CULT MAGAZINES : A

TO

A C OMPENDIUM OF C ULTURALLY O BSESSIVE

& C URIOUSLY E XPRESSIVE P UBLICATIONS

CULTMAGAZINE S
A

TO

A COMPENDIUM OF CULTURALLY OBSESSIVE

& CURIOUSLY EXPRESSIVE PUBLICATIONS
EDITED BY EARL KEMP & LUIS ORTIZ

Nonstop Press New York

C U LT
MAGA
ZINES
A

TO

A COMPENDIUM
OF CULTURALLY
OBSESSIVE
& CURIOUSLY
EXPRESSIVE
PUBLICATIONS

First edition
Copyright 2009 Nonstop Press

No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form
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publishers apologize for any inadvertent errors or
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www.nonstop-press.com
publishers catalog-in-publication
available upon request
Book designer
Luis Ortiz
Copy editors:
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Karan Ortiz
Production by Nonstop Ink
ISBN-13 cloth: 978-1-933065-14-4
ISBN-13 ebook: 978-1-933065-15-1
Printed in S. Korea

Magazine of Fantasy & SF to Mystic . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Contents

Nemesis to Nocturne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Operator #5 to The Organ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Pearsons Magazine to Punk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Acme News Company to The Avenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Ballyhoo to Brain Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Ray Gun to Rogue Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Captain Billys Whiz Bang to Creem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Satana to Super-8 Filmmaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Daring Doll to Dream World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Tales of Magic & Mystery to True Strange Stories . . . . . 194

Elvis Presley to Eyeful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Uncanny Tales to Volitant Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Face & Physique to Future Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Weider Magazines to World War 3 Illustrated . . . . . . 203

Gasm to Ghost Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

The Yellow Peril to Your Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Health Knowledge to Humorama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Zane Greys Western Magazine to Zest . . . . . . . . . . . 217

I.F. Stones Weekly to Imagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION
MAGAZINE SIZES

Jack Dempseys Fight to Jungle Stories . . . . . . . . . . 114

Knight Magazine to Lunatickle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
C O N T R I B U T O R S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
I N D E X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221

CULTMAGAZINE S
A TO Z

Introduction
Dirty Laundry
BY LUIS ORTIZ

was too young to have seen most of the magazines covered here when they originally appeared
on newsstands, sometimes strung up like dirty laundry on a clothesline or in some cases hidden behind
the newsdealers counter. But when I was growing up in New York City, I used to go to Rubys Books
in downtown Manhattan to browse the wooden shelves filled with old Rolling Stones, Creems, National Lampoons, Monster Times, Evergreen Reviews, and various mens adventure magazines. A few blocks
away, near the Woolworth Building, there was Mendozas Books where I found piles of old mustysmelling science fiction and mystery magazines. At both places the prices were bargains and I bought
them by the dozen. To this day I have images of particular covers stamped in my brain.
But what exactly is a cult magazine? The only thing they all seem to have in common is that they
serve a need.The editor and author Damon Knight once attempted to define science fiction by saying
that it was whatever he said it was. He had enough background, and had read enough in the genre, to
make this statement without any sense of smart-alecky hubris. I am going to apply the same Knight criteria to the cult magazines presented here. Some of them fit into a category that goes back to the dime
novels of the 1800s and evolved into the pulps of the mid-20th century. Some follow the personal trajectory of eccentric and profit-minded publishers (Bernarr Macfadden), or idiosyncratic editors riding
a hobbyhorse (Raymond Palmer with UFOs), or, like Elmer Batters, bluntly pleasing themselves as
much as their readers.
Cult Magazines: From A to Z makes no attempt to be comprehensive.This is a personal selection.
There are many categories here that would require an entire volume (or volumes) to cover properly;
for instance, the spicy or snappy class of risqu magazines that flourished during the Great Depression, or the confidential types of scandal rags of the 1950s.Then there is the story of the clergyman
who became the first to publish and fight for American nudist publications. Books have been published on the subjects of mens adventure magazines, science fiction, detective mysteries, and girlie
magazines, but these have mostly been general overviews, heavy on illustrations and light on history.
There is a lot of primary research that still needs to be done on the interaction between publishers,
distributors, organized crime, and also the interdicting of nudist, left-wing, and mens magazines by

Church and State.The history of cult magazines reveals the progress of a free press despite the barriers set up by authorities.The publishers presented here always knew they were dancing along the edge
of a cliff. Neither should one forget the sense of illicitness of buying some of these magazines at the
time.
The heyday, or golden age, of cult magazines began in the 1920s and continued up until the 1970s,
when magazines were beginning to be bought and sold by larger and larger business interests, like the
flinty Cond Nast. Ownership changed to new types of confidence men, and magazines became more
and more alike, metamorphosing into dispirited products that read more like sales catalogs than magazines.The new order has created a mass of jaded, if not sated, readers.
There are a few cult magazines that fall outside the golden age timeframe that are included here
because they link up to, or are a continuation of, a cult genre. For instance, cyberpunk magazines,
which began appearing in the 1980s, fall under our purview as part of the development of the science
fiction magazine genre that Hugo Gernsback set in motion in 1926.
The chief ingredients of golden age cult magazines are sex, celebrity gossip, illustrations or photographs of scantily clad and nude women, salaciousness, crime, contrariness against political and religious authority, sexism, and obsession. Obviously, few cult magazine editors were going to admit to
such base guiding principles. As one spicy title editor put it:There will be nothing Lewd, Lascivious,Vulgar, Obscene, Prurient, Pernicious, or in any way offensive to the Popular Public Taste [in our
magazine].These were all the main selling points of the magazine he was editing. Indeed, a few of the
magazines covered in this book would create a public firestorm if they appeared on newsstands today
(though the same material in cyberspace would not elicit a peep.) Authorities saw these cult magazines
as outside mainstream consumer culture and therefore suspect, but many had a loyal following that
actively searched for their favorite magazines.This book can be read as a tribute to the daring of a few
non-conformist publishers and editors, and the readers that danced with them along the edge of that
wide-open cliff.
New York City 2009

6 Magazine Sizes
*The bedsheet size is problematic when it comes to magazines. The term originally
referred to 19th century oversized newspapers that were printed on sheets so large
that when unfolded they could almost serve as a blanket for the average sized person. Today the term is applied indiscriminately to pulps or any oversized magazine.

bedsheet*
tabloid
pulp

magazine

half mag

digest
mini

Acme News Company |

A
ACE HIGH DETECTIVE
see Battle Birds
ACME NEWS COMPANY
Acme News Company could have been the
inspiration for Wile E. Coyotes Acme Catalog
since the company showed the same ability to
carry a seemingly unlimited, albeit unusual, product line to meet any dubious occasion.ANC was
a New York City-based distributor that incorporated in the early 1900s to service regional newsstands outside major cities. Twentieth-century
magazines with high circulation like Time, Life,
and The Saturday Evening Post, could always write

their own ticket with national distributors.

Regional distributors like ANC carried everything else, squeezing nickels and dimes from pulp
and marginal magazines.After World War II, a few
of these regional distributors realized that they
could generate their own products and in effect
created a closed loop between publisher, printer,
and distributor, with most of the profit going to
them. Distributors like ANC branched out to
become publishing partners and printers.
ANC worked as packagers to publishers and
made arrangements that included fronting the
money to pay for a print-run of a new magazine.
In this business scenario, distributors would cut
themselves a sweetheart deal, using presses they
owned or controlled to print magazines in a
sense they were the de-facto publisher since they
controlled the purse strings and owned the exclusive rights to sell on newsstands.These magazines
were nearly always copycat titles: cheaply pro-

duced knock-offs of anything that was known to

sell: Acme had a Mad magazine knock-off, Nuts
Magazine (1958); Famous Monsters of Filmland
knock-offs like The Journal of Frankenstein (1959),
Shriek (1965), and Monsters and Heroes (1967); Fate
magazines knock-off was Exploring the Unknown.
During the 1950s, ANC set up a subsidiary
company called Health Knowledge Inc., to
directly produce magazines for them. HKIs early
output catered to prurient taste under the guise
of sex education with titles such as Real Life
Guide: Vital Sex Knowledge Magazine (1959), Big
(1962), and Tomorrows Man, which on the surface
appeared to cater to muscle builders, but one
could not miss the homoerotic beefcake poses
of these muscle men.Thrown into the mix were
a few magazines like Exploring the Unknown
(HKIs version of Ray Palmers Fate and Mystic
occult magazines), along with a few genre fiction
mags, Magazine of Horror (1963) and Startling Mys-

tery Stories (1969), to fill in open press time.

In the 1960s, HKI turned more and more to
producing girlie and fetish publications. Satana
(1963) was a fetish magazine featuring betterthan-average photography of zaftig women in
black stockings, skimpy underwear, and high
heels, along with letters, fiction, cartoons with
fetish appeal, and psycho-essays by Harold Doktor, Modern Life Illustrated (1967) followed the
same fetish formula of garter belts and panties,
Happy Sun-In published full frontal, if airbrushed,
photos of nudists, the strange Female Mimics
(1965) covered - or uncovered - female impersonators. Striparama (1960) a mens magazine,
showcasing strippers of the time, was taken over
by Acme from Leonard Burtmans Selbee Associates, Inc. (Striparama featured many pictorials with
stripper and model Tana Louise, who was Burtmans wife). HKI and ANC also got into the sexy
cartoon market with Oversexed, Spicy Fun, Pin-Up

ACME NEWS COMPANY

8 | Acme News Company

Fun, Gals & Gags and Girlie Fun (the latter two
included many cartoons by Bill Wenzel).
In the mid-1960s, when the English rock
invasion was all the rage, ANC published oneshot magazines on the Beatles and Rolling
Stones; there was even Elvis Presley vs.The Beatles
(1965).
ANC filed for bankruptcy on August 26,
1970, and in liquidation proceedings Myron Fasss
Countrywide Publication bought out all the titles
from the Health Knowledge division. Fass was
only interested in the sex and fetish magazines
and promptly killed everything else, including all
the fiction magazines.LO [see Health
Knowledge Inc, Lunatickle, and Castle of
Frankenstein]

magazines office files. A crusading Los Angeles

DA hit four magazines that April day: Black Silk
Stockings, Cocktail, Snap, and Adam. Most of the
charges against Adam were based on a single
photo of Virginia Bell in the April, 1959, issue.The
DA had a weak case and settled for a misdemeanor
plea deal, and the state department managed to
calm down the Iranian government. For a few
issues Adam carried the slogan: The most talked
about magazine in the U.S.
Adam was one of the better mens magazines, carrying a good mix of quality pictorials,
fiction, cartoons, and articles throughout most
of its nearly fifty-year run. Knight Publications
also published Adam Bedside Reader, Adam Film
Quarterly edited by Bill Roster (covering adult
films), and Knight magazine.LO [see Captain
Billys Whiz Bang]

ADAM
The first American incarnation of Adam magazine
was by Fawcett Publications in 1952. Fawcett, as
one of the biggest publishers and independent distributors around, and the originator of Captain
Billys Whiz Bang, should have been able to produce a better product. But at this point in their
history they had become too big and their mens
magazine reflected their corporate conservatism
by being too tame, even by 1950s standards.
Four years later Bentley Morriss Knight Publications brought out two companion mens magazines titled Adam and Eve. Eve quickly vanished,
but Adam went on to become a mainstay on
newsstands where it was easy to notice due to the
colorful vertical cover stripes, which appeared on
every issue until 1969.
Adam almost didnt make it into the sixties
due to two unrelated events. A 1959 issue of the
magazine created a small international incident
when the Iranian government filed a protest with
the state department over an article on
Mohammed in the magazine.The second incident
began earlier in the year when local Hollywood
authorities raided Adams offices, citing a conspiracy to distribute obscene materials, and seized the

ADVENTURE
Adventure, along with Blue Book and Argosy, was
one of the top three American pulp magazines to
which all such authors aspired to contribute. Of
the three, Adventure was arguably the most popular, especially in the 1910s and 1920s, and it has
retained that cult status ever since. In October,
1935, Time magazine dubbed it the No. 1 pulp,
and though its reputation faded thereafter, for
half of its life Adventure was everyones favorite
pulp.The very mention of its name will bring a
rheumy sparkle to the eyes of old pulpsters, and
a yearning to the hearts of young collectors. Its
title was symbolic of pure escapism and its covers evocative of a golden age of daring and
excitement.
Its first issue is dated November, 1910. It was
published by the Ridgway Company, which also
published the slick up-market Everybodys Magazine. Both magazines were edited by the explorer and former Blue Book editor Trumbull White.
That issue ran to 188 thick pulp pages and sold
for fifteen cents. The early issues, probably for
budgetary reasons or the lack of an adequate

Adventure |
inventory, ran several stories by British writers
from British magazines. These included William
Le Queux, C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne, R. Austin Freeman and William Hope Hodgson, whose The
Albatross, in the July, 1911 issue, had not previously appeared in Britain.
The British sources of stories by two authors
in particular cast an interesting light on the early
contents of Adventure. John Buchans novel,
Prester John, was serialized in the March to
June, 1911 issues. This had first appeared in
Britain the previous year as a serial in the boys
magazine The Captain, which is not only an indication of the quality of British boys fiction, but
an example of the gut-level drive of Adventures
fiction. The work of the Italian-born Britishbased historical swashbuckler Rafael Sabatini was
ideally suited to Adventure. His first appearance in
the magazine was with The Pretender in the
December, 1911 issue. This had previously
appeared in the British Ladys Magazine in
August, 1911, showing the strong link between
adventure and romance the two words were
once synonymous. Sabatinis work would be one
of the features of Adventure in the 1920s, with the
rousing exploits of Captain Blood and the magnificent serial The Sea-Hawk (October 20November 30, 1922). Adventure ran the pulp
heroics equivalent of cinemas Errol Flynn and
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
The author whose work perhaps came best to
symbolize Adventure, however, was Talbot Mundy.
He rapidly established himself as Adventures most
popular contributor and his work was often cited
as the epitome of the Adventure story. Though
British born, Mundy settled in America in 1909
and became a naturalized citizen in 1916. He had
adopted the name Mundy to hide his past per-

sona, who had been something of a rogue. He

subsequently fabricated much of his previous
thirty years to make himself sound like an adventurer and explorer rather than an ivory poacher
and conman.Truth or fiction was all the same to
him and once settled in America it seemed only
natural to become a story-teller, at which he was
a huge success.
His first appearance in Adventure was with an
article, Pig-Sticking in India (April 1911). His
first story, The Phantom Battery was in the
August, 1911 issue, but his claim to fame came
with The Soul of a Regiment in the February,
1912 issue.This tale of courage, valor and loyalty
became the single most popular story the magazine ever published and was reprinted seven times
in Adventure alone.Thereafter Mundys name sold
issues and, as he appeared in over 160 of them, he
is clearly a significant part of Adventures cult status. Amongst his most popular work was the
series featuring the American secret agent James
Grim, usually known as Jimgrim, who confronts
the mystical east in The Gray Mahatma
(November 10, 1922), also in book form as The
Caves of Terror.This was the start of Mundys more
fantastic stories. It was something of a sequel to an
earlier novel,King, of the Khyber Rifles, which
is amongst Mundys best known though this had
been serialized in Everybodys rather than Adventure, a sign of Mundys growing popularity. Other
stories and serials in the Jimgrim series, all in
Adventure, include Khufus Real Tomb (October
10, 1922), The Nine Unknown (March 20April 30, 1923), Ramsden (June 8-August 8,
1926) and King of the World (November 15,
1930-February 15, 1931). Similar popular stories
include Om (October 10-November 30, 1924)
and his series set in the time of the Roman

PG 7 Lt to R SHRIEK #1, 1965 (Acme News Company); STRIPARAMA Vol. 2, No. 8, 1965 (Health Knowledge
Inc.); GIRLIE FUN #11, 1968 (Acme News Company). PG 8 Lt to R, Top to Bot ADAM, v.1, #12, Dec. 1957(Knight
Publications); SATANA, #08, Summer 1965, (Health Knowledge Inc.); BABES & DOLLS, Summer, 1965, #8,
(Health Knowledge Inc.); ADVENTURE, Nov, 1941 ( respective copyright holder); PG 9, AMAZING DETECTIVE,
June 1939 ( Techni-Craft Pubs).

10 | Adventure
Empire, which began with Tros of Samothrace
(February 10, 1925). Mundys tales of lost empires
and hidden knowledge were written with a gusto
and spirit that brought the worlds and characters
alive and has kept his work perennially popular.
Mundys debut coincided with a change of
editor at Adventure.At the end of 1911,White was
succeeded by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman (18761966), who would steer Adventures fortunes over
the next fifteen years. It was due to him that
Adventure became the leading pulp magazine. For
the first two years Hoffman was assisted by Sinclair Lewis, and although Lewis had no stories
published in the magazine, he may have contributed to the editorial features.
Hoffman started several important features
within the magazine that add to its cult status.The
first was The Camp-Fire, which began in June,
1912.This was not only the first important letter
column in the pulps, but Hoffman developed it to
become a major interaction between reader and
writer. It was here that readers would tell of their
own adventures and experiences and where writers would provide background to their stories.
Hoffman also introduced a Lost Trails feature to
reunite friends and families and which sometimes
helped identify and track down lost explorers. He
created an identification card to be carried by
explorers so they could be identified if they were
killed or endangered. In 1915, he started the
American Legion department, a feature that
became the basis for the organization of that
name created in 1919. These departments, especially The Camp-Fire have never been fully
indexed and contain many contributions by leading writers. Mundy, for instance, caused quite a
stir in the issue for February 10, 1925, when he
launched an attack on Julius Caesar.
Over the next fifteen years, Hoffman developed Adventure into a magazine that sizzled with
energy and was a constant buzz of excitement. In
addition to Mundy, all of the other major contributors to the magazine appeared during Hoffmans editorship.These included Hugh Pendexter
(from July 1912),Arthur D. Howden Smith (from

August 1913), Gordon MacCreagh (from October 1913), J.Allan Dunn (from November 1914),
Harold Lamb (from October 1917), Arthur O.
Friel (from September 1919), and George Surdez
(from October 1922). Each had their own special
territory, and each their own cult following.
Together they made a magazine that shimmered
with intrigue and wonder, serving as a window to
readers upon what the world had to offer.
Pendexter is perhaps the least remembered
today and yet his many serials and stories traced
the history of the American nation in meticulous
detail from the earliest frontier days. He often
contributed nuggets of rare information to The
Camp-Fire. Arthur D. Howden Smith wrote
both sea stories and historical adventures, and is
best remembered for his series based on the
Orkneyinga Saga featuring the Norse sea-rover
Swain, which began with Swains Stone
(August 20, 1923). He also wrote a prequel to
Treasure Island, Porto Bello Gold (February
10-March 20, 1924) and a series about a sword,
Grey Maiden, down through the ages (beginning on August 23, 1926).
J. Allan Dunn was noted for his sea stories,
Arthur O. Friel for his South American jungle
adventures and Georges Surdez for his foreignlegion tales. Harold Lamb was an immensely popular writer of historical extravaganzas, especially
stories of the Crusades or of the Mongol Empire.
He was an expert on Genghis Khan.Amongst his
most popular stories were The Three Paladins
(begun July 30, 1923), the Crusades series that
began with Saladins Holy War (December 1,
1930) and the early Mongol stories, especially
Khilit (November 3, 1917). His stories provided
some of the most colorful covers for the magazine, such as that for Khilit (November 1, 1917)
that was by noted Oz artist John R. Neill.
Gordon MacCreagh was best known for his
many African adventure tales, but perhaps his
most significant contribution was an account of
an expedition organized by Adventure to search
for the Ark of the Covenant. An adventure worthy of Indiana Jones, it appeared as Adventures

Adventure |
Abyssinian Expedition in seven reports from
July 1, 1927, to May 15, 1928.
There were many other contributors to the
wealth of Adventures contents during this period.
There were the wilderness tales of Raymond S.
Spears, the often humorous westerns of W.C.Tuttle, and the more gutsy westerns of Gordon
Young. Several of Edgar Wallaces Sanders of the
River stories appeared during 1913. British expatriate L. Patrick Greene, who has been compared to Wallace, contributed many stories with
an East African setting. Another British ex-pat,
Albert R. Wetjen, contributed many sea stories,
whilst Canadian-born H. Bedford-Jones, one of
the most prolific of all pulpsters, could turn a
hand to anything and everything. British writer F.
St. Mars (real name Frank Atkins) contributed
many animal stories (most of which had previously appeared in British magazines like The London).After his death Jim Kjelgaard took over that
role. T.S. Stribling, whose first appearance was
with the noted science-fiction story,The Green
Splotches (November 10, 1925), contributed
several unusual stories including The Web of the
Sun (January 30, 1922) and Christ in Chicago
(April 8, 1926), as well as his early stories about
detective Dr. Poggioli, starting with The
Refugees (October 10, 1925).
These are just a few of the key contributors
and stories appearing during Hoffmans editorship, to which can briefly be added Hugh Lofting, the author of the Dr. Dolittle books, who had
just one story in Adventure,Ilari (January 1914),
Baroness Orczy with her serial The Laughing
Cavalier (May-August 1914), Maurice Leblancs
Arsne Lupin and the Tigers Teeth (AugustNovember 1914), and H. Rider Haggards serial
Finished (January-May 1917).
The cover art for Adventure was always distinctive and frequently minimalistic. Adventure did
not go in for detailed covers but frequently presented an image that, in its simplicity, projected
the essence of action and intrigue. This may be
simply a soldiers face against a white background,
or a slinking jaguar, or an Arab on a camel. The

11

covers seldom seem to age and they certainly help

sustain the value of the magazine. During the
First World War, the covers featured women in
fashionable garb, like many of the popular magazines, as if hoping to attract women readers, but
the contents did not change and Adventure was
always a mens magazine. There was never one
dedicated cover artist but the main contributors
during this period include H.C. Murphy, Charles
Livingston Bull, and Edgar Franklin Wittmack.
Although Adventure began as a monthly, it
switched to twice monthly starting on September
1, 1917, and thrice monthly starting on October
10, 1921. Producing a full-size pulp magazine
every ten days was demanding and inevitably led
to a drop in overall quality, but Hoffman had such
a solid stable of reliable authors that there was
always something of merit in most issues. It
returned to twice monthly in April, 1926.
Hoffman resigned as editor in 1927, during a
dispute with the publisher (now Butterick Publishing) over upgrading Adventure to a slick magazine. The experiment did not work and in the
process Adventure lost its main driving force. It
never really recovered. Thereafter Adventure
underwent a constant stream of editors, few of
whom lasted for many years and even fewer of
whom made any impression on the magazine.
For some time after Hoffmans departure the
magazine sustained its sales on its name alone and
the continuing presence of most of the writers
whom Hoffman had developed.
A few more names of interest appear. The
later noted film producer,Val Lewton, had a couple of articles,Kavkaz, Grandaddy of Polo (February 1, 1930) and Gauntlet Swords (June 1,
1931). Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who
became a significant name in the comic-book
field, contributed many rousing adventures, and
Donald Barr Chidsey, better known for his work
in Argosy, made an occasional appearance, including the serial,Glenallan of the Clans (begun on
December 1, 1931).
But Adventure was noticeably going downhill.
By 1934, the Butterick Company had lost inter-

12 | Adventure
est in it. It had dropped to monthly publication in
June, 1933 and in May, 1934 it was sold to Popular Publications, a new company that would
become the biggest and the last bastion of the
pulps. (It also ended up owning most of the major
titles including Argosy and Black Mask.) Popular
restored the twice-monthly schedule briefly, but
in November, 1935 it reverted to monthly. Under
Popular, Adventure became a more routine adventure pulp with little of the flair or excitement of
its early days. Many of the major contributors still
appeared, though less frequently, as they moved
on to other fields or died. Mundys death in 1940
marked the end of an era. His last original appearance was in the March, 1941 issue.
Of the new names to appear in Adventure in
the 1930s, only two stand out. Erle Stanley Gardner contributed a couple of early atypical stories,
The War Lord of Darkness (July 1934) and
The Joss of Tai Wong (March 1939) and L. Ron
Hubbard also appeared twice: He Walked to
War (October 1, 1935) and Mr.Tidwell, Gunner (September 1936).
The covers during the 1930s and 1940s were
also more routine, action-oriented, and far less
striking than the early ones. Nevertheless some
notable pulp artists appeared, including Walter
Baumhofer, Rafael de Soto, Hubert Rogers,
Lawrence Sterne Stevens and his son Peter and, in
the early 1950s, Norman Saunders.
For most of the 1940s, Adventure was edited
by Ken White, son of the original editor, Trumbull White. But White also edited Black Mask,
which captured most of his attention and Adventure languished. Inevitably, during the war it published much war fiction, which was of immediate
gratification, but nothing now stands out. After
the war the magazine shifted towards being a
hard-edged mens magazine. Of interest is the
March, 1946 issue with the first story by Philip
Jos Farmer, OBrien and Obrenov. John D.
Macdonald also contributed to several issues
starting in July 1949.
In April, 1953 Adventure shifted from the standard pulp size to the large flat size, the format

already adopted by Blue Book and Argosy. It also

shifted to bi-monthly publication. From here on it
became a full-scale mens magazine, running many
nude or semi-nude photographs and featuring
articles on sex, scandals and violence. Most of the
contents were written by staff writers under pseudonyms, including the editor Alden H. Norton,
but there are still some surprises.Arthur C. Clarke
had three stories from his Tales of the White
Hart sequence, starting with Armaments Race
(April 1954).That issue also contained a story by
Evan Hunter, better known as Ed McBain, and he
contributed two others during the 1950s. One of
Sax Rohmers last stories, The Death Flower,
appeared in the April, 1955, issue. Norman Mailers early story The Paper House appeared in
December, 1958. Adrian Conan Doyle (Sir
Arthurs son) had three feature articles in the
1960s, starting with Man Eater (October 1961).
Ross Macdonald made just one appearance,One
Brunette for Murder (August 1967) and, perhaps
of most interest, Ian Fleming appeared with
Berlin Escape (June 1970), the basis for the film
The Living Daylights (1987). These issues may
appeal to collectors of mens magazines but they
have lost that sparkle and glamour that made the
magazine the greatest of the pulps.
The Fleming story appeared at a time when
Adventure was undergoing one final transformation. In December, 1970 the magazine was converted to a digest and once again became a fiction magazine. But it saw only three issues in this
format and, with the issue for April, 1971, it folded. In total, Adventure ran for 881 issues.The most
important are the 360 edited by Arthur S. Hoffman and the least important are the 120 or so as
a mens magazine. But for almost half its run
Adventure presented not only some of the best
adventure fiction ever written but also stimulated
activity amongst readers and writers to undertake

new adventures. It buzzed with excitement and a

sense of achievement. This mood was lost with
the Second World War and now feels part of
another world, but dipping into those early issues
can transport you back to those days of adventure
and glory.MA

ALL DETECTIVE
see Doctor Death
AMAZING DETECTIVE TALES
see Sexology
AMAZING STORIES
Hugo Gernsback, the immigrant technocrat
who named the genre, thought that science fiction should be fiction about science. Further, he
planned to publish a literature that would foresee the possibilities of science-to-come, stories
of imaginary technology, stories that might
appear to be fiction today, but would be fact
tomorrow.
In 1924, his dream nearly died unborn when
he circulated an announcement to 25,000 people
about his new proposed magazine, Scientifiction.
Due to the dismal response he received, his new
idea for a magazine lay dormant for nearly two
more years.
In March, 1926 Gernsback published the first
issue of his new magazine with an April cover
date and without any further announcement.
Described as a magazine of scientifiction, it was
called Amazing Stories. In an editorial Gernsback
wrote: We really need not make any excuse for
Amazing Stories, because the title represents exactly what the stories really are. There is a standing

PG 10, ALL-STORY, Jan. 1916 (Munsey); PG 11 ACE-HIGH DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, Mar. 1937 ( Popular Pubs.);
PG 12 top to bot REAL ART STUDIES, #13, circa 1930s ( respective copyright holders); ARTISTS AND MODELS, #26, circa
1930s ( respective copyright holders); PG 13 AMAZING STORIES, Oct. 1949, art by Harold Mccauley ( Ziff-Davis).

Amazing Stories |
rule in our editorial offices that unless the story is
amazing, it should not be published in the magazine.To be sure, the amazing quality is only one
requisite, because the story must contain science
in every case.
From its initial appearance, Amazing Stories
broke all the rules as the first magazine devoted to
science fiction. It was not at all like Argosy, which
was a general fiction pulp magazine. It was not
like one of the new, specialized pulp magazines,
like Weird Tales. Initially Amazing Stories was not a
pulp as it was printed on a special type of thick
book paper. It was something brand new and different. The cover art by Frank R. Paul and the
subject matter allowed it to stand out from every
other magazine on the newsstand.
Amazing Stories appeared at the right time. E.E.
Smith had just submitted his novel The Skylark of
Space to Argosy, and it was rejected. Eventually it
would be rejected 50 times by various other publishers before Gernsback would publish it in Amazing Stories.When The Skylark of Space appeared
in Amazing Stories in 1928, Edward Elmer Smith
was instantly recognized as the premier writer of
American magazine science fiction. He would
remain so for fully a dozen years more with one
expansive serial novel after another.
The August, 1928 issue of Amazing Stories has
become a much-sought-after collectors item. It is
important in the history of the space opera subgenre because it includes the story Armageddon
2419 A.D. the first appearance of Buck
Rogers and E.E. Smiths The Skylark of
Space, considered one of the first space opera
novels. Although Armageddon 2419 A.D. was
not a space opera, the comic strip based on it certainly was.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a regular contributor at Argosy, where they had rejected his latest
Martian story, A Weird Adventure on Mars. It
would appear in Amazing Stories Annual under the
title Mastermind of Mars. Inside the pages of
Amazing Stories began the segregation of science
fiction from other kinds of stories, allowing writers a market, a unique readership, and a place to

13

further develop this particular medium. Future

generations of science fiction readers would come
to reckon the very creation of science fiction from
the date the first issue of Amazing Stories appeared.
From its inception, Amazing Stories was set
apart from the other pulp magazines, in part
because it was in a slightly larger format 8 .5 by
11 inches.This was called the bedsheet format. It
came with neatly trimmed edges and a slightly
higher cover price.The much copied logo, Amazing Stories, loomed across the cover, the initial A
fully 3 inches high, the rest dwindling off toward
infinity. The first attention-grabbing covers were
painted by Frank R. Paul, an Austrian immigrant
with architectural training. Paul was a master colorist, adept at rendering cogent visions of the
future. He would go on to paint covers for Amazing Stories for its first three years of existence. Frank
R. Paul created a notable body of work during his
lifetime, including the cover painting of the first
Marvel Comics (October-November 1939), which
featured the debuts of The Human Torch and SubMariner (currently good copies sell at auction for
$20,000 to $30,000). Throughout his career he
painted over 220 magazine covers.
For its first two years of publication Amazing
Stories was filled with reprinted stories from the
past, essentially a recapitulation of the development of science fiction during the previous century. Works by Edgar Allan Poe appeared along
with those of Fitz-James OBrien. Gernsback
would to serialize five novels by Jules Verne, and
would eventually republish all of H.G.Wellss classic scientific romances. Gernsback would then go
on to find new writers, publishing original work
by David H. Keller, Jack Williamson, Edmond
Hamilton, and H.P. Lovecraft, among others.
During the boom years of the early Amazing
Stories, Gernsback spent his money on various
projects, such as his radio station and television
broadcasts. In February, 1929 his financial miscalculations caught up with him. His printer and
paper supplier had been pushed too far and sent
Gernsbacks publishing companies into bankruptcy.

14 | Amazing Stories

There has been a lasting debate about

whether this process was genuine, manipulated by
publisher Bernarr Macfadden, or was a Gernsback scheme to begin another company.Whatever the case, a new publishing company was organized by the receiver and creditors, and Amazing
Stories continued regular publication without
missing an issue. But Hugo Gernsback was out,
severed from his creation.
Not undone, Gernsback bounced back.With
an illicit copy of the Amazing Stories subscription
list, unpublished manuscripts, and an unknown
source of financing, he managed to have an
entirely new science fiction magazine on the
newsstands within two months, Science Wonder
Stories. His friend, the artist Frank R. Paul, followed him to the new publication. Along with
the various items offered in the new magazine, it
also offered a new brand name science fiction
a name that would soon be generally adopted,
replacing the original term scientifiction.

Modern science fiction fandom owes a great

debt to Gernsback and both of the magazines he
created. Amazing Stories printed readers comments in a letter column and included the full
addresses of its correspondents, which allowed
fans of the genre to begin contacting each other
in person and via the mails. Later in 1934 Wonder
Stories began chartering local fan clubs under the
umbrella of the Science Fiction League.
Hugo Gernsback would continue his long,
successful career in the industry. His early introduction of letters to the editor would be cited as
the foundation for the incredible world of science
fiction fandom that would follow. The most
sought-after award given by fandom in yearly
appreciation of works in the field would be
named after him, the Hugo.
The new publishers of Amazing Stories
installed T. OConnor Sloane, Ph.D., a whitebearded old man who had formerly been Gernsbacks chief sub-editor, as editor. Sloane was an

inventor whose son had married a daughter of

Thomas Edison. When he became editor of
Amazing Stories in November, 1929 he was nearly 78 years old. Sloane lacked Gernsbacks vision
and ambition. However, Gernsbacks new publications were not able to overtake Amazing Stories
in the marketplace. And to make matters worse
for Gernsback, in December, 1929 a new pulp
magazine appeared to stiffen the competition,
Astounding Stories of Super-Science.
Sloane continued to edit Amazing Stories until
the April 1938 issue, when the title was sold to
Ziff-Davis. He was replaced as editor of the magazine by the notable and formidable Raymond A.
Palmer. The first few issues were assembled by
Palmer under the editorial guidance of Bernard
G. Davis. Under Palmers leadership Amazing Stories would alter its format to the more traditional
pulp size with rough-cut pages and follow a less
serious bent, achieving commercial success. Critical derision would soon follow when Palmer

began to publish the Shaver Mystery stories.

Palmer continued running the magazine until
December, 1949, at which time Palmer finally left
Ziff-Davis to form his own publishing house,
which brought out such titles as Fate and Other
Worlds, although none of them lived up to the
success of Amazing Stories during his time there.
He eventually published Space World magazine
until his death.
Late in 1945, Palmer edited and rewrote a
10,000-word manuscript by Richard Shaver.The
rewritten and expanded 31,000-word novella
appeared under the title I Remember Lemuria!
in the March, 1945 issue of Amazing Stories.The
issue sold out and sparked an outpouring of letters from people claiming to have had their own
mysterious encounters. Soon Shaver Mystery
Clubs were being formed by these people. Shaver
stories spilled over into Fantastic Adventures, a fantasy-oriented magazine published by Ziff-Davis
since 1939. Over the next few years the Shaver

American Aphrodite |
Mystery continued to fill issues of Amazing Stories, sometimes to the exclusion of other stories.
This editorial policy continued until 1948, when
sales dipped.
The Shaver Mystery was derided by many in
the community of science fiction fans, who publicly condemned it as the Shaver Hoax. Notably,
young fan Harlan Ellison badgered Palmer into
admitting it was a publicity grabber. When this
story came out, Palmer angrily responded that this
was hardly the same thing as calling it a hoax.
The publication of Richard Shavers stories
(which maintained that the world is dominated by
insane inhabitants of the hollow earth) would
cause Palmer to be partially shunned by the science fiction community, but also contribute to his
leaving Amazing when he started his own magazine on occult themes called Fate.

Any unsold copies of Amazing Stories or Fantastic Adventures were returned complete to the
publisher, who stripped off the original covers and
bound three consecutive issues together under a
new cover and offered them as Amazing Stories
Quarterly and Fantastic Adventures Quarterly, which
were huge bargains.
Fantastic Adventures was published until 1953,.
By then an experiment with a quality digest
magazine, Fantastic, had proved so successful, that
the two magazines merged. Amazing was also
converted to digest format. Both magazines
briefly attempted a more sophisticated look
under editor Howard Browne (January 1950August 1956), when the publisher increased their
production and editorial budgets, but this did not
translate into more sales and Amazing and Fantastic soon went back to publishing routine science

fiction and fantasy. In 1980, the two magazines

merged under the title Amazing Stories.
After Brownes departure, Paul W. Fairman
became editor under whom the magazine sank to
its lowest point. In 1959, Cele Goldsmith became
editor (January 1959-June 1965), and began to
publish some of the better new writers, including
Thomas M. Disch, Piers Anthony, Roger Zelazny,
and Ursula K. LeGuin. Amazing was at its best
under Goldsmith, but this all ended when ZiffDavis sold the magazine to Sol Cohen in 1965
and the magazine became almost entirely reprint.
The late 1960s and 1970s shows an impressive
group of editors: Harry Harrison, Barry
Malzberg, Ted White. Since 1982 Amazing had
been published by the fantasy role-playing game
publisher TSR and subsequently by their successors, Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing,
with various editors, including George Scithers,
at the helm.
In 2004 it was relaunched by Paizo Publishing, but after the April, 2005 issue, the magazine
went on hiatus. In March, 2006 Paizo
announced that it would no longer publish
Amazing Stories.
Of note, movie director Steven Spielberg
licensed the title for use on an American television show called Amazing Stories that ran from
1985 to 1987.
Amazing Stories has left an indelible mark and
laid the foundation for the new science fiction
literature of the modern era.ETK [see The
Hidden World, Fate]

AMERICAN APHRODITE
American Aphrodite was a book magazine (hardbound in cloth) showcasing literary erotica, art,

15

and photos of nude women, which first appeared

in 1951. Editor and publisher Samuel Roth
wrote in the first issue:American Aphrodite seeks
to fill a social and aesthetic vacuum created by
two world wars and the preparation for a third
holocaust, by re-establishing the principle of
integration love in all its marvelous manifestations, especially in the realm of the erotic. Our
Christian world has created a split between Eros
and Agapae, between love beneath and above the
diaphragm, a cleavage that began with St. Paul
and was aggravated by the Calvins and Constocks of our own time.
Roths in your face attitude caught up with

PG 14 Lt to R ADVENTURE, Mar 3, 1919; ADVENTURE, Sept. 1946 (Popular Publications); ARGOSY August 30, 1941,
( Red Star Magazine); ALL-STORY WEEKLY (Munsey); PG 15 Lt to R illustration from ADAM BEDSIDE READER #4,
1960 ( Knight Publications); AMAZING STORIES, the model for the mad scientist on the cover is editor Raymond
Palmer ( Ziff-Davis).

16 | American Aphrodite
him in 1955 when he was charged with violating
the Comstock Act, a federal statute making it a
crime to send pornographic or obscene materials
through the mail. Before 1955, postal officials had
trouble convicting publishers because all of them
were in New York, and they could not get a New
York jury worked up about lewd publications. In
that year they were able to amend the law and
initiate prosecution in any state where naughty
publications were delivered. (Obscene publications included birth control literature at the
prompting of the church.) It did not take long for
local communities to learn how to use the law to
drag out-of-state publishers into local courts.
The objectionable magazines cited by court
papers included American Aphrodite, Good Times:A
Review of the World of Pleasure, and Photo and Body.
Today they all seem quite tame, showing topless
photos and art that seemed unlikely, even at the
time, to cause much of a stir. Roth was eventually convicted, sentenced to five years in prison, and
fined $5,000. His case was appealed before the
Supreme Court in 1957, where the conviction
was upheld. Supporting Roth, with friends of
the court briefs, were Hugh Hefner (Playboy)
and Bill Hamling (Rogue for Men). Despite the
outcome, the case did manage to crack the door
on obscenity standards by asserting that to be
obscene a publication must be utterly without
redeeming social importance.
Roth has the distinction of being one of the
first publishers fighting against state and federal
censures. He also had a long history of antagonizing both sides of the censorship battle. During
the late 1920s he was tagged as both a pornographer and a literary pirate when he published
James Joyces banned Ulysses in his magazine Two
Worlds Monthly without permission or payment an act that angered the author, censors,
and a few progressive publishers working to get
the book published legally in the United States
He would serve a six month jail sentence in 1930
for circulating obscene literature. In most of
Roths court battles it was hard to tell if he was
an anti-censorship pioneer or just a predatory

businessman without scruples.

Erotic artwork by the enigmatic fantasy and
horror artist Mahlon Blaine appeared in American
Aphrodite numbers 9, 10, 13, 15, and 16.The magazine also reprinted work by Sacher-Masoch,
Picasso, Rhys Davies, John Collier,Aleister Crowley, Henry Miller, and Anas Nin, and photography by Zoltan Glass. Also published by Roth:
Everybodys Pleasure.LO

AMERICAN AUTOPSY
see Medical Horrors
AMERICAN MANHOOD
see True Strange
ARCADE
see Raw
ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS
see Lunatickle
ARGOSY & ALL-STORY
Argosy was the first of all pulp magazines, but it
had a long history both before and after its pulp
days and in all its forms it was significant and
influential. Created by publisher Frank A. Munsey, Argosy began one of the biggest publishing
businesses of the twentieth century and effectively created the cult of pulp fiction.
Its origins, though, were in another world and
another day. It began in 1882 when Frank Munsey, who managed a telegraph office in Augusta,

Maine, moved to New York with the hope of running a magazine. Munsey had been promised
financial support,but once he arrived in NewYork
his backers pulled out.He had just $40 with which
to compile, print, and distribute his magazine. It
was only through his ingenuity and determination
that he succeeded, and that determination became
synonymous with his magazine.
It was called The Golden Argosy and was
intended for young readers, chiefly young
teenage boys. Its first issue, dated December 9,
1882, was in tabloid newspaper form, with just
eight pages, selling for five cents.The sub-titles of
its first two serials by Horatio Alger and Edward
S. Ellis sum up Munseys philosophy: Do and
Dare; or a Brave Boys Fight for a Fortune and
Nick and Nellie; or God Helps Those Who
Help Themselves. Perhaps the most representative author in these early issues was Oliver Optic,
the alias of Boston writer William T. Adams,
whose upbeat serials Making a Man of Himself,
Every Inch a Boy,How He Won, and others,
promoted Munseys goal for self-achievement.
Munsey had entered a highly competitive
market filled with scores of dime novels and
story-papers for the young, and the main offering
that The Golden Argosy had over its rivals was a
positive attitude towards achievement and success, not unlike the British Boys Own Paper which
had started in similar style and format just three
years earlier. Indeed, that inveterate writer of
school stories,Talbot Baines Reed, would appear
in both magazines. In those days, with no international copyright protection, it was free game to
reprint material from abroad, and with his limited finances, Munsey did all the reprinting he
could. When he couldnt pay contributor Malcolm Douglas, he made him editor with a small
but regular remuneration.

PG 16 Top to Bot AMAZING STORIES, Mar. 1950 ( Ziff-Davis); AMAZING STORIES 1948 back cover ad ( ZiffDavis); PG 17 Lt to R ARGOSY 1932 ( respective copyright holder); ( Edwin Bower Hesser); LIVING ART MODELS, Vol.1, #3, July, 1928; LIFE STUDY, #17, 1950s ( respective copyright holder); LENS AND LIFE STUDY, (1940
respective copyright holder).

Argosy & All-Story |

Munseys determination paid off. Although
he had operated at the outset on credit from his
publisher, E. G. Rideout, Munsey made sufficient
money in the first year to repay Rideout and take
over publication of the magazine. In 1887, Munsey also took over the monthly magazine The
BoysWorld, which he absorbed into The Golden
Argosy. It was the first of many takeovers and
mergers that would become synonymous with
Munsey. One rival claimed that Munsey was not
so much a magazine publisher as a magazine
manufacturer.The former editor of BoysWorld,
Matthew White, Jr., became editor of Golden
Argosy, a role he held for forty years, until his
retirement in 1928.
Munsey continued to experiment with The
Golden Argosy. He had already dropped the subtitle during 1886 and on December 1, 1888, he
dropped the Golden. At the same time he
shrank the dimensions of the magazine and
increased the page count to emulate the dimenovel format. In February, 1889 he began Munseys Weekly, essentially as a comic paper, but aimed
at older readers. He changed this to a 112-page
monthly magazine in October, 1891, but the
more important step came in October, 1893
when he cut the cover price from 25 cents to 10
cents. It was nothing short of a revolution, as
Munsey did not reduce the quality of the magazine but offered plenty of illustrated material and
a wide range of fiction and articles. Circulation
rocketed from 40,000 to 500,000 in less than two
years and soon Munseys claimed the highest
magazine circulation in the world.
Bolstered by this success, Munsey followed
suit with The Argosy. In April, 1894, he made it a
monthly magazine, similar to Munseys with articles and illustrations. In October, 1896 he
dropped the illustrations and made it an all-fiction magazine, followed two months later by
converting the newsprint to pulp paper. As a
result, in December, 1896 the pulp magazine was
born. Munsey claimed that the story was worth
more than the paper, and he was proved right.
Circulation, which had been as low as 9,000 in

17

1894, promptly rose to 80,000, peaking at

500,000 in 1907, the fifth-highest amongst
American magazines.
Curiously, despite this success, Munsey had
the pulp field to himself for nearly ten years.
Whats more, the issues of The Argosy during this
time, whilst in a different format, did not differ
significantly in content to the early Golden days.
It continued to run serials by Horatio Alger and
Oliver Optic, plus work by other dime novelists
and boys writers, including William Murray
Graydon,William Wallace Cook, and Howard R.
Garis. Stories were still imported from Britain,
including those by Max Pemberton (then editor
of Chums), Harry Collingwood, John Oxenham
and Frank Aubrey. Argosy continued to run two
or three serials consecutively each issue, sometimes more, and this remained its trademark until
the late 1930s.
It was only gradually that The Argosy shifted
from its boys image to a more adult one.Writers
who helped in that change included Upton Sinclair, Ellis Parker Butler, O. Henry, whose story
Witches Loaves (March 1904), appeared under
his real name, Sydney Porter, and Mary Roberts
Rinehart.
The Argosy does not have a big track record
for discovering writers that talent belonged to
Bob Davis, editor of Argosys new companion
title, All-Story but it was a good market for
developing writers and did occasionally make a
new discovery. It was during this period that
Argosy published the first stories by Hulbert
Footner, James Branch Cabell, and Charles Fort.
The most prolific discovery at this time,
though, was Albert Payson Terhune, who had previously sold only a handful of stories. He received
a simultaneous boost with two serials running
from the April to November issues of All-Story
and a third serial,The Fugitive, commencing in
the August, 1905 Argosy. It was some years before
Terhune established a reputation for his dog stories, but he soon earned a name in Argosy where
he remained a regular for the next decade.
It is from 1905 that the pulp magazine

ZIFF-DAVIS PULPS
entered a new phase. Argosy had seen its first
competition from Street and Smiths Popular
Magazine in 1904, and Munsey countered by
introducing his own companion, All-Story, in
January, 1905. Under Bob Davis, All-Story was
the more ground-breaking magazine, as Davis
was never averse to experimentation. In this
sense the two magazines complemented each
other: All-Story being the brash youngster open
to a wide variety of submissions, whilst Argosy
was more conservative, taking on authors once
they had become established and thus, in theory,
publishing the better quality work. It was not
until Argosy merged with All-Story in 1920 that

the strengths of both magazines combined.

