Are these examples of Golden Age tentacle porn?
Lest we forget in all the rightful H4H argle-bargle that tentacle porn did not originate in Japan. It actually has its beginnings in American pulp science fiction and became widely prevalent in the Spa Fon era of 1950s comic books.
That isn't to say that the popular Japanese media didn't import the concept and make it their very own in ways to numerous and horrible to contemplate, but the American mainstream comic books didn't take the idea past the occasional Freudian image.Tags: Pulps Golden Age Seduction of the Innocent
Slightly off-topic, I love that Black Amazon of Mars cover.
ReplyDeleteA classic cover indeed. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteAh, but Hokusai was doing tentacle porn in the early 19th century. Two examples here (not safe for work, of course).
ReplyDeleteSomehow the title "All Top comics" makes me wonder if there was a companion "All Bottom comics". Perhaps Frank Cho could revive it?
Sure, Steve. But I was referring to mainstream entertainment outlets, not fetish art or pornography, which remains mostly underground at the time. Any cultural object or in the case of the Japanese images you linked to, dietary staple, will be used in eroticism and parallels exist in all cultures. But it wasn't until the pulp and the exploitative SotI era of comics that it saw so much use in popular entertainment venues.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, Sleestak, "tentacle porn" IS still underground in Japan - though maybe not as "underground" as it would have been in the US under similar circumstances. The Japanese, contrary to MSM portrayals, do not show UROTSUKIDOJI on afternoon television, or even late night television - nor to they sell hentai manga where their kids can readily get it. And as I've said elsewhere regarding this topic, "tentacle porn" is the result of Japanese culture's internalization of the West's disapproval of showing genitalia - the same way the Japanese version of "Christmas" is EVER so much more blatantly commercial than even the U.S.'s is!
ReplyDeleteBest,
Tim Liebe
Dreaded Spouse-Creature of Tamora Pierce
- and co-writer of Marvel's White Tiger comic - TBP out Aug. 8
Don't blame American morality for the Japanese media substituting genitals with tentacles. It's misdirection by the artists and it used to be much more subtle, particularly in US comics. When I was in Japan I could see the kinds of books I'm referring to right next to fashion magazines on public book stands for sale for housewives and salarymen to purchase. In the US the publisher doesn't publish simultaneously adult and kiddie versions of the same character. The closest we get to that is MAX or Vertigo.
ReplyDelete"Good Tanda! Now take me to the thing you fear."
ReplyDeleteWow, that is dialogue straight out of my first high-school date.
mr. sleestak, the pictures steve linked to weren't quite so underground. they are actually illustrations of an old japanese folk tale. folk tales were like mass media before television you know :P
ReplyDelete