Below, twelve covers of the very racy Italian fumetto Pornostar, with its blonde protagonist Beba (and her dark-haired partner in crime Fiona). Pornostar is another Giovanni Romanini creation, along with Wallestein, Ulula, Lady Domina, et.al, circa mid-1980s, and the covers are by Roberto Molino. See a few more here.

Vintage Shaolin comic books are items we see often and the cover art always catches our eye. This one dates from the 1960s, we’re guessing, and it came from Hong Kong. Unless you read Chinese the specifics will be lost, but there are swords, and boats, and horses, and flames, which means it’s great. Thirteen interior scans below. We'd have posted more, but that's where the laziness thing comes in.

Above is a cover of Leverett Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay, a classic comic book—unaffiliated with Myron Fass’s publication of the same name—that launched in 1942. The comic was nominally aimed at adults, however kids bought it in droves, and parental fears about youngsters reading the violent publication helped bring about the formation in 1954 of the Comics Code Authority. Under the baleful eye of CCA censors, Crime Does Not Pay lost its edge, quickly followed by its popularity, leading to its shuttering in 1955. However it remains highly collectible today, with asking prices ranging from $30.00 to $200.00. The cover art is by Bob Fujitani, who illustrated countless comics during a career that began in the early 1940s. The example above and those below are all circa 1950 and 1951. 

Comic book cover featuring the amazing hero of the druggy Japanese television show Ultra Man, circa 1968. This guy could fly, teleport, change size, use psychokinesis, unleash Spacium rays and, if that arsenal wasn’t enough, he could always karate the living shit out of you. Not a guy/extraterrestrial with whom to trifle. We'll have more later—oh so much more—on the hardest working hero who ever saved Tokyo from giant rubber monsters.

Above are assorted issues of the lowbrow Elvifrance comic Mafioso, which lasted for ninety-six issues between 1982 and 1992. Elvifrance comics were a favorite target of French censors, and 176 releases of various titles were banned for sale, which is no surprise considering their emphasis on violence against women. You can read an issue of Mafioso here. If you read French, that is. 

It’s been a while since we posted a comic book, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been reading any. Of late we’ve been enjoying Ramba, a sort of female revenge serial written and drawn by Rossano Rossi, Marco Delizia and Fabio Valdambrini. Ramba is filled with sex, castrations, murder, perversion and other pulpy goodness, all courtesy of the character of Ramba, who is basically an oversexed hitwoman. When she isn’t fulfilling contracts, she’s running afoul of random men and having to put them in their proper place—the grave, usually. In issue 1, for instance, she tries to masturbate in an alley and of course you know how men are—always sticking their noses where they don’t belong. After Ramba goes Benihana on them, it’s off to kill her target, who she stabs in the chest and then uses for a little sexual pleasure while his lifeblood is leaking out of him. Oh, and just for good measure, she also urinates in his face. It's fun for the whole family.

Assorted Super comics from the former Yugoslavia, circa late 1980s. 

Assorted covers of the French serial comic Tex Bill, with art that seems to be—how shall we say it—subtly phallic and/or centered on the groin. Yeah, we know—guns are phallic anyway, but even so, you see what we're talking about, right? Don’t even try to play us. You know you see it. 

Assorted Italian and Spanish covers of Nicola del Principe’s Sukia,1977 to 1986, borrowed from sources too numerous to name. Credit to all. Also, perhaps you noticed that the cover star looks like Italian actress Ornella Muti? Well, she is Ornella Muti. At least, the main character Sukia Dragomic is modeled after her. We’ll have the full story on Sukia later, along with more covers.     

Update: Okay apparently nobody got our headline and subhead, but that's because they didn't look at the first cover. Notice the snowman has a giant schlong, indicated by the shadow? So Season's Greetings is like a penile salute. And Ding Dong Merrily on High is a (not so) famous Christmas Carol. Not funny? Sigh. All we want for Christmas is more wit.