If you’re under eighteen, or squeamish, or easily offended then there’s nothing for you here, so kindly move along. As for everyone else…

Relatos de Presidio (Tales from Prison) is a lurid blood ‘n’ guts crime comic from Mexico. It is one of the many sensacionales magazines produced in the country which feature explicitly illustrated tales of murder, torture, crime, and horror. True Crime or even Tales from the Crypt it ain’t. It’s more like the kinda thing Quentin Tarantino or Roger Corman might just come up with if ever they put their considerable talents for mayhem towards making adult exploitation comics.

Unlike America, there’s decidedly no comics code in Mexico, which means Relatos de Presidio and all those other sensacionales can get away with showing the most disturbing, violent and eye-poppingly-grotesque images. Don’t take my word for it, just have a swatch at some of the tamer covers below.

These trashy, adult exploitation comics are hugely popular in Mexico. They sell at most newsstands and comic book stores. They’re generally pocket-sized, up to one hundred pages an issue, with four panels to a page. The stories range from “true” tales of drug deals gone wrong to far-out psychos taking unholy revenge on the unfortunate. The covers usually feature scantily-clad, voluptuous women who hover over the bloody action like indifferent goddesses. Sometimes these women are the perpetrators. Most times their presence is just for mere titillation.

According to Horrorpedia, sensacionales have “a unique place in Mexican culture” which came about after the American superhero comics nearly destroyed the homegrown comic book industry in the 1980s. Where once Mexican comics like Pepín, Fantomas, and Memín Penguín sold millions of copies, the arrival of Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and the Avengers led to ” the perception that comics were only for kids” and the indigenous comic industry almost disappeared. It was, therefore, only the adult exploitation mags or sensacionales which survived and thrived.

I guess this is one of the few times where you can absolutely judge a book by its cover!
 

 

 

 
More lurid covers, after the jump…

“Policewoman - Gay City” an adult themed comic from Italy, 1970s/1980s

I love to blog about topics that are popular with the crowd on the wrong side of the tracks, and the unsettling, strange and straight up bizarre covers of the following vintage Italian comics that you are about to see, fall into that very category.
 

“Vital Energy” the cover of an adult Italian comic from the 1970s/1980s
 
According to the book, Drawn and Dangerous: Italian Comics of the 1970s and 1980s, adult-themed Italian comics comics began to find their way to France, where they were translated and published starting in the very early 70s, which, before I’m schooled by our astute readers that some of the covers pictured here are not written in Italian, explains why some of the magazines in this post are in French.

Known in Italy as “fumetto” or its plural “fumetti,” the grown-up comics generally featured scantily-clad women being subjected to all kinds of manhandling and mayhem. Such as sexual assaults by super-buff men with monkey heads (and other horny man/animal hybrids), bad guys with bestiality issues, as well as a little good-old-fashioned BDSM. In other words, anything goes as long as it involves a hot chick with large breasts, in some sort of sexy peril. That said, please assume that all of what follows is strictly NSFW.
 

“The Razor’s Edge”
 

“Musketeer” (printed in Italian)