Thus it was that All-Story published the first
appearances of two of the great iconic characters
of the twentieth century Tarzan and Zorro
both of which would become mainstays in Argosy
in the twenties.
Edgar Rice Burroughs had first appeared in
the February, 1912 All-Story under the alias
Norman Bean (meant to be Normal Bean,
suggesting level-headed) with Under the Moons
of Mars, the first of his adventures of John Carter
on Barsoom (Mars). The first Tarzan novel,
Tarzan of the Apes, ran complete in the October, 1912 issue with a striking cover by Clinton

PG 18 Lt to R AMAZING STORIES, Dec. 1949 ( Ziff-Davis); FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, Mar. 1941

( Ziff-Davis); AMAZING STORIES, Aug. 1949 ( Ziff-Davis; PG 19 AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES, Feb. 1942, art by
Norman Saunders ( Crime Files, Inc.).

Pettee. Burroughs continued to sell to All-Story,

but becoming over-awed with his own success
(and self-importance), struck out for other markets, returning occasionally to Munsey.When the
two magazines merged, Argosy inherited Tarzan,
who appeared in Tarzan the Terrible (February
12-March 26, 1921) and six other serials through
to 1941. Burroughs also contributed further Martian stories and other adventures set on Venus and
elsewhere.
Johnston McCulley, a former police reporter,
had started selling stories to the pulps around
1907 his first story may well have been
Doomed by Post in the June, 1907 Argosy.This
was followed by the science-fiction serial Land
of Lost Hope (May-August 1908) and a few
other contributions before he moved on to other
magazines. What reads like a dry run for Zorro,
Captain Fly-by-Night, ran as a serial in All-

Story during May/June, 1916, before the masked

crusader appeared in all his glory in The Curse
of Capistrano (All-Story, August 9-September 6,
1919).The popularity of the serial led to the film
The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.,
in 1920. McCulley brought the character back in
the now combined Argosy All-Story in The Further Adventures of Zorro (May 6-June 10, 1922)
and five other stories before the series moved on
to become a regular feature in the magazine West.
During All-Storys heyday and before its
merger with Argosy, it was noted for publishing
what it labelled different or off-trail stories
including many fantasies and early science-fiction.Although it was less evident in Argosy, it still
caught some of the overspill and featured works
by those gaining a reputation. Thus, during the
period of 1905-1920, Argosy published unusual
stories by William Wallace Cook, Garret Smith,

Argosy & All-Story |

James Francis Dwyer, Perley Poore Sheehan, Garrett P. Serviss, Victor Rousseau and J.U. Giesy.
Though most of those names are generally forgotten today, they are still revered amongst the
nostalgia buffs of early science fiction and their
work contributes to the cult image of Argosy.
One writer who would become renowned for
his weird fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, did not sell any
stories to Argosy, but between 1911 and 1914 the
magazine published several of his letters, some of
which were written in verse form, and that alone
makes those issues highly valued.
Other names who would establish their reputations either in Argosy or companion Munsey
magazines appeared during the War years: Harry
Stephen Keeler, Zane Grey, Edison Marshall,
Achmed Abdullah and, in particular, Max Brand.
Brand was the best known alias of Frederick Faust
who became dubbed the King of the Pulp Writers. His original desire was to be a poet, but in
1917 he began to sell stories to Bob Davis at AllStory and he soon flowed over into Argosy. Brand
became best known for his westerns, though his
early material included several unusual stories.Yet,
the best known Faust story published in Argosy
was a hospital drama,Young Doctor Kildare, and
that not until 1938, by which time he had poured
out many millions of words.
Among the authors of unusual stories, there
was a particularly fine blossoming in the years
immediately after the War, by which time Argosy
was appearing weekly. They include Murray
Leinster, Francis Stevens (a woman writer under
a male pseudonym), Ray Cummings and, most
notably, Abraham Merritt. Merritt had likewise
debuted in All-Story, but with the merger his
exotic and unique fantasies now filled Argosy.
There were seven serials from The Metal Monster (August 7 and September 25, 1920) to
Seven Footprints to Satan (June 24July 22,
1939). In 1938, Argosy conducted a poll for readers to vote on the most popular story to appear in
the magazine and Merritt won with The Ship of
Ishtar (November 8December 13, 1924).Today,
Merritts appeal has perhaps faded except

19

amongst a devoted core, but those issues still

attract collectors, as much for their exotic covers
by Modest Stein, Paul Stahr and Robert Graef, as
for their fiction.
The flourish of science fiction in Argosy soon
gave way to the domination of the western, supported by crime and adventure fiction, and it was
here that Argosy excelled. Amongst the western
writers, in addition to Max Brand, were Charles
Alden Seltzer, Hapsburg Liebe, James B.
Hendryx,Tom Curry,Walt Coburn, and Clarence
Mulford. The last was the creator of Hopalong
Cassidy, who had first appeared in Outing Magazine, but he now made Argosy his home in two
long series that ran between 1923 and 1925.
For crime fiction Argosy could boast Octavus
Roy Cohen, Edgar Wallace, Hulbert Footner,
Carroll John Daly and Erle Stanley Gardner.
Dashiell Hammett appeared just once with
Nightmare Town (December 27, 1924). During the 1930s, this roster was augmented by
Lawrence Blochman, Paul Ernst, Richard
Wormser and, in particular, Cornell Woolrich,
although Argosy was never able to rival the greatest of all crime pulps, Black Mask.
Argosys fort was adventure fiction and its
authors included the immensely prolific H. Bedford-Jones, Loring Brent (with his Peter the
Brazen series), L. Patrick Greene, George F.Worts,
Georges Surdez (with his foreign-legion stories),
Fred MacIsaac,Talbot Mundy, Burroughs imitator
Otis Adelbert Kline, Theodore Roscoe, Jacland
Marmur and, just once, Rafael Sabatini. John
Buchans new Richard Hannay novel, The
Three Hostages, was serialized in Argosy in 1924.
His classic,The 39 Steps, had run in All-Story in
1915 and was reprinted in Argosy during December, 1938. Earlier in 1938, C. S. Forester had made
his first appearance in Argosy with the serialization of the Hornblower novel Ship of the Line
(February 26-April 2). With its success, the first
Hornblower novel, Beat to Quarters, which
had already appeared in book form, was run in
Argosy later in 1938.
Two other authors add to the desirability of

20 | Argosy & All-Story

issues from the 1930s. Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, appeared in only six issues, first in
July 20, 1929, with Crowd Horror, a supernatural boxing story, and then with a bunch of stories during 1936, all westerns, and including a
supernatural cowboy story, The Dead Remember (August 15, 1936). L. Ron Hubbard had
rather more stories in Argosy, starting with his
Hell Job series in 1936. Hubbard issues are now
fanatically collected. Of particular interest is the
issue for October 3, 1936, the only edition of any
pulp to include stories by Burroughs, Howard
and Hubbard.
During the 1930s, amidst considerable rivalry
amongst the pulps, Argosys circulation had been
falling. Munsey had died in 1925 and his publishing corporation had been taken over by William
T. Dewart. He in turn sold it to Henry Steegers
Popular Publications in October, 1941, and Argosy
was soon to undergo dramatic changes. It had
already been converted to the large flat format in
January, 1941, but reverted to pulp in January,
1943. In September, 1943 the pulp format was
dropped altogether and Argosy shifted to the flat
semi-slick format as a mens adventure magazine.
Argosy wasnt the first of these it was following a trend established by Bernarr Macfadden and
others in the 1920s with their various true-style
magazines.The change proved exceptionally beneficial. Argosys circulation increased from 40,000
in 1942 to over a million within ten years. Initially it still ran a sizable dose of fiction, all with a
more sophisticated veneer than the old pulp
issues the new editor, Rogers Terrill, referred to
it as an all-fiction slick, although it was never
quite that. But during the 1940s and 1950s it ran
new material by Leslie Charteris, P.G. Wodehouse, Robert A. Heinlein, Geoffrey Household,
John D. MacDonald, Louis LAmour, Elmore
Leonard, Kurt Vonnegut, Ellery Queen,Arthur C.
Clarke, and Rex Stout. Into the 1960s it ran several of Ian Flemings James Bond stories Paris
Courier (March 1961), an extract from Thunderball (December 1961) and Berlin Escape (June
1962) plus work by Nicholas Montsarrat, Alis-

tair Maclean, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ed McBain,

John Creasey, Ross Macdonald, and Arthur Hailey. Fittingly, it also published the final Hornblower story by Forester, The Last Encounter
(April 1967).
However, from the forties on, there was an
increasing emphasis on non-fiction, with the
inevitable articles on baseball, fishing, hunting,
guns and the American way, plus true stories of
adventure and heroism, alongside exposs and the
usual macho material one associates with mens
magazines Russ Meyer became an occasional
contributor, for instance. Fortunately, Argosy
retained a sensible balance and never went to
extremes, unlike other magazines during the
1950s and 1960s. Of particular interest was a
long-running series by Erle Stanley Gardner,
The Court of Last Resort, which began in
1946, where Gardner looked at miscarriages of
justice and other legal issues. Argosy soon became
a general interest magazine with features running
from Jack Dempseys view of the state of boxing
(April 1950), to a re-appraisal of Custers Last
Stand (May 1956), to the Space Race (March
1958), to an extensive interview with Ernest
Hemingway (September 1958), right through to
the hunt for and capture of Adolf Eichmann
(September 1971), and The Secret Life of Houdini (December 1974). Of particular interest was
an article by Vincent Gaddis in the February, 1964
issue which introduced the phrase the Bermuda
Triangle.
Argosys lead was inevitably chipped away by
the growth in mens magazines in the 1950s, but
it remained a dominant player in the field for
another twenty years. Popular Publications was
eventually dissolved in November 1972 and
Argosy came under the control of Blazing Publications, re-incorporated as Argosy Communica-

tions in 1988. Argosy continued until the issue for

September, 1979, after a run of 97 years and some
2,573 issues. Its name was retained for the occasional one-off special or short-lived revival, each
drawing upon its cult status.The latest incarnation
in 2004, from Coppervale Productions, saw three
issues, each in a beautiful slip-cased edition with
a digest-sized slick magazine accompanied by a
separate booklet the first being The Mystery
of the Texas Twister by Michael Moorcock.
Although a far cry from its story-paper origins
and pulp heyday, Argosy continues Munseys ideal
of never giving up.MA

ARTISTS & MODELS

Figure Art magazines
Beginning in the early 1920s, figure studies magazines began to appear on many big city newsstands, or in many cases behind the counter, purportedly to aid struggling artists unable to afford
models.These publications of course found their
way into the hands of people without any artistic
talent or interest. They were easy and cheap to
produce (using minimal copy) and in many cases
a printer could get his hands on a cache of photos and slap the whole thing together in-house
overnight when business was slow.
Artists & Models, carrying the tagline for art
lovers and art students was a title that appeared
from different publishers during the 1920s and
1930s. Living Art Models, printed an editorial on
the inside front page of their July, 1929 issue that
could serve as the outward operating principle of
all art magazines: In presenting this issue of
LIVING ART MODELS, it is our ardent wish
that only those to whom art appeals, and who

PG 20 Top to Bot GOODTIMES, Vol 2, #14, 1955 ( Samuel Roth); ARGOSY( Munsey); PG 21 L to R, Top to Bot
HESSER'S ARTS MONTHLY PICTORIAL, Oct 1926; ( Edwin Bower Hesser); LIVING ART MODELS, Vol.1, #3, July, 1928;
LIFE STUDY, #17, 1950s ( respective copyright holder); LENS AND LIFE STUDY, (1940 respective copyright holder).

Astounding Science Fiction |

truly appreciate its significance, will study its
pages. For Beauty is such a fragile and perishable
thing, that the ugly curiosity of the unappreciative would be in the nature of a desecration.
There is nothing within these pages that will
bring anything but happiness and joy to the many
thousands of readers who wait eagerly for the
appearance of this magazines each month.
Some artists did use these magazines as inspiration.There are a few images that are recognizable
in fantasy artist Virgil Finlay published work that
include the likeness of Bettie Page and other nude
models from various art study publications.
Other titles include, 1920s: Studio Models,
Edwin Bower Hesser's Arts Monthly. 1930s: French
Models, Real Art Studies, Girl Beautiful from Graphic Arts Studio in Chicago; Screen Art Studies, Modern Art & Stories. In the 1940s and 1950s there was
Photo Arts, Glamorous Models, Art Photography, Figure Quarterly, Lens & Life Study, Female Form,
Femme, Figure File, and Figure Study.LO [see
Dell vs American News Corporation]

ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE FICTION
Astounding Stories of Super-Science first appeared on
newsstands in December, 1929. The new magazine had all the appearance of being an experiment, created as a means of producing money by
an already-established pulp company, Publishers
Fiscal Corporation, which later became Clayton
Magazines. It started as, and initially remained, a
pulp magazine, printed on thick, poor quality
paper with untrimmed edges. Immediately it
offered a comprehensive challenge to Hugo
Gernsbacks proprietorial dictate that science fiction be the creation of future science.
The first editor of Astounding, Harry Bates,
had modeled Astounding after Amazing Stories.
But he found nothing of merit to say about his
rival: Amazing Stories! What awful stuffcluttered with trivia! Packed with puerilities.Written
by unimaginables!

Bates attempted to outdo Gernsback by

establishing an amusing and entertaining magazine, rather than a scientific and instructional one.
In order to do this he called upon Clayton Magazines stable of professional pulp writers. Not the
most innovative writers, they typically produced
conventional stories of action-adventure. Fantastic science was then added to the mix.The combination of boiler-plate writing coupled with a
much higher rate of payment made Astounding a
powerful force to be reckoned with in the industry. Under Claytons control, Astounding was willing to pay four times more than the rates offered
by Hugo Gernsbacks rival Amazing Stories.
Harry Bates was more than merely an editor.
Along with his assistant editor, Desmond W. Hall,
they collaborated on the Hawk Carse series and
other stories using the pseudonyms Anthony
Gilmore and H.B. Winter. Batess best known
story,Farewell to the Master (1940), was significantly altered for the 1951 motion picture The
Day the Earth Stood Still.
After the first year of publication, the original
name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories. After three years of
slowly establishing the new title, the publisher,
William Clayton, attempted to buy out his partner and financial backer, and failed.The last Clayton Astounding was dated March, 1933. Astounding
Stories was then purchased by another pulp chain,
Street & Smith, and after a gap of six months, the
magazine reappeared in October, 1933.
With F. Orlin Tremaine at the helm as editor,
Astounding took a turn for the better with his new
philosophy. Tremaine introduced the concept of
the thought variant story.Trying desperately to
leave the old recycled adventure plots behind, he
inspired his writers to create new original science
fiction ideas.With this in mind, in 1934 Astounding became the first science fiction magazine to
publish a work of non-fiction, Charles Forts Lo!
(Charles Fort has been described as the patron
saint of cranks. During his lifetime, Fort collected
phenomena that science could not account for
and thus rejected or ignored. His published works

21

22 | Astounding Science Fiction

have led many to consider him the father of paranormalism.) Under Tremaines leadership,
Astounding became the pre-eminent magazine of
its time long before he departed in 1937.
Tremaine announced in a December, 1933
editorial that each issue would include at least
one story that would either present some fresh
new concept or at the least stand some tired old
idea on its head. The old, outdated utilitarian
notions about science fiction as put forth by
Hugo Gernsback could not compete with the
challenging, innovative ideas of F. Orlin Tremaine.
While Amazing Stories and Wonder Stories floundered, Astounding flourished and set the stage for
the advent of modern science fiction.
Within the 50 issues of the magazine he edited,Tremaine launched the careers of such notable
authors as L. Sprague de Camp and Eric Frank
Russell.
With the groundwork done by Tremaine in
place, another giant of the industry stepped forward to move science fiction into its golden age.
In September, 1937 successful science fiction
writer John W. Campbell, Jr., became the next
editor of Astounding. His first major move was in
March, 1938, when he changed the name of the
magazine to Astounding Science-Fiction. The following year he added another soon-to-befamous title to the pantheon, Unknown.
Tremaine, recently promoted to editor-inchief of the Street & Smith publications, made a
remarkable choice when he hired the then 28year-old Campbell. At the time Campbell had
not even learned how to type. He knew nothing
about how to produce a monthly magazine, but
he was a quick study. Campbell would become
more than a technical master of the industry, he
was determined to become a complete editor and
a setter of new directions.
When he was hired, John W. Campbell, Jr.,
was already a successful and prolific writer under
his own name and also his pseudonym, Don A.
Stuart. His most famous work, Who Goes
There? (Astounding, August 1938), was written
under the Stuart pseudonym, about a group of

Antarctic researchers who discover a crashed alien

vessel, complete with a malevolent shape-changing occupant. The story was first filmed as The
Thing from Another World (1951) and again as The
Thing (1982). Published when Campbell was only
28 years old, it would be his last significant piece
of fiction. As the new editor of Astounding, he
would turn his vision toward a new horizon and
lead a new batch of writers toward it.
First, he would broaden the scope of the letter column. Originally restricted to scientific discussion, it would now include feedback and reader participation. Next, Campbell encouraged new
writers, having them contribute under various
pseudonyms, so that he could point to the growing number of talented new writers working for
Astounding. He would continue to find and
encourage new writers throughout his career.
Astounding was directed by Campbell toward a
more precise relationship with the true facts of the
universe. Instead of the gaudy, unrealistic covers
painted by Frank Paul for Amazing Stories, Campbell emphasized real human possibilities in his
covers and stories. Astounding became a magazine
filled with stories about where men might really
go, and how things would really appear to them.
In May, 1938 F. Orlin Tremaine left Street &
Smith abruptly. John Campbell would remain in
complete editorial control of Astounding from
then on. For more than a decade Astounding,
under Campbells leadership, would completely
dominate the field. It was John Campbell and his
vision that would oversee the shift in science fiction as it had been before to the new science fiction of the Atomic Age, eclipsing the Technological Age as put forth by Hugo Gernsback. Campbell had arrived on the scene at the pivotal
moment when science had spilt the atom, and he
helped to usher the real apprehension over this
into modern literature.

At the heart of this vision was Campbells

insistence that writers think out how science and
technology would really develop in the future
and how those changes would affect the lives of
human beings. It was the sophistication of his
vision that soon made Astounding the undisputed
leader in the field.
Throughout the 1940s, Campbell was to nurture the careers of a number of young and often
previously unpublished writers by offering copious amounts of feedback and encouragement,
even when accompanied by a rejection slip. He
launched the careers of Isaac Asimov, Robert A.
Heinlein, and A.E.Van Vogt.
In March, 1938 Campbell began this process
by publishing Lester del Reys first story.The July
issue contained A.E. van Vogts first story, Black
Destroyer, and Isaac Asimovs early story
Trends. In August he brought out Robert A.
Heinleins first story, Lifeline, and the next
month Theodore Sturgeons first story,The Ether
Breathers, appeared. Campbell had single-handedly brought about a revolution in science fiction,
pushing the literature into the Atomic Age.
Because of this, 1939 is often seen as the start of
the Golden Age of magazine science fiction.
In this same remarkable year Campbell started the fantasy magazine Unknown (later Unknown
Worlds). Sadly, it was cancelled after only four
years, a victim of the wartime paper shortage that
finally forced the well-known pulp magazines of
the era to reduce their size to a smaller one, the
digest. But just as he had changed the direction of
science fiction with Astounding, the editorial
direction of Unknown would have as significant
an effect on the evolution of modern fantasy.
During the wartime year of 1944, a year
before the detonation of the first atomic bomb,
Campbell published a short story by Cleve Cartmill, Deadfall. Without a doubt, it is the most

PG 22 Top to Bot REAL MYSTERY MAGAZINE, vol. 1, #1, April 1940 ( Red Circle); ALL-DETETECTIVE MAGAZINE, Oct.
1933 ( Dell Publications); PG 23 ARGOSY, Mar. 1951 ( respective copyright holder); cartoon from ACE, Vol. 4,
#5 ( respective copyright holder).

Avant Garde |
famous example of the direction toward which
Campbell led his writers, speculative but plausible
science fiction. Campbell and Cartmill worked
together on the story, drawing their scientific
information from papers published in technical
journals before the war.The short story described
the mechanics of constructing a uranium-fission
bomb. In horror and alarm, the FBI descended on
Campbells office after the story appeared in print
and demanded that the issue be removed from the
newsstands. Campbell, not to be trifled with, persuaded them that by removing the magazine the
FBI would be advertising to everyone that such a
project existed and was aimed at developing
nuclear weapons and the demand was dropped.
The change to a digest format with the
November 1943 issue made little difference to
readers. If the 1940s were the height of Campbells power and influence over the literature, the
1950s would see the torch passed to other magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction and Galaxy Science Fiction, and to paperback originals. Even though Campbell remained
at the helm of Astounding, the growth of the marketplace meant that he was no longer the only
place to find top quality science fiction. Also in
the 1950s, Campbell developed a one-sided
interest in fringe, or alternative, theories of science that began to isolate him from some of his
writers. In editorials Campbell wrote about such
things as the Dean drive, a device that supposedly produced thrust in violation of Newtons
third law, and the Hieronymus machine, which
could allegedly amplify psi powers. Based on his
growing interest in these areas, he published
many stories about telepathy and other psionic
abilities.
As a capstone to his ill-chosen new editorial
direction, in May, 1950 Campbell became interested in the emerging Dianetics movement. Initially Campbell was a strong supporter of L. Ron
Hubbards first Dianetics article in Astounding,
believing it to be one of the most important articles ever published. Further alienating his stable
of writers and vast horde of fans, he even claimed

to have successfully used dianetic techniques

himself. L. Ron Hubbard would soon expand his
dianetic concepts into Scientology, in support of
which Campbell continued to write editorials for
some time.
However, despite his growing interest in
fringe science, during the 1950s Campbell was
still publishing some of the best science fiction
ever written. Tom Godwins The Cold Equations appeared in the August, 1954 issue. The
story has long been regarded as one of the top
dozen or so best science fiction short stories ever
written. It generated more response mail than any
story the magazine had ever printed.
Astounding had gone through several philosophical shifts in editorial policy under the various editors in charge. In 1946, Campbell began to
de-emphasize the word astounding, as he felt it
made the magazine too sensational and juvenile. At first he printed the astounding in a
small typeface above the bold words SCIENCE
FICTION. But even this was not enough for
Campbell, so in 1960 Astounding Science-Fiction
was renamed Analog Science Fact & Fiction. The
transition to Analog was done slowly. Campbell
retained the large initial A while fading out the
stounding under the new title nalog. He even
went so far as to invent a pseudo-mathematical
symbol comprising a horizontal right-pointing
arrow piercing an inverted U-shape to replace the
word and in the new title. Campbell told everyone that it meant analogous to.The magazine is
still in publication as of this date as Analog Science
Fiction and Fact.
After Campbell died in 1971, Ben Bova took
over as editor starting with the January, 1972
issue. After 34 years at the helm of Astounding/
Analog, Campbells quirky personality and occasionally eccentric editorial demands had alienated a number of his most illustrious writers, such
as Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, to the point
where they no longer submitted works to the
magazine. This was a problem that Ben Bova
quickly solved. Bova remained editor until
November, 1978. During his tenure he won the

Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for five

consecutive years (The award did not exist before
1973.), 1973 through 1978. One of the highlights
of his tenue was Orson Scott Cards Enders
Game.
In 1978, Ben Bova was succeeded as editor of
Analog by Stanley Schmidt, a position that
Schmidt still holds. Of some small note, Schmidt
has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best
Professional Editor for 26 consecutive years, 1980
through 2005, without ever winning it.
Stanley Schmidt, like John Campbell, frequently prints material from previously
unknown authors, notably Timothy Zahn and
Michael Flynn, the early works of Harry Turtledove in the 1980s, and Paul Levinson in the
1990s.
Under Schmidts leadership, Analog has
become well known for focusing on the brass
tacks of science and technology, even its book
review column is called Brass Tacks, though
some critics have referred to this as scientist fiction and charge that scientific accuracy is often
presented as more important than plot or character in Analog stories.
Under its five inimitable steersmen, Harry
Bates, F. Orlin Tremaine, John W. Campbell, Jr.,
Ben Bova, and Stanley Schmidt, Astounding/Analog has steered a course from the Age of Technology through the Atomic Age and beyond. In over
80 years of publication the magazine has entertained, amazed, and yes, astounded, generations of
readers. It brought us the Golden Age of science
fiction, which is a priceless act in itself.ETK

AVANT GARDE
When a publisher calls his latest magazine publishing effort something as iconoclastic as Avant Garde,
it is an announcement that the contents will be
unique. This was precisely what Ralph Ginzburg
had in mind when he launched his quality art
magazine in January, 1968.The first cover featured
a color reproduction of a Richard Lindner paint-

23

ing. From that very first issue, Ginzburg sought to

emphasize an incredibly high literary standard as
well, with articles on the Fugs, metamorphic jewelry, and a series of illustrations by Muhammad Ali.
This type of eclectic mix would be a touchstone
for all fourteen of the issues.
Ralph Ginzburg covered the entire field of
print publications in his lifetime as an author, editor, publisher, and photojournalist. He was best
known for publishing books and magazines on
erotica and art that led to his 1963 conviction for
violating federal obscenity laws. Ginzburg started
his career in journalism in 1949 as a copyboy and
cub reporter for the New York Daily Compass.
After a stint in the army during the Korean War,
he shifted into broadcasting and magazines,
working for such notables as Esquire, NBC, Read-

ers Digest, and Look. When he was finally economically solvent, he rented his first office, a
fifth-floor walk-up in Manhattan. It was there he
produced his first publication, An Unhurried View
of Erotica, in 1958, which examined English erotic literature in an interpretive and explanatory
context, complete with an introduction by the
noted psychoanalyst Theodor Reik. Ginzburg
had started on the publishing path that would
eventually lead him to fame and prison.
In 1962, Ginzburg started his first major publishing work, Eros, with his long-time friend
Herb Lubalin as the art director. Only four issues
of the quarterly hardbound periodical were published. The cardboard-bound, 13x10, 90-page
magazine contained articles and sensational
photo-essays on love and sex. After releasing the

fourth issue, Ginzburg was indicted under federal

obscenity laws for distributing obscene literature
through the mails. For a number of years he had
felt unduly prosecuted by the reactionary rightwing conservatives in the United States, most
notably the smut-hunting Catholic priest Morton Hill, and United States Attorney General
Robert Kennedy. In the second issue of Eros,
Ginzburg had featured an eight-page photo-essay
on the female reaction to John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy was a notorious, very well known adulterer, and Ginzburg wanted to expose the moral

corruption of his chief persecutor.

In spite of all the various indictments against
Ginzburg, the federal case was so weak and his
magazine had such obvious artistic merit, that the
focus of the witch hunt became a single indictment regarding a mailed advertisement for the
magazine. Not only that, the high court was
forced to conclude that neither the book nor the
advertising mailer were themselves obscene, but
only that the advertisement attempted to sell the
book by characterizing it as obscene, which was a
violation of federal law. Ginzburg had offered a

PG 24 L to R ASTOUNDING STORIES, April 1932 ( Clayton Magazines); ASTOUNDING STORIES,

May 1937; ANALOG SCIENCE FACT & FICTION, Feb. 1961 ( Street & Smith); PG 25 BEDTIME STORIES, vol. 6, #2,
1938, cover art by Earle Bergey (Detinuer Publishing Company).

Avant Garde |
full and unconditional refund if his book did not
reach the purchaser due to United States Post
Office censorship interference. It was enough to
seal his fate, since he had already encountered
serious trouble from them by his attempt to get
mailing permits from Blue Balls and Intercourse,
Pennsylvania.
After several trials, including a hearing before
the United States Supreme Court, his five-year
conviction was upheld in March, 1966.The same
day the Court announced its decision in the case
commonly known as the Fanny Hill case after
the public nickname for the book (and the name
of the primary character). This was the case that
declared that the First Amendment would not
allow a work to be banned unless it was utterly
without redeeming social value. Many commentators have been troubled by Ginzburgs conviction for three works plainly more socially valuable than the trashy Fanny Hill.
The public and mainstream press heavily supported the decision of the Supreme Court. However, Ginzburgs conviction became a cause
clbre among the American left. Novelist Sloan
Wilson, who did not even know him, raised funds
for full-page newspaper protest ads. Allen Ginsberg traveled to Washington and picketed the
Supreme Court building. Vocal supporters
included Melvin Belli, James Jones, the ACLUs
Mel Wulf, Nat Hentoff, Ashley Montagu, Yale
Law Professors Alexander Bickel and Tom Emerson,Arthur Miller, Clay Felker, Louis Untermeyer, I.F. Stone, Barney Rossett, and Ken
McCormick, among others.
From January, 1964 to August, 1967 Ginzburg
published a quarterly magazine named fact:, which
could be characterized as a humorous, scathingly
satiric journal of comment on current society and
politics. One of the editors of fact: was Robert
Anton Wilson, a prolific science fiction author
whose works include the Illuminatus! series.
fact: had little erotic content, and could best be
called a political journal with a muckraking slant.
It was the first to publish Ralph Nader when he
was a Harvard student. It contained articles such

25

as 139 Psychiatrists Say Barry Goldwater is Unfit

for the Presidency. Goldwater successfully sued
Ginzburg for defamation all the way to the
Supreme Court, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, he
received only $1 in damages.
From January, 1968 through July, 1971
Ginzburg published Avant Garde, which like Eros
was a handsome hardbound periodical. It was as
if Eros and fact: had gotten together and had a
baby.As smart and stylish as it was confrontational, Avant Garde made sex political and politics
sexy. Avant Garde would have only a modest circulation, but it was championed by the nations
advertising and editorial art directors.
Herbert Lubalin, Ginzburgs collaborator on
his four best-known magazines, designed an original typeface for the Avant Garde logo. It was
inspired by Ginzburg and his wife, designed by
Lubalin, and realized by Lubalins assistants and
Tom Carnese, one of Lubalins partners. In 1970,
the International Typefont Corporation, of which
Lubalin was a founder, released a full version to
the public.
Still free pending a hearing for a reduced sentence, Ginzburg was anything but penitent. For
months, at great expense he promoted his new
magazine, Avant Garde, promising to outdo Eros.
In one advertisement he showed a girl, eyes shut,
mouth open, in ecstasy. On the opposite page he
described the magazines content as: An orgasm
of the mind.Total immersion in sensual pleasure.
Love on a mink blanket.
Highlights from the magazines roughly fouryear lifespan include a poster contest themed No
More War;The Marilyn Monroe Trip, a phantasmagoric portfolio by Bert Stern using DayGlo ink; the photo essay Mr. and Mrs. Brown Go
Walking, which follows an attractive mixed-race
couple through the streets of New York City
gauging peoples reactions; a parody of Willards
famous patriotic painting, The Spirit of 76,
with a woman and a black man; and a graphic
shot by Ed Van der Elseken in an Amsterdam
gymnasium.An entire issue was devoted to Picassos erotic gravures and another to John Lennons

26 | Avant Garde Avenger

erotic lithographs. More than one cover featured
an image of a womans nipple, which is a publishing taboo to this day.
The first three issues of Avant Garde proved to
be much more conservative than promised, more
rear-garde than avant, its contents strictly remembrances of erotica past. Issue three contained a
story by Norman Mailer,The Taming of Denise
Gondelman, about the heroic efforts of a blond
Aryan to bring an intellectual Jewish girl to her
first orgasm. It had been published before, in
1959, as The Time of Her Time. Another
reprint was a story by Roald Dahl about a wily
Arab who lured young men to his home to make
love to his daughter, a leper; it had appeared in
Playboy three years prior. For the avant garde in
politics, the issue offered a profile of Richard
Nixon. For the latest in poetry, a verse by Ho Chi
Minh, written in a Chinese prison in the 1940s.
Despite over 420,000 subscribers snagged by
Ginzburgs expensive promotion, Avant Garde had
a precarious existence. Ginzburg had to split his
time between battling the Goldwater lawsuit, his
pending incarceration, and his new publication.
Avant Garde folded in 1971 when Ginzburg
finally went to prison to serve his sentence for
obscenity. He stayed in a minimum-security facility in Pennsylvania for only eight months, but his
prison sentence destroyed any desire he had to
continue publishing. After his release, he and his
wife tried to revive Avant Garde as a tabloid newspaper, but it lasted only one issue. It was a costly
mistake that drove them to the brink of bankruptcy, which was averted only through the success of yet another periodical, the consumer
adviser Moneysworth, which attained a circulation
of 2.4 million.
At 55, Ginzburg retired from publishing and
he turned to photography. In 1999, he produced
I Shot New York, a visual chronicle of a year in the

life of the city. For the remainder of his life,

Ginzburg felt his prison record prevented him
from becoming a major force in American publishing. He remained a freelance spot-news photographer until his death and specialized in New
York scenes and sporting events, even covering a
soccer match three weeks before his death.
Avant Garde was created by Ginzburg with a
desire to break new publishing ground, to create
something truly original that would be long
remembered. I really wanted to create a magazine of art and politics. Its glorious design was the
most notable feature, but it also had a psychological maturity with regard to all the burning issues
of the day.
Among the magazines biggest fans: John
Lennon and Pablo Picasso, whose agents
approached Ginzburg and gave him permission to
publish their rare erotic lithographs free of charge.
The magazine, published with a bare-bones staff
of less than six people, including Ginzburgs wife,
Shoshana, barely paid its way. Ginzburg always
cited a lack of advertising, plus other problems, as
the real reason the publication failed.
Today, Avant Garde is just a memory;
Ginzburg himself, dead. But one tangible legacy
remains from those fourteen issues of the longforgotten, arty publication: the angular, snazzy
Avant Garde still ranks among the best-selling
type fonts in the country. Another less tangible
legacy remains. Ralph Ginzburg would be surprised to find himself cited as a hero, one who
stood in the front lines of the fight for the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press,
fighting that good fight against enormous
odds.HW [see Eros]

PG 26 BLUEBOOK, Aug. 1938 ( McCalls); PG 27, L to R, Top to Bot. THE AVENGER, Nov. 1940
( Street & Smith); BREEZY STORIES, Oct. 1938 ( respective copyright holder); BLACK NYLON & HIGH
HEELS, vol. 2, #3, ( Dawson Publishing Company); BALLYHOO, Aug. 1935 ( Dell Publishing).

THE AVENGER
Throughout the 1930s, Street & Smiths general
manager Henry W. Ralston and his editorial confederate John L. Nanovic tried to replicate the
success of The Shadow and Doc Savage. A revived
Nick Carter failed to recapture the magic that
had endeared him to an earlier generation.Variations of their flagship heroes in the form of The
Whisperer and The Skipper were launched in
1936, and crushed by the so-called Roosevelt
Recession of 1937. Crime Busters, featuring their
top writers contributing heroes of their own, followed. It began faltering in 1939, when the pair
decided that a character combining the best elements of Doc and The Shadow might succeed
where the others had failed.
Once again, Ralston turned for inspiration to
his memory of Colonel Richard Henry Savage,
who had ranged the world as a soldier, engineer,
diplomat, and author. A man who built railroads
in Texas and bridges in Egypt, Savage would lend
the more colorful aspects of his rich background
to the new hero. He had already served to inspire
Doc Savage, and to a lesser degree,The Shadow.
Ralston called his amalgamated hero Richard
Henry Benson. But what to call his magazine?
The Shadow was known as the Dark Avenger
and the Master Avenger avenger being the
S&S house term for an extralegal crime fighter.
So Benson became The Avenger. To grab Doc
Savage readers, his author would write under the
house name of Kenneth Robeson.
Nanovic had built up a stable of reliable writers to fill out the back pages of his group of magazines. Some, like Steve Fisher and Frank Gruber,
lacked the temperament for the monthly novel
grind. Others had flopped on earlier series, or had
fallen by the wayside.
Nanovic approached Paul Ernst, a veteran of
many pulp genres just breaking into the slicks.
Ernst had specialized in wild horror tales for
Weird Tales and the science fiction magazines early
in his fiction career. Now he was a seasoned
detective-story writer who had written the odd

episode of The Phantom Detective.The slicks were

beginning to print his work. He could do it. But
would he?
Ernst was initially reluctant.
John Nanovic asked me to do the character
thing, Ernst recalled.I said no. He quoted a figure. Look, well even give you the idea. I said
okay.They paid me $750 a novel, for The Avenger.
I didnt copy Dents style, though. Henry Ralston,
one of Street & Smiths vice presidents, gave me
the plots. I dont know whether he gave Walter
Gibson his ideas for The Shadow or not, but I suspect he did...
Gibson and Doc Savage author Lester Dent
were brought in to contribute ideas, and help
Ernst find his way. It is doubtful they were paid
for their trouble.
Ernst brought his own ideas into the mix. He
was fond of icy-eyed detective heroes he habitually described as machine-like in their relentless
pursuit of rough justice. So Benson became a
merciless man of steel. Ernst equipped Benson
with a pair of weapons field-tested in half-forgotten yarns for rival houses. Mike, a silenced .22
carried police-style in an ankle holster, was
employed to crease the top of a foes skull, detonating unconsciousness. (Like Doc Savage, The
Avenger refused to kill outright.) Ike was a hollow-handled throwing dagger.
The introductory novel, Justice, Inc., ran in
the September, 1939 issue of The Avenger. It was
an exemplary example of a pulp origin story.
Boarding a plane to Montreal with his wife and
daughter, Benson dozes off. Upon awakening, he
discovers his family is no longer on board. Passengers and crew swear that the retired adventurer
boarded alone. No sign or record of them can be
found on the planes passenger manifest. Benson
mercifully succumbs to shock.
All pulp heroes even the eagle-nosed
Shadow and the bronzed giant Doc Savage
managed to become masters of disguise. Benson
took this wild talent to a place never before seen.
Regaining consciousness in the hospital, his hair
has turned white. His face had lost all color and

sensation. Benson discovers it can be molded like

clay, making him the perfect natural quickchange artist.
Picking up a pair of assistants who had also
been victims of crime, Benson unravels the riddle, avenges his murdered family, and founds Justice, Inc. in a converted warehouse in Greenwich
Village. He has become The Avenger. With him
are the giant Algernon Heathcote Smith, a.k.a.
Smitty, and dour Scot chemist Fergus MacMurdie, nicknamed Mac.
The series followed standard S&S templates.
In the second adventure, Benson came into pos-

session of a hoard of lost Aztec gold

and a female assistant in the form of
Nellie Gray. Both Doc Savage and
The Shadow had roots in preColumbian civilizations. Issue 3 introduced the unusual husband and wife
team of Josh and Rosabel Newton.
They were African-Americans. Highly educated graduates of Tuskegee
University, they often posed as undercover domestics.This rounded out the
formative Justice, Inc. team.
The stories gravitated toward a
mild mix of high adventure and vulgar crime fighting. Ernst wrote in a
cool understated style that emulated
Lester Dent on Doc Savage,but seemed
pitched at more mature readers.
According to all recollections, the
first year of The Avenger was successful. Plans were laid to issue an
Avenger comic book. Unfortunately,
Benson was depicted as a mature
hero, much in the vein of The Shadow, instead of the youthful Doc Savage.This and his grim back story
every issue dwelt on his coldly glacial
grief, his frozen face and shocked emotional state
made him perhaps too downbeat a character
to hold readers past the novelty of newness. Doc
Savage and The Shadow had a firm hold on their
readers. More importantly, Benson was bucking
an unstoppable tide: the rise of the new comic
book superheroes.
The flood of colorful comics magazines
pushed the pulps into serious decline by the summer of 1940. Nanovic and Ralston huddled with
Ernst and formulated a drastic reinvention of the
foundering character. In Murder in Wheels, Benson was subjected to a ray that restored his para-

PG 28 BALLYHOO ( Dell Publishing Com.); PG 28-29, Bot. Band SLAPSTICK, #4, May 1932
( respective copyright holder); BALLYHOO, July 1933 ( Dell Publishing Com.); HOT STORIES,
Apr. 1930 ( Irwin Publishing Com.); BALLYHOO ( Dell Publishing Com.).

lyzed facial muscles to normal. His white hair fell

out.When it grew back, it was as black as it had
been in the beginning. He shucked off his nondescript gray suit and began wearing black.A few
years were magically shaved off his resume.
According to Ernst, the gray fox had become a
black panther.
A new assistant, the youthful Cole Wilson,
joined Justice, Inc. An electrical engineer, his
buoyant personality was clearly calculated to
counterpoint the downcast originating members
of Justice, Inc., all of whom had known tragedy
and grief.
Nanovic put three previously written novels
on hold, rushed Murder on Wheels into print,
blithely explaining away Cole Wilsons absence in
the inventory stories as they were released. His
blue pencil updated the old gray fox
Avenger into the vibrant new 1940
model. Street & Smiths Avenger
Comics was put on hold, its contents
distributed among their other fourcolor titles.
It was not enough. The superheroes kept coming. On its first
anniversary, The Avenger shifted to bimonthly frequency. After Pearl Harbor, a wave of government paper
allotment restrictions forced Street &
Smith to cancel their weaker titles.
Among them was The Avenger, in
whom they still retained faith. Benson
was transferred to lead feature in
Clues-Detective, with Emile C.Tepperman writing the truncated novelettes.
Another paper cut felled Clues in
1943. A final Avenger story straggled
into print in 1944, landing in the
pages of The Shadow.To Find a Dead
Man ran under Teppermans own
byline, as if the character no longer
deserved the honor of the Kenneth
Robeson house name.
During the first year of the magazine, it boasted vibrant covers by H.

Winfield Scott. These gave way to the more

restrained depictions of Graves Gladney, Leslie
Ross, and others.The back pages were filled out
by the usual suspects from Nanovics reliable stable, including Ed Burkholder and Edward S.
Ronns. Authors agent and mystic dabbler Ed
Bodin contributed a monthly column on
Numerology, in which he confidently predicted
Wendell Wilkies election to President of the
United States in 1940.WM

Avenger Ballyhoo |

B
BALLYHOO
Great Depression
Risqu Humor Magazines
In 1931,America was well into the Great Depression, with a quarter of the work-force out of jobs,
including Norman Hume Anthony, who had
been the editor of the original humor version of
Life magazine. Anthony was the sort of person,
when not drinking or getting into screwball
antics, who seemed to have the Midas touch
when it came to editing humor magazines. In
1923, he was an editor at Judge, working alongside

pre-New Yorker Harold Ross for a time, and

helped that magazine triple its circulation by cutting back on text and adding a lot more cartoons.
In 1929, he moved to Life and began to increase
sales there until the stock market crash in October mortally wounded the magazine.
Anthony came to Manhattan from Buffalo,
New York, freshly married and practically broke.
He had gone to art school in Buffalo and was a
fan of humor magazines of the day: Puck,Judge and
Life. He had been sending them illustrated ideas as
an art student and after hundreds of submissions
finally sold a cartoon to Life. In New York Anthony shared a bedbug-infested studio on Forty-second Street and Eighth Avenue with a bunch of
journeymen magazine artists. The place became
more of a social club than workplace when

Anthony and his friends were around. A typical

day would find him rushing through an art assignment before getting back to a poker or crap game
going on in a corner of the studio. Girls from the
Ziegfelds Follies across the street paraded through
the studio as artists models, trying to make an
extra buck.These were prohibition days, but there
was always bathtub gin available in the studio,
which added to the general bedlam.
Anthonys own drawings combined a busy
drip-ink pen-line with the sere style of Charles
Dana Gibson, who was his boss at Life. He found
some success as an artist and achieved the singular feat of having nine drawings in the September
11, 1919 issue of Life. But Anthony was a better
writer than artist. Some time around 1920
Anthony landed at Judge as an idea man writing

29

captions for James Montgomery Flagg, John

Held, Jr., and Ralph Barton.The weeklys parent
business, Leslie-Judge Company, had recently
been taken over by its printer in lieu of payment
of overdue press bills. The William Green Printing Company had also gotten Leslies Weekly, Popular Radio, Snappy Stories, and Film Fun in the
deal. Anthony had an editorial hand in putting
out Film Fun, at this time a cheerless magazine
filled with publicity stills and photos from movie
studios. No one at the company seemed to care
about the magazine and this gave Anthony the
freedom to experiment with gag captions to the
photographs and make Film Fun live up to its
name. To everyones surprise Film Fun began to
sell, outstripping the sales of all the companys
other magazines. Showing how much it knew

GREAT DEPRESSION RISQU HUMOR

30 | Ballyhoo
about publishing, or cared, the Green Printing
Company took this opportunity to sell Film Fun
to Dell Publishing, for $750, where it continued
to make a nice profit for George Delacorte over
the next twenty years.
By early 1931, Anthony was desperate
enough to contact everyone he knew in publishing looking for any kind of job. The only
response came from Dell publisher George T.
Delacorte, Jr., who asked Anthony to suggest
some ideas for a humor magazine that could be
done on the cheap. Anthony thought that Delacorte was nuts to attempt a new magazine in that
economic climate, but came back with one idea:
a magazine making fun of advertising. He had
done one issue of Judge burlesquing advertising
and it had sold well, but made advertisers angry.
He later wrote, If you put out a book that the
public liked, the advertisers got sore, and vice
versa; you were licked either way. Delacorte did
not care what advertisers thought, he published
cheaply printed confession magazines and pulps
like I Confess, Inside Detective, and All Detective and
made his money from newsstand sales. [This
was] a chance to get back at the boys who had
put me in the ashcan,Anthony remarked later.
Anthony got the name Ballyhoo from the title
of a book on fishing.The editorial budget for the
first issue was $500, and with this money Anthony brought twenty-five of the funniest cartoons
he could find. He wrote and drew everything else.
He could not decide what to do for the cover and
with the deadline looming, settled on an overlapping patchwork of colored squares that looked
liked a collage of multi-colored sticky-notes.The
first issue of Ballyhoo (all 150,000 copies) sold out.
Circulation increased with each issue: 300,000 for
the second; 600,000 for the third. By the end of
the year Ballyhoos circulation was 1,500,000, the
magazine was clearing a monthly profit of at least
$30,000, and a delighted Delacorte made Anthony a partner in Ballyhoo.
Delacorte quickly started a knockoff version
of Ballyhoo called Hullabaloo to beat competitors
to the punch. Not that this stopped imitators. Aw

PG 30, Top - Bot BALLYHOO, #2, June 1962 ( respective copyright holder); BLACK BAT DETECTIVE MYSTERIES, #3, Dec.
1933 (Berryman Press); PG 31 Bot Band L to R SKY DEVILS, vol. 1, #4, Jan. 1939 ( respective copyright holder);
WINGS, Winter 1943-44 (Fiction House Magazines); DUSTY AYRES AND HIS BATTLE BIRDS ( Popular Publications).

