Erotica for Beginners (Beginners Documentary Comic Book)

Rating:
Summary: A little superficial
Review: Although it is not meant to be a reference to erotica, I am a little disappointed. I have other books (For Beginners), introducing Freud, Sade, Philosophy, Zen,... and I have to admit that this one is on the light side. Even if I still do like it for how it defines erotica, I would have appreciated more text to support the imagery.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Oh, had I known this was merely a "comic book" style of book. I expected an actual, albeit short, history of erotica but instead got a simple view of different peoples and time periods in far too short of text with accompanying images. I've been asked to design a course for my university as an experiment and have been trying, unsuccessfully to find approach books about the history of erotica, particularly the written kind. This book will not do at all for as I read it, my familiarity with several of the cultures briefly looked at showed me that the book has very very little depth or understanding of those cultures (here I am especially referring to the ancient Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian cultures). The only saving points are that 1) this book tries to show erotica (here almost exclusively of the visual sort) from around the world and throughout time and 2) it has a good definition of erotica on the sixth page.

Rating:
Summary: a refreshing view on art and erotica
Review: This book talks about ideas. The concept of erotica being art, an idea easily lost today with the over commercialization of sexual imagery. This book lends depth to erotica by taking a historical view of how it has developed, and it takes a further dimension by giving a geographical survey to the art as well. This book is beautifully designed, being a work of graphic art in itself.