Out of the Gutters
Obscenity, Censorship, and Transgression in American Comics
Published on 30. June 2025
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-4773-3180-4 (ISBN)
Description
Comics have long been a subject of moral panics, no doubt thanks to their in-your-face illustrations and their association with young readers. Indeed, the politicians and parents behind today's book-banning campaigns reserve special ire for graphic novels. What makes today's controversies different is the content of the alleged obscenity. Instead of targeting sex as such, censors now focus on affirmations of nonheteronormative identity, as in Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer. And while violence is a constant in comics, stories that acknowledge nationalist oppression and violence, such as Art Spiegelman's Maus, are also being blacklisted.
Out of the Gutters assembles scholars from diverse disciplines to examine US comics, graphic novels, and cartooning that have been challenged as obscene or transgressive. Covering well-known underground figures like Robert Crumb and Charles Burns, newcomers such as C. Spike Trotman and Emil Ferris, and mainstream creators including Chris Claremont and Archie Goodwin, the collection explores the market economics of transgression, historical representations of graphic violence, the ever-changing meaning of pornography, sex-positive comics by BIPOC authors, and queerness in pop-culture mega-properties like X-Men and The Walking Dead.
Out of the Gutters assembles scholars from diverse disciplines to examine US comics, graphic novels, and cartooning that have been challenged as obscene or transgressive. Covering well-known underground figures like Robert Crumb and Charles Burns, newcomers such as C. Spike Trotman and Emil Ferris, and mainstream creators including Chris Claremont and Archie Goodwin, the collection explores the market economics of transgression, historical representations of graphic violence, the ever-changing meaning of pornography, sex-positive comics by BIPOC authors, and queerness in pop-culture mega-properties like X-Men and The Walking Dead.
Reviews / Votes
A rich and compelling compilation of essays, Out of the Gutters is a valuable resource for readers across fields, from comix/graphic novel devotees, to students of censorship or obscenity law, to those interested in underground publishers and transgressive cultural forms. Thoughtful and engaging, this volume draws on a wide body of materials that will make it a key resource. - Brett J. Gary, New York University, author of Dirty Works: Obscenity on Trial in America's First Sexual RevolutionMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
30 b&w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 162 mm
Width: 237 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
602 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-3180-4 (9781477331804)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Unknown | Jorge J. Santos | Patrick S. Lawrence
Out of the Gutters
Obscenity, Censorship, and Transgression in American Comics
E-Book
06/2025
1st Edition
University of Texas Press
€140.99
Available for download
Persons
Jorge J. Santos, Jr. is an associate professor of Multiethnic Literatures of the United States at the College of the Holy Cross and the author of Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement: Reframing History in Comics.
Patrick S. Lawrence is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Lancaster and the author of Obscene Gestures: Counter-Narratives of Sex and Race in the Twentieth Century.
Patrick S. Lawrence is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Lancaster and the author of Obscene Gestures: Counter-Narratives of Sex and Race in the Twentieth Century.
Content
List of Illustrations
Foreword. Your Obscene Is Not Mine: A Defense of the Art of Comics (Frederick Luis Aldama)
Introduction. "A Cultural Slaughter of the Innocents" (Patrick S. Lawrence and Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Timeline of Significant Events
Part One. Out of the Gutters: Comics' History of Obscenity
1. Why Sex? (Hillary Chute)
2. "Wise Up, Old Hags! Th' Weak One Is a Valuable Possession to Us": R. Crumb's Bible of Filth and Obscenity as Artificial Scarcity (Patrick S. Lawrence)
3. Howard Cruse's War on the War on Obscenity (Andrew J. Kunka)
4. Obscene Histories: Indexing the Racial Phantasms of Blazing Combat (Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Part Two. Obscenity in the Gutters and at the Margins
5. Graphic Storytelling, Book Challengers, and Obscenity (Richard S. Price)
6. Big-Boned Sapphic Smut: The Reading Pleasure of Comics by and about Black Women (Cathy Thomas)
7. Robert Kirkman's Gays in the Gutter: Anti-Queer Censorship, Obscenity, and The Walking Dead (Jarred Wiehe)
Part Three. Theorizing the Obscene, Seeing Obscenity
8. Planet Xeno: Obscenity as Erotic Alienation in Charles Burns (Jordan Carroll)
9. Seen, Unseen, and Obscene: Historical Violence in Comic Books (Jennifer Caplan)
10. Obscene Empathy: Kink and the Comics Code Authority in X-Men's "Dark Phoenix Saga" (Anthony D'Agostino)
11. Boobs Monsters: Emil Ferris's My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Horror Comics, and the Fate of Disciplinary Normalization in the Twenty-First Century (Lee Konstantinou)
Afterword. A Conversation about Community with MariNaomi (Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index
Foreword. Your Obscene Is Not Mine: A Defense of the Art of Comics (Frederick Luis Aldama)
Introduction. "A Cultural Slaughter of the Innocents" (Patrick S. Lawrence and Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Timeline of Significant Events
Part One. Out of the Gutters: Comics' History of Obscenity
1. Why Sex? (Hillary Chute)
2. "Wise Up, Old Hags! Th' Weak One Is a Valuable Possession to Us": R. Crumb's Bible of Filth and Obscenity as Artificial Scarcity (Patrick S. Lawrence)
3. Howard Cruse's War on the War on Obscenity (Andrew J. Kunka)
4. Obscene Histories: Indexing the Racial Phantasms of Blazing Combat (Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Part Two. Obscenity in the Gutters and at the Margins
5. Graphic Storytelling, Book Challengers, and Obscenity (Richard S. Price)
6. Big-Boned Sapphic Smut: The Reading Pleasure of Comics by and about Black Women (Cathy Thomas)
7. Robert Kirkman's Gays in the Gutter: Anti-Queer Censorship, Obscenity, and The Walking Dead (Jarred Wiehe)
Part Three. Theorizing the Obscene, Seeing Obscenity
8. Planet Xeno: Obscenity as Erotic Alienation in Charles Burns (Jordan Carroll)
9. Seen, Unseen, and Obscene: Historical Violence in Comic Books (Jennifer Caplan)
10. Obscene Empathy: Kink and the Comics Code Authority in X-Men's "Dark Phoenix Saga" (Anthony D'Agostino)
11. Boobs Monsters: Emil Ferris's My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Horror Comics, and the Fate of Disciplinary Normalization in the Twenty-First Century (Lee Konstantinou)
Afterword. A Conversation about Community with MariNaomi (Jorge J. Santos Jr.)
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index