Nerts, Slapstick published by Harold Hersey (a

continuation of Tickle-Me-Too), Smokehouse, Koo
Koo, Bunk, and Fawcetts Hooey all crowded newsstands soon enough. Anthony wrote later, The
imitators caused us a lot of trouble, too, even if
they didnt give us much competition. In an
attempt to attract attention, they published the
smuttiest jokes they could find, went in for plain
filth. While Ballyhoo was risqu, and sometimes
downright bawdy, it was good, clean fun. Nevertheless we were tarred with the same stick. Dell
won all court cases that tried to get Ballyhoo off
newsstands.
In recognition of the quality of the magazine,
Time called what Ballyhoo printed smart smut,
a couple of steps above the bathroom bawdiness
of Captain Billys Whiz Bang and American pseudo-French magazines such as the La Vie Parisienne and Paris Nights. Comments like this did not
hurt sales.
Anthony, with the editorial help of old friend
Phil Rosa, prepared the magazine every month
out of a 12 x 15 office.The payment rate for cartoons had gone from $15 to $150 each, and at this
rate Ballyhoo was getting submissions from the
best cartoonists of the day. Peter Arno became a
regular Ballyhoo contributor for material Harold
Ross considered too salacious for the New Yorker,
though the puritanical Ross could not always tell
the difference. Many of the best covers were done
by Russell Patterson. Early issues of Ballyhoo ran
to 32 pages, which thickened up to 48 pages by
the mid-1930s.
Anthony created a make-believe editorial staff
all with the same last name Zilch and the magazines agnomen publisher Elmer Zilch was born.
Anthony called him, ...a sort of jerk, i.e., an
advertising man.
In its heyday Ballyhoo spawned a Broadway
musical, a card game, a toilet paper brand, and one

of the first pinball machines, which also gave the

new company a name Bally. Ballyhoo did not
survive the 1930s; towards the end it became a
digest and its final issue appeared in the spring of
1939. Dell attempted a restart in 1948, and published intermittent issues until 1954, just as the
next big humor magazine appeared on newsstands.This was, of course, Mad.
Anthony, after the demise of Ballyhoo in 1939,
licensed the name Hellzapoppin from the hit play
and published Hellzapoppin, The Worlds
Screwiest Magazine. Hellzapoppin only lasted a
few issues.
A mens magazine using the name Ballyhoo
appeared in the 1960s, but had no connection to
Dell or the original magazine.LO

BATTLE BIRDS
Battle Birds first started publication in December,
1932 as an aviation-oriented pulp magazine. It
had a short run for the era, of only 19 issues. In
July, 1934 the owner, the Chicago-based Popular
Publications, made a slight title change, Dusty
Ayres and his Battle Birds, and a major change in
the type of stories it was going to carry.
The title, now using a science fiction formula, lasted for an additional twelve issues before it
was discontinued. Although much different than
its predecessor in content and format, it continued the numbering from the original Battle Birds.
But it was this run of twelve issues that made a
lasting impression on readers and fans as the best
of both aviation to come and fantastic aerial
combat.All the stories in the science fiction issues
were set against the same background of a future
invasion of the United States of America.
The lead Dusty Ayres novels in each issue is
attributed to Robert Sidney Bowen. The short

Battle Birds |
stories rarely carried bylines and usually featured
secondary characters. However, whether intentional or otherwise, the contents pages for each
issue were rather ambiguous, implying that
Bowen wrote the entire issue.
A separately numbered revival of Battle Birds,
in its original format, was published from February, 1940 until May, 1944. The 26 issues in the
revival never reached the peak of success or stirring imagination of the earlier Dusty Ayres science fiction issues.
It is to Dusty Ayres and his Battle Birds that fans
and collectors turn to recapture the amazing,
thrilling visions of the pre-World War II era.
Every month, beginning in July, 1934 through
July, 1935, the local newsstands would sell out as
each new issue appeared.

Bowen told the story of his hero set against

the backdrop of an ongoing world war.The war
began in the near future, three years after all Asia
and Europe had been a seething inferno of war.
A hero is nothing without a villain, and
Bowen created a worthy masked threat from an
obscure part of Central Asia to challenge Dusty
Ayres. Fire-Eyes, the dire enemy, had arisen and
declared war on the world. He was a brutish figure, sporting a bulletproof black uniform, black
gauntlets, and a black skull cap.
Fire-Eyes and his armed hordes, the Black
Invaders, stage an invasion of the United States
after they have conquered the rest of the world.
They use radio-controlled gas rockets and midget
flame tanks. It is Dusty Ayres and his Battle Birds
who have to stop him.

Dusty is, of course, the top American pilot,

and with the help of his friends he is responsible
for turning back the Black Invaders and foiling
the plans of Fire-Eyes. Ayres is not a man alone;
he is aided by Jack Horner,Agent 10 and the son
of the man in charge of United States Intelligence. Dustys pals Curley Brooks and Biff Bolton
also give him much-needed assistance.
Stopping Fire-Eyes is not an easy task. Dusty
Ayres must first kill Zytoff and Ekar the Avenger
before taking on Black Hawk, Fire-Eyess evil
lieutenant and an air ace nearly Dustys equal.
After seven separate encounters, he shoots down
Black Hawk. In the final episode it is Fire-Eyes
who meets his doom at the hands of Dusty and
with his end the Black Invasion falls apart.
The decision to cancel the magazine had

31

already been made. In the last novel, The Telsa

Raiders, Dusty Ayres and his friends kill the evil
villain who has been trying to conquer the United States.And it is in that episode, when the pulp
hero finishes off his enemy, that the first ever
clear-cut end to a pulp serial storyline coincides
with the magazines actual demise.
Battle Birds was first published by American
Fiction Magazines, Inc.The 128-page pulp magazine was sold for 10 cents and regularly featured
covers by Frederick Blakeslee. It was selling for 15
cents at the end of its first series run in June, 1934.
An internal corporate restructuring occurred
before the first Dusty Ayres appeared in July, 1934
and American Fiction Magazines, Inc., became
Fictioneers, Inc., but they were still printing their
magazines under the Popular Publications imprint.

AIR COMBAT PULPS

32 | Battle Birds
Popular Publications titles included detective
(Ace High Detective), adventure, romance, and
western fiction. Popular Publications was also
well known for their several weird menace titles
such as Terror Tales and Horror Stories, and a string
of character pulps they published, which included Captain Combat, Captain Satan, Captain V, Captain Zero (considered to be the last hero pulp), Dr.
Yen Sin (a Fu Manchu clone), G-8, Mysterious Wu
Fang (another Fu Manchu clone), The
Octopus/The Scorpion, Operator No. 5, Secret Six,
and The Spider.
Popular Publications was formed in 1930 by
Henry Harry Steeger. In 1942, the company
acquired the properties of the Frank A. Munsey
Co., chief among them the pulp magazine Argosy.
In 1949, they picked up the rights to several of
the Street & Smith pulps.At the time, rumors circulated that they might acquire Street & Smiths
best-known pulp heroes, The Shadow and Doc
Savage, but this never happened.
David Goodis was perhaps the most famous
author to write for Battle Birds. Goodis, a popular
American noir writer, wrote under several pseudonyms, for pulp magazines including Battle Birds,
Daredevil Aces, Dime Mystery, Horror Stories, Terror
Tales and Western Tales, sometimes churning out
10,000 words a day. Over a five-and-a-half year
period he produced some five million words for
the pulps.
Bowen based Dusty Ayres on his own incredible adventures during World War I. Bowen began
the war as an ambulance driver in France in 1914,
but was sent home because he was too young.
Somehow he got to Britain,lied about his age,and
joined the Royal Flying Corps, later known as the
Royal Air Force. At the tender age of 14, he was
the youngest pilot in the RAF, and soon became
an ace, shooting down eight enemy aircraft.
After the war, Bowen worked continually at
writing for pulp magazines such as Popular Sport,
G-Men, and Battle Aces. In the early 1940s, he
went on to write the Dave Dawson War Adventure Series and the Red Randall series. After
World War II, Bowen stopped writing series

PG 32 Top to Bot BIG DADDY ROTH, Oct. Nov. 1964 (Millar Publications); BLACKSTONES MAGIC, 1930 ( Shade
Publishing); PG 33 L to R, Top to Bot THE OCTOPUS, Mar. 1939 ( Popular Publications); BLACK MASK, vol. 33. #4
( respective copyright holder); THE SCORPION, April/May 1939 ( Popular Publications); SHEER DELIGHT, #2,
1958 ( Elmer Batters ).

books, to the lasting regret of all his fans.

Dusty Ayres left his mark not only in the
pages of the pulp magazines, flying across the
skies of a freedom-loving United States, but also
in the minds of many readers who went on to
careers in aviation because of the heroic deeds of
Robert Sidney Bowens creation.The adventures
that entertained a generation were reprinted in
the 1960s under the Corinth Regency imprint of
Greenleaf Classics, allowing yet another generation to become inspired and follow after Dusty
into the blue skies.
In 1972, Popular Publications sold its various
rights to Blazing Publications. In 1988, Blazing
Publications renamed itself Argosy Communications and under that name published a few comic
book versions of its most famous characters, as
well as allowing the reprinting of several other
main properties it now owned.FJ [see G-8 and
His Battle Aces,Terror Tales]

Back, Beatles Are Here, Beatles Color Pin-Up Album,

Beatles Complete Coverage of N.Y. Appearance, Beatles Complete Life Story, Beatles Complete Life Story
From Birth till Now, Beatles in Cincinnati, Beatles
Make a Movie, Beatles on Broadway, Beatles Personality Annual, Beatles Pictures for Framing, Beatles
Round the World #1,Talking Pictures #1 The Beatles, Beatles Round the World #2, Beatles Starring in
A Hard Days Night, Beatles Talk!, Beatles U.S.A.,
Beatles Whole True Story, Best of the Beatles, Elvis Vs.
the Beatles, Help!, Meet the Beatles, New Beatles
The Fab Four Come Back, Original Beatles Book,
Original Beatles Book Two, Real True Beatles, Ringos
Photo Album,Teen Pix Album,Teen Screen Life Story,
Teen Talk,Teeners Special Beatles #1,Who Will Beat
the Beatles?JH

BEATLEMANIA

BLACK MASK

During the 1960s, the British rock group The

Beatles became a world-wide phenomenon. In
the United States alone, there were some 40+
one-shot magazine titles issued, and another
bakers dozen British titles. All of these magazines
had large print runs and sold out rapidly to eager
teenagers. The Beatles-related magazines are rapidly becoming sought-after collectors items today.
Following is a partial list of the Beatlemania
magazine titles, most were nothing more that a
compilation of pin-up pictures:
All About the Beatles, All About Us, America Vs.
Beatles: Battle of the Groups, Beatle Fun Kit, Beatle
Hairdos & Setting Patterns, Beatledom, Beatlemania
#1, Beatlemania Collectors Item, Beatles, Beatles Are

There are not many magazines that give their

name to a new vogue in fiction. In the earliest
days, Blackwoods Magazine certainly created a
sensational form of fiction that Edgar Allan Poe
mercilessly lampooned. The New Yorker is closely
associated with its sophisticated form of sharp
satire. Unknown lent its name to a special form of
fantasy. But the one we all know, without question, is Black Mask, whose name, even today,
instantly conjures up the world of hard-boiled
crime fiction. Without Black Mask, no doubt
some other magazine would have become the
vehicle, but maybe not in the same way, not with
the same force, and not with the same flair.After
all, Black Mask had them all: Dashiell Hammett,

BIG DADDY ROTH

see Choppers Magazine

Black Mask |
Raymond Chandler, Carroll John Daly, Erle
Stanley Gardner, Raoul Whitfield, Frederick
Nebel, and Frank Gruber, all concentrated into a
span of less than a decade.
Like many legends, Black Mask or The Black
Mask as it was called for its first seven years had
an ignominious start. It was the third of a series of
pulps started by H.L. Mencken and George J.
Nathan in the hope of raising funds to support
their ailing literary magazine, The Smart Set.They
had found that they could start a new magazine
for as little as $500 and then sell it for a substantial profit soon after. They had already done this
with Parisienne in 1915 and Saucy Stories in 1916.
The Black Mask was next, launched in April, 1920.
It was not the first crime-fiction magazine of the
period Street & Smiths Detective Story Magazine
and Frank Touseys Mystery Magazine had both
preceded it, both outgrowths of dime novel series
but it would become the most memorable and
the most original. Indeed, it prospered far better
than The Smart Set, which it had helped finance.
When Mencken and Nathan soldThe Black Mask
after only eight months to Eltinge Warner (owner
of Field & Stream), it netted them a profit of nearly $12,000 (over $130,000 in todays money).
Even that was not enough to keep The Smart Set
solvent. That magazine was sold in 1924, by
which time The Black Mask was well established.
It published nothing special under its first editor, a woman, F.M. Osborne. Its best-known contributor at that stage was Vincent Starrett, but
only with four stories, none of much merit. Its
most prolific contributor was Harold Ward, who
churned out regular formulaic fare. It did not
publish only crime fiction, but a wide range of
adventure stories, war stories, westerns, even ghost
stories. Had Black Mask folded when its first editor moved on, in October, 1922 no one would
remember it today, and yet it proved popular at
the time and sales were sufficient that in February, 1923 it stepped up production and (until May
1924) appeared twice monthly. Moreover, there
must have been some sign in those early issues
that the magazine would be different. The pres-

ence of westerns meant that it included stories of

outlaws and there was a thin line between the
wild west and the post-war rise in gangs and
hoodlums in prohibition America. Seeds must
have been sown, for when George W. Sutton, Jr.,
took over in October, 1922 everything changed,
and he promptly published two of the biggest
names for which the magazine would be remembered: Carroll John Daly and Dashiell Hammett.
Daly made his pulp debut with Dolly, a
short mood piece, in that October, 1922 issue, but
the real milestone came two issues later. The
December, 1922 issue, called by pulp expert
Robert Sampson one of the key issues in pulp
magazine history, carried the first of Dalys
tough-guy stories, The False Burton Combs
and the first story by Hammett (writing under
the alias Peter Collinson), The Road Home.
These two writers were destined to create and
establish the hard-boiled school of crime fiction.
Daly was the first.After a couple of early, notquite-there efforts, he created the character of
Terry Mack, the first true hard-edged tough-guy
private investigator in Three Gun Terry (May
15, 1923). Mack appeared in one more story,
Action! Action! (January 1, 1924), but by then
Daly had found a new character that worked
even better, Race Williams. Williams first
appeared in Knights of the Open Palm, in a
special issue of Black Mask (June 1, 1923) dedicated to the subject of the Ku Klux Klan, and one
of the most desirable of many amongst the magazines run.Williams would appear in 53 stories in
Black Mask and although the readers lapped them
up, they have not dated well compared to those
that followed. Daly had no gracious writing style
and Williams had no finesse. He slugged his way
through cases with no detective skills and with no
qualms over killing where necessary. Hes as much
a thug as the villains, with only a shade better idea
of what constituted right and wrong, but within
him burned some of those characteristics that
became embedded in the Private Eye persona
tough, determined, and a loner and the stories
were told in the first person.

33

34 | Black Mask
Of far greater merit were the Continental Op
stories by Hammett, which began with Arson
Plus (October 1, 1923) under the Collinson
alias. Daly had no idea how a private investigator
operated in fact Daly couldnt even find his way
home one night, and another time was arrested
the same day he bought his one and only gun.
Hammett, on the other hand, knew it in detail.
He had worked for Pinkertons Detective Agency
on and off between 1915 and 1922, and the cases
and people he knew became the basis for his stories.The Continental Op stories, which are set in
San Francisco, are narrated in the first person and
we never learn the narrators name. He was always
the Op the Continental came from the name of
the building in Baltimore where the Pinkerton
offices were located. These stories are far more
realistic than Dalys, still tough but less violent.

The Op has morals and a code of loyalty, but is

just as determined to solve his cases. Although
Daly had started the Private Eye vogue, it was
Hammett who refined it. Hammett soon came
out from behind his Collinson alias with
Crooked Souls (October 15, 1923).There were
34 Op stories in total in Black Mask through to
November, 1930, which was Hammetts last
appearance in the magazine.
Suttons tenure as editor was short and he left
in March, 1924, to be replaced by Philip Cody,
who stayed for a little more than two years.
Between them, they established the writers and
characters who would make Black Masks name.
Cody had seen the value of regular series characters and encouraged both Daly and Hammett to
produce more Race Williams and Continental
Op stories. It was under Cody that Erle Stanley

Gardner became a regular contributor, though it

was Codys associate editor, Harry North, who
had been with the magazine from the start, who
worked with Gardner to develop his style. Cody
had hitherto rejected most of Gardners stories.
However, once Gardner hit upon the character of
Ed Jenkins, known as the Phantom Crook, who
debuted in Beyond the Law (January 1925),
Cody knew he was onto a winner. Jenkins was an
outlaw, in true wild-west tradition, who pitted
the criminals against the police and vice versa for
his own gain. Jenkins was the hard-boiled version
of the gentleman crook that had started with
Raffles and Arsne Lupin, and like Lupin, Jenkins
was a master of disguise. But there was nothing
gentlemanly about him. He was as tough as Race
Williams, but more streetwise and clever. The
Jenkins stories were ingenious, fast-paced, and

entertaining. They were extremely popular and

became the longest running series in Black Mask:
73 stories through to The Gong of Vengeance
in September, 1943.
Cody was a good editor but did not enjoy it,
preferring to be at the business end of the magazine. He found his replacement in a 52-year-old
ex-army captain, Joseph Shaw. When Shaw
entered the offices of Black Mask in 1926, hopeful of selling a story, he had never read the magazine and knew nothing about editing.Yet Cody
clearly saw something, and he was right. Once
Cap Shaw, as he became known, took the helm
in November, 1926, Black Mask moved to another level. His ten years there would see not only
Black Masks best years but arguably the most significant years of any of the pulps. Shaw did his
homework, saw what made the magazine click,

BEATLESMANIA

Black Mask |

and set about building a stable of writers.

Hammett had turned his back on Black Mask
when he was unable to secure a better word-rate
but Shaw brought him back with suggestions for
longer stories featuring the Continental Op.
Hammett responded with two linked novellas,
The Big Knock-Over and $106,000 Blood
Money (February and May 1927), which later
made up the novel Blood Money (1943). Hammett
then produced four more connected Op stories,
the Poisonville sequence, which began with The
Cleansing of Poisonville (November 1927), and
came together as Hammetts first book, Red Harvest (Knopf, 1929). Four more, which ran from
November, 1928, through February, 1929,

became The Dain Curse (Knopf, 1929). Then

came The Maltese Falcon, serialized from September, 1929, through January, 1930. Sam Spade
the real Sam Spade of the serial, not the romanticized Bogart version is cunning, cold, and calculating, but he does have a strong sense of loyalty, and in the cut-and-thrust between villains he
is both realistic and believable. Hammetts output
continued with four more connected stories
(March to June 1930), which make up the nonseries novel The Glass Key (Knopf, 1931).
After one more Continental Op story,
Death and Company (November 1930), Shaw
lost Hammett, first to the slick market and then
to Hollywood. Those magic three years, which
saw Hammett at his peak, established what Shaw
wanted for Black Mask. He later wrote: Hammett was the leader in the thought that finally
brought the magazine its distinctive form. Shaw
wanted his other writers to produce material in
a similar vein and cajoled them so much that
Gardner accused Shaw of trying to Hammettize the magazine.
Shaw worked with his other popular contributors, amongst them Raoul Whitfield and Frederick Nebel. Whitfield, who had been a First
World War flying ace, is virtually forgotten today,
but he was a prolific pulpster. Many of his stories
featured wealthy sportsmen or aviators in pursuit
of adventure, but he was also a devotee of Hammetts work and was keen to emulate the master.
His most Hammettesque work was the Crime
Breeders sequence (December 1929-April
1930), where ex-con Mal Ourney is caught up in
a violent search for stolen emeralds. Hammett
read the stories and suggested Whitfield send
them to his editor at Knopf, which resulted in
Whitfields first book, Green Ice (1930). Another
of Whitfields characters was Hollywood detec-

PG 34 Bot Band L to R ALL ABOUT THE BEATLES, #1 1965 ( respective copyright holder);
THE BEATLES ( respective copyright holder); THE BEATLES PERSONALITY ALBUM, #1 1964 ( respective copyright
holder); PG 35 L to R, Top to Bot ALL TRUE-FACT CRIME CASES, June 1952 ( respective copyright holder); BLACK
MASK, Jan. 1950 (Popular Publications); BLACK MASK DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, July 1951 (Fictioneers Inc.).

tive Ben Jardinn, who was introduced in the serial Death in a Bowl (September-November
1930), which also made it into book form
(Knopf, 1931). Whitfields most popular contributions to Black Mask, though, were his 24 stories
about the Island detective, Jo Gar, set in the
Philippines. These appeared under the alias
Ramon Decolta and ran from West of Guam
(February 1930) to The Amber Fan (July
1933). Because of the pseudonym, Whitfield
never really got sufficient credit for them. They
did not appear in book form until Keith Alan
Deutsch collected the bulk of them in Jo Gars
Casebook (Crippen & Landru, 2002), nearly 60
years after Whitfields early death.
Frederick Nebel was a small, mild man who
enjoyed the open country and wild parts of the
world. His real desire, which he eventually
achieved, was to write for the quality womens
magazines, but that was not to be before he had
churned out over 200 stories for the pulps. He
first sold to Black Mask in 1926, and soon fell
under the Hammett influence. When Hammett
refused to write any more stories featuring Sam
Spade, Shaw asked Nebel if he could produce an
equivalent character and Nebel promptly obliged
with ex-cop Donny Donahue, who had left the
force rather than bow to corruption and who
joined the Inter-State Detective Agency. The
series ran from Rough Justice (November
1930) to Ghost of a Chance (March 1935) and
while the stories lack Hammetts polish and
finesse, they have a shrewdness and honesty that
makes them believable.
Even without Hammett, Shaw was thus able
to perpetuate the mood of his stories, not only
through the work of Whitfield and Nebel, but
also Horace McCoy, Paul Cain, W.T. Ballard,
Norbert Davis, Theodore Tinsley, and Dwight V.
Babcock, but fortune really smiled when he discovered Raymond Chandler. Or rather Chandler
discovered him. Chandler was in his mid-1940s,
dissatisfied with life and on an emotional decline,
when he stumbled across a copy of Black Mask.
He was immediately hooked. It took him five

35

36 | Black Mask
months to write his first story, Blackmailers
Dont Shoot and, when typing the final copy, he
even took the trouble to justify the right-hand
margin. When Shaw read the story he was
amazed. He forwarded it to Willis Ballard with a
note stating that Chandler was either a genius or
a madman.The story appeared in the December,
1933 Black Mask. It featured a private eye called
Mallory, a clear forerunner of Philip Marlowe.
Chandler had delighted in the written word
from an early age and had written some poetry
and sketches but had not pursued it seriously. But
now he had the bug, inspired by the works of
Hammett and Norbert Davis.With his third story,
Finger Man (October 1934), Chandler felt he
had come to terms with his new medium. Black
Mask published only eleven of Chandlers stories,
including a series featuring private eye Ted Carmady, another Marlowe forerunner, but the magazine was crucial to his development as a
writer. Equally important was his relationship
with Shaw, who always liked to help and
encourage his writers and who, Chandler
acknowledged, brought the best out in him.
Chandler later cannibalized several of these
early stories to rework into his novels. Both
Killer in the Rain(January 1935) and The
Curtain (September 1936) formed the core
of The Big Sleep (Knopf, 1939), and The
Man Who Liked Dogs (March 1936) and
Try the Girl (January 1937) were the basis
for Farewell, My Lovely (Knopf, 1940). Under
Chandler, the hardboiled form of crime fiction reached its peak.
Where Hammett marked the start of
Black Masks Golden Age, Chandler brought
it to a close. Shaw had built the magazines
circulation from 66,000 in 1926 to 103,000
by 1930, but with the Depression sales
declined again and by 1934 were as low as
47,000. Warner decided to cut salaries,
which led to a dispute with Shaw.As a result
Shaw was fired. His authors were stunned
and many of the major contributors, including Nebel and Chandler, never wrote for

the magazine again.

Shaw was replaced, in November, 1936, by
Fanny Ellsworth. She was the editor of Ranch
Romances, a title that Warner had bought when
the Clayton titles went up for auction in 1933.
There was a world of difference between the two
magazines, but Ellsworth was a good, disciplined
editor and knew what was needed. She brought
both Frank Gruber and Cornell Woolrich to the
magazine. Neither of them were her discoveries
but both knew what to deliver. Grubers stories
included his series about Oliver Quade, the
Human Encyclopedia while Woolrich contributed his typically tense stories of fear and neurosis. Black Masks circulation rallied but then fell
again.Warner eventually decided to sell his magazines and from the June, 1940 issue Black Mask
was taken over by Popular Publications, becoming a companion to its closest rival, Dime Detec-

Black Silk Stockings |

tive. Its editor at Popular was Ken White, who had
long wished to run the magazine. Unfortunately,
White could not risk making the magazine too
similar to Dime Detective, and as a consequence
Black Mask suffered. It became just another crime
magazine. From 1941 onward, it also found itself
facing a small but hugely popular rival, Ellery
Queens Mystery Magazine, which brought a new
and more sophisticated type of crime fiction to a
receptive readership.
Black Mask published little that was memorable during the forties. Perhaps its best-known
serial was Curt Siodmaks Donovans Brain
(September-November 1942), a science fiction
horror tale which felt rather out of place. Deserted by its readers it became bi-monthly in 1943
it also began to lose most of its leading writers.
After the War its only remaining contributors of
note were G.T. Fleming-Roberts, D.L. Champi-

on, William Campbell Gault, Fredric Brown,

Bruno Fischer, and John D. MacDonald. While
they all produced quality work, there was no mistaking that Black Mask was a pale shadow of its
former self, and that the world of crime fiction
had moved on. Public tastes had changed so dramatically that when Joseph Shaw compiled an
anthology of the best stories from Black Mask,
called The Hard-Boiled Omnibus, he had difficulty
finding a publisher.When it eventually appeared
from Simon & Schuster in 1946, many of the
authors represented complained about the reissuing of their early work. Never had a vogue so
defiantly come and gone.
White had stepped down as editor by 1949
and in its final two years, now called Black Mask
Detective, the magazine ran mostly on reprints.
After its 340th issue, dated July, 1951, it merged
with Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, which later

37

PG 36 BLACK MASK, Nov. 1947 ( Popular Publications); PG 36 -37 Bot Band L to R REAL SCREEN FUN, May 1938
( respective copyright holder); SAUCY MOVIE TALES, Dec. 1936 ( Movie Digest); MOVIE MERRY-GO-ROUND
(respective copyright holder); STAGE AND SCREEN STORIES, Apr. 1936 ( Movie Digest).

ran a Black Mask section.

There is a certain irony about this merger.
Ellery Queens was owned by the American Mercury Company, which had been established by
Mencken and Nathan in 1924 to publish The
American Mercury, their successor to The Smart Set.
Little could they have suspected that their prodigal son would eventually return to the fold. During its 31-year existence, it had created a whole
new genre of detective fiction, leaving behind a
far greater legacy than either of its founders could
have imagined. MA [see Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine]

BLACK SILK STOCKINGS

Black Silk Stockings was Los Angeles-based Elmer
A. Batterss first go as an independent publisher,
and the first time he had a real showcase for his
leg, stocking, and womens nyloned feet fetish
photography. Batterss own photos in Black Silk
Stockings (1958), and later publications Sheer
Delight (1959), and Mans Favorite Pastime (1960),
very rarely strayed into full nudity, yet Batters daringly gave his pictures a titillating sense of the
erotic potential hidden in every woman, and this
was enough, in 1959, to get him busted for
obscenity when other mens magazines were

1930S RISQUE MOVIE MAGS

1930S MYSTERY MAGAZINES

going further a field in naked flesh delineation.
Batterss photography was more personalized,
even intimate, and this may have been what
brought it to the attention of censors. His wife
worked at his side, assisting in his studio, and there
has been talk that she did not understand the full
import of her husbands photographic aretifism.
This seems unlikely as she was a full partner in his
work throughout his life.
In the 1960s, Batters worked for Milton

Luros Tip-Top, Nylon Jungle (1964), and other leg,

garters, garter belts, and lingerie magazines and
had a section in some of Luros magazines called
Dear Elmer Batters where he answered letters
from readers. His photography ended up in the
1980s at Leg Show magazine.LO [see Jaybird
and Sunshine & Health]

PG 38 Top Band, L to R AMERICAN DETECTIVE FACT CASES, May 1937 ( Quality Publication); DETECTIVE SHORT
STORIES, vol. 1, #3, Apr. 1938 ( Red Circle); CRIME DETECTIVE, Vol. 1, #1, Oct. 1938 ( Hillman Publications);
PG 39 L to R, Top to Bot STOCKING PARADE, #3, 1966 ( respective copyright holder); BLACK SILK STOCKINGS, vol. 1,
#5, 1958 ( respective copyright holder); interior b&w page from BLACK SILK STOCKINGS, 1958; BLACK SILK STOCKINGS, vol. 1, #1, 1958 ( respective copyright holder).

BLACKSTONES MAGIC
see Stephen Kings Horror Mag
BLUE BOOK
Blue Book was one of the leading general fiction
pulp magazines in the first half of the twentieth
century and was referred to at the time as the
King of the Pulps, the highest in quality
indeed, almost a slick in pulp clothing.The title
had originally been The Monthly Story Magazine
when it was launched in May, 1905, but after a
year this changed, first to the clumsy The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine, and eventually, in
May, 1907, to The Blue Book Magazine.The name
was selected because by then the phrase Blue

Book had already become synonymous with

setting a high standard.The interpretation of the
word blue as something risqu or lewd was far
from the publishers thoughts. From the start, Blue
Book intended to be the definitive fiction magazine, a cut above the pulps but not as elitist as the
major slicks.That is how it is still remembered.
It was published in Chicago by the Story-Press
Corporation, the second magazine created by local
businessman Louis Eckstein. His first had been Red
Book in May, 1903.That was an all-around magazine, printed on coated stock, which ran features
and stories with plenty of illustrations and considerable advertising. The Monthly Story Magazine was
all fiction. For the most part it was published on
thin newsprint, only slightly better than pulp
though it ages badly and its pages these days are

Black Silk Stockings Blue Book |

extremely brittle. There was no advertising and,
with one exception, no illustrations.
The one exception was a heavily illustrated
feature called Stageland, printed on coated
stock.This showed scenes from the latest theatrical ventures along with photographs of the actors
and actresses. With some later issues, there was a
pull-out color portrait of that months featured
actress. The Stageland feature, which at its
height filled thirty-two pages, would last for ten
years and is one of the more collectable aspects of
the magazines early life.
The Stageland feature aside, the magazine
ran for 192 pages, all solid fiction. Early issues were
a mixture of popular American writers of the day,
now mostly forgotten, like humorist Forrest
Crissey and dime novelist W. Bert Foster, plus
imports from Britain, including Eden Phillpotts,
Guy Boothby and Robert S. Hichens.The editor
of these early issues was not credited, though it
was almost certainly Trumbull White, a former
war reporter and journalist who also edited Red
Book. His place was soon taken by Karl Harriman.
Few of these early issues carried much
notable fiction. Amongst the exceptions is The
Time Deflector (September 1905), the first story
by popular author and occasional science-fictionist George Allan England. The Red Grave in
the January, 1907 issue may well be the first published story by Damon Runyon, then still signing
himself Alfred Damon Runyon, yet it seems to
have generally passed unnoticed by Runyon
devotees. The real gems of these issues are those
featuring the early work of British writer William
Hope Hodgson. The April, 1906 issue carried
From the Tideless Sea, a haunting story of a
family stranded for decades in the Sargasso Sea.
The storys popularity demanded a sequel,More
News from the Homebird, which appeared in
August, 1907.The next issue ran the weaker The
Terror of the Water-Tank, but the real prize, in
the November, 1907 issue, was the first appearance of Hodgsons masterpiece,The Voice in the
Night. It was with these stories that Hodgson
established his reputation and these issues are now

extremely rare and highly valued.

Despite the genteel, society image of the
magazines cover, which for over a decade portrayed nothing but women in the latest fashion,
Blue Book carried a mixture of adventure, mystery
and humor stories. Blue Book made a point of
declaring that it would run no serials, but that all
stories would be complete, with the emphasis on
series. One of the most remarkable in terms of
stamina first appeared in the March, 1910 issue.
This was the Buchanesque The Adventures of a
Diplomatic Free-Lance by Clarence Herbert
New, about freelance British agent Lord Trevor,
who was called in by diplomats to help them out
in difficult situations throughout Europe. New
continued this series for 289 installments till his
death in 1933, the most of any magazine series,
totaling some three million words. Overall, New
contributed 387 stories to Blue Book, under his
own name and two pseudonyms, making him the
most prolific contributor.
One of the regulars from the start was Ellis
Parker Butler, with his usual blend of clever, satirical stories, though sometimes he took a more
serious tone. The Last Man (September 1914)
is the story of a lone survivor in New York after
a catastrophe. Butler would later contribute his
series about Jabez Bunker, country-boy conman
in the big city. Another regular was Australian
adventurer James Francis Dwyer, whose exotic
stories, frequently with jungle or oriental settings,
fired the imagination. Dwyer caused Blue Book to
break its rule in not running serials when, after
already publishing a dozen of his stories, it ran his
novel Blue Lizard in six parts (August 1913-January 1914).
By now Blue Book was well established as a
magazine of mystery and adventure. Although it
maintained the demure-lady covers for a few
more years, in October, 1914, it cut out all pretence of being a quasi-slick magazine by transferring the Stageland feature (which had become
the Motion Picture Department in May, 1914)
to its short-lived companion Green Book and
becoming an all-fiction pulp. It increased the

39

BLUE BOOK
number of pages to 240, although the price
remained at fifteen cents, and began running
complete novels as well as serials.These included
the lost-race adventure Bride of the Sun by
Gaston Leroux (November 1914). By now Blue
Book had a solid roster of regulars. In addition to
those already mentioned, there were Edwin
Balmer, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Max Rittenberg,
Octavus Roy Cohen, Edgar Wallace, and James
Oliver Curwood, but over the next four years the
big guns would come into play.
The first of these was no less than H. Rider
Haggard. His new Allan Quatermain novel, The
Ivory Child, was serialized in eight parts starting in
February, 1915. That same issue marked the first
appearance in Blue Book of Canadian-born writer
H. Bedford-Jones, who would become the magazines second most prolific contributor.
The real scoop came in the September, 1916

issue with the first of twelve New Stories of

Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs
had become one of the rapid success stories of the
pulps with his first Tarzan story in Munseys AllStory in October, 1912. Blue Books new editor,
Ray Long, had managed to win Burroughs away
from Munsey and although Burroughs would
always play off one magazine against another, Blue
Book remained one of his more regular markets
for the next twenty years.
The Burroughs issues, not surprisingly, are
among the most prized of the Blue Books.To top
it all, before the Tarzan series had finished, Blue
Book began a Zane Grey serial The Roaring
U.P. Trail (June 1917-January 1918) and soon
after published, complete, one of Clarence E.
Mulfords Bar-20 novels, The Man from Bar-20
(May 1918). It also ran complete Burroughss
non-series novel, The Oakdale Affair (March

1918), and soon after the three novelettes that

make up his novel of arrested evolution, The Land
That Time Forgot.
Although Blue Book had already had a
respectable life of ten years, it can really be said to
have arrived from 1915 onwards and that was due
solely to editor Ray Long. He had edited Blue
Book and its two companions since 1911 and had
shown an unerring ability to tap into the mood
of the nation. He left at the end of 1918 to join
William Randolph Hearsts organization where
he edited Cosmopolitan, almost doubling its circulation. He was reputedly one of the highest-paid
editors of the 1920s, earning $100,000 dollars a
year (today the equivalent of $1 million).
Although Karl Harriman returned as editor-inchief, Donald Kennicott was in charge of acquiring material for Blue Book. Kennicott was one of
the great pulp editors. He had served as the assis-

tant editor at Blue Book since 1910 and remained

at the helm until 1951, seeing the magazine
through its Golden Age.
He added his own new writers, including
Edison Marshall, L. Patrick Greene, and Bertram
Atkey, but his major scoop was securing the first
U.S. publication of Agatha Christies Hercule
Poirot stories. These began in September, 1923
with The Affair at the Victory Ball, previously
published in Britain in The Sketch, and ran, with
just one gap, for the next two years.The September, 1923 issue is significant for another reason: It
was the first to carry a traditional action pulp
cover rather than the demure ladies of the last
eighteen years, and from there on Blue Books
cover artists came into their own. Foremost
among them was Laurence Herndon, who provided most of the action covers, though there was
also Frank Hoban, who illustrated most of the

Blue Book |
Burroughs issues, and the legendary J. Allen St.
John. It was under Kennicott that internal artwork was introduced (stories had borne no illustrations hitherto apart from occasional small
headers), but from September, 1926 on, the magazine was styling itself The Illustrated Blue Book
Magazine. Kennicott also introduced the idea of a
$100 prize for each best true-story experience
submitted by readers, along the lines of the anecdotes that were popular in Adventures Camp
Fire department, and this remained a standard
feature throughout the thirties.
Apart from a break of four months (June to
September 1928), Burroughs was in every issue of
Blue Book from December, 1927 to March, 1932,
and again August, 1932 to January, 1933. These
issues saw the serialization of Tarzan, Lord of the
Jungle, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, Tanar of
Pellucidar, Tarzan at the Earths Core, A
Fighting Man of Mars, Tarzan, Guard of the
Jungle, The Land of Hidden Men, The Triumph of Tarzan, and Tarzan and the Leopard
Men.This last serial ran alongside another blockbuster,When Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer
and Philip Wylie, which generated the sequel,
After Worlds Collide (November 1933 to April
1934).
In 1929, Eckstein sold Red Book and Blue
Book to the McCall Corporation (Green Book had
ceased in 1921), and the offices moved to New
York. From October, 1930 to August, 1932, Blue
Book experimented with moving from the standard pulp format to the large flat size, sometimes
erroneously called bedsheet. These issues were
also on paper of slightly better quality and gave
Laurence Herndon a chance to paint some of his
best covers. It reverted to the standard pulp size in
September, 1932 an announcement claiming that
readers had found the large size less convenient.

Nevertheless, those twenty-three large issues are

some of the most highly treasured because of
their Burroughs content and covers.
A new cover artist took over with the smaller
format issues, Joseph Chenoweth. His covers are
less colorful than Herndons, but are more suggestive of action, as if the characters portrayed are
about to move any moment.Another artist during
this period was Henry J. Soulen, whose few covers during 1934/35 are highly exotic and colorful.
Austin Briggs provided no covers, but drew many
interior illustrations where he proved himself one
of the more popular artists with his dramatic
action pictures. By contrast, John R. Flanagan was
the master of the exotic, his illustrations bringing
alive stories of the south seas or the ancient past.
In April, 1935 a new cover artist appeared
who would paint all the covers for the next thirteen years.This was Herbert Morton Stoops, who
had a remarkable ability for drawing historical
scenes with pleasing authenticity. Stoopss covers
frequently told their own story and later, especially during the war years, they were produced
around individual patriotic features, such as This
is Our Land. Stoopss covers are never less than
beautiful and are frequently breathtaking, especially his work on William Chesters Kioga series.
Hawk of the Wilderness, a serial by Chester,
starting in the May 1935 issue, was a good imitation Tarzan, except it was set in a hitherto
unknown Arctic land where water currents and a
volcano keep the climate temperate. Kioga (the
name means Snow Hawk) is the orphaned child
of explorers who is raised by the natives on the
island,believed to be the common ancestors of the
American Indians and Inuit and, like Tarzan,
develops special physical skills. Kioga appeared in
three serials during 1935/37, which proved highly popular and remain highly collected.

PG 40, Top Band L to R BLUE BOOK, Dec. 1931 ( McCalls Corp.); BLUE BOOK FOR MEN, Oct. 1960
( H. S. Publisher); BLUE BOOK, Nov. 1974 ( respective copyright holder); PG 41, Top to Bot
BEDTIME STORIES, vol. 3, #4 1935 (Detinuer Publishing Company); CRIME DOES NOT PAY, Mar. 1969 ( M. F.
Enterprises).

