Mexican historietas began as humble cigarette cards in the late 19th century and migrated to the popular press before becoming standalone – and hugely popular – comics. The 1960s and 1970s covers reproduced here, from the now defunct Editorial Cont­in­ental publishing house, will be familiar to aficionados of Mexican horror flicks, with their unsettl­ing mixture of sex, violence and gore (or “rape, wrestl­ing and surgery”, as a review of one film had it). Though historietas were often used for propaganda purposes, those in this book are solidly fortean – little green men, zombies, witches and the rest. Joy.