Tits & Clits 1972-1987

by Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli, Roberta Gregory

In 1972, underground cartoonists Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli produced Tits Clits — a funny, rowdy, raucous underground comix series about female sexuality that one reviewer described as “the ultimate in vaginal politics” — and became the first American women ever credited with writing, drawing, and publishing their own comic books.
A feminist answer to Zap, Tits Clits quickly became an anthology showcase for other women cartoonists, featuring the work of Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Krystine Kryttre, Lee Marrs, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Trina Robbins, Dori Seda, among others. Like other underground comix, Tits Clits leaned into being lewd in order to satirize women’s experiences with so-called sexual liberation. Featuring stories about birth control, abortion, menstruation, masturbation, and more, Tits Clits featured intimate politics which occasionally clashed with contemporaneous feminist concepts about sex and sexuality.  As Chevli put it: their work had something to offend everyone. (In 1973, conservative legal authorities in Orange County deemed their work pornographic and even threatened the two editors with arrest on obscenity charges.)


Now, for the first time in half a century, a new generation of readers will be shocked, entertained, enlightened, and scandalized by the bold satirical cartoonists that comprised the band of sisters in Tits Clits. In addition to reprinting the seven-issue run of the Tits Clits series, this collection also includes in their entirety two classic solo comics from 1972 written and drawn by Farmer and Chevli — Abortion Eve and Pandora’s Box. Also included is an introductory essay providing context to Tits Clits’ place in the history of women’s cartooning by the book’s editor, Samantha Meier.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comix, Feminism, Humor, Anthologies

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one where the history about its publication is probably more interesting than the comics themselves. The first female-owned comic, it stood out amongst its male-dominated underground comix contemporaries. It aped the shocking vulgarity of comix like Zap, but with a female focus. The comic never really found it's niche, however, as it was too "women's lib" for the pervert male audience of underground comix, yet too "pornographic" for the second-wave feminists. Following the 1973 ruling in Miller vs. California, the crosshairs were set on "obscene" comics, and Chevlin and Farmer not only faced business trouble, but had to become essentially fugitives.

This context is super fascinating, and the series certainly has its place in comics history. That being said, the critics at the time weren't completely wrong. A lot of it feels shocking for the sake of being shocking, without a clear feminist critique. There are definitely some highlights, like Abortion Eve, but a lot of the slice of live pales in comparison to something like Dykes to Watch Out For. Still, it's a compelling time capsule of a period of intra-feminist discourse.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.

[Lew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I concur with Jonathan's 5/25/2024 review. I found the historical information interesting on where these comix fall within the history of Comix.

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tak tohle jsem četl docela dlouho. Zase jsem se na něco nechal nalákat a bez přemýšlení jsem to koupil… Tits & Clits byl první undergroundový komiks (comix) tvořený, vydávaný a distribuovaný výhradně ženami. Vznikl jako nutný protiklad pánských erotických komiksů. Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli se v něm věnovaly ženské sexualitě z pohledu žen a dělaly to záměrně velmi provokativně. O celé historii vydávání tohoto komiksu a o všech potížích s tím spojených pojednává povídání na začátku knihy, které zabírá nějakých 25 stran. Je to zajímavé povídání o něčem, o čem jsem dosud příliš nevěděl. Nevěděl jsem nic o americké undergroundovém komiksu, ani o politickém prostředí, ve kterém vycházel, a tudíž ani o problémech se zákony, které vydavatelé a distributoři takových komiksů měli.

Co se týče samotných komiksů, tak tady bude popis mých dojmů poněkud komplikovanější. V prvé řadě je potřeba říct, že o výtvarnou kvalitu autorkám příliš nešlo. Ukázky, které můžete vidět na webu Fantagraphics, nejsou moc reprezentativní. Těch relativně pěkně kreslených komiksů je v knize minimum. Často jde jen o ‘čmáranice’, které jsou tam jen proto, aby bylo k čemu napsat text. V knize je toho ale tak moc a četl jsem to tak dlouho, že jsem si na ty ‘čmáranice’ zvykl. Ne, nezačaly se mi líbit, ale přestaly mi dělat kopřivku.

Co se týká obsahu a poselství těch komiksů, tak tady mnohé hrany srazil čas. Co bylo dříve provokativní, o tom už se už dnes ve veřejném prostoru normálně mluví. Ženy sice ještě v některých oblastech nemají stejné postavení jako muži, ale jejich situace, stejně jako situace sexuálních menšin, je dnes už úplně někde jinde. Proto už tyto komiksy dneska nemůžou fungovat stejně jako kdysi. Navíc nejsem žena, což může být další faktor, které můj zážitek ze čtení ovlivnil. Nemám žádné tabu, co se týká ženských záležitostí a problémů, ale ženský mozek zkrátka nemám. Proto mi hrozně moc komiksů přišlo nudných, nezajímavých a bez pointy. Když už tam nějaká pointa byla, tak jsem ji často buďto nechápal, anebo byla divná či naprosto mimózní. Stejně tak mi přišlo hrozně málo komiksů vtipných. Ale byly tam i výjimky. Byly tam komiksy, u kterých jsem se zasmál, anebo jsem ocenil pěknou pointu. Anebo měly alespoň pěknou atmosféru. Některé mi připadaly dokonce poučné a něco nového jsem se dozvěděl. No a v neposlední řadě, pár jich bylo dokonce i trošku vzrušujících.

Suma sumárum, nemůžu říct, že bych si čtení této knihy užil, ale jsem rád, že jsem si ji přečetl. Podruhé ji už ale číst nechci.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointing, TBH. This title beat Wimmen's Comix into print be mere months, but that nevertheless makes it, afaik, the first women's-only comics anthology series. So, it has great historical importantc--which makes the fact that a few stories are not reprinted but are merely represented by blank pages. There isn't even an explanation for why they are not included. My guess would be that the copyright holder(s) didn't grant permission, but it would be nice to know if that were the case. I mean, were these ones considered too raunchy to reprint? The introduction really should have addressed these absences. The don't amount to more than twenty pages or so, but their absence nevertheless compromises this book's representation of a historic series. The comics themselves are of variable quality, especially in the early issues. There is some dandy work, often by co-founder of the book Joyce Farmer, as well as by others, but there's a lot of mediocre stuff, as well. That of course is typical of anthology series and should not be taken as a specific criticism as much as an acknowledgement that this book did not manage to achieve that extremely rare ability to be consistently excellent. At least a few contributors apparently did not do much work, given the terseness of some of the bios, and I also did not recognize several of the contributors, though several unfamiliar names (to me) produced some excellent work. Also included is the educational comic the creators put out, Abortion Eve, which attempts, not entirely successfully (such efforts are rarely entirely successful), to provide information and support for abortion via a narrative about a diverse group of women seeking one. Worth reading, especially for those interested in comix (and comics) generally, and in women's comics specifically.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird, disgusting, and informative. I'm not sure if I would recommend this to anyone or no one...

[Julie Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. Cut out on p.147. I'm all for normalizing feminine bodily functions, but this was just gross.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bio of my favourite artist was missing - I guess nothing is known, intriguingly mysterious! Enjoyed a lot but liked the wimmins comix a little bit more

[Bella Cremo · Rating 3 out of 5]

the history on how each issue was published is more interesting than the actual comics

[Averil *rat emoji* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge undertaking. This felt like reading history.. I guess I had that unconscious bias that people in the past weren’t as dirty minded.. geez one flip through this and I’m feeling like a prude! Anything goes, it’s shocking and awesome. Sex is the least graphic thing shown here.. murder, incest, necrophillia, abortion