It was at this time that H. Bedford-Jones came

into his own. He appeared in every issue of Blue
Book from1935 to 1944, sometimes with as many
as four stories. At the same time, he was writing
for many other pulp magazines, earning as much
as $60,000 a year in the mid-1930s. He became
dubbed the King of the Pulps (like the magazine) and it is likely he was the most prolific pulpster of all. He certainly wrote more than Frederick Faust (better known as Max Brand) who is
usually attributed with that title. Bedford-Jones
could turn his hand to most adventure stories and
mysteries, and though he also wrote westerns, the
majority of his work for Blue Book is historical.
Sometimes these would have a fantasy element.
For instance, his Trumpets from Oblivion series
(November 1938 to October 1939) looked at the
stories behind the origins of various legends and
provided Stoops with some of his best covers.
Writing as Michael Gallister, he wrote a series
about mans conquest of the air, while under his
own name he wrote about the origins of the theatre (The World Was Their Stage), mans conquest of the sea (Men and Ships), and many
other long-running series. By the time of Bedford-Joness death in 1949, Kennicott reported
that Blue Book had published 360 of his stories, 7
serials and 6 complete novels. Although Clarence
New exceeded that in numbers, Bedford-Jones
exceeded it in wordage. Bedford-Jones has since
become something of a forgotten writer though
he was held in high regard in his day Kunitz and
Haycraft wrote in Twentieth-Century Authors that
he is one of the best known of the pulp paper
magazine story writers and one of the better men
in that medium.
Another major contributor was William J.
Makin, the British writer, reporter, traveler and
soldier who met his death in the thick of battle
during the Second World War. Starting with the
December, 1932 issue, Makin contributed over
fifty stories to Blue Book. Most fell into one of
three series, the most popular of which featured
the Red Wolf, a Lawrence of Arabia type character operating in North Africa.Another featured

41

42 | Blue Book
Isaac Heron, a gypsy detective, and Jonathan
Lowe was the lead in a series of unusual mystery
stories. Makins presence always guaranteed sales
and he developed a strong cult following.
Other popular contributors included Beatrice
Grimshaw, well known for her South Sea romantic adventures, George Surdez,Achmed Abdullah,
Donald Barr Chidsey,Arch Whitehouse, Fulton T.
Grant, Jacland Marmur, Leland Jamieson and
many other reliable and capable writers who produced their own sophisticated brands of mystery
and intrigue. There are also the occasional surprise contributions by Michael Arlen, Rafael
Sabatini (with a story of the French Revolution),
Dornford Yates (When the Devil Drives, serialized July-October 1940), Andre Maurois,
Georges Simenon, Gelett Burgess, Irvin S. Cobb,
and Manuel Komroff.
The thirties was without doubt Blue Books
Golden Age. It was a period that saw some of the
best adventure fiction in the pulps published
with a seal of approval that assured readers of its
quality and entertainment value. Blue Book took
over from Adventure as the magazine that provided the most escapism and excitement to readers,
making it a legend amongst not just pulps but
also all magazines.
In September, 1941 Blue Book again converted to the large flat format. Factors had changed in
the previous nine years.The pulps had passed their
heyday with many falling by the wayside. Many
more would fall victim to the Second World War.
The future seemed to lay in the large format slick
magazine and some publishers were converting
their printing requirements to follow that trend.
When Red Book turned large size, Blue Book followed, but whereas Red Book targeted the
womens market, Blue Book promised Stories of
Adventure for Men, by Men. The number of
non-fiction features increased, especially after the
war, when censorship allowed for regular accounts
of wartime activities, and there was a greater
emphasis on true adventures and experiences.
Throughout the 1940s, Blue Book grew in
sophistication. Most of its regular authors

PG 42, Top to Bot TITTER ( Titter Inc.); BEAUTY PARADE, ( Beauty Parade); PG 43, L to R, Top to Bot HOT DOG,
October 1931 ( respective copyright holder); FRENCH STORIES, 1935 ( French Stories); FILM FUN, Aug. 1936
( Dell Publications); REAL BOUDOIR TALES, V1#22, 1935 ( Burnham Company); Bot tier: PEP STORIES, vol. 6, #8,
Aug. 1936 (D. M. Publishing Company); SILK STOCKING, May 1936 ( respective copyright holder); NEW YORK
NIGHTS V3#4, 1936 ( H. M. Publishing Co.); TATTLE TALES, vol. 5, #5, 1937 ( Detinuer Publishing Company).

remained, joined now by Nelson Bond, who produced many humorous fantasies, Frank Brandon
and Wayne D. Overholser, authors of powerful
westerns, John D. MacDonald, who contributed
both mysteries and science fiction, C.T. Stoneham, renowned for his animal stories, Robert A.
Heinlein, MacKinlay Kantor, Harold Lamb,
William P. McGivern, Robert S. Carr; the line-up
continued to be impressive. One unusual item in
the October, 1945 issue was Paradise Crater by
Philip Wylie, about the development of the
nuclear bomb by the Nazis.Wylie had completed
this story some months before the first atomic
bomb was detonated.When he submitted it, Kennicott thought he should clear it with the authorities and CIA agents promptly descended on
Wylie, placing him under house arrest.After a few
checks Wylie was cleared but Kennicott felt it wise
to keep the story under wraps until after the war.
In 1949, a new President at McCalls, Phillips
Wyman, set in motion a series of changes to
increase the circulation of an ailing Red Book. By
the early 1950s it had become a magazine for
young women. The consequence of this was to
push Blue Book further down the road of the
mens magazines. A few changes were evident
during the final months of Kennicotts tenure, but
he was clearly not happy and he retired at the end
of 1951, after 42 years of editorial responsibility.
The changes were instigated by his successor
Maxwell Hamilton, and such cover blurbs as
Beware of Sex Racketeers were a sign of the
times. Even so, Hamilton did not push it all the
way. Although the ratio of non-fiction to fiction
was reversed there still remained a quantity of
strong stories with authors including Robert
Bloch, Richard Deming, William Sambrot, and

even TV personality Steve Allen.There were also

such intriguing items as Sherlock Holmes
Dead or Alive? by Will Oursler (May 1953),
Race With Death (August 1953), an article by
famed musician Guy Lombardo on his passion
for speedboats, and C.S. Foresters uncharacteristic fantasy, Macnamaras Exhilarating Elixir
(October 1954). However, the prize of these later
years is the issue for May 1954 that contains not
only a story by P.G.Wodehouse, The Ordeal of
Bingo Little, but also the first publication of Ian
Flemings James Bond novel Live and Let Die.
Writers of note continued to appear Evan
Hunter, Donald Hamilton, Robert Sheckley,Victor Canning, and the March, 1956 issue, which
had a feature on the coming Space Age, ran Frank
M. Robinsons novel The Power. But the writing
was on the wall. Sales had been falling with the
inevitable competition of television and the more
sensational mens magazines, going down the road
that even new editor Andre Fontaine,previously at
Colliers, would not go. Publisher Phillip Wyman
died in 1955, and new publisher Wade Nichols
suspended Blue Book with the May, 1956 issue.
It seems there may have been some deliberation about reviving it, but in the end the title was
sold to H.S. Publications, who relaunched it in
October, 1960. Now called Bluebook for Men, it
was unashamedly an all-action mens sweat
magazine. Surprisingly, its first editor was the
same Maxwell Hamilton who had taken over
from Kennicott, and his few issues tried to replicate the old Blue Book, but he soon handed the
magazine over to a quick succession of editors
and its contents grew increasingly sleazy and violent.This later incarnation, which continued until
1975, is a different magazine and certainly one to

Great Depression Risqu |

43

44 | Blue Book
avoid rather than sully the memory of the original Blue Book. Readers who enjoyed such contents as Lust Orgies of Frustrated Wives or
Inside the Reds 42 Mile Sin Strip would probably not have appreciated or even been aware of
the glories of the original magazine.
The original Blue Book had run for a total of
613 issues and remains in the memory of all pulpsters as the quality pulp by which all others were
measured. MA

bOING bOING
The zeitgeist of the 1980s through 1990s was full
of people attempting to meld computers, technology, sex, literature, and art.The science fiction subgenre cyberpunk was one offshoot of this mating,
and it served as the hot core of many new magazines. Mondo 2000, Black Ice (from England), N6,
Nonstop, SF Eye, Future Sex, and bOING bOING
were all zines that shared much of the same mindset, and some of the same writers.
In 1988, Mark Frauenfelder and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Carla Sinclair, began putting
together a fanzine full of fun technology, freaky
comics, Silicon Alley gutter-curb culture, cyberscience fiction culture, and all manner of posthuman irreverent things. Frauenfelder, while working as a mechanical engineer, had discovered Factsheet 5, a review for do-it-yourself magazines, and
was inspired to create his own zine. He used a dot
matrix printer and the copier at his office to publish the first 32-page issue of bOING bOING,
which included an interview with Robert Anton
Wilson, a piece on brain machines by Sinclair, and
comics by Frauenfelder.The couple sent copies to
Factsheet 5, and the review there brought the zine
to the attention of Ubiquity Distributors in New
York City.Soon Fine Print and Dessert Moon distributors, who were all looking to get into the
zine boom of the early 1990s, picked it up.
Paul Di Filippo's Ribofunkran in the second
issue, along with work by Gareth Branwyn who
joined the editorial staff. By the fifth issue, the self-

styled neurozinebegan running color covers,and

carried ever-changing mottos: The perpetual
novelty brain jack or The brain mutator for
higher primates. It didnt take long for bOING
bOING to find its audience (a group made up of
alternative comics fans, first generation cyberpunks, and computer geeks), and the magazine was
soon selling over ten thousand copies an issue,even
though it is quite probable that none of its readers
could describe the magazine to non-readers.
A sort of editorial/manifesto appeared in the
eighth issue: How can our paranoid one-maze
monkey brains integrate new structures and patterns? Where is the hard reset button on our
nervous systems thatll allow us to flavor our
thinking with new epistemological spices? One
of bOING bOINGs purposes is to explore
metanoia (the ability to simultaneously incorporate multiple tunnel realities) and discover some
of the countless ways to achieve this fun state.
bOING bOING was put together by geeks
for geeks. Frauenfelder was also the magazines
main illustrator, and utilized a cartoony style that
appeared cribbed from the spare 50s television
cartoons of Gene Deitch.The writers included a
mulligan stew of science fiction authors and techheads like Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Richard
Kadrey, John Shirley, Charles Platt, and Rudy
Rucker.
Circulation reached 17,500 by the 16th issue,
but the bankruptcy of Fine Print Distributors left
Frauenfelder and Sinclair in the hole for $30,000.
The distribution aspect had always been on shaky
ground and when another distributor collapsed
Frauenfelder and Sinclair attempted to sell the
magazine directly to readers with mixed results.
In the magazines last year, the couple were working on books and internet projects that would
eventually replace bOING bOING.
Frauenfelder was an editor at Wired from
1993-1998 and founding editor of Wired online.
bOING bOING was a website for a while, before
turning into the popular web blog it is today. In an
interview, Sinclair said, bOING bOING always
comes back. LO [see Future Sex and SF Eye]

Captain Billys Whiz Bang |

BRAIN POWER
see Physical Culture

C
CAPTAIN BILLYS WHIZ BANG
Before Playboy (1953) there was Esquire (1933),
before Esquire there was Captain Billys Whiz Bang
(1919).
Whiz Bang was one of the more popular lowbrow mens publications, originally geared to solders, that came out after World War I, indeed the
publisher and editor of the magazine, Wilford

Hamilton Captain Billy Fawcett, kept a box in

every issue containing the following copy: This
magazine is edited by a Spanish-American and
World War veteran and is dedicated to the Fighting Forces of the United States and Canada.The
magazine began as a mimeographed sheet filled
of innuendos based jokes and titillating news
items meant to amuse disabled servicemen in
veterans hospitals. A typical example ran along
the lines of:According to George Spelvin of the
New York Press, a Bronx woman, crouched under
a tree with a golf club upraised, suffered a curious
accident. A bolt of lighting struck the tree, ran
down the golf club and tore off the womans silk
underwear without so much as singeing her rainsoaked outer garments. George mentioned the
phenomenon in his paper that it might be clipped
out and used by thoughtless ladies as an alibi.
As the Captain Billys Whiz Bang story goes,

45

44, L to R, Top to Bot MONDO 2000, #6, 1992 ( Fun City Megamedia); bOING bOING, #6 (bOING bOING); bOING
bOING, #10 ( bOING bOING); NONSTOP MAGAZINE, #3, 1995 ( Nonstop Magazine); PG 45, Bot Band, L to R SMOKEHOUSE MONTHLY, Aug. 1932 ( Fawcett Publications); CAPT. BILLYS WHIZBANG, De. 1929 (Fawcett Publications);
TRUE CONFESSIONS, Dec. 1932 ( Fawcett Publications).

Fawcett ran away from home at the age of 16 to

join the Army, and found himself in the Philippines fighting the Spanish-American War. He had
advanced to the rank of captain by World War I.
In that war he found himself working for the
Army publication Stars and Stripes. After the war,
he became a police reporter for the Minneapolis
Journal.
Home from the war, Fawcett borrowed a
typewriter and half for amusement, half with a
vague hope of profit, began Whiz Bang.The title
was inspired by the World War I sound of bombs
exploding over the battlefield trenches. His efforts

were instantly popular.

With the backing of a small printer, he
ordered 5,000 copies of the first issue because the
printing cost seemed low when compared to the
expense of printing a few hundred. After giving
copies to wounded veterans and to his friends, he
shipped the surplus to hotel newsstands. Almost
overnight, ex-soldiers, salesman, sporting men,
bellhops, and curious schoolboys started to buy
his bawdy cartoon and joke magazine.The amazing sales of Whiz Bang became the launching pad
for a vast publishing empire.
Whiz Bang never carried advertising, but by

FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS

46 | Captain Billys Whiz Bang

1923 it reached a circulation of 425,000 with
$500,000 in annual profits, although this figure
dropped to about 150,000 at the beginning of the
Great Depression. Editorially, Whiz Bang was built
around the rousing escapades and shady epigrams
of the characters of Whiz Bang Farm (supposedly at Robbinsdale, suburb of Minneapolis): Gus,
the hired man; Olaf; Deacon Callahan; his daughter Lizzie (whose virtue was always being
designed upon); and Pedro, the Whiz Bang bull.
(Rejection slips to authors explained, Pedro, the
Whiz Bang bull, didnt like this one.) The magazine was a collection of frankly bawdy jokes, tame
drawings, and double-entendres that depended
upon the readers sexual knowledge for a laugh.
While Whiz Bang was never barred from the
mails, occasional issues were held up until they
were made passable and there were sporadic
brushes with local authorities over its sale. In its
pages,hell appears as h, or heck; language
in Whiz Bang was really quite decorous. The
magazine reflected an uncertain mixture of prewar standards with post-war behavior.
With the rising readership of Captain Billys
Whiz Bang, Fawcett racked up more sales with
Whiz Bang annuals, and in 1926 he launched a
similar publication, Smokehouse Monthly.The popularity of Whiz Bang peaked during the 1920s.
Circulation slowed as readers graduated to the
more sophisticated humor of magazine like the
NewYorker and later Ballyhoo.A price reduction to
15 cents, somewhat raunchier jokes, and a brief
experiment with nudity enabled the magazine to
survive until 1932.
With the money earned in the first few years,
Fawcett launched a largely successful series of
publishing ventures, assisted by his brothers
Roscoe and Harvey. The first, True Confessions, a
copycat of Macfaddens True Story, used actual
confessions of caught criminals and other figures
in the news, but later turned to the usual anonymous bad girl narrative. In practice all of Fawcetts
magazines were imitations: Modern Mechanics
(1928) had to changed its name to Mechanics Illustrated when Popular Mechanics objected. Ballyhoo

PG 46, Top to Bot CRIME CONFESSIONS, July 1957 ( Skye Magazines); 3-D MONSTERS, #1 ( respective copyright
holder); PG 46-47, Bot Band, L to R CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN, #1, 1962 ( Gothic Castle Publications); WORLD
FAMOUS CREATURES, #2 ( respective copyright holder); MONSTER PARADE, #1, 1958 ( respective copyright holder); CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN, #11, 1966 ( Gothic Castle Publications).

gave Fawcett the idea to do Hooey, and Spot was a

close imitation of Life. Other Fawcett titles over
the decade included Battle Stories, Cavalier, Daring
Detective, Dynamic Detective, Motion Picture, Movie
Story, Rudder, Screen Secrets, Secrets,Triple-X Western,
and True.
The illustrator, Norman Saunders, became a
Fawcett staffer in 1927. One of his earliest covers
was for the August 1929 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. Saunders would go on to better
fame as a pulp cover illustrator.
Fawcett Publications saw a
huge growth during the early
1930s, and relocated its offices to
both New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut. Wilford Fawcett slowly brought his sons into
the business as boys by having
them peddled copy of Whiz Bang
around Minneapolis.
Fawcetts sons continued the
expansion of the company after
their fathers death on February 7,
1940.That same year, the company launched Fawcett Comics, the
first of many diversifications it
would make in its history The
paper shortages of World War II
forced Fawcett to fold 49 magazines, keeping only fourteen
going. Womans Day, added to the
line-up in 1948, realized a circulation of 6,500,000 by 1965.
In the late 1940s and early
1950s, Fawcett Publications shifted its focus to paperback newsstand distribution, most notably
distributing New American
Librarys Mentor and Signet

paperbacks, as well as their own Fawcett paperbacks, Gold Medal. Sales soared as they launched
the careers of such writers as John D. MacDonald
and Kurt Vonnegut. But, surprisingly they missed
the boat in the booming mens magazine marketplace, though they did put out a tame player in
that field named Adam in 1950 that died quickly.
Some year later Knight Publication would go on
to do much better with the Adam title. Fawcett
created a division,Whitestone Publications, in the
1950s for exploitative scandal magazines Cuckoo,

Castle of Frankenstein |
Sh-h-h-h, Cockeyed, and Exposed.
Although Captain Billys Whiz Bang was often
derided and criticized, the rather scruffy acorn
sprouted in various directions and grew into a sturdy corporate oak. Profits from Whiz Bang subsidized True Confessions, Secrets, Battle Stories, and
many other magazines. Publication of the Mickey
Spillane novels created a firm financial base that
was strengthened by the success of John D. MacDonalds novels and Charles Schulz's Peanuts series,
which the company began soon after the strips
debut. For a time Fawcett Publications was one of
the most successful publishers in the country, and
it all started with a few bawdy, low-brow, handprinted sheets.ETK [see Adam]

CAPTAIN SATAN
see Battle Birds
CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Calvin Thomas Beck
Forrest J. Ackerman (4FJ) and James Warren
invented the monster/horror film magazine field
when the first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland
appeared on newsstands in February, 1958.Ackerman was an agent and sometime author who had
done some writing for Warrens mens magazine
After Hours.With the failure of After Hours following an obscenity bust,Warren was casting around
for other publishing ideas when Ackerman tried

to sell him on the idea of a science fiction magazine called Sci-Fi. Warren had no real affinity for
SF, but liked another idea that Ackerman had
mentioned almost as an afterthought. Ackerman
showed Warren an issue of the French language
film magazine Cinma 57, sub-titled Le Fantastique. Cinma 57 was a special issue given over to
American horror films. Ackerman told Warren
that he could easily put together a similar magazine using material in his personal collection of
thousands of motion picture stills from fantastic
movies going all the way back to the silent film
era. Before this, any kind of material on monster
movies in American magazines was limited to isolated write-ups such as the one in the March,
1955 issue of Vue Americas Photo Digest, a
three-page article about Japans Secret Weapon

47

showing stills from a new Japanese movie titled

Gojira. Vue was a tame mens magazine that kept
most of its pin-up girls in bathing suits. Gojira was
renamed Godzilla when it reached America.
Warren visited 4FJ in Los Angeles to begin
work on a magazine he called Wonderama, and
found that, if anything, 4FJ had been modest as to
the Xanadu extent of his collection. (Warren had
traveled from Philadelphia to Las Vegas by bus,
and had taken a plane from there to L.A. to
impress Ackerman at the airport.) Bookshelves
filled with all things related to science fiction in
particular, and to fantastic movies in general lined
every wall in Ackermans two-story Spanish style
home. At this time Ackerman referred to himself
as a professional science fictionist.With the first
issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland (a title change

EARLY MOVIE MONSTERS PUBLICATIONS

48 | Castle of Frankenstein
imposed by the distributor), Ackerman and Warren established the look, mode and manner for all
film monster magazines that followed. The title
was geared to the mindset of a typical 1950s tenyear old boy, with contents that included Every
Monster has a Ghoul Friend and We Monsters
have Just Begun to Fright.
Calvin T. Beck, like Forrest J.Ackerman, was a
hardcore science fiction fan. Also like Ackerman,
Beck was a fan of fantastic films. Both had put
together mimeograph science fiction fanzines
while growing up. During the 1950s, Calvin Beck
worked in various capacities for Science Fiction
Quarterly, Joe Weiders True Weird, and Spaceways.
Beck approached Kable News, the distributor
of Famous Monsters, in late 1958, with his own idea
for a film magazine titled Screen Wonders. Kable was
not interested (this was before the distributor had

seen the sales report for Famous Monsters which

they essentially viewed as a one-shot and found
that most of the print-run of 150,000 had sold).
Beck found a regional distributor, Acme
News Company, that would pay for the printing
of a scaled-back magazine and he produced the
first issue of The Journal of Frankenstein very much
like a fanzine. The cover layout was amateurish,
utilizing two colors, and the masthead a rip-off of
the logotype used for Dick Briefers Frankenstein
comic book from a few years earlier. Some of the
film photos were appropriated directly from
issues of the movie magazine Sight & Sound.
Despite the cheap look and sloppy layout, Becks
passion for films permeated the magazine. In a
later interview Calvin said that he hoped to produce a fanzine on a professional level.
By the early 1960s, Frankenstein and Dracula

had replaced Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy

as the pre-eminent pop entertainment for American kids. From the start, Beck had not been happy
with Acmes parsimony, but they owned the distribution rights to the magazine called Journal of
Frankenstein. Kable was receptive to more monster
magazines after seeing the success of Famous Monsters. A title change was necessary and Castle of
Frankenstein #1 appeared on newsstands in
November, 1961 listing Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane) as publisher and Victor Frankenstein
III as the editor. Fearing legal action from Acme,
Becks own name did not appear in his magazine
until issue number 8, along with Helen Beck as
the associate publisher. She was Calvins mother.
To better understand Calvin Beck one, had to
understand his odd relationship with his mother.
She was a constant presence in his life.Anywhere

that Calvin went, his mother would tag along.

There are accounts of her monitoring college
classes with Calvin. She would be at his side at sf
conventions and at parties given by Calvins fan
friends. She completely dominated his life or
perhaps he was too deferential to tell her he was
a grown man and didnt need her constantly following him around.
Visitors to the Beck home in North Bergen,
N.J., reported that Helen Beck could be heard
screeching at Calvin in Greek from another room
in the house. She was also capable of breaking up
any of Calvins friendships that she thought were
becoming too close, or if she just felt as if she was
being cut out of the picture. If it werent for his
mother, Calvin might have been more successful
socially. Most people that met him said he could
be good company, funny and insightful.

ROBERT HARRISON PUBLICATIONS

Castle of Frankenstein |

In science fiction fandom circles it was

rumored that Robert Bloch had written his novel
Psycho using a composite of Ed Gein and Calvin
Beck for the character of Norman Bates. Supporting this rumor are the known facts about the
notorious Gein, which show little information
on Geins relationship with his mother.The Norman Bates from the novel also resembled Calvin:
pale and overweight, with black hair and a mustache, and wearing glasses.
Even before Journal of Frankenstein and Castle
of Frankenstein came out, there had already been a
crowd of imitators of Famous Monsters: World
Famous Creatures, Monster Parade, and Monsters and
Things. 4FJ later wrote, with some pride (and
when the crowd had grown into a multitude),
that FM and only FM was the first and best.
This comment would lead to a paper feud
between Beck and 4FJ when Beck stated in print
that there had been many one-shot film monster

themed periodicals on American newsstands

before FM. 4FJ challenged Beck to back up his
statement with proof of these magazines. Beck
never backed down nor presented evidence for
his assertion, and 4FJ never forgave Beck for this.
An English magazine, Screen Chills, may have
appeared before FM, but this hardly fits the particulars of Becks argument for numerous titles.
The first few issues of CoF were mostly edited, designed, and written by Larry Ivie and Ken
Beale. On CoF #3, Bhob Stewart was listed as art
editor and would soon be doing most of the editorial heavy lifting, working at Becks home in
Northern New Jersey. In 1961, Bhob was booking short films into the Charles Theater, an art
cinema, on New Yorks Lower East Side. If Calvin
was the heart of CoF, then Bhob became the
defacto soul of the magazine over the next four
years, a period considered by many to be the
magazines glory days. Bhob Stewart (the unusu-

al spelling was to avoid confusion with another

Bob Stewart in sf fandom) had originally come to
New York from Texas hoping to get a job with
James Warren.When this didnt pan out he began
working for TV Guide.
After the snub by Warren, Stewart had
approached Beck, but it took a year before he was
asked to help with CoF. Stewart soon began
inserting more comics and material on sf fandom,
including Cofanaddicts a feature on fanzines
(copying a Famous Monsters feature on monster
fanzines in their 27th issue).As a fan of American
and European new wave directors and films,
Stewart brought some of this ethos into the CoF
mix. Calvin and Bhob had different tastes in film,
but Beck was willing to let Bhob, who worked

49

cheap, have his way. Bhob always said that he was

producing a magazine for adults, and didnt really
care about payment. He stopped working on CoF
after an incident with Calvins mother, where she
physically threatened him.
The alphabetical capsule reviews Frankenstein
Movie Guild, which began in issue #6, managed
to cover a wide range of films. Written by Joe
Dante, Jr., and Bhob Stewart, the movie guild ran
the gamut from Bat Fink & Boo Boo to Sange de
Pear. Monster and horror films were never the
complete focus of Castle of Frankenstein.The magazine gave a review, and special recommendation,
to SF artist Ed Emshwillers avant-garde film classic Relativity a film that had first appeared at science fiction conventions before going on to

PG 48, Bot Band, L to R EYEFUL, vol. 4, #6 ( Eyeful, Inc.); WINK, Feb. 1955 ( Wink, Inc.); TITTER, vol. 1, #1,
1943 (Titter, Inc.); PG 49, Top interior spread from PEOPLE TODAY, Oct. 21, 1953, showing Bettie Page modeling
( Hillman Publications).

50 | Castle of Frankenstein
become an avant garde icon. CoF never matched
the look of Famous Monsters, which had better
design, typographer, and layout by Harry Chester.
Ultimately, CoFs strength was its eclectic coverage of B and genre films, and its point of view.
One of Becks Headitorials made angry reference to the Vietnam War, going as far as reprinting
the famous photo of the Vietnamese girl running
naked down a road after being burned by napalm
with the headline:Award for Best Horror Picture
of 1972. Certainly the stills from the European
version of The Brides of Fu Manchu exhibiting the
ruthless villains bare-breasted concubines were a
first for a monster magazine. Later, a semi-nude
Slaymate of the Month photo kept some of the
teenage readers hormones agitated.
After fifteen years of an intermittent publishing schedule, the last issue was #25 in June, 1975.
The magazine featured art by the horror and fantasy artists Hannes Bok and Virgil Finlay, sf artist
Jack Gaughan, and comic book artists like James
Steranko and Wally Wood.When not using photos, cover paintings were done by Larry Ivie, Russ
Jones, Robert Adragna, Lee Wanagiel, Marcus
Boas, Frank Brunner, Maelo Cintron, Tom
Maher, and Ken Kelly. Writers included William
K. Everson, Richard Lupoff, Ramsey Campbell,
Lin Carter, and Bill Mantlo. Like Famous Monsters,
Castle of Frankenstein would influence many later
newsstand magazines: Video Watchdog, Shock Cinema, Scary Monsters, Magick Theatre, Psychotronic
Video, and Filmfax.LO [see Acme News
Company, Famous Monsters of Filmland]

CHOPPERS MAGAZINE
Choppers Magazine, the first custom bike magazine,
came to be when Ed Big Daddy Roth was riding his hog one day and a street legal V8 shot by
him on the road. He decided then and there to
build his own V8 cruiser bike.At this point he realized that there was little information available on
chopping(modifying) motorbikes.The first issue
of CM, in 1969, featured Roth riding his custom

V8 trike on the cover. Roth was an iconic figure

in the west coast hot rod scene of the 1960s, both
as a hot rod customizer and a cartoonist whocreated and drew the character Rat Fink.Choppers Magazine included 6 to 10 feature bikes in each issue
and articles on the technical aspects of customizing
a Chopper. Monthly departments included Jammin Big Daddy Speaks (Ed Roth),Wheelers in
Action, and Chopped Ham. In the mid 1960s
Pete Millar published a series of comic magazines
such as Big Daddy Roth that featured Rat Fink and
other comic strips by Roth.LO

CINEMAGIC
see Super-8 Filmmaker
CONFIDENTIAL
Confidential may have been a scandal rag that
reported on dysfunctional Hollywood stars, athletes, and politicians, but it was also a family business like all Robert Harrison publications.When
he launched Beauty Parade, his first magazine, in
1941, his sisters, niece, and nephew were there
with cash and editorial assistance. Within a few
years Wink, Whisper, Titter, Eyeful, and Flirt were
added to the lineup and Harrison became a publishing mogul. In the beginning Harrison used
pictures of models shot in his apartment, and the
playboy publisher appeared in quite a few photo
spreads as a male catalyst to the action, which
could include spanking a scantily-dressed model.
By the early 1950s sales were down on all of
the girlie publications. Harrison got the idea for
Confidential in 1952 when he noticed the popularity of the Kefauver Senate hearings on organized crime; people were glued to their TVs and
newspapers. Throughout its history, Confidential
would carry few stories on organized crime participants. Harrison once said that the mob was
behind magazine distribution and it would be
suicidal, business-wise, to go that route. Instead he
found plenty of good copy in scandal-ridden

Crawdaddy |
Hollywood and set up his niece, Marjorie Meade,
and her husband Fred, in Los Angeles as Hollywood Research, Inc. They dug up dirt on stars
using informants, tipsters, and detectives.
Harrison was smart enough to stay in New
York City, hire lawyers to fact check everything,
and leave details to his trusted niece, who as a
teenager had given him $400 to help him start
Beauty Parade. Soon enough Confidential hit on
the themes that would carry it to the high point
of a five million plus circulation: Homosexual
exposs, Red bashing, Movieland bad boys and
girls, and black/white romances. It is a myth that
lawsuits were a constant business expense at Confidential. Most injured parties had little interest in
details of a scandal coming out in a courtroom. If
anything, Confidential published cleaned up versions of scandals.
The Hollywood establishment finally caught
up with Harrison in a 1958 show trial and he was
forced to sell Confidential. Under a new owner, the
magazine turned to stories on voodoo practices,
weight reducing pills, and Fidel Castro. Harrison
walked away a rich man, never imagining that his
magazine would eventually come to signify the
sinister underbelly of 1950s Los Angeles. Some of
the better Confidential imitators include: Hush
Hush, Inside Story, Rave, The Lowdown, Top Secret,
and Uncensored. JH [see Whisper]

COVEN 13
Coven 13 was a digest size supernatural horror
fiction magazine that attempted to cater to the
perceived audience for late 1960s supernatural
horror movies like Rosemarys Baby, and the rise of
interest in the occult, paganism, and witchcraft.
The first issue was a weak effort in all areas except
for the cover and interior art by William Stout.

Later issues had stories by Robert E. Howard,

Ron Goulart, and Harlan Ellison (Rock God, a
story originally written around a Frank Frazetta
cover painting for Creepy), but these stories were
not much of an improvement. Coven 13 lasted
four issues when, by most accounts, its distributor
Kable pulled the plug on the magazine due to
poor sales. Coven 13 was later revived as Witchcraft
And Sorcery, a wretched imitator of Weird Tales.
LO

CRACKED MAGAZINE
see Web Detective
CRAWDADDY
Crawdaddy! began at Swarthmore College in
1966, as a project of student Paul Williams.
Williams, a science fiction fan and rock music
lover, wrote his comments and mimeographed
them, distributing the copies to interested friends
by hand. In rapid order those single sheets turned
into a stapled fanzine (amateur publication) selling for 25 cents a copy. It quickly metamorphosed into Crawdaddy!, the first United States
magazine of rock music criticism to gain newsstand distribution.
In the first issue (February 7, 1966),Williams
wrote,You are looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy! will
feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing about
pop music....
The pioneer of rock journalism, Crawdaddy!
was home to many fledgling writers of the music
scene. Williams resigned from the magazine in
late 1968, but it continued publication until 1969
when the title was suspended for a while.When

PG 50, L to R CAPTAIN SATAN, Apr. 1938 ( Popular Publications); CARNIVAL, Nov. 1955 ( Hillman Publications);
COVEN 13, Mar 1970 ( respective copyright holder); CONFIDENTIAL, Jan. 1956 ( Condential Inc.); PG 51
CRIME CONFESSIONS, #1, May 1939 ( Hillman Publications).

51

52 | Crawdaddy
PG 52 CRACKED, #8, 1958 ( All-American); PG 52 - 53, Bot Band L to R TERROR TALES, Nov. 1940 ( Popular Publications); DIME MYSTERY MAGAZINE, July, 1937 ( Popular Publications); HORROR STORIES, Sept. 1937 ( Popular
Publications); DIME MYSTERY MAGAZINE, Oct. 1938 ( Popular Publications).

it returned without its exclamation point, in

1970, Peter Knobler was editor and Greg
Mitchell was senior editor.
It was during this period that Crawdaddy
moved into its own, featuring the biggest-name
professionals in the business at the time, including critics and well-known shock writers of the
period.
However, when sales began to decline in
1979, the name of the magazine was changed to
Feature and it ran with that title for three issues
before closing down.
In 1993, Paul Williams reclaimed the
title and published 28 issues before finally
closing Crawdaddy down as a print magazine in 2003.
In 2007, with Paul Williams as a consulting contributor, Crawdaddy was
revived yet again as a weekly online magazine.
Jim Linwood adds, Paul Williams
named the magazine after the Crawdaddy Club based at the Station Hotel, Richmond, where the Stones and others performed in the early 1960s. In the 1970s
the Station Hotel became The Bull and
Bush pub that was recently gutted to create Edwards, an unpopular pub with
aggressive bouncers.JH

CRACKED
see Web Detective
CREEM
Publisher Barry Kramer and founding
Editor Tony Reay started the Detroitbased Creem in March, 1969. Much con-

fusion has been generated concerning the roots

of this publication. It began as many magazines of
that era and genre did, by focusing on local issues
and people, but Creem magazines involvement
with Michigan was short-lived.
Publisher Kramer abandoned the original
concept immediately and moved Creem directly
toward national distribution, and especially
toward lucrative advertising dollars. Creem survived initially from newsstand sales, and probably
could have continued to do so by remaining a
regional publication.

Creem |
As it matured, Creem began to cover pop
music as a product in the consumer marketplace.
Due to its geographic location, a certain irreverent, deprecatory tone permeated the magazine.At
first it simply identified with the counterculture
as a social movement. Quickly, however, Creem
began criticizing and satirizing the countercultures inability to separate itself entirely from consumer life. This self-conscious analysis, often full
of irony, did not mean the magazine was abandoning the idea of transforming American society. Rather, Creem sought to pursue social transformation via another route by using humor as a
tool to help readers understand their own
predicament, and their potential power, as individuals embedded in a mass culture.
Its location also encouraged it to be among the

first national publications to cover local artists Iggy

Pop, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, and
Parliament-Funkadelic, and midwesterners such as
Cheap Trick and The Raspberries in great depth.
Creem picked up on the punk rock and New Wave
movements early on, years before magazines like
Rolling Stone finally woke up. Creem coined the
term punk rock in 1971. It gave massive exposure to artists like Lou Reed, Bowie, and the New
York Dolls years before the mainstream press.
In the hotbed of social and musical upheaval
of the time, publisher Kramer sought to make
Creem the crme de la crme of rock criticism.
The magazine laid waste to the stifling conventions of rock journalism with rabid reportage on
such chest-pounding backyard bad boys as MC5,
Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad, Mitch

Ryder, and the Detroit Wheels; as well as the

more androgynous offerings of imports like Led
Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and David Bowie.
Creem employed a coterie of writers of broad literary and cultural scope, including Robert
Christgau, Dave Marsh, Patti Smith, Cameron
Crowe, and of course, the muddy-water streamof-consciousness of the late Lester Bangs.
During the heyday of the Beatles Apple
business in the late 1960s, their office building,
John Lennons piano, and an entire line of clothing were designed and hand-painted by a quartet
of Dutch folk who had been befriended by Paul
and John. Their swirling rainbows of colors,
moons, stars, and planets, were de rigueur in the
late 1960s. Mercury Records in Chicago released
an album by this well-connected but musically

53

inept foursome. It was titled, after the name that

they had chosen for themselves,The Fool.Their
sound was representative of the era and Creems
first cover pictured the group. An accompanying
article was largely filled with quotes from their
own press release and re-used the cover graphic
simply to fill the space above the article.
R. Crumb created the famous Boy Howdy
milk-bottle logo for Creem when he needed
money for a clap shot. Kramer paid $50 for the
cover drawing, and fought hard to reduce the
sum to $30. Zap comix were just beginning to
get national distribution in head shops across the
country and R. Crumb had just done the Janis
Joplin/Big Brother record cover for Columbia.
Kramer paid the money for the use of Crumbs
name, and was not impressed with the results that

POPULAR PUBLICATIONS

54 | Creem
would go on to become a nationally recognized
icon of the generation.
The magazine moved its base of operations to
New York City and then to Los Angeles shortly
before its demise. Bill Holdship and J. Kordosh
were both involved in Creems move to Los Angeles after it was purchased by Arnold Levitt. At its
demise in 1988, writers Steve Peters and David
Sprague were the last men standing of the original
group from the magazines inception in 1969.
Robert Matheu, a regular Creem photographer
since 1978, and his business partner Ken Kulpa,
head up the current online resurrection attempt
with a talented new staff that includes editor-inchief Brian J. Bowe and veteran Creem alumnus
Jeffrey Morgan, who serves as the Canadian editor.
Beyond the wildest expectations of the publisher, Creem became a national locus for individuality and irreverence, and a training ground for
some of the most expressive music writing of the
era.The combined efforts of the talented staff that
produced Creem are a testament to an idea that a
few pals could put out a magazine that would go
on to national success and became a cultural icon
for an age gone by.AW

CRIME CONFESSIONS,
CRIME DETECTIVE
see Uncensored Detective
CRIME DOES NOT PAY
see Lunatickle

D
DETECTIVE ACTION
see Terror Tales

DELL vs.
AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY
An epochal event in the world of newsstand magazines was the 1957 shutdown of American News
Company,after nearly a century of being the dominant distributor of periodicals in the United
States.ANC had their humble beginnings in 1864
on Nassau Street, around the corner from Park
Row, also referred to as Newspaper Row, the
newsprint epicenter of Manhattan. They distributed dime novels and penny newssheets across the
city.After the Civil War, they branched out into the
publishing of postcards and the sale of tobacco and
other newsstand sundries at railroad stations and
hotels, through a subsidiary company, Union New
Company, and grew into a virtual monopoly.
In 1893, Frank Munsey cut the price of Munseys Magazine to a dime when most popular
magazines were sold for a quarter. ANC saw this
action as detrimental to its pricing control of the
marketplace and refused to carry the magazine.
Munsey struck back by starting his own directto-dealer wholesaling system, backed by a strong
advertising campaign, and effectively broke the
stranglehold that ANC held up to that time.
Publishers learned a lesson from Munsey.
Macfadden (True Story, Physical Culture), Hearst
(Harpers Bazaar), and Curtis (Saturday Evening
Post, Ladies Home Journal) effectively distributed
their own magazines and were able to get better
terms from wholesalers for regions of the country they did not cover. But not every publisher
was prepared to go this route as an independent
distributor (ID). With the post-WWI explosion
of pulp publishers, ANC began taking on many
new magazine accounts usually at terms favorable to ANC.This did not endear them to many
of these publishers, who by the sheer number of
titles accounted for the bulk of newsstand titles,
and a few of them balked at the second class treatment they received from ANC. Street & Smith
stopped doing business with ANC in the late
1920s when they were unable to get what they
felt was proper accounting on the sales of their

Doc Savage |
pulp magazines and shifted their titles to S.M.
News Company, a coalition of publishers doing
their own distribution. It was the IDs that carried
most marginal pulps, snappy and risqu titles,
racetrack tout-sheets, left and right wing periodicals, and crime magazines.These were exactly the
types of magazines that usually fell into a cult category. ANC was content hawking their familyoriented fare and pulps with mass-market appeal.
Things started to unravel for ANC in 1954,
when Time/Life Publishing canceled its contract
and pulled all their titles from the distributor. A
month later Look and Newsweek left. Forbes magazine reported that customers were fed up with
[the] slipshod and arrogant ways of ANC. In
1955, Henry Garfinkle and an association of 200
investors paid $8 million for ANC. Garfinkle was
now the principal owner and new president of
the company. Before this Garfinkle had business
connections with Sam Newhouse, the newspaper
media head. Garfinkle gain control of ANC with
the help of Lawyer Roy Cohn (Senator Joe
McCarthy legal counsel, and adviser to the Newhouse media empire).
Throughout the 1950s there had been a general decline in magazine sales and ANC looked to
generate profits by sometimes using heavy-handed
tactics. ANC, through Union News Company,
would routinely ask for special payments from
some of their smaller publishers (calling them display promotional allowances) and threatened to
discontinue delivery of a publication if a publisher
refused. Since UNC also owned newsstands, publishers were uneasy about this top-to-bottom control of distribution, wholesale, and retail outlets.
At the beginning of 1957, ANC started notifying magazines, like The New Republic, that it
would no longer handle titles not edited for mass
audiences. In April of that year, Dell Publishing

Company, ANCs largest client, gave the distributor notice that it was canceling its contract and
would distribute its own publications. A month
later Dell filed an anti-trust lawsuit against ANC
charging restraint of trade.This set off a rush to the
lifeboats by other mass-market magazines who
now saw ANC as a sinking ship; The New Yorker,
Vogue, and Look signed with Curtis Circulation,
Ziff-Davis Publications left for Macfadden Circulation.The Dell lawsuit proved to be the last straw.
ANC also had to face the collapsed of five
mass-circulation family magazines, including Colliers, during the previous two years, but more
telling was the Department of Justices office in
New York had been looking into ANCs business
practices since 1952. Finally, in what appears to be
a making-the-best-of-a-bad-situation, ANC
stopped the nationwide wholesaling of periodicals altogether and in June, began cutting most of
its workforce and liquidating much of the companys physical assets; trucks, warehouses and
other real estate at book values.
A stripped-down ANC and UNC continued
running and servicing the 1,500 newsstands that
they still owned.The company also continued its
display promotional allowances program to
publishers. Indeed, in 1958 the total amount of
these special payments to Union News Company amounted to $890,000 or 17% of UNCs
$5,280,000 total magazine sales that year. In the
1960s, The Wall Street Journal printed a story outlining connections between Garfinkle and organized crime.
Mystery and science fiction digests, comic
books, and second-tier scandal and mens magazines all titles that survived primarily through
newsstand sales were hardest hit by ANCs
1957 exit from the national newsstand marketplace. These magazines had few subscribers and

PG 54, L to R DIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE ( Popular Publications); DOC SAVAGE, Nov. 1938 ( Street & Smith Publications); FANTASTIC STORIES OF THE IMAGINATION, Jan. 1961 ( Ziff-Davis); TRUE WEIRD, May 1956 ( Weider
Publications); PG 55, Top to Bot CAVALIER, May 1953 ( respective copyright holder); FANTASTIC NOVELS MAGAZINE (Popular Publications).

their limited circulations or specialized audience

did not entice major advertisers. With a glut of
magazines looking for newsstand delivery, IDs
could now cherry-pick the titles that they wanted to take on. Publishers like Columbia Publications (Future, Original Science Fiction), Martin
Goodmans Magazine Management Company
(including Atlas comics), and Weider Periodicals
(Fury,True Strange) were hit hard. Columbia shut
down within a few years. Goodman, always
known as a high volume publisher, canceled 85%
of his titles and was forced to sign a distribution
deal with a competitor, DC Comics, to get a limited amount of his comic books on newsstands.
Weider Periodicals retrenched to a single magazine, Muscle Builder, until their fortunes changed
in the late 1960s. Many other magazines died in
the mass extinction that followed ANCs exit of
the distribution business.LO

DOC SAVAGE
The startling success of Street & Smiths Shadow
Magazine in 1931 inspired that august pulp magazine publishing company to expand in the direction of a line of character-centered titles.
S&Ss General Manager Henry W. Ralston had
joined the firm in the days of the long-defunct
Nick Carter and Buffalo Bill dime novels and
sensed that the hero cycle was ripe for repeating.
Since The Shadow occupied the mystery-suspense
genre, Ralston believed reviving Nick Carter
would admirably fill the detective niche. But for
adventure readers, a new hero had to be created.
Huddling with Shadow editor John L.
Nanovic, Ralston evolved a scientific adventurer
inspired by a soldier of fortune and author named
Richard Henry Savage (1846-1903). Dick Savage
became the Supreme Adventurer, Doc Savage.
Ralston concocted a group of professionals to
surround Savage in the manner of Robin Hoods
Merry Men. Like their leader, many were inspired
by people Ralston knew. They were chemist
Monk Mayfair, lawyer Ham Brooks, electrical

55

ROCK
expert Long Tom Roberts, archeologist Johnny
Littlejohn, and civil engineer Renny Renwick.
Each was considered the top man in his field, yet
the genius of Doc Savage would exceed them.
Finding a writer proved challenging. Most
seasoned pulpsters shied away from house-owned
characters, feeling they were a throwback to
dime-novel drudgery. S&S reached out to an extelegrapher from Tulsa named Lester Dent. He
had made a strong impression two years before
with his highly imaginative debut adventure novels for Top-Notch and The Popular Magazine.
Dent was given a Shadow novel to write as a
test. Plans were laid to launch the first issue of Doc
Savage Magazine in the fall of 1932, the traditional kick-off period for new pulp periodicals, but
the worsening Depression forced a delay while
the nation chose between incumbent President
Herbert Hoover and Democratic challenger

Franklin D. Roosevelt.
No sooner had the optimistic Roosevelt
been elected, than Lester Dent was called in, and
the fleshed-out concept placed before him.With
his own fiction markets in turmoil, he was eager
to take on the task. Dent offered a number of
ideas of his own, including headquartering the
new hero in a thinly disguised Empire State
Building and funding him via a treasure trove of
Mayan gold.
Nanovic produced a treatment for the debut
novel,The Man of Bronze Dent knocked it out
in ten days flat. The first issue was rushed into
print with a March, 1932 cover date. It hit newsstands only days after the President-Elect narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, and two
weeks before Roosevelt closed the nations troubled banks. Despite a scarcity of dimes, Doc Savage nearly sold out.

Doc Savage is seen today as the forerunner of

the superhero, but Dent clearly saw him as the
twentieth-century incarnation of the tall tale folk
hero, a descendant of Paul Bunyan and Daniel
Boone. Clark Savage, Jr., was the worlds smartest,
strongest, richest man. A surgeon, Doc also
excelled in most other fields and professions.
While the stereotypical pulp adventurer could be
expected to sport a deep tan, Dent painted his
interpretation of Doc as a demi-god forged out
of cold metal, and possessing uncanny gold-flake
eyes that seemed supernaturally animated.
Dent, Nanovic, and Ralston concocted the
Man of Bronze out of the singular attributes of
heroes who had come before.
As Dent once admitted, I looked at what
people had gone for already, so I took Sherlock
Holmes with his deductive ability, Tarzan of the
Apes with his towering physique, Craig Kennedy

with his scientific knowledge, and Abraham Lincoln with his Christliness. Then I rolled em all
into one to get Doc Savage.
Add to that an eerie signature sound borrowed from Max Brands mythic Whistling Dan
Barry, the golden eyes of Jack Londons Wolf Larson, and other elements borrowed from Erle
Stanley Gardners human fly, Speed Dash, as well
as a background lifted from the dime novel version of Nick Carter. Docs given name was
derived from the top box office star of 1933,
Clark Gable.
All did not go smoothly at the beginning.
Dent was irate at seeing the premier adventure
printed under the house name of Kenneth
Roberts. So was bestselling historical writer Kenneth Roberts. The opinion of Shadow radio
announcer Ken Roberts was not recorded.With
the second issue, the byline became Kenneth

Doc Savage |
Robeson, placating everyone except Dent.
Dents early depiction of Doc was that of a
grim, two-fisted avenger in the vein of The Shadow. He killed his opponents with the righteous
implacability of an avenging angel. Someone
must have pointed out that as a licensed physician, Clark Savage had taken the Hippocratic
oath, prohibiting him from doing harm. Out
went the scenes of Doc brutally breaking necks.
Anesthetic mercy bullets went into his supermachine pistols. Doc was transformed from a fierce
figure of vengeance to an angel of mercy in four
issues flat.
The monthly grind transformed Lester Dent,
an admirer of Mark Twain and Dashiell Hammett
who had aspirations for the slicks, into an arresting action writer with a flair for humor and
invention. The unrelenting pressure to produce
led to a nervous collapse late in 1933, forcing him
to abandon his other pulp markets.
When S&S decided to go semi-monthly
with Doc Savage, they hired Laurence Donovan as
a supplementary ghost. Dent began employing
ghostwriters to step up his own output. It was
during this period that the series reached its most
science fictional heights as Doc and his crew battled invisible men, a criminal teleporter, and discovered not one, but two, supercivilizations at the
center of the earth.Taking the Christ analogy to
its ultimate extreme, Dent had Doc Savage raise
a dead Egyptian mummy in 1936s Resurrection Day.
Along the way, novels explored Doc Savages
crime college, where he secretly operated on
the diseased brains of captured criminals, wiping
out their memories as well as all felonious tendencies before restoring them to society, the lost
Mayan valley from which came his gold reserves,
and his Arctic Fortress of Solitude, later to
become the property of Superman.

