John Waters

John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin moustache, and a cardboard sign that reads 'I'm Not Psycho', he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about, the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travellers transporting the...

Role Models is a wild and witty self-portrait of John Waters, America's 'Pope of Trash', told through intimate profiles of his favourite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle of the road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O Hair to the insane...

John Waters takes us back to the scene of his original crime against good taste. Watch as Babs Johnson fights to hold on to her title as Filthiest Person Alive, fending off the craven attempts to dethrone her by her nemeses Connie and Raymond Marble. Read along as Waters takes us on a romp through his camp and filthy vision...

Fifteen years after the events of Pink Flamingos, Babs Johnson returns to Baltimore from a life spent largely in bus station lavatories, only to find that she once again has to fight for the right to claim the title of "World's Filthiest Person." Her nemesis, Connie Marble's sister, Vera Venninger, and her necrophiliac husband, Wilbur, are in her way. So...

On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalised by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society's rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen...

It all goes to hell when Baltimore bad girl Dawn Davenport doesn't get the cha-cha heels she's been demanding for Christmas. In this hilarious, irreverent, pyrotechnic melee of high-trash hijinks, Dawn ruins Christmas, skips town, and embarks on a wild ride that involves hitchhiking, robbery, murder, pregnancy-and, of course, modeling and glamour, too. The second installment of John Waters' classic...

Tracy Turnblad, a spunky, full-figured Baltimore teen, wants nothing more than to be a featured dancer on The Corny Collins Show. So when she gets chosen to be on the air, it seems like all her dreams are about to come true. But when she and some of the Black cast of the show try to integrate the segregated dancing,...

The Cavalcade of Perversion is a traveling show run by Lady Divine and a crew of her fellow degenerates. They have to drag suburban housewives into each vile, tasteless performance-only to rob them at gunpoint at the end of each show. When Divine gets bored of the routine and graduates to murdering the attendees one day, it sets her off...

In 1998, TASCHEN introduced the world to the masterful art of Touko Laaksonen with The Art of Pleasure. Prior to that, Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, enjoyed an intense cult following in the international gay community but was largely unknown to a broader audience. In 2009, TASCHEN followed up with the ultimate Tom overview: Tom of Finland XXL,...

"It's just as deliciously witty and delightfully deviant as you'd expect from the man William Burroughs called the 'Pope of Trash'" Independent "Waters is undoubtedly among the greatest American comedians of all time" Far Out A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of...