Tits & Clits Comix

This article is about the underground comix series. For the music act, see Tits & Clits.
Tits & Clits Comix

The cover of Tits & Clits #1. Art by Joyce Farmer.
Publication information
Publisher Nanny Goat Productions
Last Gasp
Schedule Irregular
Format Ongoing series
Genre
    Publication date July 1972 - Nov. 1987
    Number of issues 7
    Editor(s) Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevely

    Tits & Clits Comix was an all-female underground comics anthology put together by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely, published from 1972 to 1987. In addition to Farmer and Chevely, contributors to Tits & Clits included Roberta Gregory, Lee Marrs, and Trina Robbins.

    Along with such titles as It Aint Me Babe and Wimmen's Comix, Tits & Clits was part of a movement by female cartoonists to counter the male-dominated, often blatantly misogynistic, works of the underground.[1] With the conviction that sex was political, the series was created with the focus of sexuality from a female perspective.

    Publication history

    Seeing what they perceived as the inherent sexism of the mostly male-underground comix scene, as well as the phoniness of mainstream pornographic magazines like Playboy and Penthouse,[2] Farmer and Chevely published Tits & Clits (under the publisher name Nanny Goat Productions) as a sex-positive feminist comic. (In addition to Tits & Clits, the duo also produced a one-shot comic about reproductive rights, Abortion Eve, in 1973.)

    Condemned by many feminists (even other cartoonists), as well as the expected antagonism from male underground cartoonists,[2] Tits & Clits also suffered from a 1973 pornography investigation by the Orange County, California, district attorney's office.[3] Nevertheless, Farmer and Chevely published three issues of Tits & Clits on their own from 1972–1977 (often in print runs of 10,000–20,000).[4] The title was exclusively written and drawn by Farmer and Chevely for the first two issues, and was opened up to other contributors starting with issue #3.

    San Francisco underground publisher Last Gasp picked the title up for its final four issues, which were published intermittently between 1977 and 1987. The final issue, #7, was published seven years after issue #6, and featured work by a number of younger cartoonists, part of a new generation of female alternative cartoonists. (It also featured a story by Dennis Worden, the only male cartoonist to contribute to Tits & Clits.)

    Contributors

    Notes

    1. ↑ Sabin, Roger (1996). "Going underground". Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press. pp. 92; 94–95; 103–107; 110; 111; 116; 119; 124–126; 128. ISBN 0-7148-3008-9.
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gallagher, Paul. "Such Small Increments: Joyce Farmer's Special Exits a Moving and Unique Graphic Novel on Old Age and Death," Huffington Post (December 17, 2010).
    3. ↑ Vankin, Deborah. "R. Crumb: Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits on par with Maus," "Hero Complex," Los Angeles Times (Nov. 28, 2010).
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tits & Clits, ComicBookDB.com. Accessed Sept. 15, 2011.

    References