Back-of-the-book short stories were the

work of moonlighting adventure writers and an
assortment of Doc Savage ghosts. When other
S&S pulps went bust, its refugee heroes took up
residence in Doc Savage. Among them were The
Skipper, Bill Barnes, and Harold A. Daviss business scout, Duke Grant.
Much credit goes to the artists who painted
the vibrant covers. Walter M. Baumhofer established the look of the Man of Bronze, while
Robert G. Harris and Emery Clarke continued
the tradition. Paul Orban executed almost all of
the interior illustrations during the magazines
sixteen-year run.
Along with The Shadow, Doc Savage laid down
the myths and conventions of the comic book
superhero, which began to appear in 1938. By
1940, the proliferation of comic book heroes
were punishing pulp circulations unmercifully.
Oft-postponed plans to publish Doc Savage every
two weeks were permanently abandoned. Dent
chafed under a Christmas Eve pay cut.
A gradual retooling raised the Doc adventures
from raw pulp to light escapist fare. Sales held
steady. Dent kept turning them out, but looked
forward to the day he could move on to the better-paying slick magazines.
A severe paper allotment cut led to the departure of editor John L. Nanovic in the summer of
1943. The magazine was downsized to a digest
under new editor Charles Moran, who ordered
Dent to demythologize the Man of Bronze, and
pen more mature missions.
After the flood of super-people, phantoms,
batmen, and such that Doc started coming out of
the cartoonists and artists ink-wells, Dent said in
1945, my stomach kind of turned. Ive toned
Doc down now to where he is not the slam-bang
fire-eater he was. He still discovers strange tribes
of people in the heart of one of the worlds

PG 56 Top Band, L to R CRAWDADDY, #23, June 1969 ( respective copyright holder); CREEM, vol. 3, #6 ( respective copyright holder); RAY GUN, #1, Nov. 1992 ( Ray Gun Publishing, Inc.); PG 57, Top to Bot FILM FUN, July 1939
( Dell Publications); DOC SAVAGE, Jan. 1943 ( Street & Smith Publications).

deserts, but he doesnt come across nations in the

Earths interior any more.
Over succeeding editors, Doc Savage segued
from indomitable superman to wartime troubleshooter, often battling fifth columnists on the
home front when not invading enemy territory
to capture Hitler or rescue Allied scientists from
Nazi concentration camps. Both Doc and his
author seemed like new men.They had grown up
along with their readers, many of whom were
now reading Doc Savage on the battlefields of
Europe.
In the post-war era, Doc settled into the role
of high-profile investigator for a period until a
revival as scientific detective that coincided with
an upgrade in paper stock and format. Out went
Modest Steins moody covers; in came the stylized confections of Walter Swenson. Cold War
concerns began to creep into the stories under
Babette Rosmond, and experiments with firstperson storytelling brought out the best in a
mature Lester Dent.Yet the magazine slipped into
bi-monthly frequency.
In its final year, editor Daisy Bacon oversaw a
reversion to pulp size and adventures. Doc Savage
came to a fitting end in a demi-fantasy,Up From
Earths Center, where the mythic hero made an
Orpheus-like descent into Hell. The final issue
was dated Summer 1949. Despite reportedly
strong sales, the magazine fell victim to a company-wide purge of its pulps.
Something I will never understand is the
cycle of life not even the cycle of life of the
pulps, mused H.W. Ralston at the end.Last year,
when our Love Story faded out of the picture, I felt
pretty bad, but I told myself that Doc Savage and
The Shadow and our two other pulps were certainly indestructible, with many happy fruitful years
ahead of them.... Now theyre going the way of all
flesh of all pulp, you might say....We tried our
best to make them good, but the public seems to
want more sex nowadays or something beyond
sex, which I cant figure out.WM

57

58 | Doctor Death
PG 58 DETECTIVE ACTION, Aug.-Sept. 1937 (Popular Publications); PG 59 Bot Band, L to R ALL DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, July 1934 ( Dell Publications); DOCTOR DEATH, Apr. 1935 ( Dell Publications); DOCTOR DEATH, Feb. 1935
( Dell Publications).

DOCTOR DEATH
Doctor Death is the name of one of the best
known, although most short-lived villains, ever to
appear inside the pages of a pulp magazine. The
sinister Doctor Death originally appeared in All
Detective (vol. 7, #21) in the July, 1934 issue in an
episode entitled Doctor Death. In all, Edward P.
Norris would go on to write five stories total (A
Deal in PhoniesAugust 1934,Cargo of Death
September 1934, Deaths IOU October 1934,
13 Pearls January 1935) about Doctor Death
for All Detectives before the entire pulp magazine
would be re-titled Doctor Death for its February,
1935 issue.
Dell Publishing Company saw a good thing
with the increased circulation brought about by
the appearance of the new character named Doctor Death. But when they renamed the pulp
magazine, they changed everything. The new
Doctor Death was written by a different author and
was about different characters. Clearly, they did
not foresee the problems involved with producing a pulp magazine where the series character
was a vile, evil villain.
The first Doctor Death pulp magazine
appeared in February, 1935 with a new tale of
menace and horror, 12 Must Die, about the
most dangerous criminal the world had ever
known, written by Harold Ward under the publishing house pseudonym Zorro.
Dell Publishing Company would only produce three issues under the new title before sadly
discontinuing the line. Each of these issues contained a complete Doctor Death novel, all written by Harold Ward under that same house pseudonym, Zorro. March, 1935 would bring out
The Gray Creatures, and April, 1935 the last
original Doctor Death story, The Shriveling
Murders, would appear.

Doctor Death would turn out to be one of

the oddest pulp villains ever created, and because
of that he would also become one of the most
fondly remembered of all such villains by generations of readers and fans. Doctor Death was
Rance Mandarin, a mad scientist who had
become the worlds greatest occultist. Once upon
a time, Rance had had a normal life as Dean of
Psychology at Yale University, but as master of the
occult he become quite insane and bent on
destroying civilization.
Rance Mandarin, the infamous Doctor
Death, believes that the potential of mankind has
been stifled by the material benefits created by
civilization. In order to save mankind from itself,
Doctor Death decided that the best thing to do
for mankind is for civilization to be destroyed and
humanity returned back to the Stone Age.
Rance Mandarin is an elderly, white-haired,
cadaverous, man who does not want power
over mankind. As Rance, he believes that he is
being truly altruistic, only helping mankind onto
the proper, enlightened path. But as Doctor
Death he is a powerful magician, a practitioner of
voodoo, necromancy, and black magic. He is able
to control various supernatural forces, from zombies to elementals. Several attempts are made to
explain away these bizarre phenomena in modern, scientific terms, but these explanations are
not successful.
The supernatural powers of Doctor Death
can never be fully explained, or his other superscience weapons, the dissolution rays and antigravity aircraft chief among them. The Doctor
plots his evil and carries out his plans from his
secret headquarters far underground, a mile from
the Lake View Cemetery.
Doctor Death is opposed by an organization
known as the Secret Twelve, organized by the
President of the United States, Franklin D. Roo-

Doctor Death |
sevelt. His chief adversary is James Holm, the
leader of the Twelve, a wealthy young criminologist. Holm is well versed in the supernatural.
Orphaned, and adopted by the mayor of New
York City, he has also become an expert in chemistry and psychiatry. John Ricks, the New York
City Chief of Police, is a main member of his
team. So is Nina Ferrara, the lovely niece (and
adopted daughter) of Doctor Death, who loves
her uncle, but knows that he is insane, completely mad. Nina and James fall in love, of course, and
eventually marry.
It falls on the shoulders of President Roosevelt to organize the Secret Twelve in order to
combat the sinister, supernatural powers of Doctor Death.The organization of twelve important
men, led by James Holm, is dedicated to fighting
the evil menace of Doctor Death. They finally
succeed, but Doctor Death confounds them time

and time again, coming back from certain death

to plague Holm and the Secret Twelve one more
time. With his final death accomplished, Holm
and the Twelve are still not certain they have seen
the last of Doctor Death and his hand of doom.
In the first novel, 12 Must Die, Doctor
Death appears as a mad, odd, wizard, with the
power to summon loathsome gray horrors from
hells attic. Doctor Death decrees that the countrys most famous men must die as carrion for his
ghostly, gray vultures.A whole nation is panicked
at the sinister super-scientists plans to change civilization. Only one man, James Holm, has a clue
to the strange power of Doctor Death and he
must face both torture and possible death to
combat this new master of carnage.
Doctor Death, like Wu Fang and Yen Sin, is a
variation of the inimitable Fu Manchu. Like those
other evil villains who were title characters of

their own pulp magazines, Doctor Death is

extremely detailed and colorful, but the hero,
James Holm, is relatively bland.The overall story
line is almost the classic clich. A mad genius
attempting to destroy the world begins a series of
pre-announced assassinations of those who might
stand in his way. A team comprised of a grizzled
old veteran and a younger man are all that stand
in the path of evil, and the madmans gorgeous
niece falls in love with the younger hero, intentionally undermining the villains evil plans.
It is the difference between Fu Manchu and
Doctor Death that makes the latter so entertaining in a lurid, gruesome way. Fu Manchu was
from the far reaches of the Orient, the embodiment of the Yellow Peril, who fought against the
British, attempting to throw them out of China
and then uniting all the Asian races into a new
empire, with himself as leader. Doctor Death is a

59

truly American menace. His fight is against the

established order in the United States. Doctor
Death does not plan on building a new empire;
rather he aims at stopping all industry and manufacturing. The mad dreams and plans of Doctor
Death are of a different order and magnitude than
Fu Manchu.The Doctor wants to create an agrarian utopia for all mankind, and he is willing to
destroy and massacre as many people as it might
take to achieve his goal.
Doctor Death is a malignant sorcerer of the
first order, a practitioner of Black Magic who
commands armies of zombies, who spend much
of their time scavenging graveyards for fresh
corpses. Death can project his consciousness into
a zombie or another living human, possessing
them for as long as he wants. He can even shoot
lightning from his hands. While he often seems
sad at the killings he performs, he frequently

DOCTOR DEATH PULPS

60 | Doctor Death

bursts out in shrill fits of maniacal laughter.

Opposing the loony mastermind is Detective
Inspector John Ricks, a beefy, blunt flatfoot, and
James Holm, millionaire dabbler in the occult. In
spite of their teamwork and skills, only the help of
Nina Ferrara, the villains henchwoman ( Doctor
Deaths niece and adopted daughter), lets them
survive to the final page. Nina, an exotic beauty
raised by the Doctor, knows just enough magic
and super-hypnotism to protect and help James.
With no hope of his grand plan working,
Doctor Death begins killing larger and larger
groups of people. Soon, he has the entire country
in a panic, with shadowy elementals looming over
crowds, and armies of zombies stalking the streets.
Of course, James Holm is successful in stopping
Doctor Death, and the Doctor reappears in the
next story.
In the next Doctor Death issue, The Gray
Creatures, the Doctor has returned. The battle
begins in the dark tombs of Egypt, where the

Doctor seeks the secret of resurrection. Death

strikes at his pursuers with walking cadavers,
bloodthirsty, nauseous gray creatures, the terrible
inventions of his warped mind.The Gray Creatures is the gripping account of the brave detectives struggle to defeat Doctor Death once again.
The final installment of Doctor Death appeared
in the April, 1935 issue with The Shriveling
Murders. Two further epics were written, but
they never reached the newsstands, and eventually they were printed in fanzines.The unpublished
fourth story,The Red Mist of Death, appeared
in the fanzine Pulp Vault, issues 5 and 6, in 1989.
The fifth story, Waves of Madness, appeared in
the fanzine Nemesis Inc., issues 28, 29, and 30.
They are harder to locate than the original pulps.
The Shriveling Murders is a lot like the two
previous Doctor Death novels and the four short
stories that first introduced the character. As the
story picks up the dangling threads, Dr. Rance
Mandarins twisted scheme to topple civilization
and send mankind back to the Stone Age has not
succeeded yet.The biggest impact Doctor Deaths
threats have had on society is to compel gangster
Tony Caminatti, the uncrowned king of the
underworld, to issue a strict order that all illegal
activities must stop.
The Shriveling Murders has a dreamlike
quality to it as one horrifying event follows another. Doctor Death is still trying to assassinate the
nations leaders, and the President has placed James
Holm in charge of everything from the Secret
Service to the New York Police Department.
James tackles his assignment with gusto, with the
help of his tough old sidekick, homicide expert
Inspector Ricks, and the input of Doctor Deaths
niece, the lovely young psychic Nina Ferrara.
James Holm is up against a slew of difficulties
in this issue. Doctor Death is a master of super-science who can fly in his anti-gravity plane, watch
anyone on his long-range viewing screen, and his
newest device is the shriveling ray, which reduces
people to doll size by dehydrating their bodies.
At the same time, the Doctor relies on his
powerful Black Magic.At his command is an army

of mindless Zombies. If these are not enough

obstacles to defeat James Holm, there are also
Russian anarchists, and a cult of Black devotees of
Voodoo.At one point,Nina is abducted to become
the new high priestess of this cult and James drops
his pursuit of the Doctor to go and rescue her.
James Holm is up to the task. He defeats
Doctor Death once again through dogged determination. The ongoing battle between the two
adversaries brings into focus the main problem
with an ongoing series starring the villain, the
apparent lack of resolution. In the pulp magazine
tradition, the villain is either seemingly killed at
the end of each story, producing a cliff-hanger, or
the villain is captured, only to escape on the final
page, ready to appear in the next episode. Either
way, there is no feeling of triumph or closure at
the end of a Doctor Death story. Sax Rohmer
faced the same difficulties with his evil characters
Fu Manchu and Sumuru, but he was able to space
their reappearances out a bit.
In the mid-1960s the Doctor Death stories were
reprinted by Corinth Publications. My father, Earl
Kemp,was editor for the series as well as the model
artist Robert Bonfils used for Doctor Death on all
four of the series covers. Although the reprints
were timely and made these wonderful stories
available to another generation, they lacked several
of the best aspects of the original pulp magazines.
The back-up stories, many of which were as good
as, or even better than, the main story, were lost in
translation. So were the odd advertisements that
are astonishingly nostalgic, capturing the color of a
way of life from a lost era.
Also lost were the crude black and white
interior illustrations. These simplistic sketches
usually gave the stories a visual punch at critical
junctures, providing atmosphere that helped the
reader to picture the characters. The Doctor
Death pictured on the cover is an unsavory,
white-haired old man with a grimace, but the
character inside, as a black and white sketch, is

loathsome and vile. These drawings of Doctor

Death scattered throughout the issue keep his evil
visage fresh in your mind as you read.The images
and stories, although crude and unsophisticated,
keep alive a truly unique villain, Doctor Death,
Americas premier menace.ETK

DR.YEN SIN
see The Mysterious Wu Fang
DREAM WORLD
Dream World was a magazine of wish-fulfillment
fantasy.There were actually two periodicals with
this name.The first was a love and romance magazine published by Bernarr Macfadden in the
1920s, in the style of his confession titles, with
plenty of photographs of film stars and flappers.
The second was a fiction magazine with the
emphasis on voyeurism, sexual fantasies and
power its tagline was Stories of Incredible
Powers. It was published in 1957 by the venerable firm of Ziff-Davis, at the time the leading
publisher of special-interest magazines, with titles
including Modern Bride, Popular Boating, Sports Car
Illustrated, plus two other fiction magazines,
Amazing Stories and Fantastic, to which Dream
World was related.
The magazine had come about when
Howard Browne, the editor of Fantastic, had
experimented with what he called a new kind of
fiction in the December, 1955 issue of Fantastic.
This had been promoted in advance as being
devoted to fiction that was the fulfillment of
every mans secret urges and desires. The issue
ran stories by the magazines two most regular
contributors, Paul W. Fairman and Milton Lesser
(better known later as Stephen Marlowe), under
their own names and pen names, plus a story by
John Toland, who was later awarded the Pulitzer

PG 60 DREAM WORLD, Feb. 1957 ( Ziff-Davis);PG 61 DOC SAVAGE, Feb. 1945 ( Street & Smith Publications).

Dream World |
Prize (though not for his fiction in Fantastic). Stories included All Walls Were Mist, in which a
man improves his brain power and finds he can
walk through walls into womens bedrooms, and
He Took What He Wanted, which deals with a
thoroughly amoral individual who finds he is
irresistible to women.
The issue proved so popular that Browne ran
further such stories and decided, with publisher
Bernard Davis, that there was scope for a special
magazine. During 1956, Browne took up a writing opportunity in Hollywood and so passed the
editorial baton to Paul Fairman, one of the ZiffDavis magazines most prolific contributors. Fairman put together another special issue of Fantastic, for October, 1956, which may be treated as an
advance issue of Dream World, which was
announced in that issue. Once again it ran stories
of mildly erotic escapism alongside tales of individuals who discover they have remarkable powers that they usually put to sexual or financial
gain. In An Eye for the Ladies, our hero has the
ability to transfer his mind into a different husband every night. In Peter Mertons Private
Mint, the fortunate Merton discovers his safe has
an endless supply of money.Also in the issue was
The Passionate Pitchman, where the protagonist finds himself in a world with no inhibitions.
These stories had the added bonus of beautiful
illustrations by Virgil Finlay, who was always adept
at portraying the female form.
The basis for Dream World was thus well established when the first issue appeared in midDecember, 1956, dated February, 1957. Its cover,
by regular artist Ed Valigursky, showed a man able
to see through walls into a womans bedroom,
illustrating The Man With the X-Ray Eyes,published under the house name of Leonard G.
Spencer (on this occasional probably Randall Garrett). The lead story was Legs on Olympus by
Milton Lesser writing as Adam Chase. Based on
the Greek legend of the judgment of Paris, it tells
how Abner Paris is confronted by a totally nude
goddess in his hotel room and taken away to
Mount Olympus to judge a beauty contest. Other

titles such as Oswalds Willing Women by Bill

Majewski and A Bucketful of Diamondsby Harlan Ellison reveal all they need to about the plots.
Curiously, Fairman also ran two items, by
Thorne Smith and P. G. Wodehouse, perhaps to
give the magazine a veneer of sophistication; their
names were the only ones displayed on the cover.
Wodehouses Ways to Get a Gal was a reprint
of his 1911 story Ahead of Schedule, about two
men who fall in love with a chorus girl. Smiths
Sex, Love and Mr. Owen was an extract from
his racy 1933 novel Rain in the Doorway, a wonderfully over-the-top tale in which Mr. Owen
finds he has slipped into another world where
anything goes.The chapter was originally entitled
Pornography Preferred.
The first issue was something of a sensation,
if Fairmans editorial in the second issue is in any
way accurate. But it was also something of a onenote tune.The contents of Dream World were anything but subtle as the story titles suggest: The
Man Who Made His Dreams Come True, You
Too Can Win a Harem (the ultimate quiz show),
So You Want to be President, He Fired His
Boss, To Walk Through Walls, His Touch
Turned Stone to Flesh, Anything His Heart
Desires, and so on.They were all stories in which
mens dreams come true, simple flights of fancy
mostly written in a light-hearted tone, intended to
titillate rather than corrupt. Most of the stories
were provided in conveyer-belt fashion by the core
of Ziff-Daviss stable of fiction writers: Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett, Harlan Ellison, and Milton Lesser. Mixed with the stories were cartoons
and anecdotal accounts of how people had stumbled across windfalls, met their dream girl, or otherwise experienced remarkable luck.
There were no letters published in the magazine, so we cannot judge reader reaction, and the
fact that it survived for only three quarterly issues
may suggest that it was a failure. It certainly had
limited potential, but it might have lasted longer
had not the president of the company, Bernard
Davis,moved on to start his own new business.The
management at Ziff-Davis decided to curtail any

61

62 | Dream World
new fiction magazines. The last issue of Dream
World was dated August, 1957.Any remaining stories of incredible powers were absorbed back
into Fantastic, such as The Wife Factory by Clyde
Mitchell (another house name, with this story by
Harlan Ellison). Within a year Paul Fairman had
also moved on to new pastures and Fantastic, under
its new editor Cele Goldsmith, began the long
climb away from its formulaic stories toward establishing a reputation as one of the best fantasy magazines of the early 1960s. Dream World remains a
brief and perhaps surprising experiment by ZiffDavis to create a magazine of mild erotica.MA

E
EERIE MYSTERIES
see Secret Agent X
ELVIS PRESLEY
The Beatlemania that rocked the world in the
1960s had at least one major competitor when it
came to one-shot magazines: The King himself,
Elvis Aaron Presley. By 1960, fourteen Elvis Presley one-shots had appeared.
An early one-shot was marvelously successful.
Simply titled Elvis Presley, it was published by
Macfadden Publications in 1956, under their
Bartholomew House imprint.This magazine had
four printings and sold 800,000 copies at retail
and an additional 40,000 copies by mail order.
Following is a partial list of the Presley magazine titles: Elvis Answers Back, Elvis Presley, The
Amazing Elvis Presley, Elvis Photo Album, Elvis Presley Speaks, Elvis Presley in Hollywood, Elvis Presley:
Hero or Heel, Elvis Presley:The Intimate Story, Elvis:
His Loves and Marriage, Elvis in the Army, Elvis the
King Returns, Elvis Vs. the Beatles, ElvisYearbook, and
Official Elvis Presley Album.JH

EROS
Eros was a magazine of sexually oriented writing
and art, published in an elegant, slick format
between hard covers. Only four issues (now collectors items) were published before it was closed
down by federal prosecution, which led to a brief
prison sentence for publisher Ralph Ginzburg.
In the early 1960s, the pornography laws
were in flux, with a number of court decisions
permitting the publication and sale of formerly
banned works. Ralph Ginzburg (1929-2006), a
skilled self-promoter, saw a chance to profit from
the changes. Ginzburg had already made money
with the self-published An Unhurried View of Erotica (1958), a historical survey of sexually themed
writing and art, and now he sent out flyers advertising Eros as a source of intellectual as well as sexual excitement, emphasizing the new candor
made possible by changes in the law.The strategy
was to distance the magazine from the cheapness
and sleaziness associated with porn in the public
eye, so it was elegantly designed by art director
Herb Lubalin. It would be sold only by subscription, for the then unheard-of price of $25 for four
issues, thus keeping it out of the hands of the presumably more corruptible lower classes. But
while the publication itself was classy, the advertising for it seemed vulgar to many, and that
proved Ginzburgs undoing.
The first issue featured a new, uncensored
translation of Guy de Maupassants Madame Telliers Brothel, some lewd poems by the seventeenth-century British poet John Wilmot, Earl of
Rochester (already available in a book published
by Princeton University Press), and excerpts from
the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, as well
as moderately erotic paintings.
The second issue included a photo essay of
women gazing enraptured at President John F.
Kennedy,portrayals of Parisian prostitutes and erotic Indian temple art, and perhaps the first open
publication of 1601, Mark Twains bawdy reconstruction of a conversation including William
Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, and Sir Francis

Eros |
Bacon, a work clearly intended to appeal to the
sense of humor, rather than to carnal desires. It
concluded with a selection of replies to the original brochure, ranging from the heights of theological condemnation to It bored me to tears.
The third issue included what may be the
most famous feature Eros ever ran: an 18-page
portfolio of photographs of Marilyn Monroe that
had been taken late in her life by Bert Stern.
There were also excerpts from Fanny Hill, John
Clelands eighteenth-century tale of a woman of
pleasure, then going through the courts; and a
biographical article, by Robert Antrim, on
Samuel Roth, a spiritual ancestor of Ginzburgs
who had faced charges for publishing James
Joyces Ulysses, dirty books, and books that he
falsely claimed were dirty.
The fourth, and as it turned out, last, issue
began with a photo essay on Love in the Bible
and also included obscene limericks, an encouraging letter from Allan Ginsberg, a biography of
Frank Harris, author of the far more dishonest
than lewd memoir My Life and Loves, a discussion
of the then-unmentionable question of whether
Shakespeare was gay, and some sensual descriptions by an unnamed novelist (who turned out to
be Anas Nin; the excerpts were from the then
unpublished Delta of Venus). Its most controversial
feature, however, was Black and White in Color,
a photo essay by Ralph M. Hattersley Jr. in which
a nude black man and a white woman, shown
from the waist up, embrace and kiss. The article
suggested something not merely offensive to
many people, but actually illegal in many states. It
would not be until 1967, with the appropriately
named case of Loving v.Virginia, that the Supreme
Court would rule anti-miscegenation laws
unconstitutional.
Before long,Eros would seem downright tame.
Pictures showing actual, unmistakable intercourse

would be available over the counter in a few years.

Fanny Hill would be published, unabridged, in
Modern Library and Penguin Classics.At the time
of its publication, however, it aroused non-sexual
passions. Rev. Morton J. Hill, S.J., the founder of
Morality in Media, Inc., demanded action, and
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy obtained
indictments against Ginzburg for using the mails to
distribute obscene matter, to wit, the first issue of
Eros, a newsletter called Liaison, and a mildly titillating memoir entitled The Housewifes Handbook on
Selective Promiscuity.
In June, 1963 Ginzburg appeared before
Judge Ralph J. Body in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.An
ambitious young federal prosecutor named Arlen
Specter, making his first appearance in the
national spotlight, convinced Judge Body not
only that Eros itself was obscene but that
Ginzburg had pandered to prurient interests in
his promotions for the material, including a sophomoric effort to have it mailed from the Pennsylvania towns of Intercourse and Blue Ball.
Ginzburg was sentenced to five years in prison
and fined $42,000.
The case was appealed and went to the
Supreme Court. On March 23, 1966, the
Supreme Court announced a five-to-four decision allowing Fanny Hill to be published because
it was not utterly without redeeming social
importance, and by the same margin it affirmed
Ginsbergs conviction. Novelist Sloan Wilson led
a protest campaign, obtaining support from
Arthur Miller, Nat Hentoff, I.F. Stone, and other
intellectuals and celebrities. There followed six
years of appeals (the process dragged on so long
that Paul Krassner called it a travesty of injustice) while far more salacious material was being
openly published and sold, and on March 9, 1972,
Ginzburg went to the federal penitentiary at

PG 62, L to R, Top to Bot DREAM WORLD, Aug. 1957 ( Ziff-Davis);FANTASTIC, Oct. 1957 ( Ziff-Davis); b&w illustration from DREAM WORLD ( Ziff-Davis); DREAM WORLD, May 1957 ( Ziff-Davis); PG 63, Top to Bot DOC SAVAGE, Sept. 1937 ( Street & Smith Publications); DOC SAVAGE, Sept. 1937 ( Street & Smith Publications).

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, serving eight months.

In January, 1964, while battling the Eros conviction, Ginzburg launched a new publication:
Fact, a news magazine advertised with Ginzburgs
usual overheated rhetoric as more shocking and
revealing than any other publication, filled with
information THEY dont want you to know. Fact
put Ralph Nader (then a Harvard undergrad) in
print for the first time, and featured writings by the
then-unknown Robert Anton Wilson,but attained
the most fame, and trouble, with an article for the
1964 presidential election, in which Ginzburg got
139 psychiatrists to say that they considered Senator Barry Goldwater psychologically unfit to serve.
Goldwater sued, eventually obtaining a judgment
for $1 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in
punitive damages, and some felt that the article did
more harm to the psychiatric profession, showing
that many of its practitioners were willing to diagnose someone they had never met, let alone seen
in their professional capacity, on such grounds as
the alleged homosexual symbolism in Goldwaters
statement that he wanted the military to have missiles accurate enough to lob one into the mens
room at the Kremlin.
Fact ceased operations in September, 1967,
and the following year Ginsberg launched AvantGarde, another attempt to peddle elegance, this
time with less sexual content. Ginzburgs bad luck
with politics continued; his first issue included a
celebration of the utter political demise of
Richard Nixon, who would be elected president
later that year. Avant-Garde is perhaps best known
for introducing Herb Lubalins typeface of the
same name, characterized by its geometrically
perfect round strokes; its short, straight lines; and
its many ligatures.
Emerging from prison in 1973, Ginzburg
published a brief memoir of his experiences
there, entitled Castrated (his way of saying that he
had been denied conjugal privileges while incarcerated). He made one more publishing effort, in
an area some find even more fascinating than sex,
but Moneysworth failed as its predecessors had
done. He spent his last years as a photographer,

63

64 | Eros
publishing a collection of work entitled I Shot
New York in 1999. He died on July 6, 2006.
ADH

EVERGREEN REVIEW
Evergreen Review was founded in 1957 by Barney
Rosset, the owner of Grove Press. Barney had
acquired the small firm in 1951, when he was 29,
and turned it into the leading American avantgarde and counter-culture publishing house. Grove
Press brought American recognition to European
literary luminaries such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene
Ionesco, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter, as well as
promoting home-grown beat writers such as
William Burroughs,Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac,
and Gary Snyder. Grove fought several successful
legal battles over censorship arising from the
explicit sexual content of their publications, most
notably the unexpurgated edition of D.H.
Lawrences Lady Chatterleys Lover in 1959, and
Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer in 1964.
Evergreen Review was launched into a political
and social climate that writer Ken Jordan
described thus: A gray-suited calm dominated
the cultural landscape of the United States. Often
the 1950s are recalled as a kind of never-never
land of unprecedented material prosperity, the
reassuring, fatherly sobriety of the Cold War. Of
course, this nostalgic vision of easygoing stability
looks around the presence of Joseph McCarthy
and the balance of terror, and of a repressive, reactionary hypocrisy that ruled much of the public
discourse. But there were voices of dissent to be
heard every so often, from far and disparate
outposts.
The first issue was co-edited by Rosset and
Donald Allen, who was later replaced by Fred Jordan and Richard Seaver. It appeared in a trade
paperback format containing fiction, poems,
essays, and reviews. It featured Jean-Paul Sartre on
the Russian invasion of Hungary, the great New
Orleans jazz drummer Baby Dodd narrating his
life story, and Samuel Becketts story Dante and

the Lobster, which had originally appeared in his

collection, More Pricks Than Kicks, banned in Ireland in 1934. Beckett was to become one of the
magazines most regular contributors. Issue #2,
with Donald Allen as its primary editor, brought
it all back home with the entire magazine devoted to the San Francisco beat scene.The editors
sought the advice of Kenneth Rexroth, who in
turn sought the advice of Allen Ginsberg, whose
landmark poem Howl was reprinted minus the
obscene footnote (The world is holy! The soul
is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The
tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy!...).
This, and the seizure and obscenity trial in 1957,
made the City Lights Books edition a best seller.
Also in this legendary issue were Jack Kerouac,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Michael McClure,
then relative unknowns who would become key
figures in the beat generation and frequent
Evergreen contributors.
Barney Rossets crusading zeal against censorship made an early appearance in Issue #4 with
the publication of Ferlinghettis Horn on Howl,
dealing with the United States Customs seizure
and trial of the City Lights edition of Howl, and
Judge Clayton Horns historic ruling that it was
not obscene. Indeed, the learned judge in his
summing-up appears to have dug it:
I do not believe that Howl is without even
the slightest redeeming social importance. The
first part of Howl presents a picture of a nightmare world; the second is an indictment of those
elements in modern society destructive of the best
qualities of human nature. Such elements are predominantly identified as materialism, conformity,
and mechanization, leading toward war.The third
part presents a picture of an individual who is a
specific representation of what the author conceives as a general condition. Footnote to
Howl seems to be a declamation that everything
in the world is holy, including parts of the body by
name. It ends in a plea for holy living.
The advertisements in a typical Evergreen in
the late 1950s give a good idea of its perceived
readership: Blue Note Records, Vanguard

Evergreen Review |
Records, Folkways Records, Olympia Press,The
Viking Press, and Mad Magazine.
In 1964 (Issue #32),Evergreens format changed
to a large glossy magazine size featuring more
graphics and advertisements. Copies of this issue
were seized by the Nassau County Vice Squad
because it contained a portfolio of nude photographs by Emil J. Cadoo. Rosset fought back by
publishing further Cadoo nudes in the following
two issues. Despite the new format, the literary
content remained, with Burroughs, Beckett, Mailer,Kerouac,and other regular contributors remaining faithful to Evergreen until its demise.
With the new format, erotic photographs,
illustrations, and cartoons began to appear, which
were frequently of a soft-porn nature (although as
early as Issue #9 in 1959, there was a photographic feature on the erotic sculptures of Konarak).
Issue #37 (September 1965) saw the first appearance in an American magazine of Jean-Claude
Forrests French comic strip heroine Barbarella
with her Jane Fonda features and a disdain for
clothes. Barbarella encounters sex-machine
robots, a lesbian queen, and various monsters, and
falls in love with Pygar, a winged angel.The strip
formed the basis of Roger Vadims 1968 film starring Jane Fonda, his wife at the time.
The following issue, November, 1965, introduced the erotic sado-masochistic strip The
Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, written by
Michael ODonoghue and drawn by Frank
Springer. Phoebe was a frequently dishabille
debutant who was variously kidnapped and rescued by a series of bizarre characters, such as
Eskimos, Nazis, Chinese foot fetishists, and lesbian
assassins. Appearing as characters in the strip are
barely disguised members of the counterculture
such as Norman Mailer.
In 1968, Grove Press marked the decade of
the magazine by publishing the massive, 800-page
Evergreen Review Reader: A Ten-year Anthology of

Americas Leading Literary Magazine, edited by Barney Rosset.

Legal actions were the least of Evergreens
tribulations. In 1968, it faced a more dangerous
foe, as Rosset later recalled:
A fragmentation grenade hurled early one
morning into the empty University Place offices
of Grove/Evergreen provided an unsettling
reminder that some of our enemies preferred a
different means of dissent. A band of anti-Castro
Cubans left over from the Bay of Pigs soon
claimed responsibility for it. Not so surprising,
since one month earlier Fred Jordan and I had
flown to Bolivia in an attempt to secure the
diaries of Che Guevara. We couldnt get the
complete diaries, but we were able to publish
portions in Evergreen.The bombing was another,
if somewhat more dramatic, response to Evergreens outspoken and activist voice.
Rosset believed that the attack and subsequent
bomb threat by the anti-Castro group the
Movimiento Nacional de Coalicin Cubano was
supported or at least encouraged by the CIA, with
the possible tacit approval of the FBI, who turned
a blind eye. Despite the disruption, excerpts from
Ches Bolivian Diaries appeared in Issue #57.
Rosset faced another threat the following
year from Valerie Solanis, who had recently been
released from prison, after serving a sentence for
having shot Andy Warhol. She was author of a
book, S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting up Men), and
she had been spotted on several occasions lurking
outside Groves offices with an ice pick, waiting
for Barney.When warned of this, he said,If I ran
away from everybody who was going to kill me
with an ice pick or some other thing, Id never go
to lunch at all. Im going at one oclock.
In 1970, Grove Press was hit by political and
economic attacks from the Left (of which Evergreen had been a champion) and the rising feminist movement. This was triggered when Grove

PG 64 EERIE MYSTERIES, Aug. 1938, art by Norman Saunders ( Magazine Publishers); PG 65, Top to Bot Illustration from ESCAPADE, Dec. 1956(respective copyright holder); FEAR!, July 1960 ( Great American Publications).

dismissed nine of its staff, including the militant

feminist Robin Morgan. Morgan and eight other
women, not more than two of whom, including
Morgan, had worked for Grove, occupied Groves
New York executive offices and demanded that
the publisher create a child care crche for its
employees, that profits from the Autobiography of
Malcolm X be given to the black community, and
that profits from Groves erotica go to women
who are the special victims of this propaganda.
The group accused the publisher of earning millions off the basic theme of humiliating, degrading, and dehumanizing women through sadomasochistic literature, pornographic films, and
oppressive and exploitative practices against its
own female employees. The groups manifesto
had little subtlety:
No more business as usual for Grove
Press and Evergreen Magazine!
No more using of womens bodies
as filth-objects (both black and white)
to sell a phony radicalism-for-profit to
the middle-American-white-male!
No more using of womens bodies
to rip off enormous profits for a few
wealthy capitalist dirty old straight
white men, such as Barney Rosset.
No more union busting by richman Rosset!
No more mansions on Long Island
for boss-man Rosset and his executive
yes-men flunkie; segregated mansions
built with extortionist profits from selling The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a
best-seller and not one black welfare
mother a penny better off after millions
of copies made Rosset rich!
No more, no more, no more. Shut it
down. Close it up.We want reparations!
The women were arrested for vandalizing
Groves offices and, ironically, the publishers
lawyers fought to free them while the protesters
wanted the maximum penalty so they could be

65

66 | Evergreen Review
martyrs to the cause.
The left-libertarianism and anti-censorship
stance of Grove Press was now under attack from
repressive leftists and feminists. Rosset defended
his position in a letter to the New York Times journalist Seymour Hersh, making points which
could stand as an epitaph for the political agenda
of Grove Press and Evergreen Review:
Grove Press and the magazine it published,
Evergreen Review, were among the first in the
United States to take a determined stand against
the war in Vietnam.
Grove Press published many of the original
texts of such third world authors as Frantz Fanon
and Regis Debray, which became handbooks for
the anti-colonialist movement in Asia, South
America, and Africa, and had an incalculable
effect on the black movement as well as the radical movement in the United States.
Grove Press was the publisher of many of the
rebellious voices of the black movement in the
United States, including Malcolm X, Imamu
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), and others.
Grove Press and Evergreen Review were among
the first to publish reports of the CIA involvement in the military operations in Bolivia against
Che Guevara, and Grove Press was among the
first to publish the writings of Che Guevara in
the United States.
Evergreen Review was one of the most outspoken critics of the governments prosecution of the
Chicago Seven and one of its reports on the tampering of the government with the Chicago
Seven jury became a cornerstone in the appeal of
the sentence that was finally overturned.
Grove Press and Evergreen Review were among
the first to publish the writings of Fidel Castro in
the United States, and to report on the accomplishments of the revolution in Cuba.
In 1973, the magazine the Chicago Tribune had
once called one of the most provocative of

avant-garde journals (but later accused of having

degenerated into a commercial format devoted
to frivolous erotica.) ceased publication with
Issue #97, devoted to Last Tango in Paris in newspaper tabloid format.
Rosset sold Grove Press to Ann Getty and
British publisher George Weidenfeld in 1985 and
they removed him from his editorial job a year
later. Now in his 80s, Rosset revived Evergreen
Review in 1998 as an online magazine and continues to campaign for freedom of expression.JL

EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN

see Health Knowledge Magazines

PG 66, Lt to R EROS (respective copyright holder); ERO, summer 1962( respective copyright holder); PG 67,
Top to Bot EVERGREEN, #8 ( Evergreen Review Inc.); EVERGREEN, #76, Mar. 1970 ( Evergreen Review Inc.).

Expos/The Independent |

EXPOS/THE INDEPENDENT
Lyle Stuart
Lyle Stuart, who passed away on June 24, 2006, at
age 83, was as independent and progressive a
journalist as America has produced.At the start of
his journalistic career, he broke a story about a bill
sponsored by the brewing industry that would
fleece the people of Ohio, thus alerting the governor of the price he would pay if he did not veto
the bill. Stuart worked for Variety for a period in
the late 1940s, but left disillusioned by the trade
papers connections with insiders in Hollywood
and its too-friendly relations with key advertisers.
From that point on, Lyle Stuart became a maverick in the tradition of George Seldes.As a young
book publisher (Lyle Stuart, Inc., begun in 1959),
he was the only person who dared publish a book
by Castro, and a study of American covert influence on Central American governments and
economies (both in 1961). He issued early
exposs of the power of the DuPont family, of the
FBI and its domestic spying, and of the intractable
gulf between the wealth of the super rich and
the resources of the rest of the population.A book
by pioneer sex therapist Albert Ellis was instrumental in ending the Post Office ban on birth
control.
The marketing of the best-selling The Sensuous
Woman was one of the first examples of the mainstreaming of sexually explicit material. Stuart
imported a book of nude photographs that successfully challenged Customs and Justice Department bans on such material. In 1959, he reissued
Dalton Trumbos Johnny Got His Gun with an
introduction by the blacklisted author, at a time
when the book had fallen out of print due to the
anti-Communist demagoguery. It was during this
period of the 1950s and 1960s that he published a
press newsletter (Seldess term) that filled the gap
between Seldess newsletter and those of Paul
Krassner and I.F. Stone. Krassner was a reporter for
Stuart,and picked by him to carry on Stuarts work
when the latter stopped publishing his own peri-

odical in 1969. Incredibly, the standard histories of

American radical periodicals hardly mention Lyle
Stuarts work. It is an injustice as well as a blunder.
Lyle Stuart was an American Mahatma, a rational
and principled, not a mercenary or knee-jerk,
patriot; he had unflagging heart, shrewdness,
courage, and loyalty both to people and to an
absolutely pure sense of justice. He was my friend
and I dedicate this essay to his memory.
American radical journalism after World War
II was maintained by papers such as PM, The
Catholic Worker, The National Guardian, The New
York Star, The New York Daily Compass, and US
Week. George Seldess monthly tabloid-format In
Fact began in 1940, and in its most popular years
could claim 176,000 subscribers. By 1950 it had
lost most of its readership. Its focus on social justice had been supplanted by concerns about the
Cold War and McCarthyism. Seldes had been a
critic of what he called the press lords, the boycott and censorship power of the Catholic
Church, the repressiveness of the Jim Crow laws,
and the liaison between the American Legion
and Big Business. In Fact was the unique non-partisan muckraking newspaper of its time. Seldes
was the first to make the connection between
cigarette smoking and cancer, and excoriated the
New York Times for refusing to bring the issue to
its readership. His last words before closing In Fact
were the enemy is fascism.The curse is apathy.
Lyle Stuart published Seldess autobiography,
Never Tire of Protesting, in 1968.
When Stuart, his first wife Mary Louise, and
free-lance reporter Joe Whalen established their
monthly Expos in late 1951, they saw as potential
subscribers the 50,000 readers Seldes In Fact had,
and some of the 14,000 readers that Emmanuel
Haldeman-Julius had for The American Freeman
(Devoted to Social Justice and Industrial Sanity)
when he passed away in 1950. Expos would not
make anyone rich. In fact, Lyle never drew a salary
from the paper.Aware from their own print media
experience of the imbalance that corporate advertisers had created in print media,Whalen and the
Stuarts were determined that Expos would fea-

ture stories major newspapers would not touch

due to fear of advertisers cancellations or pressure
groups influence on subscribers or newsstand
purchasers. Advertisements do exist in Expos,
mostly for books, but the editors never solicited
them. Its founders determined never to reveal a
confidential source, and, so that no filaments of
private wealth (even so-called philanthropy)
ever entangled them, never to request a donation.
The format was, and remained, tabloid, which was
inexpensive to produce, provided compact page
layout, accommodated newsstand display, and
could be mailed at bulk rate.
Pre-publication solicitations were directed to
journalists, politicians, business executives, students, and housewives. The editors were able to
raise $1,400, enough to cover expenses for two
issues in tabloid format.The first issue in October,
1951 had a circulation of 20,000 copies. At that
time, 478 subscriptions had been ordered. The
second issue was the turning point. It contained
eight articles by Stuart on Walter Winchell, the
pre-eminent gossip columnist of the Hearst newspaper chain. A liberal under FDR, Winchell had
become an ardent Commie hunter; prominent
people were so afraid of him that they crossed the
street to avoid coming under his gaze. His innuendos could kill reputations, and his personal truculence was deeply resented. In October, 1951 he
become embroiled in a nasty contretemps with
dancer Josephine Baker about her claim that she,
as a black woman, had received poor service in
The Stork Club.Winchell was mentioned in her
complaint to the NAACP; she accused him of
blatantly snubbing her. As Neal Gabler shows, it
was the clubs owner, not Winchell, who was discriminating against Baker. Winchell could have
avoided the pub-lousity that followed by apologizing or downplaying the NAACP criticism, but
that was not his manner. He wrote many self-justifying columns, ruining his reputation as a supporter of African-American causes.
Knowing the potential of a Winchell expos
with smoke from The Stork Club firestorm still
in the air, Stuart quickly re-edited his November

67

68 | Expos/The Independent
Expos and had the staff hand-distribute copies to
Times Square newsstands. He had been disappointed with the way the distributor failed to get
his first issue displayed, and now offered dealers
twice the usual commission, as Gabler reports,
for displaying copies of the second issue. Within
an hour he received calls for more. Eventually,
91,000 copies were sold. After the November
Expos,Winchells enemies got their guns sighted,
especially the New York Post, the editor of which
started by conferring with Lyle Stuart. Winchell
had many detractors in his profession; Ed Sullivan, an early Expos subscriber, was one. Partly for
this reason, an independent distributor approached Stuart and asked to distribute future
issues of his now-on-the-horizon political
tabloid. By December, 1953 Expos could rely on
mail subscriptions. Four years later, it stopped its
newsstand distribution because expenses of doing
so were draining. Only three special cases
(either because the stand prominently displayed
the paper or because of it was advantageously
located) continued to receive copies. In 1959,
Stuart proudly wrote that the publications stockholders had received a 14% dividend.
Expos had a few regular and very important
columnists. One specialized in Jim Crow atrocities, another in money management, and another
in current newspaper policies. In 1956, Paul
Krassner began doing satirical essays on his generations eccentricities. Lawyer Albert Gerber
wrote on contemporary First Amendment issues,
and Albert Ellis has a monthly essay on how
Americans might liberate their sexual desires
from taboos. Other publishers had considered
Elliss sex-related essays too offensive to religious
authorities to publish. Lyle Stuart, Inc., later published them in book form. There were, in addition, a few top-flight writers whose work Stuart
especially championed. One was Paul Blanchard,
whose books on the power of the Catholic hierarchy to censor popular entertainment made him
one of Lyles favorite advocates for First Amendment issues. Another was Drew Pearson, fearless
investigator of Washington power brokers.

