The Leather Nun and Other Incredibly Strange Comics by Paul Gravett

The Leather Nun and Other Incredibly Strange Comics Reviews

• 
  Piyush Parmar

  one of the funniest comic
  its not exactly a comic though
  it contains several weird and explicit funny comics
• 
  Andrés Santiago

  Amazing!!! Really, really funny!!! Any serious comic geeks will see themselves represented here, there is something for every one of them. Personal favourites? Amputee love and Fag truckers in denial!
• 
  Colin Oaten

  Long time comics historian Paul Gravett brings us a book detailing some of the most strange and unusual comics produced in the past century. Some truly weird offerings here!
• 
  Sam Quixote

  "The Leather Nun" is a selection of weird and wonderful obscure comics from decades past to recent years. It ranges from the information centred comics of saving money, taking the bus, smoking, and of course buying guns for kids, to Christian comics about blimps.
  
  As the title suggests some of the comics included are sexual in nature such as "The Leather Nun" (self explanatory), "La Donna Ragna" (a topless Spiderwoman spin off), "Amputee Love" (...), and "Genus", a comic about lesbian unicorns.
  
  Also disturbingly there are "All Negro Comics" and "Just Married" which asks the question "Should a Jewish Boy and an Irish Girl fall in love?". Then there's "Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika" which tells of a simple country girl who becomes indoctrinated by the Nazis. This comic ends happily though with the empty headed Hansi becoming indoctrinated by the Allies into loving Capitalism.
  
  There's some brilliant comics here like "Super Shamou" the eskimo superhero, or "Fatman the Human Flying Saucer" who is a fat rich bloke who has the ability to turn into a flying saucer and fight crime! He's aided by a tin man who has hundreds of kids and fights sea monsters. I also liked "Godzilla V. Charles Barkley" comics where the basketball star shoots hoops against the atomic breathed legend, and "Trucker Fags in Denial" where two long haul truckers fight against their urges - in vain. Aaah.
  
  The book comes in the form of a small hardback with each comic being written about in two page sections, 1 page for the cover, half a page for a panel from the comic, and a paragraph explaining the comic. It's a quick read as you'd expect and though I thought more panels from the comics would be included, there is a bibiography at the back that tells you which books or web sites to go for any of the comics. Good little loo read.
• 
  Norman

  Nicely produced small book featuring a cover of an absolutely fantastic comic and some internal art on the opposite page. Great choices of weirdness - and there;s your warning: if you are easily offended don't look at 'Amputee Love' or 'Tales from the Leather Nun' etc etc. Great knowledge, but I found one mistake. On page 98 "Launched from wholesome Archie Comics in 1958, not long before the Soviet's Sputnik satellite accelerated in the space race..."
  But this is a really interesting book for any comic lover
• 
  Jim

  i've read about a third of these and didn't think them odd at the time.