Tijuana Bible - Characters

Characters

The most popular cartoon characters appearing in Tijuana bibles in the 1930s, judging by the number of their appearances, were Popeye and Blondie. The most popular celebrity character was Mae West. A popular character might appear in as many as 40 different eight-pagers drawn by ten different artists. An entire series of ten bibles drawn by Mr. Prolific was based on famous gangsters: Legs Diamond, Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly were featured. Another set of ten bibles drawn by Prolific featured radio stars like Joe Penner and Kate Smith, with each title being devoted to a different star. Blackjack drew a set of ten comics using characters from Snow White, with each of the seven dwarfs starring in his own title.

The ten book series format was dictated by the limitations of the printing equipment used to print the bibles, which made it convenient to print a set of ten titles at a time, side by side on a large sheet which was then cut into strips, collated, folded and stapled. Typically a new set of ten would be issued every couple of months, all drawn by the same artist, featuring ten different cartoon characters or celebrities.

Many bibles featured nameless stock characters like cab drivers, firemen, traveling salesmen (and farmer's daughters), icemen, maids, and the like. Very few original recurring characters were created expressly for the bibles: Mr. Prolific's "Fuller Brush Man" was one, starring in a series of ten episodic eight-page adventures. The only serialized stories sold in the eight-pager format were three tales by Blackjack, featuring his own characters Maizie and Tessie, in ongoing stories which stretched through three or four installments each before concluding.