The April 1953 Expos described Pearsons

firing by ABC, which the paper attributed to the
networks merging with Paramount Theaters.The
latter owed Richard Nixon a favor, Expos
opined, and Pearsons advertisers at ABC did
nothing to prevent his firing. Because Jack
Anderson was Pearsons right hand man and successor, the story has a quite recent resonance. In
late 2005, after Andersons papers had been
posthumously donated to George Washington
University, the FBI requested that the Bush
Administration be allowed to review all documents, so that it could classify, and remove, any of
them that it considered sensitive to national security. Its explanation had to do with possible conversation between a suspected foreign agent and
defendants in a case involving the American Israel
Political Action Committee. Whether that was
the real reason, or whether older files on Bush
family members were at issue, the request was
clearly an intrusion on the First Amendment and
academic freedom. As one Information Science
professor at Cornell put it,Once you begin taking records out of library archives that researchers
rely on for free inquiry and research purposes, it
would be very difficult not to see it as a slippery
slope toward government controlling research in
higher education and our collective understanding of American history.
It is the kind of threat to press integrity and
freedom of information that Lyle Stuart fought
against his entire life one that he would have
gone to any length to expose. Ironically, he might
have had a harder task in 2006 than in 1953. But
whether or not todays internet bloggers are able
to reach more of the general public, as opposed to
those whose belief system parallels their own,
than was Lyle is an imponderable. His tabloidformat political newsletter could boast subscribers from all walks of life. They included
William O. Douglas, Arthur Miller, Oscar Hammerstein, Arthur Schlesinger, Ed Sullivan, Upton
Sinclair, Drew Pearson, Norman Mailer, Willard
Motley, and George Seldes, as well as people
assumed to be white- and blue-collar workers

and suburban breadwinners.

With its April, 1956 issue, Expos became The
Independent. Lyle Stuart insisted on the change,
despite considerable subscriber pressure to retain
the original name. Scandal magazines imitating
Confidential after 1954 made it necessary to distinguish between what Expos had been doing
and slick periodicals that appealed to curiosity
about the sensational aberrations of movie and
TV stars.Gossip sheet was an intolerable epithet
to associate with Expos. So were hate-monger

Expos/The Independent |
and Commie-coddler; Lyle Stuart won a
$9,000 settlement from Confidential in 1956 for
these characterizations.
From the beginning until The Independent
ceased publication in 1969 (it had an afterlife during the 1970s, issued less often and in a more
cost-effective format), Stuart took on every kind
of powerful organization and individual throughout the country and the world.The drug industry was excoriated for driving prices up by colluding with the federal medical regulatory
agency. Television networks were abandoning
their responsibility to inform people about
national and international affairs because major
advertisers wanted programming with which
they could integrate their products. Boys Town
was quietly discriminating on the basis of applicants race and religion. Former Nazis were
prominent in the West German armed forces and
in East German politics. Eisenhower was accused
of allowing the consumer protection laws to be
weakened, and of employing as close advisors a
spokesman for the Rockefellers and the chair of
the Chase National Bank.The Army loyalty oath
included a list of hundreds of suspected subversive
organizations that the inductee was to swear he
had not joined; so much for freedom of assembly.
The March of Dimes campaigns obscured the
impending dangers of various killer diseases.The
abortion laws condemned poor women to dangerous medical procedures while wealthy ones
had easy access. The regulations against sex in
prison institutionalized homosexuality and nurtured shame, violence, and recidivism, since
inmates lost self-respect and confidence to face an
impersonal, non-predatory world. Lyndon Johnson was subverting the Dominican Revolution
and sending troops to back Trujillo. The Independent was a vocal critic of Johnsons Vietnam policy. On this and other issues it paralleled I.F.

Stones thinking and reporting.

Lyle Stuart was an ardent supporter of the
Cuban Revolution.The first relevant story was in
the June, 1960 issue. Articles on Cubas culture,
economy, and political institutions followed. Editorials called the American press to account for
not addressing the issue except through the communiqus of the State Department.A major 1966
piece on The Political Left in Latin America
stands almost alone as debunking claims of Communist influence there. Stuart was the first journalist to visit Castro in 1960, and he made several
visits thereafter. (When he first approached the
State Department to attain a visa, he was rebuffed,
but that decision was reversed upon appeal.) Photos show him with Che Guevarra and with Castro. (Lyles custom New Jersey license plate bore
the logo Che.) One of his most dramatic stories
is about his treatment at a Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in February, 1963. Senators
questioned him with thinly veiled contempt.
Keeping his composure was difficult, which may
have been what the senators wanted. One brought
up the issue of a communist plot to destroy American morale by flooding the country with
pornography, citing books published by Lyle Stuart, Inc. Remarking that none of his publications
had had any trouble from postal authorities, he
opined that the subcommittee must have subpoenaed the wrong person, and offered to leave.That
elicited, as Lyle put it, a left-handed apology.
Expos and The Independent, since they
embody responsible and independent journalism,
are an accurate mirror of American political and
social issues in the earlier Cold War period. In
addition, many of the reports mentioned above
concern issues endemic to American culture, politics, and corporate acquisitiveness.They are especially familiar to todays citizens. Three subjects
that Lyle Stuart brought into sharp focus were the

PG 68, Top to Bot, L to R LUNATICKLE, #1, 1955 ( Whitestone Publications ); Fawcett Publications house ad circa
1936 ( respective copyright holder); PG 69 Phoebe Zeitgeist comic strip from EVERGREEN, June. 1967 ( Evergreen Review Inc.).

69

70 | Expos/The Independent
human rights advocacy organization The AntiDefamation League, cancer research and advertising, and the Catholic Church as cultural arbiter.
Each subject was difficult for magazines and
newspapers dependent on advertisement and
their readerships credulity to approach critically.
Exposs criticism made its editor a target for
much vilification. To the attacks he responded
with increased conviction and stinging wit.
One of Lyles favorite stories in his fight
against censorship was about the Anti-Defamation
League using a local supporter to pressure the
mayor of North Bergen, New Jersey, to remove
him from the board of directors of the Bergen
County library.The June, 1952 Expos had carried
a headline Inside the Anti-Defamation League.
The story appeared under Stuarts byline. It
detailed the arguments of a recent book regarding
the ADLs giving funds to minor but persistent
anti-Semitic groups, so that the ADLs own advertising campaigns would be increasingly successful
in its own solicitations for funds. The ADLs
defense was that they were infiltrating the antiSemites to spy on them. Exposs criticism of these
procedures was threefold. First, they changed the
ADL from an information gathering to a politically active organization using its growing membership to speak for American Jewry generally.
Concurrently, ADLs policies indirectly provided
an increase in the ability of anti-Semitic hate
groups to reach supporters. Third, the ADL fed
information it had surreptitiously acquired to the
wrong kind of journalists: sensation seeking gossip- and scandal-mongers, and political opportunists, instead of responsible journalists whose
further research would put the information in
proper perspective. Stuart concluded that the
ADLs fund-raising efforts and the growth of its
popularity had trumped its dedication to fighting
racial and religious prejudice in general. He published the names of three ADL agents and detailed
the methods of one, who arranged guest lectures
as a way of making contacts with representatives
of anti-Semitic organizations and getting access to
their offices, often at night, to copy files.

PG 70, Top to Bot ELVIS YEARBOOK, 1960 ( respective copyright holder); EERIE MYSTERIES, Feb. 1939 ( Ace
Publications); PG 71 Bot Band L to R ON THE SCENE PRESENTS: FREAK OUT, #2, 1967 ( Warren Publications);
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, #27 ( Warren Publications); FAMOUS FILMS: HORROR OF PARTY BEACH,
( Warren Publications).

An even stronger criticism concerned the

ADLs dealings with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. A
poker party attended by the senator and ADL
officials was one example of the liaison.The reason for the ADLs allying itself with McCarthys
attempts to purge the government of suspected
anti-Americans was to distance itself from leftwing critics who were both Jewish and critics of
Cold War era foreign policy. In March, 1952
Expos published a derogatory article on columnist George E. Sokolsky, whom, it reported, had
arranged meetings between the ADL and both
McCarthy and William Randolph Hearst. Sokolsky, Jewish himself, Expos described as an abject
appeaser of prominent officials who could use
their power to hurt his career if he did not show
his usefulness to them.The ADLs further interest
in McCarthy, and its courting of Hearst, can be
explained as an attempt to prevent them from
indulging in the Jew-Communist-Atheist conflation which marked mass prejudice of the preWorld War II era.That strategy is much less worthy of reproach than the ADLs distancing itself
from Jewish leftist critics of McCarthyism. For
Lyle Stuart, however, the Jewish organizations
alliance with pro-business, anti-union, anti-New
Deal and pro-Catholic censorship interests was an
abomination. By allying itself with people whose
sense of Americanism depended on giving
African-American and Jewish people a place of
little importance, it was engaging in a self-defeating procedure. As a powerful supporter of racial
equality, Stuart deplored the ADLs failure to censure forcefully the lack of justice given to southern blacks. Further, he was also irate when the
organization gave Kate Smith, a singer on record
as having anti-Semitic views, an award.
In addition to trying to have Stuart removed
from the Board of the Bergen library, a Catholic

priest, whom Stuart felt was connected to ADL,

threatened Stuarts printer with excommunication if he continued to publish Expos. Rumors
were circulated that the papers financial backing
came from anti-Semites. The owner of Exposs
mailing service, citing loss of reputation with fellow Jews, canceled his contract. A journalist surreptitiously working as an ADL undercover agent
gave Stuart false information, hoping to catch
Expos in a libel suit.
Jewish advocacy groups, especially the Simon
Wiesenthal Center and the ADL, are still controversial today.They have built multi-million-dollar
budgets, and have been active in suppressing films,
art gallery displays, live dramas, and books they see
as anti-Semitic and/or pro-Palestinian. Tabloid
Press Lord Rupert Murdoch has been a speaker at
both organizations banner events. The ADL, in
2003, presented an achievement award to Italian
prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, while its West Coast counterpart, the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, honored Ambassador Jeanne
Kirkpatrick, major player in the Reagan Administrations Iran-Contra policy, when she was ambassador to the U.N. Both organizations have
responded to events in the Middle East by promoting the justness of the Israeli military incursions in the same disingenuous language that the
Bush Administration has used in justifying its invasion of Iraq.They do not have to exaggerate Arab
anti-Semitism today, but their single-minded stridency, for example in stating that Islamic terrorist
groups have the resources to make the Middle
East Judenrein, would be just as offensive to Lyle
Stuart now as the ADLs quite apparent support of
hate groups and McCarthy was in 1952.
In making its readership aware of the state of
cancer research in the 1950s, Expos continued the
work of its predecessor, George Seldess In Fact.

Expos/The Independent |
During the 1940s, that publication offered over
100 stories, including research studies, showing
the relationship between tobacco and cancer. In
1939, the Secretary of the Interior had stated during a radio debate that recent news about cigarettes and cancer had not reached the public, possibly because tobacco companies are such large
advertisers. Editors and publishers roared their
indignation, but their behavior proved the secretary was right. Major newspapers from coast to
coast eschewed printing the warnings about lung
cancer that Seldes did, even when the AP or other
agencies had not quashed the information themselves. The reason clearly was the extensive revenues from Big Tobaccos advertising. Expos ran
stories on that subject, displaying various companies claims that their brand was less irritating or
the best made and pointing out that all ciga-

rettes came from the same leaf tobacco. It criticized the AMA for dragging its feet. As evidence
that smoking caused lung cancer rose, the Association continued to state that for healthy people,
smoking did not appreciatively shorten life. Stuart also wrote of the American Cancer Societys
decision to fund only research studies that the
AMA had judged to be valid. He complained that
the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund (much to Walter Winchells chagrin, as he and Runyon had
been close) had the same recalcitrant strategy
One of Exposs most controversial stances was
its approval of unconventional cures for cancer.
Unfortunately, one of these methods, the drug
Krebiosen, turned out to have excellent shortterm effects but did not shrink tumors or lengthen life. On the other hand, Stuarts conviction that
cancer relief might come from procedures other

than surgical, and that more creative research

needed funding and encouragement, might have
been correct. Ever the iconoclast, he was one of
the few journalists ready to suggest that the AMA
might be motivated more by perpetrating its own
pre-eminence in the fight against cancer than by
considering new directions in its cure.
The aforementioned Paul Blanchard was one
of Lyles favorite writers for his willingness to
delineate the power of the Catholic Church in
censoring literature and ideas.A lawyer and onetime State Department member, he wrote of the
hierarchys repression of controversial ideas
regarding abortion, divorce, sex education, and
birth control. He attacked the Catholic-founded
National Organization for Decent Literature
(NODL) for its pressure on newsstand operators,
store owners, and small publishers in keeping

71

offensive books and magazines from accessing

various points of sale. Blanchards own book,
American Freedom and Catholic Power, was not
published in paperback because of anticipated
NODL suppression of newsstand and neighborhood bookstore sales.
In 1952, Expos described an overflow crowd
gathered at churches in Los Angeles and New
York to hear Blanchard speak. He was on a countrywide tour sponsored by Americans United for
Separation of Church and State. None of the five
L.A. dailies mentioned that he was speaking, or
offered any coverage of the event. In New York,
only two of the eight dailies carried announcements of the speech, and none covered it.A major
reason was print medias fear of lost revenue from
offended readers, and the consequent boycotting
of the offending magazines or newspapers adver-

WARREN PUBLICATIONS

72 | Expos/The Independent
tisers.The power of the NODL to control behavior of both Catholics and non-Catholics concerned Stuart deeply. Church doctrine included
the banning of books opposed to faith or
morals; through the NODL this doctrine had
been applied to Americans of all, or no, religious
preference. Print and TV journalism aided and
abetted this kind of censorship. Stuart, Blanchard,
and the ACLU publicized this as best they could.
Expos accused The New York Times of refusing to
accept advertising for American Freedom and
Catholic Power, and also for Upton Sinclairs A
Personal Jesus, and Kinseys Sexual Behavior in
the Human Male.
Expos released the facts as the ACLU and
Blanchard reported them: adoption by local
police of NODL blacklists (including books by
Steinbeck, Farrell, Algren, Mailer, Hemingway,
Faulkner, etc.). Mayors delegated responsibility
for interdicting objectionable literature to publicity-minded police commissioners; prior
restraint occurred through the pressuring of publishers to delay publication of books already
printed and by getting local police to clear books
and magazines prior to their distribution. Neighborhood shop owners and newsstand operators
found certificates of compliance to be good for
business. Note that each of these procedures was
clearly injurious to First and Fourth Amendment
protections. Note also, as Lyle Stuart, Joe Whalen,
and their writers obviously did, that none of
them would have been implemented without
their being welcomed by a majority of political
and civic, as well as religious, authorities.
That fact points to a deeper reason than a
large and loyal membership for the power of ethnic and religious pressure groups. Exposs editors
and reporters understood that it was a mistake to
focus blame primarily on such groups ethnocentric supporters as a root cause for stifling

debate or compromising First Amendment freedoms. In fact, support for these groups came
from citizens who, as intelligent Americans,
deeply respected the Bill of Rights. As Exposs
articles on NODL censorship, and media lack of
coverage of the Blanchard speeches, indicate, the
latter writer spoke in places of worship, and his
talks were well attended by Catholic Americans.
Similarly, most American Jews, as well as many
Catholics, voted Democratic, deplored evangelicism, and held liberal views on social issues. It
was not the American people in general who
exercised the censorship. Institutional forces,
some not identified with conservative politics,
governed the flow of information. For example,
The New American Library would not publish
any book by a Communist. Julian Messner
decided in 1953 not to publish Mrs. W.B.
DuBois. Little Brown similarly dropped the popular and prolific Howard Fast after he refused to
identify his political party when asked by a Senate subcommittee. It was secular and religious
institutions, and most likely the wealthiest contributors to pressure groups, for whom repression
of dissent was invaluable.
Goals of foreign and domestic policy
demanded that the countrys economic health
and security was the prime objective. That, in
turn, hinged on the vast revenues (and jobs and
attendant creature comforts) American business
produced.These goals were well established, and
had been instrumental in making their supporters
lawmakers, media owners, and corporate
executives powerful. Naturally, business leaders
wanted to perpetuate these goals, and their own
and their companies pre-eminence. They were,
perhaps without acknowledging it, political and
social conservatives. The administrators and lobbyists, if not the general membership, of Catholic
and Jewish human rights organizations needed to

PG 72, Top to Bot EYEFUL, Feb. 1949 ( Eyeful Inc.); FAMOUS MODELS, Sept. 1951 ( Volitant Publishing); PG 73,
Bot Band Lt to R KONG, 1976 ( Countrywide); SHOCK TALES, Jan. 1959 ( respective copyright holder); WEIRD,
Feb. 1972 ( Eerie Publications).

appeal to these power brokers by showing their

own conservative credentials. The articles in
political newsletters of George Seldes, Lyle Stuart,
and I.F. Stone were critical of this symbiosis.Their
reporting threatened conservative American
power, and the foreign and domestic policies
undergirding conservative agendas.
The targets of leftist thinkers went far beyond
human rights pressure groups, of course. One
only need reiterate Expos and The Independents
investigations: Big Tobacco, unsafe automobiles,
the AMAs drug industry-sanctioned conservatism regarding cures for deadly diseases, censorship of information on abortion and birth control, racism in the workplace and especially in
organized labor, the power of the DuPont family
in Delaware, or of Big Oil in Middle Eastern or
South American diplomacyall common targets
of truly independent, leftist journalism such as
that exemplified in Expos and The Independent.
To hell with Kate Smith. God bless Lyle Stuart, even though he lived and died an avowed
atheist.JAG [see I. F. Stone Weekly]

EYE
Eye magazine was published by the Hearst Corporation in the 1960s as their take on youth culture. It proved to be a short-lived attempt to create an over-sized magazine like Life. Eye was
unintentionally hilarious, with many silly articles
such as what car is for you according to your
astrological sign. The monthly was aimed at the
hip youth culture, with numerous articles on
counterculture trends, fashions, and celebrities.
Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, the Beatles,
Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan made prominent
appearances as did younger figures on the music
scene of that day, such as Laura Nyro, Arlo
Guthrie, and others.
Eye featured interviews with Timothy Leary
and Abbie Hoffman, and articles about the draft
and the I Ching. The various celebrity pieces
included: Mick Jagger Raps About Politics,

Eye |
Movies, and Money, and Gracie Slick, Peter
Fonda, Julie Nixon, and Frank Zappa Tell What
Turns Them On.
Eye magazine coupled some excellent graphics with issue-oriented articles: The Viet Vet
How Does He Feel? and The Blondes of 68
Seductive AND Smart. The first ten issues
included a detachable centerfold poster, 19 x
25, printed with a column entitled The Electric Last Minute with the latest news, gossip, and
events on one side and a graphic on the other.
The subjects of the graphic posters included
Aretha Franklin (done by Milton Glaser), the
Beatles (Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine),
Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic Tarot
Cards, and Mick Jagger. The January, 1969 issue
came with a record and another, February, 1969,
with a comic book.The last three had no inserts.

Altogether the Hearst Corporation produced

fifteen issues of Eye, from the premiere issue of
March, 1968 until volume 2, number 4, which
was the final issue released in May, 1969. Eye provided a revealing glimpse at a particular moment
in time, when counterculture icons such as Hendrix and Morrison were just starting to be portrayed as larger-than-life celebrities, and the magazine showed the strange mix of vanity and commitment that characterized a certain portion of
the youth culture at that time.
An August, 1967 full-page advertisement for
Eye magazine said it will respect, enlighten, titillate, lead, leaven, captivate, iconoclate young
America. Eye will roar, jar, warble, throb. Eye will
be salubrious, dissatisfied, and groovy just like its
young audience. In small type the ad announced
the first issue would appear on February 20, 1968.

On that note, the short-lived magazine proceeded to enter into its first controversy. David H.
Hughes, president of the Yale Arts Association,
filed a lawsuit against the Hearst magazine, claiming prior right to the name. In June of 1967 the
association had just published volume 1, number
1 of its new journal of the visual arts. Its title: Eye.
Hughes had noticed a story about the forthcoming youth magazine in a newspaper advertising column in August, 1967, and immediately
informed the Hearst Eye through Yale lawyers
that his association owned the rights to the name.
Apparently all ready to iconoclate and jar, Hearst
ignored the notice and proceeded to launch its
pre-publication advertising campaign anyway.
Eye magazine continued to navigate a perilous
course. In the January, 1969 issue it had a twopage feature called Who Id Like To Be In My

73

Next Life, which had twelve luminaries in their

respective fields give short quotes on exactly that.
The twelve included Sly Stone, Peter
Townsend, Ravi Shankar,Andy Warhol,Arthur C.
Clarke, Roy Lichtenstein, Jacqueline Susann, and
Sharon Tate.This was shortly before Tate was sensationally murdered by Charles Manson later that
summer of 1969.
Tates chilling, prophetic response to the
query was as follows: Id like to be a fairy
princess a little golden doll with gossamer
wings, in a voile dress, adorned with bright, shiny
things. I see that as something totally pure and
beautiful. Everything thats realistic has some sort
of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it
wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when
it becomes violent. Im very sensitive to ugly situations. Im quick to read people, and I pick up if

MYRON FASS HORROR MAGAZINES

74 | Eye
someones reacting to me as just a sexy blonde.At
times like that, I freeze. I can be very alone at a
party, on the set, or in general, if Im not in harmony with things around me.
The Tate quote was not the strangest thing
about Eye magazine. In the final issue, the Hearst
hip culture rag tried to match the format of Paris
Match by running an article about Dany CohnBendit. Cohn-Bendit was famous for being
undesirable to the Gaullist regime.The Eye article profiled Dany the Red, Europes Rebel
King, as the red-haired hero of last springs Paris
Revolution. In it Dany tells about an international organization of rebel students, how the
universities ought to be restructured, why Communism is dead, and what students will be up to
next fall.The article makes another chilling footnote in the brief history of the Hearst magazine
as Patty Hearst, daughter of the publisher, became
involved in murder and mayhem as a wannabe
revolutionary in the early 1970s.
It is no wonder that Eye magazine failed. It
aimed at the pre-adolescent, offering posters and
comic books.The February, 1969 issue, the next
to last, contained a now much-sought-after
Amazing Spider-man half-size giveaway comic
attached to the cover, a reprint of issue #42. But
throughout the limited fifteen-issue run is an
eclectic range of articles about sex, rock, and revolution, clearly meant for a much more sophisticated reader than the intended audience.AW

EYEFUL
see Confidential, Whisper

F
FACE AND PHYSIQUE
see Health Knowledge Magazines

FAMOUS FANTASTIC
MYSTERIES
1939 saw a number of publishers starting new science-fiction pulp magazines in the wake of the
success of Marvel Science Stories, which had
appeared the year before. Part of this market
growth had come from the maturing of Astounding Stories under the editorship of F. Orlin
Tremaine and then John W. Campbell, Jr. There
were doubtless other factors, such as the success
of the hero pulps, the growth in science-fiction
comics and the announcement of the first World
Science Fiction convention.
Whatever the cause, it was sufficient for
Munsey Publications to start Famous Fantastic
Mysteries (hereafter FFM). Its first issue, dated
September/October 1939 appeared in July. Munseys magazines, especially The Argosy and AllStory, had been amongst the major sources of the
scientific romance before 1926 when Hugo
Gernsback launched Amazing Stories. Since Munseys usually acquired all serial rights to a story
they could reprint these at no additional cost.
Whats more, the devotees of science fiction who
had discovered the field with Amazing Stories and
its rivals had long wished to see these early stories, many of which had become fabled in sf circles. At this time precious little sf from the pulps
made it into book form, and although back issues
of the Munsey pulps were easy to obtain there
was no index to them and so fans had no idea
where to look.
The editor of FFM, Mary Gnaedinger, had a
conduit to knowing what fans desired because
her son, Arthur, was an active sf fan. It was also
known that one of the most popular contributors
to Argosy had been Abraham Merritt. His 1924
novel, The Ship of Ishtar, had been voted, by
readers in 1938, the most popular story the magazine had published up to that time. It was
reprinted in Argosy from October 1938, and this
may well have been the catalyst that prompted
Munseys to start FFM. Merritt would become
the star of the magazine, the first issue leading

Famous Fantastic Mysteries |

PG 74 GAY BROADWAY, vol. 3, #10, 1937 (D. M. Publishing Co); MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, Oct. 1951
(Spilogale, Inc.); MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION (Spilogale, Inc.); MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE
FICTION, fall 1949 (Spilogale, Inc.); PG 75 JACK DEMPSEYS FIGHT MAGAZINE, Dec. 1936 ( Champion
Asso. Inc.).

with his original novelette The Moon Pool.

The second issue, dated November 1939 (at
which point FFM changed to a monthly schedule), began serialization of the sequel,The Conquest of the Moon Pool.
Over the next few years, FFM would reprint
several of Merritts stories, including Three Lines
of Old French (May 1940), The Face in the
Abyss (October 1940), Burn, Witch, Burn!
(June 1942), and Creep, Shadow! (August
1942). Of special interest was the appearance of
The Metal Monster (August 1941), which
Merritt specially revised for that printing. He had
already revised it once before since its original
1920 publication, when it was reprinted by Hugo
Gernsback in Science and Invention in 1927, so this
second revision is seen by many as the definitive,
author-preferred version.This is unusual for FFM
since one of the few, or perhaps the only criticism
aimed at it was that it frequently abridged the
novels and serials.
Merritts exotic purple-prose stories, full of
fabulous creations, were the opposite of the hardsf that Campbell was promoting in Astounding,
but they were also the stuff of nostalgia from the
days when imagination was young and reckless.
Besides, Merritts work reintroduced readers to
classics by George Allan England, Austin Hall,
Garret Smith, Garrett P. Serviss, Philip M. Fisher,
Perley Poore Sheehan, Max Brand, Francis
Stevens and Charles B. Stilson, writers whose
works had stimulated the imagination of readers
twenty years or more before, but who had not
appeared in the sf magazines. In addition writers
known from their work in the sf magazines were
also represented by earlier material, including
Ray Cummings, Eando Binder and R. F. Starzl.
The magic of these stories was that they had an
innocence and spirit of endless possibilities that

created that evocative sense of wonder.

Perhaps even more legendary than Merritts
stories was The Blind Spot, a remarkable borderline sf/fantasy by Austin Hall and Homer Eon
Flint. FFM began serialization of this with its
March 1940 issue but after three episodes
dropped it and ran it complete in the new companion magazine Fantastic Novels, first issue dated
July 1940.
If anything, Fantastic Novels held an even
greater aura of magic than FFM, simply because
much of the best imaginative work published in
Argosy and All-Story had been the serials and there
just wasnt the room in FFM to run them all. FFM
continued to run serials, while Fantastic Novels
would reprint a complete novel in one issue.
Munsey had not acquired all serial rights to
the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs and so could
not reprint his novels, but they were able to
reprint serials by those inspired by Burroughs and
who produced imitative novels of his Barsoom or
Tarzan series.These included J. U. Giesy, with his
series about Jason Croft, Ralph Milne Farley and
his Radio Man series, and Charles B. Stilson with
Polaris of the Snows.
Besides the fiction, both magazines were liberally illustrated and this became one of its most
cherished features. Although Frank R. Paul illustrated the early issues, the magazines soon became
a regular venue for Virgil Finlay, whose beautiful
pen and stipple work admirably captured the
magical atmosphere of the stories, often emphasizing the mildly erotic. When Finlay couldnt
meet the demands, the editor called upon
Lawrence Stevens, whose work was almost as
beautiful as Finlays, perhaps more so for the covers where the color sometimes diluted Finlays
detailed artistry. FFM is perhaps almost as highly
collected these days for the work of Finlay and

75

76 | Famous Fantastic Mysteries

Stevens as it is for its fiction.
While both FFM and Fantastic Novels were
reprint, they ran some new poems and short articles. Although they were not a market for new
fiction, Henry Kuttners Pegasus somehow
found its way into the May 1940 issue. In 1942
the Munsey organization ceased operation and
sold the titles in its magazines to Popular Publications. However, Popular ran no reprint magazines
and did not have access to Munseys archives. Fantastic Novels had already ceased publication in
April 1941 and FFM almost stopped with its
December 1942 issue. However, the popularity of
FFM caused publisher Henry Steeger to find a
way around this and the solution was to publish
material not previously published in the United
States in magazine form or had appeared only in
Britain. Popular were thus able to acquire United
States serial rights.This also allowed the occasional new story to appear both Henry Kuttner and
his wife C. L. Moore taking advantage of this.
Wartime restrictions meant that FFM appeared
irregularly during 1943 and then quarterly before
becoming bi-monthly after the war in 1946. During this time it ran complete in each issue novels
by John Taine,William Hope Hodgson, C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne, H. Rider Haggard, S. Fowler Wright,
H. G. Wells, Edison Marshall, Jack London, E.
CharlesVivian and others.It broadened FFMs base
to include stories of more disciplined science as
well as making available novels that, for the most
part, were uncommon and not necessarily easily
available to readers.This was the period when the
charge of abridging novels stuck because Popular
had to shoehorn often long novels into the magazines limited wordage. Readers rarely complained
because the material was welcome.
The evident popularity of FFM was clear
when, at the start of 1948, Fantastic Novels was
revived but this time, regardless of any policy at
FFM, Popular went back to raiding the Munsey
archives, which they were able to do by reprinting material which had already appeared in the
original Munsey FFM, though there were exceptions. Merritts The Ship of Ishtar now saw a

new outing as did work by George Allan England,Victor Rousseau,Arthur Leo Zagat and Fred
MacIsaac, among others.
FFM and Fantastic Novels were a winning
combination. However for some strange reason
Popular decided to over-capitalize and at the end
of 1949 launched A. Merritts Fantasy Magazine,
with Harry Widmer as editor. Once again this
reprinted Merritt material, which by now was
becoming all too easily available elsewhere, and
although it unearthed yet more material from the
Munsey archives it was a case of going to the well
once too often. AMF lasted only five issues. Fantastic Novels survived it by a few months, its last
issue dated June 1951. FFM continued for another two years, by which time the emergence of the
digest magazines and paperbacks as well as specialist fan presses were making the material easily
available. FFM had served its purpose and slipped
into the night.
The magazine would soon acquire a legendary status of its own and before long was as
avidly collected as the early pulps from which it
had reprinted.A complete set of FFM and Fantastic Novels is still as much a collectors desire as
Weird Tales and Unknown with the added bonus of
a journey into nostalgia. MA

FAMOUS MONSTERS
OF FILMLAND
The creation of this cultural classic began in
1957, after a fateful trip to London to attend the
World Science Fiction Convention that year.
During an aimless trek around Europe, Forrest
J(ames; no period) Ackerman, or Mr. Science Fiction, ended up in Paris in front of a newsstand.A
chance glance at a local motion picture magazine
and an amazing journey that lasted nearly 25
years had begun.
Attracted to the cover photo of Henry Hull
as The Werewolf of London,Ackerman had to buy a
copy for his fabulous collection.With the French
magazine still clutched in his hand, he had lunch

Famous Monsters of Filmland |

PG 76, L to R FATE, May 1953 ( respective copyright holder); OTHER WORLDS, Dec. 1952 ( respective copyright
holder); FATE, Feb. 1955 ( respective copyright holder); OTHER WORLDS SCIENCE STORIES, Nov. 1950 ( respective copyright holder); PG 77 FATE, May-June 1951 ( respective copyright holder); FANTASTIC NOVELS MAGAZINE, Nov. 1949 (Popular Publications).

with James Warren in New York on his way back

to California.Ackerman was working as a literary
agent at the time, specializing in selling science
fiction, and often sold stories to Warren.At lunch,
Forry had something else in mind as he began
pitching Warren, who edited and published After
Hours, a poor mans Playboy, his idea for a new
type of magazine.
Ackerman had been watching those fantastic
movies ever since he was five years old, beginning
back in 1922. Over the last 30 years he had
amassed a collection of over 35,000 movie stills.
He convinced James Warren that he was capable
of putting together this new type of magazine.
The next thing he knew he was back home
in California sitting in front of his old mechanical typewriter, opposite James Warren, writing the
first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. As a gag,
Warren held up a sign that read,Im 11 years old
and I am your reader. Forry Ackerman, make me
laugh! And he did; Forry went on to make several generations of fans laugh, chuckle, and gasp
with delight.
Originally Famous Monsters of Filmland was
conceived as a one-shot publication. Forry had
planned to produce a 100-page magazine, a serious publication containing definitive stills of
famous monsters, or fantasy films, with an explanation on how the public reacted to that film at
the time, his own thoughts about seeing the film,
and a summary of its plot.The project might have
ended at that point, but Life magazine had just
published an issue with a feature on the runaway
success of teen-age monster movies such as I Was
a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
On the strength of the successful issue, and the
concurrent successful packaging of old horror
movies syndicated to American television in
1957, Warren was able to find a distributor for

their fledgling magazine.

The first issue was just a try-out, circulated
only in New York and Philadelphia in February,
1958. It was an instant success despite a terrible
snowstorm on the day it appeared in New York. It
received over 50 fan letters a day, 200 just from
New York and Philadelphia. It was so successful
that it required a second printing just to fulfill
public demand.Ackerman and Warren decided to
squeeze out one more issue. The rest is history.
Famous Monsters of Filmland became so successful it
eventually prompted several spin-off magazines
such as Spacemen, Famous Westerns of Filmland,
Screen Thrills Illustrated, Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.
The articles in Famous Monsters of Filmland
were written more for entertainment than pure
journalism, as Forry rarely strayed from his fanfriendly style. By mutual agreement with publisher Warren, Ackerman aimed his text at late preadolescents and young teenagers. Forry never forgot his audience. FM (as it began to be known)
offered brief articles, well illustrated with publicity stills and graphic artwork, on horror movies
from the silent era to the date of publication, with
special emphasis on their stars and filmmakers.
Anyone who has ever read a copy of FM will
agree that it was the endless supply of photos that
made the magazine so popular. Ackerman also
made accessible the silent movie works of such
legendary film stars as Lon Chaney, Sr., and others of that generation, who were often beyond
the reach and experience of the young readership. Forry would go on to introduce film fans to
science fiction fandom through direct references,
first-person experiences, and adoption of fandom
terms and customs.
The original Famous Monsters of Filmland
would end its fantastic run in 1983 after 191
issues.The most memorable stretch of its run was

in the peak years from its first issue through the

late 1960s. The disappearance of the older films
from television and the notable decline of talent in
the imaginative film industry would usher in the
decline of the magazine in the early 1970s. This
would force the magazine to begin to rely heavily on reprints of earlier articles from the 1960s, a
fact that would not go unnoticed by its readers.
By the mid-1970s, the writing was on the
wall, and the magazine had only a short while to
go before its demise. By 1976 the relationship
between Forry and James Warren had become
strained to the breaking point.They were barely
on speaking terms, using intermediaries to communicate. Warren, with offices in New York,
would complain about the smallest details, such as
Forry using the phrase GAL-axy of my
Dreams, which upset Forry and forced the two
creative forces even further apart.
Eventually it would be economics that would
bring Ackerman to quit the magazine he had
helped create. Even after the skyrocketing success
of the magazine, Forry had never been paid a fabulous sum of money for his work, and it never got
any bigger. Rampant inflation took a larger and
larger hit on the unchanging sum Forry received
for each issue. Four years before he resigned as
editor,Warren agreed (in principle) with increasing his payment, but year after year went by without any increase. Finally, after four years of waiting, the 200th issue was coming up and Forry
wanted to give the readers a 200-page special in
celebration. He wrote to Warren, pitching his celebration idea, and got no response. So he resigned
after issue 190. The magazine went on for only
one more issue, unable to continue without the
guiding genius of the man who had made it all
not only possible, but great.
To add insult to injury, Forry wrote a onepage resignation letter, first asking for more
money and more control over the magazine, then
saying, in essence, that he had had enough, and
quit. It was to be printed in the next issue of FM,
but, James Warren, on the New York end, had his
staff pen a Farewell Forry letter that stated he

77

78 | Famous Monsters of Filmland

was no longer editor and that he would be missed.
That letter and the issue it appeared in became the
very last FM, on the eve of its 25th anniversary.
The evidence of Forrest J Ackermans genius
abounds in the pages of Famous Monsters and elsewhere.A few years before he resigned, James Warren was going to create a comic book about a
mod witch and Forry went on to name one of
the most famous female comic book characters in
history. The movie Barbarella was very big at the
time. The idea for the name Vampirella leapt
into his mind. Ackerman would even write the
story of her origin. She, along with her twin sister, Drakulina, lived on the planet Drakulon,
where the rivers flowed with blood instead of
water. His name for the character was an instant
hit, and the character an instant success.
Within the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland, a reader could find those movie monsters
that, at one time, were only seen at Saturday matinees or later on late-night television. Stars such as
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and
the stop-motion models of Ray Harryhausen
became recognizable heroes of a new generation.
Many readers would eventually seek their own
film careers after being inspired by FM. Author
Stephen King has acknowledged the contribution that FM made in his life. He sent his first
horror story to them.
Copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland leapt
off the newsstands into fans and collectors hands
due in large part to the striking cover paintings by
Basil Gogos, possibly the worlds greatest movie
monster artist. His stylish portraits of horror film
characters and film stars appeared like a Bizarro
world Norman Rockwell from the Superman
comic books. Gogoss legendary artwork, seen on
FM magazine covers throughout the 1960s and
1970s, pictured movie monsters like Frankenstein,
The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Phantom of the Opera. His amazing use of color and
bold, impressionistic brushwork breathed new life
into the old black and white images from the
movies, giving his paintings a sense of excitement
and unequalled sophistication.

PG 78 Top to Bot FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, #17 ( Warren Publications); FANTASTIC STORY MAGAZINE,
( Thrilling Publications); PG 79 AMAZING STORIES, Mar. 1945 ( Ziff-Davis); SHAVER MYSTERY MAGAZINE, vol.
1, #1, 1947 ( The Shaver Mystery Club).

After a decade languishing in the shadows,

sought after only by fans and collectors, the
unforgettable magazine was resurrected in 1993
by Ray Ferry. Ackerman was brought in to help
re-launch the magazine, but after only ten issues
he quit his association with it.
As a sad final note to a great publication, in
1997 Forry Ackerman filed a civil lawsuit against
Ray Ferry for libel, breach of contract, and misrepresentation. Ferry claimed that Forry was
merely a hired hand and he had to fire him. Ferry
also claimed rights to pen names and other personal properties of Ackermans. In May 2000, the
Los Angeles Superior Court decided in Ackermans favor, awarding him over half a million dollars in damages. It has been rumored that Ackerman gave up most of his famed collection and
Ackermansion in a sale attributed to massive
accumulated legal bills stemming from the
extended court case.
Famous Monsters has gone through many
changes over the years and the legal issues have
made it a shadow of its former self. However,
both collectors and fans continue to immerse
themselves in the world created by Forry Ackerman and James Warren. The two men created a
magazine that was the first to take a chance on an
often ridiculed audience and will always hold a
special place in the hearts of those readers, and in
memories of their misspent youth.
Ackerman is also noted for having coined the
term sci-fi by analogy with hi-fi. Although
many serious, early, science fiction fans hated the
phrase, it gained universal usage by the early
1960s, helped along by its liberal use in Famous
Monsters.
During Ackermans long sojourn as editor of
Famous Monsters of Filmland, he continued his
activities as a literary agent. One of his most
famous, or infamous, clients and associates of the

mid-1960s was Ed Wood. Forry occasionally used

stills from Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From
Outer Space, both produced by Ed Wood, in his
magazine. Forry called the latter one of the unbest movies ever made.
The Wood movie that got the most coverage
in the adult slicks and girlie magazines of the time
was Orgy of the Dead, probably due to the fact that
it had a pressbook that was widely disseminated
and used by different publishers for the ad art,
photos, cast listing, and synopsis.
Forry Ackerman, acting as literary agent, submitted a package that eventually wound up published by Greenleaf Classics (GC 205), labeled
Orgy of the Dead, and containing a special introduction written by Forrest J Ackerman. It was
three-quarters photographs and one-quarter text.
The whole thing was built around Ed Woods and
A.C. Stevenss current in-progress movie. There
was nothing anywhere resembling an orgy about
the whole project. The erotic parts of the book
were all gratuitously added by Ed Wood to please
the editor and, as usual, bore little resemblance to
the original effort. Ed Wood received $500 for his
efforts, a great sum of money at the time.
Forrest J Ackerman will remain best known
for his efforts producing Famous Monsters of Filmland. His magazine introduced a generation of
young readers to the history of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror film genres. At a time
when most movie-related publications focused
on the stars in front of the lens,Uncle Forry, as
he was referred to by many of his fans, promoted
the behind-the-scenes artists involved in the
magic of movies. Ackerman inspired many to
become successful artists in their own right,
including Steven Spielberg, Ed Wood, Tim Burton, Charles Nuetzel, Stephen King, and George
Lucas, and countless other writers, directors, editors, artists, and craftsmen.

