with original content.