Fate |
Ackerman died of a heart attack in his hometown of Los Angeles on December 6, 2008. He
was 92.FJ [ see Castle of Frankenstein]

FANTASTIC ADVENTURES
See Amazing Stories
FATE
Ray Palmer was an unprepossessing man. At the
age of seven he was hit by a truck, which broke
his back.A semi-successful operation on his spine
stunted his growth (he stood about four feet tall),
and left him with a hunchback.
As an escape from the world, Palmer found
refuge in science fiction. He was a voracious
reader and early fan. He is credited with publishing the first science fiction fanzine, The Comet, in
1930. In 1938 he replaced Ziff-Davis editor T.
OConor Sloane at Amazing Stories. Palmers
tenure at Amazing Stories is most notable for his
purchase of Isaac Asimovs first professional story,
Marooned Off Vesta, and the promoting of the
controversial Shaver Mystery.
The Shaver Mystery began in 1945 with
the publication of I Remember Lemuria in the
March issue of Amazing Stories. These were a
series of stories and articles which might have
been an amusing and ingenious piece of fantasy
as written by Richard Shaver, but Ray Palmer,
editor of Amazing Stories, decided to publish it as
fact. Palmers support of Shavers stories (which
maintained that the world is dominated by insane
inhabitants of the hollow earth) caused him to be
shunned by many in the science fiction community. It is unclear how much Palmer believed of
his own propaganda, or to what extent he was
just pandering to the desires of his readership.
Fans, as might be expected, rebelled against any
such true and factual claim, seeing in it the
completion of Palmers shift from science fiction
to superstition.
In February, 1946 Palmer wrote to the Fanta-

sy News claiming that fandom had missed a great

opportunity by failing to embrace the Shaver
Mystery. This was followed, in June, 1946, by
assistant editor Bill Hamling announcing that
Palmer had cracked up and was confined in an
asylum. Ziff-Davis confirmed that Palmer was
seriously ill and Hamling was doing his job. In
the same issue of Fantasy Times, Palmer
denounced Hamling as perpetrating a hoax,
while Hamling wrote that it had all been a deliberate trick on his part.
Due to fans considerable ill-feeling toward
the Shaver Mystery, in particular a boycott of
Amazing Stories urged by Forry Ackerman, in late
1947 editor Ray Palmer instituted a column of
fan news and fanzine reviews in Amazing called
The Club House, written by Rog Phillips.This
precipitated one of the more fascinating feuds in
science fiction fandom, the Graham-Ackerman
Feud. The well known science fiction writer
Roger Phillips Graham was really Phillips.
Ackerman, leading the fan opposition to the
Shaver Mystery, accused Phillips of being an
agent of Palmer, attempting to seduce the fans by
drowning them in butter. The feud didnt last
very long. It all blew over when Rog walked into
a LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fiction Society)
meeting one evening and the fans there discovered that Rog was just another fan.
This period saw the ending of the Shaver
Mystery with its ejection from Amazing. Also,
perhaps the most significant event of this period,
it brought the resignation of Ray Palmer as editor, and his subsequent replacement by Bill Hamling, a former Amazing writer and assistant editor.
Bill Hamling would later become a major publisher in his own right with Rogue magazine.
As an enduring tribute to the influence that
Ray Palmer had on the entire industry, the secret
identity of DC Comics superhero The Atom
introduced by science fiction writer Gardner
Fox in 1961 is named after Palmer.
During this period Ray Palmer started Fate,
devoted to the true side of fantastic events. Fate
first hit newsstands in the spring of 1948. Co-

founded by Ray Palmer, editor of the venerable

Amazing Stories magazine, and Ziff-Davis alumnus
Curtis Fuller, an accomplished editor in his own
right, the magazines inaugural edition featured an
article by Kenneth Arnold, in which he recounted his amazing UFO encounter in 1947.Arnolds
sighting marked the beginning of the modern
UFO era, and his story propelled the fledgling
Fate to national recognition.
Another notable feature in the first issue was
an article I did see the flying disks! written by
old-time friend and fellow staffer at Amazing Stories, Roger Phillips Graham. In this issue he used
his real name and not his pseudonym (Rog
Phillips), a rare occurrence.
Back in 1949, Palmer was getting ready to
leave Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, and
Ziff-Davis, so he set up a pseudonymous publishing company and editor for another a new fiction
magazine, Other Worlds until he had officially
left Ziff-Davis and could put his own name on
the magazine. Palmer was Other Worlds only publisher throughout the 1950s, and rode the magazine down into a subscription-sales-only publication largely devoted to UFOs (it became Flying
Saucers from Other Worlds) and the Shaver Mystery. None of the many Palmer publications lived
up to the success of Amazing Stories during his
reign. He ended up publishing Space World magazine until his death.
Fates editors envisioned it as a new kind of
magazine.They dedicated it to the earnest, thinking people of all races and walks of life; a magazine devoted to the defense of reason. They
hoped to be able to use the magazine as a forum
for the scientific method, for calm analysis of the
known and unknown. The broad scope of their
vision was the desire to bring out into the open
the real kinship between fate and free will. The
editors called Fate a cosmic reporter, and went
on to state that the real purpose of the magazine is reporting the unbiased truth.
All these claims and hopes became the foundation for the longest-running publication of its
kind. Published continuously since 1948, Fate has

79

80 | Fate
been supplying its readership with an array of
true accounts of the strange and unknown for
over 60 years. Currently Fate is published as a fullcolor, 130-page monthly magazine.
Fate still provides an editorial range from psychics and spiritualists, archaeological hotspots and
fringe science, to authoritative UFO and paranormal investigations, and readers personal mystic experiences. Fate has never backed off from
the claim that the articles are factual. They certainly are entertaining, but whether the articles
are informative, and also true, remains to be
decided by Fates growing audience of people
seeking both answers and entertainment.
Since its creation, Fate catered to an audience
eager for the paranormal readers Palmer had
discovered while promoting the Shaver Mystery. There were other things he wanted to do,
though, so he went into business as Palmer Publications. His various publications were like
nothing else in American publishing scrappy,
chatty, and unpredictable. Palmer kept them
going for years, despite physical hardship (he was
partially paralyzed and often in pain), changing
postal regulations (a frequent complaint in his
editorials), and lack of money. He cut corners
wherever possible, using irregular paper stock, filling pages with letters or his own ramblings when
he couldnt afford writers. He saved a few dollars
every month by not filing copyrights.And he ran
ads for whatever he could sell packets of chili
seasoning, a local PTA cookbook, a prayer plaque,
tiki mugs, etc. He peddled the only dandruff
shampoo endorsed by a UFO celebrity (Kenneth
Arnold).At times, he seems to have kept the business afloat by the sheer force of his personality,
which was, admittedly, considerable.
Fate magazine is one of the first periodicals
published in the United States about paranormal
and supernatural events and people, and is commonly the primary reference source for many a
later author of books on the weird. Many anomalous stories that are now considered common
knowledge, and often used as the basis for
astoundingly complex theories about paranormal

PG 80, L to R, Top to Bot FATE, Jan. 1957 ( respective copyright holder); FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, with Virgil Finlay cover art( respective copyright holder); PG 81, Bot band, L to R UNKNOWN, Mar. 1939 ( Street &
Smith); EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN, Feb. 1962 (Health Knowledge Inc.); STRANGE MAGAZINE, Mar. 1952
( respective copyright holder).

events, were first published for popular reading in

this simple magazine. Fate carried a tremendous
amount of ground-breaking UFO stories, many
now oft-reprinted.
Nowadays, however, Fate is mainly an entertainment-oriented magazine, and the articles are
largely sensational, but it remains a good starting
point for finding more information about current
paranormal studies, and especially about current
popular trends in the world of the strange.
The best of Fate was certainly the first decade,
which contained the best covers, and the weirdest
articles.For the first five years Fate stumbled along,
slowly gaining a readership, going from 3 issues in
both 1948 and 1949 to 4 issues in 1950, and then
5 in 1951. 1952 marked the first year where it
could be said to have become established, with 8
issues produced that year. Finally, 1954 brought
the advent of a regular monthly issue.
Curtis Fuller and his wife Mary took full
control of Fate in 1955, when Palmer sold his
interest in the publication.The Fullers expanded
the magazines focus, and increased readership to
well over 100,000 subscribers.They continued to
publish Fate until 1988, when the magazine was
sold to Llewellyn Publications. In his farewell column, Curtis Fuller wrote,Our purpose throughout this long time has been to explore ,and to
report honestly the strangest facts of this strange
world the ones that dont fit into the general
belief of the way things are.
One of the most notable series of articles was
by Lloyd Auerbach, who wrote the long-running
column Psychic Frontiers from 1991 through
the end of 2004. Fate underwent a facelift in
1994, when Llewellyn decided to change it from
digest size to a full-size, full-color magazine. Four
years later in 1998, the magazine celebrated its
50th year of publication. When asked to com-

ment on how a magazine like Fate had beaten the

odds and survived through five decades, Carl
Llewellyn Weschcke restated in part the original
Ray Palmer editorial regarding the purpose of
the magazine when he said, No product, especially a magazine, can stay around for fifty years
unless it meets a need. Fate recognizes that the
impossible can be possible; we explore the
unknown so that it can be known.
September of 2001 marked the beginning of
a new era for the long-running magazine, as Editor-in-Chief Phyllis Galde took over publication
rights from Llewellyn. Galde has continued Fates
fine traditions of objective reporting of unusual
events and active reader involvement in shaping
the content of the magazine.And in this spirit of
continuing Fates long-standing traditions, in May
2003 Fate returned to its original digest size.
Finally, in the early summer of 2004, Galde
bought Fate outright from Llewellyn. Regarding
her acquisition of Fate, she said: I look forward
with enthusiasm to carrying on the great traditions of Fate. I am truly humbled, grateful, and
indescribably excited for the opportunity to
assemble Fate for our loyal readers, and I eagerly
anticipate exploring the strange and unknown
side by side with them for years to come.
Once again Galde rededicated Fate to the
original direction created by Ray Palmer, maintaining the magazine as a forum for the scientific
method, for calm analysis of the known and
unknown, and to always looking around the
edges of phenomena.
Fate has continued with a focus on UFOs and
ghosts. With the advent of computers, Fate
launched its own website, which features a
Strange and Unknown blog. Fate has also
established a foothold in the multi-media market
by airing the Hilly Rose Radio Show, a verbal

Film Culture |
Fate magazine with emphasis on interviews.
Ray Palmer has left the world an enduring
legacy. The man with the vision of Other Worlds
would be hard-pressed to believe that his creation, Fate, has become an Amazing Story in its
own right, and a lasting icon of American culture.ETK

FEAR!
see Stephen King Horror Mag
FILM CULTURE
Jonas Mekas once referred to himself as a raving
maniac of the cinema. Born in 1922, in Lithuania, he arrived in New York on October 29, 1949,

with his brother Adolfas, from a displaced persons

camp in Germany. On their first night in the city,
the pair visited 42nd Streets movie-house strip.
Jonas wanted to catch up on everything he had
missed during the war. I had to see and did
everything that was screened in New York, and I
had to read everything that had been published on
cinema in English. Jonas had been a poet in his
homeland; in America he found work as a tailors
assistant and a Manhattan messenger.
Throughout the early 1950s Jonas could be
found at 5:30 screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, or at the New York Film Society in
Greenwich Village, or other Manhattan movie
venues. But Jonas and Adolfass favorite film
haunt was Cinema 16, the film society started by
Amos Vogel and his wife Macia, in imitation of
the French Cinmathque. Between 1947 and

1963, Cinema 16 was New Yorks main showcase

for avant-garde and experimental films of all
themes and orientations. My brother and I
attended every single Cinema 16 program. It was
one of our schools, Jonas recalled later. Macia,
handling the box-office, would take pity on the
impoverished brothers when they appeared at the
theater without passes, and let them in.
At this time, Jonas admired the neo-realism of
Rossellini, De Sica, and Fellini, and believed that
much of the American avant-garde films he saw
were pale reminders of pre-war European surrealism at best, and adolescent or incomprehensible
at worst. He also harped on the conspiracy of
homosexuality that he saw in some of the
underground films of Kenneth Anger and Gregory Markopoulos. Not many people cared about
his private views until he began publishing Film

81

Culture late in 1954 and publicly presented his

opinions in cold type. Avant-garde filmmakers
were up in arms when the third issue of the magazine carried an article, written by Jonas, about
the foibles of American independent filmmakers.
Avant-garde leading light Maya Deren
attempted to enlist other filmmakers, including
Stan Brakhage, into a libel lawsuit against the
fledgling magazine. They thought that it must
have a deep-pocket publisher behind it, and they
could use any money collected in a settlement to
finance new films. Deren did not know that most
of Film Cultures backing came from Jonass weekly paycheck, earned doing camera work for the
international edition of Life at Lenard Perskies
Graphic Studios on West 22nd Street.
The Mekases had gotten some of their (mostly European exile) friends to act as sponsors for

FORTEAN MAGAZINES

82 | Film Culture
PG 82 15 MYSTERY STORIES, Apr. 1950 ( Popular Publications); PG 83, Bot band, L to R REAL FRENCH CAPERS,
#5, Feb. 1935, ( Nudeal Company); FRENCH SCANDALS, Nov. 1936 ( respective copyright holder); PARIS NIGHTS,
June 1930 ( Red Top Publications).

and contributors to the magazine and Jonas talked

members of the Lithuanian branch of Franciscan
Brothers, who had their own Brooklyn print
shop, into putting out the first issue in December,
1954. The Mekases threw a launch party at the
Waldorf-Astoria without spending a dime. A
friend working for the hotel made the arrangements. Even with all their penny pinching, the
brothers still had no money to pay the print bill,
and scrambled to find another printer for the second issue, who they were also unable to pay.
With lawsuits from creditors looming, a savior
appeared at the Mekases Lower East Side
doorstep. Harry Gantt, a businessman with magazine printing interests, believed in what the brothers were doing and offered to put up the $1,200$1,500 needed to print each issue of Film Culture.
Film Culture went from a bimonthly to a
monthly. Early on it could be seen as an American Cahiers du Cinma with its coverage of American and European studio films (the first issue had
Orson Welles as Othello on its cover).The magazine also reflected some of Jonass Marxist thinking at the time, but he soon began defending
independent filmmakers attacked by mainstream
critics. Maya Deren was one of the first to welcome him into the avant-garde fold.
A young, early contributor, discovered by
Jonas, was Andrew Sarris, who would later
become the movie reviewer for the Village Voice
on Mekass recommendation. Sarris remembers,
The first issue [of Film Culture] had already
come out. There were a lot of big names, sponsors, people like Agee, documentarians, the usual
fringe people in New York. He had manuscripts,
from Europe and elsewhere.They were in different stages of erudition. But their English, their
syntax was not too good. He wanted to turn
them into reasonable English. I said, Ill do it if
you let me review movies. Sarris went on to

develop his controversial Americanized auteur

theory of film criticism in Film Culture.
By the late 1950s commercial films had
become anathema to Jonas, who saw films like
John Cassavetess improvised Shadows, shot in
New York during 1958, as a break-through in
filmmaking. Jonas became an advocate of what he
called New American Cinema and Film Culture
took on a new persona. Jonas could sense that a
new, more subjective cinema was crystallizing
around the country, rough, maybe badly made,
but alive, and this new sensibility was being
overlooked by mainstream movie magazines.
In the first issue of Film Culture, Mekass article, The Experimental Film in America, called
for the development of an audience for this kind
of film through the growing film society movement. Jonas did his part by helping to push Jack
Smiths film, Flaming Creatures, a cinematic cross
between a shooting gallery of male genitalia and
a deviant Grade B Hollywood feature. He called
Creatures a great film.This was a far cry from his
conspiracy of homosexuality comment. Jonas
would be arrested many times for screenings of
Smiths film under the aegis of the Filmmakers
Cooperative, a group he helped form in 1962 to
distribute films that Cinema 16 wouldnt touch.
Jonas saw at once that through Creatures he could
bring attention to underground films while also
fighting censorship.
By the mid-1960s, Film Culture was seen as an
unabashed propaganda organ for the American
avant-garde film movement. No single person
before this had been so headstrong in the cultivation of a category of film. Mekas was never afraid
of looking foolish or changing his mind.With Film
Culture, and his many sponsored screenings around
New York City, he helped to legitimize avantgarde filmmaking and helped to create new cultural stars like Andy Warhol. Its sometimes hard to tell

Fizz |
what Mekas loved more, films or filmmakers.
Film Cultures sixth annual Independent Filmmakers Award was presented to Warhol in
December, 1964. This prompted underground
filmmaker Stan Brakhage to resign from Mekass
Film-Makers Co-op. Brakhage wrote to Mekas,
I cannot in good conscience continue to accept
the help of institutions which have come to propagate advertisements for forces which I recognize
as among the most destructive in the world today:
dope, self-centered love, unqualified hatred,
nihilism, violence to self and society. Mekas
would receive much backlash for his advocacy of
Warhols early films in Film Culture and his weekly Movie Journal column at the Village Voice.
As the interval between issues lengthened
during the 1970s, and Hollywood assimilated
avant garde techniques and themes, Film Culture

lost some of its cachet and limped on until the last

issue appeared in 2003.
Film Culture ran special issues on Stan
Brakhage, D.W. Griffith,Andy Warhol, the Hollywood Blacklist, Leni Riefenstahl, and Maya
Deren. Contributors include Orson Welles, Hans
Richter, Stan Brakhage, Erich von Stroheim,
Jean-Luc Goddard, Peter Bogdanovich, Lotte Eisner, George Kuchar, Joseph von Sternberg, Luis
Buuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Antonioni,
and Anas Nin.Mr. Fluxus (George Maciunas, a
fellow Lithuanian) designed a few issues, using a
typical Fluxus minimal, anti-art sensibility.LO

FILM FUN
see Ballyhoo

FILM THREAT
Film Threat began as a fanzine based in Detroit
and put out by Chris Gore while he was a college student during the late 1980s. The second
newsstand series restarted in 1991, after Gore
relocated to Los Angeles and hooked up with
co-editor David Williams and publisher Larry
Flynt of Hustler fame. Film Threat Video covered
cult and underground films with a mixture of
seriousness, irreverence, and self-serving hipness;
indeed, it referred to itself at Hollywoods Voice
of Treason. It was one of the first national magazines to cover the early career of Quentin
Tarantino. Some typical pieces include: Dial-aDate with Mr. Spock, Mr. T Directs Shakespeare, and Celebrity Scandal Calendar. Subject matter could range from Kitten Natividad to

83

Karen Carpenter in the same issue.

Gore left FTV with the 26th issue to develop
video games in San Francisco. Four more issues of
the newsstand FTV appeared through 1997 before
the magazine moved to the internet. Gore also
edited Wild Cartoon Kingdom as a FTV offshoot for
the same publisher beginning in 1993.LO

FIZZ
Fizz was a tabloid sized musiczine that began as
Fiz in 1992.Originally founded by Cathy Rundell
and Wendy McConnell in Los Angeles, Fiz published 13 issues before the two friends parted and
Rundell moved to Seattle,WA, in 1994. She then
added an extra z to the title, became its sole publisher, and picked up a lot of contributors in the

AMERICAN FRENCH MAGAZINES

84 | Fizz
grunge rock capital of the world. Fizz went on to
publish 10 more issues from 1994-1998. Both
incarnations of Fiz/Fizz were printed on
newsprint with a glossy color cover and some spot
color inside. Each issue featured lots of rock and
punk band interviews, art, columns and features,
often with a humorous angle. One of the highlights of each issue was Rundells pre-teen daughter Vivien interviewing various musicians, including Billy Idol, the Ramones, Mudhoney and
Lemmy from Motorhead (she asked him if he
liked toy trolls). Contributors included Carolyn
Kellogg, Jen Dalton, Dave McConnell, Jill Jones,
Randy Horton, Nick Scott (of the band Popdefect),Debbie Patino,Falling James (of the band The
Leaving Trains), Gabe Soria, Naomi Shapiro, Leigh
Pendergrass, Natasha Avery, Josh Mills, Stephanie
Bartron, Jenny Boe, Carl Drunko, John Dunn (of
the band Iron Cross), Ean Hernandez (of the band
Sicko), Tracey Hartle (of the band Shugg), Dan
Halligan, Jula Bell (of the band Bobsled), artists Van
Arno, Paul Friedrich, cartoonists Peter Bagge and
Pat Moriarty, and photographers Alice Wheeler,
Don Lewis, Robbie Busch, Shawn Scallen, Jim
Thompson, Eric Nakamura, and Curt Doughty.
LO

FLIRT
see Confidential, Whisper
FOCUS
see Zest
FORTEAN TIMES
Charles Fort
For the first half of his life, Charles Fort was a bel-

ligerent, angry young man who frustrated his

father and was never able to secure a job. For the
second half of his life, Fort tried to sell his stories,
unsuccessfully for the most part, and spent much
of his time sitting in libraries in Britain as well
as the United States reading newspapers and
magazines.Yet his name, in the adjective Fortean,
has been absorbed into the English language, used
to describe any form of unexplained or anomalous phenomenon, especially where that phenomenon seems to defy orthodox beliefs. He
achieved this because all the time he sat in
libraries, reading until he almost went blind, he
was also copying down details of any unusual
event, and he collected these news items into
seven books, only four of which were published:
The Book of the Damned (1919) damned
applying to any event that was disregarded by science, New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and the
posthumous Wild Talents (1932).
Fort really only served as a gatherer and cataloguer of facts. He used these facts to refute conventional science and to argue that people should
always keep an open mind. He had challenged
authority ever since his childhood. and continued
to be a rebel all his life. Even when the Fortean
Society was founded in 1931 by Tiffany Thayer,
Fort refused to join it. He chose to believe nothing that had been conceived by the human mind,
even to the point of not believing any of his own
writings. He simply presented the facts and let
others make up their own minds.That did not stop
him from interpreting some of the data, often with
wild speculation. He suggested that the earth was
surrounded by some form of shield that protected
us from beyond, that the planets were only a short
distance away, and the stars were simply holes in
the shield, the space beyond being white. He also
suggested that aliens had reared us like cattle and
looked after us for their own benefit; people who
disappeared had been collected up by these aliens.

PG 84 THE FEDS, Mar. 1937 ( respective copyright holder); PG 85 G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES, Jan. 1935 ( Popular Publications).

Fortean Times |
Occasionally they would throw things back,
which accounted for all the mysterious downfalls
of frogs or coins or other oddities. His most quoted conclusion is I think were property.
Fort was thus the first to assemble and present
compendia of the unexplained, and generated an
industry that has grown hugely since his death in
1932, at the age of 57. His examples and ideas
have contributed to a wealth of popular literature,
primarily in the fields of fantasy and science fiction, but also in books of secret histories. His legacy is continued today by the Fortean Times.
Forts early life is quickly summarized. He was
born in Albany, New York, on August 6, 1874. His
mother died soon after the birth of her last son in
1878. His father, who ran a profitable family grocery business, mistreated Charles, who became
rebellious and was raised by his mothers family.
He developed a bizarre sense of humor for the
absurd that never deserted him, and probably
prompted his interest in the unexplained. He
became a journalist and reporter, though earned
most of his income, such as it was, by writing
fillers for local newspapers. A small family legacy
allowed him to travel the world during 1893-4,
and he married soon after his return. He continued to sell fillers, jokes, and anecdotes to papers,
but this provided insufficient income, so he tried
to sell short stories. He was helped in this respect
by Theodore Dreiser, who became his life-long
friend and champion. Dreiser recommended several stories to his fellow editors and for a brief
period, during 1905 and 1906, Fort sold some 22
stories.They were all humorous, mental clowning, as Dreiser described them, and showed
potential, but Forts idiosyncratic jesting had limited appeal and, when Dreiser and the other editors moved on, Forts markets dried up.
Only one of these stories might seem to hold
some inkling of Forts later ideas. The Radical
Corpuscle (Tom Watsons Magazine, March 1906)
is a satire where the red and white corpuscles in
our blood are sentient and philosophize on the
nature of their host and, by extension, mans relationship to the earth and so on. Fort may well

have come across this idea in the writings of Gustav Fechner who, in Nanna, or on the Soul-Life of
Plants (1848), believed that all living things had
souls, including plants and the constituent cells of
plants, and, by extension, the earth itself.This was
the start of the Gaia principal, which resurfaced in
the writings of James Lovelock in the mid-1960s,
but which had formed part of the pantheism
movement of the 1890s.Through his voluminous
reading, Fort is bound to have encountered this,
and the idea that humans are not the sole controlling intelligence on the planet would have
appealed to him. At the same time there was
growing speculation about the possibility of life
on Mars, fuelled by the observations and theories
of Giovanni Schiaparelli and Percival Lowell.
These various theories, along with rapid
technological advance, was contributing to a
rapid growth in speculative fiction which Fort
doubtless enjoyed as he worked through the
magazines. He even turned his own hand to it.
According to Dreiser, Fort had completed ten or
more novels between 1908 and 1917. Only one
of these, the satirical The Outcast Manufacturers
(1909), was published. He destroyed all the rest.
Yet, from what Dreiser recalled of them, at least
two were science fiction, built on the ideas he
would later develop in his compendia of the
unexplained. These books are known now only
by the titles X and Y. X explored the idea that life
on earth was created by the Martians, who thereafter have treated us as some form of cattle. Y suggested that there was a civilization hidden away at
the South Pole and that the mysterious Kaspar
Hauser, who had appeared out of nowhere in
Germany in 1828, was an emissary from there.
These two books were probably written
around 1914-15 and Sam Moskowitz has suggested that they may have been inspired not only
by Forts researches, but by stories appearing in
the popular magazines of that time.These include
Up Above (Pearsons Magazine, December
1912) adapted by John N. Raphael from the 1911
French novel Le Pril Bleu by Maurice Renard,
and The Horror of the Heights (Everybodys

85

86 | Fortean Times
PG 86 FURY, Feb. 1957 ( Weider Publications); PG 87, Lt to R, Top to Bot G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES, ( Popular Publications); MURDER TALES, Jan. 1971 (World Famous Publications); G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES, Feb. 1934 (
Popular Publications); interior page from EYEFUL, June 1951 (Eyeful Magazine, Inc.).

Magazine, November 1913) by Arthur Conan

Doyle. Both of these stories propose that there are
life forms in the upper atmosphere that may prey
upon humankind, just as we do upon the fish in
the sea, and may account for disappearances and
sightings of what became known as UFOs.
Tired of attempting works of fiction, Fort
turned to assembling his research into some
cohesive form and, with Dreisers help, the first
volume, The Book of the Damned, was published in
December, 1919. It immediately attracted interest. Ben Hecht, then writing his Afternoons in
Chicago column for the Chicago Daily News, was
apparently inspired to write a new story and
claimed he was the first disciple of Charles Fort,
calling himself a Fortean: he may even have
coined the term.When Hecht reviewed The Book
of the Damned, he said that For every five people
who read this book, four will go insane. When
Fort later heard this, he retorted that thats impossible as five out of every five persons are crazy in
the first place. Booth Tarkington also wrote a
rave review, believing that Forts head must emit
noises and explosions as he walked along, so full
was he of strange ideas. Tarkington wrote the
introduction for Forts next book, New Lands, in
1923. Fort rapidly became something of a
celebrity and he was even writing letters to the
New York Times, citing strange events and seeking
corroboration from readers.
There were also converts among the science
fiction fraternity. Perhaps the earliest was George
Allan England who wrote an effective horror
story, The Thing from Outside (Science and
Invention, April 1923) set in the Arctic, where a
party of travelers find themselves possessed by
some intangible being. Though the story may
owe much to Algernon Blackwoods The
Wendigo, England was clearly aware of Forts
work as he refers to him in the story, calling him

the greatest authority in the world on unexplained phenomena.

Hugo Gernsback reprinted that story in the
first issue of Amazing Stories in April, 1926 and if
sf devotees had not heard of Fort before then,
they had now. Although H.P. Lovecraft was condescending toward Forts unscientific approach,
he was nevertheless fascinated by the data he
amassed, and particularly the idea of life somehow
crossing space, a concept he used in The Colour
Out of Space, also published in Amazing Stories
(September 1927). Clark Ashton Smith found
Forts books equally inspirational and its possible
that The City of the Singing Flame (Wonder
Stories, July 1931) owes something to Forts notes
on unexplained disappearances.
Edmond Hamilton, a regular contributor to
both Amazing Stories and Weird Tales, corresponded with Fort, exchanging data. He wrote two
Fortean-inspired stories:The Space Visitors (Air
Wonder Stories, March 1930), in which vast alien
scoops appear from the upper atmosphere and
grab samples of the Earth, regardless of content,
and The Earth Owners (Weird Tales, August
1931), where our alien protectors save the earth
from other visitors. Jack Williamson combined
Fortean ideas with those of Fechner in Born of
the Sun (Astounding Stories, March 1934), where
scientists discover that the planets are really eggs
of vast space dragons. F. Orlin Tremaine, who had
become the editor of the recently rescued
Astounding Stories, reprinted Lo! in eight installments from April to November, 1934. Tremaine
had instigated a policy of running thought variant stories, encouraging authors to develop original ideas and he hoped that Forts data might be
inspiring. Among the results were Set Your
Course by the Stars by Eando Binder (May
1935), wherein space travelers break through the
membrane surrounding Earth to discover space is

Fortean Times |
entirely white, and Exiles of the Stratosphere by
Frank Belknap Long, Jr. (July 1935), wherein
aliens living in the upper atmosphere occasionally send humanity their discards.
The author most closely associated with popularizing Forts ideas, though, was Eric Frank Russell. His novel, Sinister Barrier, run complete in the
first issue of Unknown (March 1939), built on the
we are property idea used by Hamilton in The
Earth Owners. Russells story tells of the battle
against the alien overlords for humans to gain control of Earth. Russell used Fortean ideas in several
of his stories. Hobbyist (Astounding, September
1947), for example, considers who watches the
watchers, when a vastly superior intelligence
makes notes of a human intelligence keeping track
of alien life on another planet. Similarly, in his
novel Dreadful Sanctuary (Astounding, June-August
1948), earth is a dumping ground for mad racial
rejects who are monitored by a secret society of
Martians, which regards itself as the only sane lifeform on earth, but who are in reality the true psychotics who foment all of earths troubles.
Russell remained a disciple of Fort all of his
life, and wrote several articles about Forts work as
well as collecting details on unusual phenomena
himself, which he published in the book Great
World Mysteries (1957). Forts greatest legacy is
probably not so much in inspiring fiction as in
inspiring others to explore the unexplained.
Those who have taken up Forts lines of research
to develop further understanding include Vincent
H. Gaddis, Ivan T. Sanderson, Jerome Clark,
William R. Corliss, Loren Coleman, and Mike
Dash. Corliss went back over and extended Forts
original research identifying areas that he had
either missed or only partially covered and, since
1978, has published over 25 books in what he
calls his Sourcebook Project.Vincent H. Gaddis
was one of Forts earliest disciples. He has compiled many books on strange phenomena, and is
probably best known for having coined the
phrase The Bermuda Triangle in an article in
Argosy for February, 1964.
Gaddiss early writings appeared in Amazing

Stories under the editorship of Raymond A.

Palmer. Palmer, thanks to the eccentric writings
of Richard S. Shaver, had discovered the benefits
of pandering to a cult readership. Shavers work,
based on his idea that Earth had seen prior superior civilizations in Lemuria and Atlantis, and that
evil survivors from those days live on, deep
underground, and are the cause of all ills on earth,
was not specifically Fortean, although appealed to
some of the same followers. The publication of
Shavers stories, starting with I Remember
Lemuria in Amazing (March 1945), were presented as if they were true and attracted a huge
readership. Gaddis began to contribute articles
that explored issues raised by Shavers theories
such as Giants on the Earth (December 1945),
Energy From Beyond (May 1946),New Evidence for Atlantis (August 1946), and Notes on
Subterranean Shafts (June 1947).
No sooner had the Shaver mythos grabbed
the readers of Amazing than Palmer became
involved in the flying-saucer phenomenon following reports of strange sightings by Kenneth
Arnold at Mount Baker, Washington, in June,
1947. If anything, this created an even greater stir
than the Shaver Mystery. Sales of Amazing Stories skyrocketed and Palmer realized the size of a
significant market. As a consequence, he set up
his own publishing company to issue a magazine
devoted to unexplained phenomena, Fate. Its first
issue, dated Spring, 1948, appeared in January.
Gaddis was among the regular contributors and
it was not long before Fort was honored with an
article in the third issue (Fall 1948), Charles
Fort, Apostle of the Impossible, by Frederick
Clouser. Assessing the value of Forts work,
Clouser commented:
The value of his work lies in its catalytic quality. It induces thinking comprehensive thinking and this must eventuate in progress.
Fate, which survives to this day, was a genuine
Fortean magazine, and spawned many imitators
including Strange (1952), Exploring the Unknown
(1960-1971), The Fortean Times (1973-current)
and, more recently, The Anomalist (1994-current).

87

88 | Fortean Times
Unfortunately, Fort did not live long enough to
see this growth in Fortean research. He died on
May 3, 1932.Yet Fort may have had an inkling
that his work would not be forgotten. Even
before his death,Tiffany Thayer had founded the
Fortean Society, which first met on January 26,
1931, a gathering that included Ben Hecht,
Booth Tarkington, John Cowper Powys, Alexander Woollcott, and Harry Leon Wilson. Fort was
lured to the meeting by subterfuge.
Thayer remained the main driving force in the
Society and was granted Forts papers after his
death, much to the annoyance of Theodore Dreiser, who had been Forts main support during his
working life.The Society met annually and in September 1937 Thayer produced the first issue of The
Fortean Society Magazine. This ran no fiction, but
consisted chiefly of news about Society members,
though Thayer took on the task of transcribing all
of Forts original notes, a mammoth undertaking.
The magazine, which was retitled Doubt from issue
#11 (Winter 1944-5) on, appeared when Thayer
had time and it was really dominated by his own
ideas and theories, which became crankier as he
grew older.The Society and Doubt died with him
in August, 1959, by which time Doubt had run for
61 issues. Six years later, Ronald and Paul Willis
founded the International Fortean Organization,
which publishes the magazine INFO Journal,
which continues to this day. Its website is
www.forteans.com. There has also been, since
1998, the Charles Fort Institute, founded by Bob
Rickard, with its website at www.forteana.org.
Rickard is todays true champion of Fort. He
founded the magazine The Fortean Times in
November, 1973 (it was called The News until
issue #16, June 1976), assisted by Paul Sieveking,
and remained editor until 2002. The magazine
continues the true spirit of Forts researches,
reporting news of odd phenomena, questioning
the unusual, and presenting strange facts to allow
people to take matters further and draw their
own conclusions. It also provides articles about
Fort, his work, and the original Forteans, plus
interviews with present-day researchers. Since

PG 88, Top to Bot FOCUS, Aug. 1950 ( Leading Magazines, Corp.); FOLLIES, 1933 ( Robert E. Baker); PG 89, Bot
band, L to R FAMOUS DETECTIVE STORIES, June 1950 ( respective copyright holder); STARTLING DETECTIVE , July
1951 ( Fawcett Pubs.); BEST TRUE FACT DETECTIVE , July 1948 ( Newsbook, Publishers).

1995, the early issues have been reissued in a

series of books, starting with Yesterdays News
Tomorrow, and there have been many spin-off
books such as The Worlds Most Incredible Stories
(1998) and The Fortean Times Book of Lifes Losers
(1996). The magazine even prompted a British
television series, Fortean TV, hosted by Lionel
Fanthorpe, running for two seasons in 1997-8.
Forts work continues to have an influence on
more recent generations of novelists and fictioneers. Robert Anton Wilson has probably done
most among recent writers to bring the ideas of
Fort, and fellow theorists, into the public consciousness, principally through the Illuminatus
trilogy, written with Robert Shea, but also in The
Masks of the Illuminati (1981) and The New Inquisition (1986). This brings Forts work into the
realm of the conspiracy theorists, though Fort was
no active supporter of conspiracies as such. He
simply believed that all things were in some way
connected, famously stating that you can start
anywhere on a circle. Caitlin R. Kiernan has collected several stories inspired by Fortean experiences, To Charles Fort,With Love (2005).
The conclusions that Fort drew may not have
been very scientific, fascinating though they were,
but that was not really the point.Forts strength was
in highlighting the unusual and showing trends
and circumstances that challenged orthodox thinking.As such, he was one of the first to pursue alternative philosophies. When reviewing Lo! in the
New York Times in 1931, Maynard Shipley called
Fort the Enfant Terrible of Science but he recognized the service Fort was providing, concluding,
he is perhaps the enzyme orthodox science
most needs. There is no doubt that Fort started
something that the world continues to demand,
and it has manifested in all manner of books, magazines, websites, and television series.The irony is
that Fort himself would probably have had no part

in any of these offshoots of his books as he refused

to believe even his own writings and remained
skeptical of everything. Its what makes him and his
work so refreshing.MA [see Fate]

FRENCH HUMOR
see Sexology
FU MANCHU
see Yellow Peril
FURY
see True Strange
FUTURE SEX
In the fourth issue of Future Sex editor Lisa Palac
wrote,The obstacles to creating quality porn are
daunting. Printers wont print it. Distributors
decline to carry it. Artists refuse to help create it,
fearing it will taint their career. Even the most
creative and original ideas end up thwarted by
archaic laws, unwritten rules, and the overall stigma associated with pornography. The editorial
was in response to the reception received by an
article on computer bulletin board sex titled
Getting it Online by Gary Wolf that appeared
in the second issue of the magazine. The article
showed exactly what high-tech computer porn
looked like and problems cropped up immediately when the printer objected to the pictures illustrating the article and offered to fix things by covering offending parts with geometric black
shapes such as hearts. Palac talked the printer into
doing the magazine sans black shapes; when it
came out, their biggest distributor dropped them.

G-8 And His Battle Aces |

National distributors, to this day, have an
unwritten rule of not allowing the showing of
penetration, bodily fluids, and even, at times,
frontal nudity. Palac wrote about how hardcore
magazines can get away with what they print
because they own printing presses, run their own
distribution, and wrap everything in plastic. It was
obvious after this episode that FS was pulling
some punches in later issues.
FS was an attempt to bring sex and cutting
edge technology together in a four-color glossy
format, or as one reader called it,Wired as edited
by Camille Paglia. The first issue appeared in
1992, and was edited by John Shirley, who was
primarily know as a science fiction and cyberpunk writer, and Richard Kadrey. By the second
issue, Palac (a photogenic writer, barely out of her
twenties, who had worked at the lesbian sex jour-

nal On Our Backs), was in place as editor and

brought more male nudity to the magazine. FS
shared its San Francisco editorial offices with The
Nose, and many of that magazines staff remember
the distractions of sex toys and sex paraphernalia
delivered daily to the office.Topics covered in the
first issue included Lucid Sex Dreaming, Cyborg
Love Slaves, and Intro to VR Sex; the second issue
had Cybersex Suits, and the Mind Behind Virtual
Valerie. Later issues included interviews with Susie
Bright,Annie Sprinkle, and William Gibson. Taste
of Latex editor Lily Burana, who worked for several years as a stripper, took over the helm after
Palac for one print issue that never made it to
newsstands as the magazine transitioned to the
internet.LO [see bOING bOING]

G
GASM
see Lunatickle
G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES
In 1933. the publishing company of Street &
Smith launched one of the most successful pulp
heroes with the introduction of the character
Doc Savage. Rival publishing company Popular
Publications jumped into the character pulp field
that fall with G-8 and His Battle Aces.
Princeton graduate Henry Steeger created
Popular Publications in 1930. The publisher and

89

later civil-rights leader became well known for

his pulp titles such as Dime Detective and The Spider, and successful for the general audience appeal
of his Theatre Arts and Tennis U.S.A. magazines.
With the growing success of Dime Detective,
first issued in 1931, Popular Publications wanted
to produce another moneymaking title. The talented Harry Steeger, along with his partner
Harold Goldsmith, selected Robert J. Hogan as
the author to write the copy for their newlydesigned air war pulp. It was a masterful choice.
G-8 and His Battle Aces was an instant success.
During the years of the Great Depression,
Popular Publications limped into the marketplace
and onto the newsstands. Only able to pay a cent
a word, the company required the productive
ability of capable writers like Hogan to stay afloat.
Hogan, a WWI veteran, was up to the task.

POST WWII MYSTERY MAGAZINES

90 | G-8 And His Battle Aces

PG 90 LIBERTY, Nov. 16, 1940 ( MacFadden); PG 91, L to R, Top to Bot FUTURE SEX, #2 ( respective copyright
holder); FUTURE SEX, #4 ( respective copyright holder); TALES OF THE KILLERS vol. 1, #11, Feb. 1971 (World
Famous Publications).

His experiences during the Great War provided

him with the basis for realistic action adventure
stories. Hogan had honed his talent writing for
other aviation pulps like War Birds. His highly
romanticized tales of high-flying heroics would
have a lasting appeal for generations.
All of the G-8 title stories, as well as most of
the shorter pieces, would be written by Hogan.
His successful efforts would inspire Popular Publications to premiere another action adventure
pulp starring a central heroic character,The Spider, that same year. It would be another very
lucrative decision on the part of the company.
The first issue of G-8 and His Battle Birds
would appear in October, 1933. Paul Hogan
came up with just the right blend of horror, suspense, and breathtaking adventure for his mysterious hero, G-8. The blend would keep G-8 on
the newsstands, a central feature of the genre, for
more than a decade.
The talented and creative Hogan would go
on to write two other character-based pulps for
Popular Publications, The Mysterious Wu Fang and
The Secret 6. However, it was G-8 and His Battle
Aces that would remain the most popular, successful moneymaker for the company. It would last
until June, 1944, when worsening World War II
paper shortages forced Popular to cancel some of
its most successful and long-running titles. The
cancellation of all of its best titles effectively
removed the company from the roster of publishers doing such material.
G-8 and His Battle Aces is a remarkable blending of two pulp magazine genres aviation and
science fantasy. In the pages of his pulp magazine,
G-8 battled the Central Powers (Germany),
mutants, aliens, ghouls, and other supernatural
creatures. Americas Flying Spy would be the
Allied forces first line of defense against mad scientists, zombies, martians, beast-men, voodoo

priests, and even against thawed out Vikings.

G-8 is a captain in the American Air Service.
Throughout the entire series, his real name is
never revealed. But the reader knows he is an
expert fighter, a master of disguise, and, of course,
the finest pilot that ever flew the skies during the
Great War. Most of the stories let G-8 display both
skills, as aerial action frequently led to a disguised
G-8 operating undercover in enemy country.
G-8 is aided in his fight by a group of friends
and associates. There is his manservant, Battle, a
former gentlemans gentleman to a British actor.
Battle aids G-8 in developing his various disguises.The deadpan English butler is known for the
excellent meals he cooks at the Battle Aces
hangar at Le Bourget Field outside Paris. Battle is
also a master forger, a very helpful skill put to
good use by G-8.
G-8, the master spy, often retires to the end
hangar at Le Bourget, listening to his favorite
recording of Ragging the Scale. But the music
cannot keep the war out, and even Battle is drawn
into the continuing adventures, finally trading in
his hefty rolling pin for an airplane, becoming a
competent pilot.
Along with his butler, Battle, G-8 is aided by
his two able lieutenants, Bull Martin and Nippy
Weston.The two Battle Aces, unlike their leader,
have normal names, and are the classic bantering
sidekicks of the pulps. Bull, like his name implies,
is big, strong, and a bit dimwitted. Nippy, also like
his name suggests, is a brainy little guy who is just
happy to be a part of the team, square in the center of action with G-8. The two sidekicks are
opposites, a trait writer Hogan emphasized by
having Weston fly Spad #13, and Martin #7.
The small and wiry First Lieutenant Nippy
Weston is equally quick with his fists and his wits,
earning himself the nickname the terrier Ace.
During his downtime at Le Bourget airfield, he

Galaxy Science Fiction |

practices magic tricks. His lifelong love of magic

enables him to remain grounded and fearless in
the face of endless supernatural offensives.
And there is agent R-1. Like G-8, her real
name is never revealed.The reader knows she is a
stunning blonde. R-1 is the only woman in G-8s
life. Although never romantically linked, they do
express a fondness for working together. The
Intelligence agent R-1 is adept in disguise, just
like G-8, and is also a trained nurse, which she
often uses as her best cover. Bull Martin sums her
up pretty well when he says, admiringly, Shes a
regular guy.
Herr Doktor Krueger, an insane German scientist, appears in the first G-8 novel, The Bat
Staffel (October 1933). This well-dressed, wiry
little man will become the most durable of the
series villains, appearing in more than 25 of the
following issues. Germanys maddest scientist will
go on to menace the free world with one superweapon after another. In the October, 1933 issue,
he uses his bat-plane. In the next issue, Purple

Aces (November 1933), he comes up with a

chemical weapon.
In the ongoing battle of wits, G-8 always
manages to defeat Krueger, but not without
severe losses on the Allied side. Herr Doktor
develops an overwhelming hatred for the American spy. He lives for the destruction of G-8.
Over the years, throughout the series, Herr
Doktor Krueger developed an endless array of
weapons; the bat-plane appears in the first issue.
He tried giant skeletons in The Skeleton Patrol
(March 1934), giant tentacle creatures in The
Death Monster (March 1935), and walking
skeletons in Skeleton of the Black Cross (February 1936). He would also try death rays, reanimated corpses, dissolving gas, and huge magnets;
all attempts would fail.
Herr Doktor Krueger would meet his doom
in the June, 1943 issue,Scourge of the Sky Monster. Kruegers last attempt would be using a
heavily armed giant zeppelin against G-8. The
super-dreadnaught would fail, like all the other
attempts.
Although Krueger, the little giant of science, was the most-used evil villain to appear
during the early years of G-8, Hogan eventually
began to develop other fiends to combat the Battle Aces. One of the most sinister of the other villains, Herr Stahlmaske, first appeared in the January, 1937 issue,Scourge of the Steel Mask.
The true name of Herr Stahlmaske remains
unknown, his identity shrouded behind an iron
helmet that disguises his facial disfigurement.The
destruction of his face was caused by burning
debris from his smashed hot air balloon, obliterated during an offensive against the Allies. G-8 is the
cause of his defeat and scarred face.The villain has
sworn everlasting vengeance against the American.
Herr Stahlmaske is a powerfully built man
from a wealthy family. A mechanical genius, he
invents a broad array of super-weapons in order
to fight G-8, among them explosives, treadmillfronted troop-scooping tanks and, in the first
encounter, a demolishing ray.The weapons, coupled with the villains powerful hypnotic abilities,

are not enough to stop G-8 and His Battle Aces.

Another major antagonist was Germanys
Mr. Green, Herr Grun. He is raised as Rod
Santos, not his real name, in Haiti, by his mother,
a wealthy socialite. Herr Grun develops a hatred
of all things normal or beautiful due to a rare
birth defect that gives him a primitive, apelike
appearance and strength.
From an early age, a violent nature manifests
itself in this throwback. It starts as he begins to
torture animals for pleasure, soon moving on to
the torture of humans, and then to murder. Santos immerses himself in the study of science and
voodoo. Finally, as a teenager, he becomes the
leader of a gang of grotesque children.The villain
is complete when, at the age of 21, he murders his
own mother.
At the beginning of World War I, Santos, an
American citizen, and his monster-men capture a
German submarine. They pilot it back to Germany, to his adopted home. There the traitor
offers their services to the German High Command. In the May, 1940 issue of G-8,The Green
Scourge of the Sky Raiders, Herr Grun begins
his personal war on everything normal all in
the name of the Kaiser using super-science,
Haitian hypnotism, and his own apelike strength.
In G-8, Robert J. Hogan created an incredible series of World War I aviation stories, filled
with nonstop action and adventure. The heroes
and villains appearing in G-8 and His Battle Aces
were a different kind of character then we see
today. They flew and acted in a grand style for
more than a decade in the blood-splattered pages
of one pulp thriller after another, entertaining a
generation of readers.RA

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

Galaxy Science Fiction began publication as a
monthly digest-size science fiction magazine.
From its premiere issue in 1950, it was considered one of the most influential such magazines
on the newsstand. Originally it ran as a monthly

91

92 | Galaxy Science Fiction

until 1959, when it alternating on a bi-monthly

schedule with companion magazine Worlds of If.
In its final years it became an irregularly issued
magazine.
Galaxy was the creation of noted editor
Horace Leonard Gold (H.L. Gold).With Gold at
the helm it soon became known that the stories
Galaxy published were a source of literate, witty
science fiction. The stories, editorials, and
columns often contained a note of social and
political satire.
During the early 1950s, Italian publishing
company Edizioni Mondiale (World Editions),
was trying to get a foothold in the American
magazine marketplace. After failing once with
their first major effort in the United States, Fascination (a magazine devoted to romantic fumetti),
they approached H.L. Gold for ideas. Without
hesitation, he suggested they publish a science fiction magazine.They accepted the idea, made him
the editor, and the rest is history.

Begun in October, 1950 the first issue introduced a book review column by celebrated
anthologist Groff Conklin, which continued until
1955. Another original column celebrated in that
first issue was a science column by noted rocket
scientist Willy Ley. Ley continued to write the column until his death in 1969. Sadly, he died shortly
before the Apollo 11 moon landing; he had spent
a lifetime nurturing and predicting the event.
Spanning three decades, Galaxy published
award-winning science fiction under various editors. Its success was emulated in 1953 by a French
edition, Galaxie, and in 1957 by a German edition, Galaxis. From Galaxys inception, H.L. Gold
intended to make it a different kind of science
fiction magazine by focusing more on speculative
stories and articles involving satire and sociology.
It did not hurt that he also paid more than was
common at the time for this kind of story. Gold
also capitalized on the fact that many well-known
writers of the time had become alienated from

John W. Campbell, Jr., who edited the acknowledged leader in the industry, Astounding. Campbell had let himself become too deeply involved
in promoting L. Ron Hubbards Dianetics and
other fringe scientific theories in his magazine,
opening the way for a savvy competitor to take
over the marketplace. H.L. Gold was that competitor.
Beginning with its very first issue in 1950,
Galaxy was a contender in the top rank of science
fiction magazines, easily surpassing John W.
Campbells Astounding. Campbell had done the
same thing a generation earlier when he had
replaced Hugo Gernsback, and his Amazing Stories, as the leader of the industry.With Gold at the
helm, Galaxy produced superior fiction, artwork,
and even used a higher quality of cover stock to
sell the magazine.
Gold published stories by the best writers in
the business,Asimov, Simak, Sturgeon, Leiber, Phil
ip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, Frederik Pohl, C. M.
Kornbluth, and, like both Campbell and Gernsback, he developed new authors. But Gold was
not content to allow Galaxy to appear to be merely a superior imitation of Campbells Astounding,
he had his own unique ideas to bring to his magazine. He insisted that there be fewer super-scientific heroes and more normal human beings, and
the occasional anti-hero, in his stories. If Gernsback had insisted on a technological emphasis and
Campbell on how that technology would change
society, then Gold asked how those subsequent
social changes would affect ordinary people.
During the mid-1950s, at the peak of Golds
influence as editor of Galaxy, stories that
appeared in the magazine found their way onto
the NBC radio show, X-Minus-One. He was able
to publish the best because he matched or bettered the rates paid by the competition.
Of lasting importance, Gold opted for Galaxys

L-shaped cover design. This well-known cover

style was brought to the peak of popular success by
such pioneering illustrators and artists as Ed Emshwiller and Don Sibley, whose cover paintings were
enhanced by the high-quality printing on lowacid pulp paper with expensive but gorgeous
high-gloss Kromekote cover stock.
However brilliant H.L. Gold was, he was
never able to overcome his agoraphobia, a warinduced trauma. His mental disease caused him to
edit Galaxy from behind the closed door of his
apartment. This produced many difficulties
among his staff and writers. He required them to
slip manuscripts under his door, and pick them up
the same way, rarely meeting face to face, and
would make revisions to manuscripts or demand
major rewrites that sometimes improved a story
and sometimes led writers to take their stories
elsewhere. He asked Daniel Keyes to change the
ending of his classic story Flowers for Algernon
to a happy one. Keyes refused and published his
story intact in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction. Golds heavy-handed editing style made
writers appreciate John W. Campbells eccentric
behavior at Astounding.
When Gold was finally persuaded to leave his
apartment, he was injured in an automobile accident. This resulted in further-declining mental
health, and he was forced away from the magazine, leaving Galaxy for good in 1961. He lived
the rest of his life more or less in seclusion and
died in 1996. H.L. Gold will always be remembered as one of the Big Three editors of the Silver Age of science fiction along with John W.
Campbell, Jr., and Anthony Boucher.
During his tenure, Gold recast the space
opera leanings of the genre into social science
fiction and far-reaching satire. David Rosheim,
in his book Galaxy: The Dark and the Light Years
(Advent Publishers, Inc. 1986), quotes Gold, stat-

PG 92 interior pages from DUDE, May 1959 ( respective copyright holder); PG 93, Bot band, L to R TAB, Bettie Page on cover, vol. 4, #6 ( Carnival Magazine, Corp.); FOTO-RAMA, Brigitte Bardot on cover, Mar. 1959
( respective copyright holder); INSIDE STORY, Lili St. Cyr on cover, May 1960 ( American Periodicals Corp.).

Galaxy Science Fiction |

ing that he would not anthologize; that is, he
would not let his personal taste dictate the kind
of stories he would print. Gold operated on a less
personal level and would only choose a story on
the basis of how well it worked, if it clicked
along and got the reader somewhere.
Among the many famous, award-winning
novels that clicked and were serialized in
Galaxy in the 1950s were The Demolished Man, by
Alfred Bester; The Space Merchants, by Frederik
Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth; and The Caves of Steel,
by Isaac Asimov.The magazine also published stories by these writers, as well as science fiction by
Robert Sheckley, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K.
Dick, and William Tenn.
Gold did several anthology collections related
to the magazine before health concerns began to
overwhelm him. Under his direction anthologies

were compiled into the highly-readable, and collectible, Galaxy Reader of Science Fiction series.
Due to H.L. Golds progressively debilitating
emotional state, Frederik Pohl became more
involved in the running of the magazine, officially becoming editor in 1961. Actually, Gold was
hospitalized in 1959, but Pohl left him on the
masthead until the December, 1961 issue. Pohl
would continue the high literary level of the
magazine. When Robert Silverberg was finally
considering a return to writing science fiction,
Pohl, as editor of Galaxy, gave him carte blanche
to write whatever he wanted. Pohl would publish
the Silverberg stories that became To Open the
Sky and The World Inside, as well as serializing
Downward to the Earth and the Nebula awardwinning A Time of Changes. Frederik Pohl would
remain editor until May, 1969, when Ejler Jakob-

sson (July 1969-May 1974) took over. During

Pohls stay as editor of Galaxy and its sister magazine, Worlds of If, he would win the Hugo award
for If three years in a row.
Galaxy fell on hard times in the 1970s, as editors Ejler Jakobsson, Jim Baen (June 1974-October 1977), and John J. Pierce (November 1977April 1979) were unable to overcome the lack of
financial support from the publishers. With the
January, 1975 issue, Galaxy merged with its sister
magazine, Worlds of if.The latter had been founded in March, 1952 and shared editors with
Galaxy after its purchase from publisher James
Quinn in the late 1950s. Galaxy changed editorship a number of times before its demise in 1980,
when it was purchased by E.J. Gold, son of the
founding editor, who briefly revived it in 1994.
E.J. Gold managed to publish eight issues before

93

Galaxy foundered and died once again.

Galaxy was known for the high quality of its
book reviewing. The first reviewer, Groff Conklin, wrote Galaxys Five-Star Shelf, from its
premiere issue until October, 1955. Groff Conklin was replaced by H.L. Golds brother, Floyd
C. Gale. In February, 1965 Pohl replaced Gale
with Algis Budrys, a reviewer whose thoughtful
discussions were collected as Benchmarks. Sometime before 1972, he was subsequently replaced
by Theodore Sturgeon, who passed the job on to
Spider Robinson in 1975; Robinson offered
enthusiastic if not very discriminating discussions
of new science fiction.
During the 1970s, cartoon artist Vaughn Bod
contributed a comic strip, Sunspot, to the magazine. Noted science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle
served as science columnist under Baen, and

CULT PERSONALITIES

94 | Galaxy Science Fiction

famous science fiction fan and professional erotica writer Richard E. Geis wrote a fan-oriented
commentary column,The Alien Viewpoint.
E.J. Golds further plans to continue the
Galaxy title online did not develop after the 1995
demise of his short-lived print publication effort,
although the former editor/publisher still maintains a scattering of Galaxy-related web pages.
Galaxy Science Fiction will always be remembered for the spectacular quality of its finest era,
the 1950s. Not only are the early issues sought
after by readers and collectors,but the Galaxy Novels, a digest-size line of reprints (often abridged),
which ran from 1950-1958, are also highly prized
and well regarded. The line was sold to Beacon
Books, which kept the name but changed the format to a small paperback size,thus helping to usher
in the science fiction paperback era. With the
advent of the paperback, a new marketplace was
created for science fiction writers and the high
point of the sf magazine era ended.WU

GHOST STORIES
Inspired by a postwar resurgence of interest in
spiritualism, and possibly by the appearance of
Weird Tales in 1923, Bernarr Macfadden floated
the first issue of Ghost Stories in July, 1926 under
his Constructive Publishing Corp. imprint. Modeled after his pioneering confession title, True Stories, Ghost Stories was a rotogravure magazine
illustrated by posed photographs mirroring the
supposedly true memoirs contained within.After
the standard confession-story model, the narratives were told in the first person, and bylines followed the convention of X as told to Y.
Ghost Stories struck a resonating chord. The
public enjoyed the vicarious thrill of supernatural
accounts mixed with plaintive emotional confessions. The early contributors included Lyon
Mearson, Robert W. Sneddon, Paul R. Milton,
Victor Rousseau Emmanuel, and editor W.
Adolphe Roberts. The posed photographic
tableaux (which included a very young Boris

Karloff) employing double-exposures to simulate

apparitions added a strange verisimilitude to the
otherwise-ridiculous proceedings. Painted covers
invariably depicted surprised mortals confronting
ethereal spirits of the no longer living.Titles ran
from the evocative How I Got Back my Soul
to the absurd The Thing That Paid the Rent.
The ironclad confession formula of sin, suffer,
and repent was modified to die, dematerialize,
and haunt. Love, both romantic and familial, was
the constant underlying theme. Unrequited love
from the Great Beyond was the most popular
variation on that theme. Since the target audience
was bored girls and housewives, forbidden marriage between the living and the dead was
explored in stories like Married After Death,
Husband or Ghost? and Our Astral Honeymoon. Happy endings were mandatory. The
He-didnt-know-he-was-dead premise revived
so successfully by M. Night Shyamalan in The
Sixth Sense was another old chestnut Ghost Stories
repeated endlessly.
The shades who inhabited Ghost Stories pages
were usually beneficial spirits, seldom frightening
apparitions, spectral covers notwithstanding.
Haunted house yarns were virtually taboo. Ghost
Stories was calculated to reassure its credulous
readers about the hereafter, not disturb them with
vampires and other undead creatures although
such spooks did sometimes appear for varietys
sake. This, and its limited themes, distinguished
Ghost Stories from the often-morbid Weird Tales.
Spiritualistic phenomena like mediumship,
automatic writing, and Ouija boards remained
the most popular story devices. Psychic sleuths
like Robert W. Sneddons Mark Shadow, Ghost
Detective, Victor Rousseaus Dr. Martinus,
Occultist, and Carol Lansings Karamahati the
Medium appeared frequently, as did Harold Standish Corbins Henry Jenkins, a friendly disem-

bodied spirit who helped earthly mortals with

their mundane problems. Serials such as Urann
Thayers A Soul with Two Bodies usually took
on more challenging otherworldly themes.
Readers were invited to contribute their own
personal experiences, gratis, which appeared in
two regular features, The Meeting Place and
Spirit Talk by Count Cagliostro.The famous
seer Cheiro (William John Warner) offered How
I Foretold the Fates of Great Men.
Harry A. Keller (1926-28) was Ghost Stories
inaugural editor, followed by W.Adolphe Roberts
(1928), Henry Bond (1929), and D.[an] E.Wheeler (1930).Wheeler best described what Ghost Stories offered in one of his market notices:
We use fiction and fact stuff of supernatural
or psychic character, and are in need of true fact
stories of any length from 1,500 to 5,000 words.
Especially looking for occult or ghost theme serials of from 30,000 to 50,000 words in length.
Desire American settings and modern people.
Action and thrills indispensable. Photographs
from which drawings can be made are acceptable.With the August, 1928 issue, the roto format
was abandoned, and Ghost Stories became a standard-sized pulp magazine. Line drawings supplanted the quaint sepia-tinted photo spreads.
Editor W.Adolphe Roberts retained much of the
original editorial policy. Then, in 1930, Macfadden sold the title to Harold Herseys Good Story
Magazine Company. Beginning with the June
issue, Hersey and Arthur H. Rowland shared the
editorial responsibilities. Later contributors
included Weird Tales refugees such as Nictzin
Dyalhis, Frank Belknap Long, Paul Ernst, Hugh
B. Cave, Carl Jacobi, Jack DArcy, Robert E.
Howard (writing as John Taveral), and sundry
others.Walter B. Gibson wrote as Thomas Windsor, and himself, producing The Witch in the
Next Room and Can a Dog Have a Soul?

PG 94, Top to Bot GALAXY, Apr. 1959 ( Galaxy Publishing, Corp.); GALAXY, Oct. 1956 ( Galaxy Publishing, Corp.);
PG 95, L to R MAGAZINE OF HORROR, #16 ( Health Knowledge Inc.); GASM, Nov. 1977 ( Story, Layout); STARTLING
MYSTERY STORIES, #12 ( Health Knowledge Inc.); SPACE WARS, June 1978 ( respective copyright holder).

Health Knowledge Magazines |

Agatha Christie was responsible for The Woman
Who Stole a Ghost in 1926. H.G.Wellss oft-plagiarized The Red Room was reprinted, inspiring countless hacks to try to resell it back to Ghost
Stories under numerous titles and variations.
Near the end, the bland covers copied from
silent movie stills, with misty spirits and ectoplasmic hands painted in, gave way to the Halloween-themed images of Stuart Leach and others. But the stark Art Deco facelift was not
enough to keep Ghost Stories earthbound.
The final issue was dated December, 1931January, 1932.At the last, Ghost Stories was an early
casualty of the great magazine die-off of the
Depression. Nothing quite like it was ever seen
again.WM [see Tales of Magic and Mystery,
True Strange Stories, and Physical Culture]

H
THE HEALTH KNOWLEDGE
MAGAZINES
Although a low-budget publisher for all its fourteen dubious years, the New York firm of Health
Knowledge, Inc., managed to publish not just one
group of cult magazines, but at least three, maybe
four, depending on how diverse and extreme
your tastes. They range from the bodybuilding/gay magazines with which it started,
through sex guides and fetish magazines, to a
group of weird-fiction titles that have long
become collectors items.
Health Knowledge, Inc., came into being at
the close of 1956. It was owned by the Acme
News Company, which both printed and distributed magazines. Health Knowledge was set up to
publish Popular Man, an American edition of the
British physical-culture magazine Mans World.The
first issue was dated January, 1957, published in
small digest format, almost pocketbook size, with

64 pages, many with photographs of muscular

men dressed in little more than shorts or posing
pouches. It was the first of several such beefcake
magazines, as they became known, that the firm
would publish.These included Model Man (Spring
1959-Winter 1960), an American edition of
another British physique magazine and, more
significantly, Tomorrows Man. The latter had been
started in 1952 by Irvin Johnson, who ran a gymnasium in Chicago. However, in 1955 a disagreement arose between Johnson and his assistant, Paul
Lange, and Lange took over the magazine, moving
it to New York.At that time it was distributed by
the American News Company, which ceased
operations in 1957, and Tomorrows Man was taken
over by Acme from the February, 1958 issue. At
this same time, the offices of Health Knowledge
and Tomorrows Man (as a separate imprint, but to
all other intents the same organization) relocated
to 119 Fifth Avenue in New York. Tomorrows Man
would remain with Acme/Health Knowledge
until the bitter end, in August, 1971.
Health Knowledge was run by Louis C. Elson,
who developed several new titles. Although the
beefcake magazines primarily concerned physical culture, this incorporated a range of sexual
matters,and also appealed to gay men.Elson introduced another magazine intended to be a general
sex-health guide for all adults. Realife Guide, as it
was initially called (a confusing title that was subsequently changed to Real Life Guide), appeared in
June, 1957. The initial editor was David Huntly,
though Leonard Worth also served as editor for a
while, whilst the medical consulting editor went
by the name of Dr. John Watson. It was largely an
imitation of Hugo Gernsbacks long-running
magazine, Sexology, though it never quite captured
much of a market. It nevertheless survived for
nearly ten years, first as a quarterly and then bimonthly, reaching 54 issues.The emphasis was on
medical articles, such as Can Sex be Predetermined, Our Worsening V.D. Problem, and
Young Doctors Look at Abortion, and though it
published the occasional sensationalized piece,
such as The World of Sexual Deviation or Sex

95

96 | Health Knowledge Magazines

and the Whip, on the whole the magazine did
not appeal to the fetishist readership.
Elson also experimented with a short-lived
humor magazine, Nuts, in February, 1958, but of
more lasting value was his detour into the realms
of the psychic. Exploring the Unknown began in
January 1960. It was in the same digest form as
the other magazines, though with minimal illustrations.The emphasis was on psychic and unexplained phenomena, similar to the long-running
Fate, and immediately attracted a significant readership. Its circulation was amongst the best of all
the Health Knowledge magazines, peaking at
around 40,000. Unlike Fate, it never attracted any
major cult following, such as UFOlogists or spiritualists, but it remained popular and reliable, surviving for 60 issues until Health Knowledges
demise. Its initial editor was Stewart Robb, a
trained musician with a fascination for the unexplained, who became best known for his studies
of the prophecies of Nostradamus.
Unfortunately, after a few months Elson and
Robb had a disagreement. Elson had recently had
discussions with Robert A.W. Lowndes, who had
been the editor at Columbia Publications for 18
years, working on its pulp and digest fiction magazines, including Crack Detective and Future Science
Fiction. He edited the last-ever science-fiction
pulp magazine, Science Fiction Quarterly. Columbia
Publications had ceased operations in February,
1960 when their distributor pulled out. Lowndes
had tried freelancing for a few months without
much success but, following placing an ad in the
trade press, he met Louis Elson in October, 1960,
and was offered the editorship of both Real Life
Guide and Exploring the Unknown. Several issues
were already in the pipeline, so the first that
Lowndes had responsibility for was the April,
1961 Exploring the Unknown and the June 1961
Real Life Guide.

Elson had noticed the success of the British

paperback series, Pan Book of Horror Stories,
which had significant American distribution.The
series had started in 1959 and was a factor in the
revival of interest in supernatural horror fiction,
which had been in the wilderness during the
1950s. Several anthologies of weird fiction started
to appear and Elson decided to launch a new
periodical, Magazine of Horror, with Lowndes as
editor.The budget per issue was minimal ($250),
which meant that he had to rely on reprints, with
just an occasional new story, but this ultimately
worked in its favor. With so little weird fiction
having been published in recent years, fans of the
genre had no easy access to classic material, and
even less to stories from the old pulps. Lowndes
had been a reader and collector of the science fiction and supernatural-fiction magazines virtually
from the start and had a long run of the legendary
Weird Tales.
Although the first few issues played it relatively safe, reprinting out-of-copyright material by
Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, and Mary Wilkins-Freeman (little of which
was readily available at that time), he introduced
some material by Weird Tales authors. Notable
amongst these was Frank Belknap Long, who
revised his early stories,The Man With a Thousand Legs and The Space Eaters, for the first
two issues. Long had been a close friend of H.P.
Lovecraft, and his stories formed part of Lovecrafts growing Cthulhu cycle of stories. Lovecraft
was an obvious name to run in the magazine, but
rights were tied up with Arkham House, run by
August Derleth. However, Derleth was highly
supportive of Lowndes venture and Lowndes was
able to negotiate a decent rate. Lovecrafts The
Dreams in the Witch House (issue #4, May
1964) was the first of eleven pieces Lowndes
would reprint over the next few years. Lowndes

PG 96,L to R WEIRD TERROR TALES, vol. 1, #1, art by Virgil Finlay ( Health Knowledge Inc.); STRANGE TALES, Mar.
1932 ( Clayton Magazines); PG 97, Bot band, L to R JUNGLE STORIES, summer 1942 ( Fiction House); PLANET STORIES, ( Fiction House); JUNGLE STORIES, fall 1944 ( Fiction House).

also reprinted several of Derleths stories, including his posthumous collaboration with Lovecraft
The Shuttered Room (issue #7, January 1965).
Lowndes steadily introduced more of the
leading Weird Tales writers, including Henry S.
Whitehead, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E.
Howard. Joseph Payne Brennan, who had
appeared in Weird Tales in its final days, contributed a couple of new stories. Lowndes also
used some stories that had either been rejected by
Weird Tales as too gruesome (A Thing of Beauty by Wallace West), or bought by Weird Taless
editor Farnsworth Wright and then rejected by
his successor (Sacrilege by Wallace West), or
bought by Weird Tales but remained unpublished
when the magazine folded (The Life-AfterDeath of Mr. Thaddeus Warde by Robert Barbour Johnson). This and other material gave the
magazine a strong atmosphere, one redolent of
the old pulps, allowing readers something of a
belief that Weird Tales was being reborn.
Wherever possible, Lowndes tried to reprint
forgotten stories by forgotten writers, ideally
ones that were in the public domain, and his
tastes in this respect were impeccable. For
instance, in the fifth issue (September 1964) he
ran The House of the Worm by Mearle Prout,
which had not been reprinted since the October,
1933 Weird Tales. The story had obvious Lovecraftian overtones and not only proved the most
popular story in the issue, but was the subject of
discussion in the magazines vibrant letter column for some while.
Lowndes also discovered that the copyright
had not been renewed on the issues of Strange
Tales, the legendary companion to Astounding Stories, and the closest rival Weird Tales had had during its heyday. Lowndes set himself the task of
reprinting as much of the contents of Strange Tales
as he could, and since that magazine frequently
ran long lead novellas, Lowndes was able to
reprint some substantial stories, virtually none of
which had been reprinted in the last 30 or so
years. Occasionally Lowndes dipped into the science fiction magazines, reprinting, amongst oth-

Health Knowledge Magazines |

ers, several of Laurence Mannings Stranger
Club stories from Wonder Stories, but he restricted his choices to stories that fell within the horror and strange stories remit although Strange
Stories was dropped from the magazines title after
the fifth issue.
Lowndes had a personal touch to his editing,
writing informative and welcoming editorials
and encouraging feedback through letters and
votes on stories, which he usually published with
his own additional comments.This gave the magazine the feeling of a fan club, and because Lowndes was also finding rare and unusual stories to
reprint, the magazine took on the aura of something special, a treat for afficionados. The closeknit affinity between editor and reader was
almost palpable and never deserted the magazine.
It is no surprise that amongst the letter writers
were both well known collectors and dealers like

Richard Kyle, Dick Minter, and Glenn Lord, plus

new devotees who would soon establish themselves in the field, including Stuart Schiff, Robert
Weinberg, and Stephen King.
Unfortunately, Health Knowledge operated
on a shoestring budget, not helped by a lack of
data from Acmes poor accounting department
and slipshod distribution.While Lowndess magazines did not operate at a loss, such profit was so
fragile that any other problems within the company could spell disaster. They had already suffered
the problem of the crime-fiction magazine, Chase,
which was edited long distance from California by
Jack Matcha. The magazine itself was competent
enough, comprised mostly of suspense stories by
Matchas circle of Hollywood writers including
William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, and
Robert Bloch. It also included some non-fiction.
The first issue (January 1964), had a feature about

Mickey Spillane and the second (May 1964), an

interview with Ian Fleming, both of which make
the magazines collectors items now. But at the
time Chase struggled to find a readership, not
helped again by Acmes patchy distribution and
Matcha delivering it over budget.After two issues,
Elson cancelled the deal with Matcha and asked
Lowndes to complete the third issue, which
appeared in September, 1964. Costs were still too
high and sales too poor to continue, so the magazine was scrapped.
Then there was the problem of Shriek,Acmes
attempt to enter the horror film market that had
been trail-blazed by Famous Monsters of Filmland
and was now burgeoning. Shriek, which first
appeared in May, 1965, should have been a success, but it did nothing to rise above its rivals,
offering instead the same black-and-white retread
of the Hammer horror films and interviews with

97

Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and Boris

Karloff. It staggered through four occasional
issues and then collapsed.
These and other poorly planned projects (like
The Vikings, another body-building magazine but
clearly aimed at gay men), plus Acmes general disorganization, nearly put an end to Health Knowledge.As Lowndes called it, Magazine of Horror had
its first encounter with death. After the November, 1965 issue it almost ceased. It put out just
three issues during 1966. Both Exploring the
Unknown and Real Life Guide went quarterly and
the latter folded in the spring of 1967.What softened the blow a little was that Lowndes talked
Elson into experimenting with a different kind of
mystery magazine, one that involved weird and
unusual crimes, and which would be predominantly reprint. Thus Startling Mystery Stories was
born, first issue dated Summer, 1966 but released

FICTION HOUSE

98 | Health Knowledge Magazines

in April. It reprinted material by H.P. Lovecraft,
Robert Bloch, Edward Hoch, and Seabury Quinn
Quinns entry being one of his Jules de Grandin
stories, the longest running series from Weird Tales.
De Grandin and his colleague Dr. Trowbridge
were a blend of Holmes and Watson with Hercule
Poirot and Hastings, and the two were always
sucked into sinister crimes, frequently involving
black magic or Satanism.The stories had not been
reprinted in over 30 years and were welcomed by
a new generation.The reception of Startling Mystery was encouraging and Elson risked a quarterly
schedule.As a result, three issues appeared in 1966
that, along with the three of Magazine of Horror,
reduced the disappointment among subscribers.
What really saved Health Knowledge was
something else entirely. Elson had to produce
some cheap but profitable magazines that would
increase cash flow, and quickly. Two things happened. First, he released a handful of pin-up magazines that were a mixture of ribald humor and
titillating photos. Both Girlie Fun and Comic Cuties
appeared in the winter of 1965, followed soon
after by Peek-a-Boo, Spicy Fun,Wild Women, French
Fun, Pin-up Fun, Sun Strip, Daring Dolls, and Bouncy Babes. Most of the magazines were interchangeable and issues were released roughly one a month
with whatever title seemed to suit the moment.
Several of the titles saw it into double figures, with
Comic Cuties, Girlie Fun, and French Fun the most
successful, staying the course until the end.
The second approach was something else
entirely. Another of the companies whose magazines were distributed by Acme was Selbee Associates.This had been set up by Leonard Burtman in
the late 1950s to publish under-the-counter adult
books and magazines. The number of magazines
increased in 1962/63, following a slight lessening
in the control over obscene literature.Titles included Pepper, Nocturne, High Heels, Satana, Female Mim-

ics, Striparama, and Sin-ema,. In the winter of

1965/6, many of these titles passed over to Health
Knowledge, who added further titles like Modern
Life Illustrated and Girls in Orbit.These were more
extreme than the relatively harmless pin-up magazines, with the emphasis on fetishes and s&m in
most of the titles, or the thrills of striptease joints
and erotic films. Health Knowledge took over two
more magazines from other companies, Big and
Face and Physique, both physical culture magazines
clearly aimed at the gay community.All these magazines sold for the high price of a dollar and,
though few of them could be openly distributed,
they had significant sales.
By the end of 1966 money was becoming less
tight at Health Knowledge and Magazine of Horror came back to life, first on a quarterly schedule
during 1967 and then bi-monthly from November, 1967 on. Startling Mystery Stories remained
quarterly, but it was joined by a succession of
companions, starting with Famous Science Fiction
in October, 1966 (dated Winter 1966/7), which
was quarterly and ran for nine issues until Spring,
1969. It reprinted classic science fiction (that is,
pre-1937), mostly from the pulps, but squeezed in
the occasional new story, including the very first
story by the sixteen-year-old Greg Bear,
Destroyers (Winter 1967/8). Next came WorldWide Adventure (begun in Winter 1967/8), which
survived seven issues until Summer, 1969. This
one had to operate on a zero budget, with Lowndes selecting stories from the pulps mostly
Argosy and some older stories where copyright
had not been renewed. They were a good mixture of war stories, sea stories, air stories and other
derring-do. A year later came Thrilling Western
Magazine (beginning in Winter 1968/9), another
zero-budget reprint magazine, which lasted five
issues through to Summer 1970.
Toward the end of Health Knowledges life,

PG 98 GHOST STORIES, Nov. 1927 ( Macfadden Publications); PG 99, L to R, Top to Bot HIGH TIMES, # 1, ( TransHigh Corp.); REAL LIFE GUIDE (Health Knowledge Inc.); LA PAREE STORIES, Apr. 1932 ( Merwil Publications, Com.);
HIGH HEEL MAGAZINE, Sept. 1937 ( Lex Publications, Com.).

Health Knowledge Magazines |

there were two other titles, more closely related
to Magazine of Horror. Weird Terror Tales (Winter
1969/70-Fall 1970; 3 issues) and Bizarre Fantasy
Tales (Fall 1970-March 1971; 2 issues) were
almost interchangeable with their elder sister,
though they published longer stories.
But the two primary magazines were Magazine of Horror and Startling Mystery Stories. Lowndes provided some memorable achievements
with both magazines.
Perhaps most significant was their role in the
rediscovery of the works of Robert E. Howard.
Howard had yet to receive the posthumous fame
that he would achieve with the revived popularity of his Conan stories, which had only just started to be reprinted by Lancer Books. Lowndes ran
twelve of his stories, half of them previously
unpublished, plus eight poems, mostly in Magazine of Horror. Glenn Lord, the agent for Howards
estate, had unearthed a trunk load of old unpublished manuscripts, including a new Conan story,
The Vale of Lost Women (MoH #15, Spring
1967). Lowndes was also offered a story,King of
the Forgotten People, which Lord believed was
a story accepted for Strange Tales and announced
as forthcoming under the title Valley of the
Lost before the magazine folded. Lowndes ran it
as Valley of the Lost (MoH #13, Summer 1966),
but soon after Lord found the true manuscript for
that story, which Lowndes also ran, but as The
Secret of Lost Valley (Startling Mystery Stories #4,
Spring 1967).
Lowndes tried to do something similar with
David H. Keller, whose reputation, unfortunately,
never reached the heights of Howards or Lovecrafts. Keller had been a prolific writer who produced far more work than he sought to have published.These included a series of stories, known as
Tales of Cornwall, which traced the perils of the
Hubelaire family through the generations from
ancient times. A few had appeared in the pulps,
most out of sequence, but many remained unpublished. Lowndes began publishing the series in its
proper order, but was not much past halfway
when Magazine of Horror folded.

Although Lowndes had little capacity to run

new stories, he tried to include one or two per
issue and sought to encourage new writers. He
published some of the earliest work by Roger
Zelazny, including the powerful psychological
stories Divine Madness (MoH #13, Summer
1966) and Comes Now the Power (MoH #14,
Winter 1966), but had not been able to schedule
the stories for several years after he acquired
them, by which time Zelazny was already honored as a startling new talent. No doubt Lowndess major discovery was Stephen King, who
likewise had waited patiently to see his submissions appear in print. Now The Glass Floor
(SMS #6, Fall 1967) and The Reapers Image
(SMS #12, Spring 1969) make those two issues of
Startling Mystery Stories the two most highly
prized of all the Health Knowledge magazines.
Other new writers whom Lowndes encouraged included Stephen Goldin, F. Paul Wilson,
Janet Fox, and Steffan B. Aletti. Alettis stories
were in the Lovecraftian mold, one of which,
The Eye of Horus (MoH #24, November
1968) was the only new story in Magazine of Horror to top any of the reader polls.
For the four years from 1967 to 1971, Magazine of Horror and Startling Mystery Stories were the
only regular magazines publishing quality new
and reprint weird fiction. Lowndes acquainted a
whole new generation with the works of G.G.
Pendarves, Paul Ernst, Arthur J. Burks, Seabury
Quinn, Arlton Eadie, Philip M. Fisher, Francis
Flagg, and others whose works had not otherwise
been preserved by Arkham House.
Both magazines had made their mark and
were selling well.There was no commercial reason
for them to fold in the spring of 1971, but by then
Acme Newss general mismanagement, plus a rise
in union power,along with delayed payments from
copies distributed abroad, caught up with the
company. In September, 1970 it filed for Chapter
11 Bankruptcy, meaning it could continue to
operate and use further income to pay off its debts.
Health Knowledge was taken over by Countrywide Publications, run by Myron Fass, who was

99

100 | Health Knowledge Magazines

chiefly interested in the sex and fetish magazines,
though was initially prepared to let Lowndess
magazines continue if they made a profit. Only
Weird Terror Tales was dropped so as to avoid confusion with Fasss comics with similar titles. However, it was evident from the start that Fasss intentions were to take over and close down Acme
News and so, in February, 1971, Lowndes learned
that his four surviving magazines, Exploring the
Unknown, Magazine of Horror, Startling Mystery Stories, and Bizarre Fantasy Tales, were to be dropped.
It is unfortunate but perhaps pertinent that
the time when they folded was just a few months
before the death of August Derleth, and these two
events seemed to propel others into action, so that
during the seventies the weird-fiction field began
to recover and prosper, led, to some degree, by
disciples of Magazine of Horror W. Paul Ganley
with Weirdbook and Stuart D. Schiff with Whispers.MA

HEAVY METAL
The story of one of the best-known cult magazines in American culture began in France in
December, 1974 with the first appearance of
Mtal Hurlant. The French title translates literally
as screaming metal. A small group of French
writers and artists combined their talents to produce a magazine about science fiction and horror
comics. Chief among them were cartoonists
Bernard Farkas, Philippe Druillet, Jean Giraud
(better known as Mbius), and the very talented
writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet.
The creative friends struggled with producing
the magazine.The first issues appeared every three
months in a slim 68-page volume, of which only
18 pages were in color. But it housed famous
Mbius and Druillet cartoon characters such as

Arzach, Gail, and Lone Sloane. Later it would

begin to showcase collaborations with foreign cartoonists, most notably Richard Corben. A short
list of the artists who would appear in the pages of
Mtal Hurlant contains the best of that generation
and includes Alejandro Jodorowsky, Philippe
Caza, Enki Bilal,Alain Voss, and Berni Wrightson.
The struggling French magazine would
become bi-monthly with issue number seven,
and finally monthly with issue number nine. It
would expand its content from comics to articles
about science fiction books and movies, eventually covering music and video games.
Mtal Hurlant would become world famous
for its complex graphics, cinematic imagery, and
surreal storylines. Its influence as the first mature,
adult, illustrated graphic magazine cannot be
underestimated.Alas, it ceased publication in July,
1987.
However, Mtal Hurlant did not disappear
from the French newsstands before it captured
the imagination of a visiting American tourist. In
the mid-1970s, publisher Leonard Mogel was in
Paris to kick off the first French edition of
National Lampoon. He stumbled across a copy of
the amazing Mtal Hurlant and the rest is history.
Mogel, a deft businessman, knew it for a great
magazine when he first saw it, and quickly
licensed the American version. The first issue of
the renamed magazine, Heavy Metal, hit the United States marketplace in April, 1977. Having a
larger budget than his French counterparts had
originally, Mogel was able to publish a glossy, slick
full-color monthly magazine. He also had the
luxury of using the original color pages that had
already been done in France, thus greatly reducing his initial costs and allowing him to establish
a foothold in the American marketplace.
Heavy Metal was soon to become the premiere American magazine of science fiction and

PG 100 HELP, Sept. 1965 ( Warren Publications); PG 101, L to R HEAVY METAL, # 16, 1978 ( H. M. Communications); HEAVY METAL, # 2, May 1977 ( H. M. Communications); HEAVY METAL, # 1, May 1977 ( H. M. Communications); HEAVY METAL, summer 1986 ( H. M. Communications).

Heavy Metal |

fantasy comics. This niche was established with

translations of the graphic stories originally published in Mtal Hurlant. Leonard Mogel introduced American readers to the creative works of
the French cartoonists Enki Bilal, Jean Giraud
(Mbius), Philippe Druillet, and Philippe Caza.
Later, after the magazine was fully established, it
would run Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatores ultra-violent Ranxerox.
The founding editors at the helm of the
American edition were Sean Kelly and Valerie
Marchant. Under their direction Heavy Metal
would become a distinctly different type of magazine than its French counterpart without losing
its exotic flavor. Art director and designer John
Workman would bring his experience obtained
at DC Comics to the magazine, creating startling
and memorable effects.
After the first two years of publication,
Leonard Mogel was still unsatisfied with the magazine.The feedback he received pointed out the
lack of text and the emphasis on art. So in 1979

he hired Ted White to replace both Kelly and

Marchant.
Ted White was a good choice, made at the
right time. Starting as a teenager, White had
become a prolific contributor to science fiction
fanzines. His skill as a writer is evident in his story
The Bet, an evocative memoir of a tense day in
1960 when a dispute over a record owned by
music critic Linda Solomon prompted Harlan
Ellison to bet his entire record collection against a
single record in Whites collection.
In 1968, Ted White deservedly won a Hugo
Award for Best Fan Writer, while holding the
professional position of assistant editor at The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was a
post he held from 1963 until October, 1968,
when he became editor of Amazing Stories and
Fantastic, where he remained until October, 1978.
His reputation as an editor of note preceded him,
impressing Mogel at Heavy Metal, who hired him
to introduce non-fiction and prose fiction writers to the magazine.

White and Workman worked together to

change the look of Heavy Metal into a truly
American product. Whites solution was simple:
he incorporated more stories and strips by American artists. He would leave his mark on the magazine forever with the introduction of columns
on various aspects of popular American culture
by well-known authorities. Lou Stathis wrote
about rock music and Jay Kinney would dig into
underground comics. Steve Brown became the
Heavy Metal reviewer of new science fiction novels. Bhob Stewart would explore visual media
from fantasy films to animation.
In 1980, Julie Simmons-Lynch would replace
Ted White as editor. Even though his stint at the
helm was brief, he had set the stage for a new
slant for the magazine, the showcasing of non-fiction by such well-known writers as Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison. Simmons-Lynch
would introduce interviews of famous media figures such as Roger Corman, Federico Fellini, and
John Waters.

101

One of the most famous science fiction short

stories ever written, Harlan Ellisons Repent,
Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman, was adapted
into a graphic story for the January 1980 issue. It
was originally written in 1965 in a single six-hour
session during a Milford Writers Workshop (a
conference of science fiction writers held annually), and went on to win the 1965 Nebula Award
and the 1966 Hugo Award for best short story.
The magazine released an animated feature
film in 1981.The movie, Heavy Metal, was adapted from several serials that had appeared in the
magazine. Like the magazine, the movie featured
graphic nudity and violence, stopping short of the
explicit content of the magazine. The film featured the talents of John Candy, Eugene Levy, and
Harold Ramis. The movie would go on to gain
something of a cult status.
Leonard Mogel planned to do a series of films
to be promoted under his Heavy Metal Presents banner. Scott Roberts did extensive work
scripting an adaptation of science fiction writer

102 | Heavy Metal

PG 102 FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, ( Ziff-Davis); PG 103, Bot band, L to R HELP, # 3, Oct. 1960 ( Warren Publications); HUMBUG, # 10, 1958 ( Humbug); HELP, # 8, Feb. 1961 ( Warren Publications).

William Gibsons short story,Burning Chrome,

eventually writing a total of six screenplay revisions. However, the project, planned as a liveaction film, was sold by Mogel to Carolco, and
the film was never made.
In 1986 Heavy Metal began to struggle to
keep its foothold in the marketplace, becoming a
quarterly, and then a bi-monthly in 1989. Simmons-Lynch would remain editor of magazine
until 1991, when Kevin Eastman acquired Heavy
Metal, becoming both publisher and editor.
Eastman, an American comic book artist, is
best known as co-creator (along with Peter
Laird), of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Julie
Strain, his wife, is perhaps better known as the
Queen of the B-movies. Strain has over 100
films to her credit. In addition, she was Penthouse
Pet of the Month for June 1991, and Penthouse
Pet of the Year for 1993. Strain often appears in
the magazine in photos or pictures painted by
Olivia (De Berardinis) and Simon Bisley.
The magazine released another animated feature film in 2000. Heavy Metal 2000 was based on
The Melting Pot, a graphic novel written by Kevin
Eastman and drawn by artist Simon Bisley. Julie
Strain was the voice for the main character as well
as the basis for the appearance of the female protagonist drawn by Bisley. She was also the basis for
the third person shooter in a spin-off video game
spawned by the movie, Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.
Heavy Metal has left a mark on American culture, most notably for the high quality artwork it
has published. The illustrated version of Miltons
epic poem Paradise Lost, by Terrance Lindalls,
which appeared in 1980, is one of the best renditions of the poem done in the 20th century.The
Heavy Metal artists today can also be seen as a
New International Surrealist Movement.
There will always be critics who feel Heavy
Metals style and content is too pornographic and
violent.They will ill-advisedly attempt to protec-

tively ban its sale to minors, and if possible, to

adults as well. But such poorly conceived efforts
by conservative elements are doomed to fail in the
face of the powerful graphic content produced by
the leading edge of American culture.EVN

HELP!
Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) was a cartoonist,
writer, and editor with enormous influence on
several generations of artists and readers. Born on
October 3, 1924, in New York City, he grew up
rooting through neighborhood trash cans, looking for the full-page Sunday comics his family did
not get. His first comic strip, Ikey & Mikey, was
drawn with chalk on the sidewalk. By 1939
Kurtzman had moved on to ink on paper. His
first amateur contest-winning art page appeared
that year in Tip Top Comics; he won $1.
In 1942, at the age of 18, fresh out of the
High School of Music and Art, Harvey got a job
working for Louis Ferstadt, who produced comic
features for publishers Prize and Ace. His first
assignment was assisting Louis Zansky in the production of Classics Illustrateds Moby Dick adaptation, his job was to fill in the black to save the
real artist time. Kurtzmans first signed effort
was the cover of Super-Mystery Comics (volume
#3, number #3), as well as the Mr. Risk story
inside.Another was the Lash Lightning strip for
Ace, Four Favorites #9 (February 1943). It was at
this time that World War Two interrupted his
fledgling career.
It was after the war that his distinctive style
began to emerge while freelancing for Stan Lee at
Timely Comics (later Marvel comics), in such
series as Hey Look!, a one-page filler in Marvel
comics, which he wrote and drew, and Pot Shot
Pete, the first multi-page series he both wrote
and drew. For three years, with no editorial input

Help! |
from Lee, he produced one page a week as he
continued to hone his cartooning and gag-telling
ability.
The comic industry changed in the late 1940s,
so Kurtzman started the Charles William Harvey commercial art studio with his friends, Charlie Stern and Music and Art classmate Will Elder.
Elder would remain a collaborator with Kurtzman
for decades. Lengthy professional associations
would become a pattern for Kurtzman and
include John Severin (best known for western and
war comics, and a very long stay at Cracked magazine) and Dave Berg (whose Lighter Side series
appeared in Mad magazine for decades).
While making the rounds of comic publishers in 1949, Kurtzmans rise to fame began when
he chanced upon the office of Bill Gaines, publisher of EC Comics. Gaines hired him after
laughing at his humorous artwork and sent the

young cartoonist to his uncle, David Gaines, a

packager of non-newsstand educational comics.
Kurtzmans first job there was to illustrate a western-themed anti-syphilis tale about That Ignorant, Ignorant Cowboy. But it was not long
before he had his own titles when Gaines put him
to work editing and writing a pair of comics in a
genre new to EC war stories. Kurtzman
showed a flair for writing and scripting the two
anti-war comics, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline
Combat, so that a Kurtzman story tended to look
like his, no matter who drew it.
Kurtzmans style and perfectionism gave his
stories impact and verisimilitude, but also slowed
up his output, which was how he was paid at EC.
So in 1952, Harvey talked Gaines into launching a
new title based on the humorous material Kurtzman could so readily supply.Thus, Tales Calculated
to Drive You Mad was born, and issue #1 hit the

newsstands in October.The 23 issues of the comic

book and first five issues of Mad as a magazine
reflect Kurtzmans sensibilities and sense of humor.
The showdown between Gaines and Kurtzman came in 1957 when EC cancelled all its other
titles, banking on the economic success of Mad to
sustain the company. Kurtzman demanded a 51%
share, so Gaines fired him. Kurtzman was gone
after issue 29 appeared in September, 1956.
Kurtzman went on to join Hugh Hefner,
publisher of Playboy, launching what was hoped
to be an even better production. Hefner, who had
run an interview with Kurtzman several months
earlier, bankrolled Trump, and the first issue
appeared in January 1957. Quite literally a trump
card, it was the best of the Mad sensibilities and
the best of the Mad artists (Will Elder, Wally
Wood, and Jack Davis) presented in a slick magazine format that even boasted a foldout, just like

103

Playboy. Lacking any real commitment from

Hefner, it lasted only two issues.
Kurtzman and his gang of loyal peers,an artists
collective of himself,Will Elder, Jack Davis,Al Jaffee, and Arnold Roth, then pooled their money to
finance the publication of their own magazine.
Aptly named Humbug, it debuted in August, 1957.
It was comic book size, but black and white and
too heavily text-laden to appeal to the average
comic book reader. Despite their efforts, and those
of business manager Harry Chester, and an 11thhour shift to magazine format with issue ten, it
only lasted eleven issues, failing to overcome distribution and financial problems.
It was at this point in his career that Harvey
rolled up his sleeves, threw up his hands, and
reached for his destiny one more time, starting
over with the aptly named, Help!. During 1959
and 1960, Kurtzman had worked steadily as a free-

HARVEY KURTZMAN MAGAZINES

104 | Help!
lance writer and artist for Esquire, The Saturday
Evening Post, Madison Avenue, TV Guide, Pageant,
and Playboy magazines. By 1960 he was employed
by Jim Warren, whose Famous Monsters of Filmland
magazine spawned a publishing empire of horrorrelated titles. Kurtzman edited a Warren magazine
on movie westerns. Not satisfied, he convinced
Warren to bankroll yet another satire magazine.
Help! would prove to be the longest-lived of
Kurtzmans satire efforts, and introduced a number of young underground cartoonists to mainstream America. Help! relied heavily on photography. Old movie stills were fitted out with hip
new captions and complex, often crazy, scenarios
were depicted with photos in a comic-book-like
format called fumetti by the Italians.
Help! was a great deal more successful than his
past efforts, lasting from 1960 until 1965, 26 issues
in all. It was at Help! that Kurtzman would
achieve his last regular editorial position of note,
becoming the first editor to publish the work of
certain artists and writers who would dominate
underground comix later on, such as R. Crumb
(Fritz the Cat), Gilbert Shelton (Wonder Warthog)
and Jay Lynch (Nard & Pat), besides introducing
the works of future Monty Python members
Terry Gilliam and John Cleese.
During the run of Help!, Kurtzman showed
his greatest influence on the humor/satire scene
of the day. Chronically underfunded, he was still
able to attract an impressive array of stars and
future stars to his magazine. The very first issue
featured a cover of Sid Ceasar, a major TV comedy star of the time. Inside was a short story by
Rod Serling, whose Twilight Zone was a current
TV success story. The covers of the next ten
issues read like a Whos Who of contemporary
comedy: Ernie Kovacs, Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl,
Dave Garroway, Jonathan Winters, Tom Poston,
Hugh Downs, and Jackie Gleason. Using impressive cover stars and movie stills, and the aforementioned fumettis, Kurtzman was able to gradually build a magazine to rival the longevity of
his original success with Mad.
For over five years, from the first issue in

PG 104, Top to Bot KNIGHT MAGAZINE, Nov. 1962 ( Knight Publications); HUSH-HUSH, 1957
( Charlton ); PG 105, Bot band, L to R THE WIT AND WISDOM OF WATERGATE, 1975 ( respective copyright holder); 3 DIMENSION PIN-UPS, 1953 ( Motion Picture Magazine); SPIRIT WORLD, #1, 1971 ( Hampshire Distributors, Ltd.); IAN FLEMINGS JAMES BOND 007, 1964 ( Dell/United Artists).

August, 1960 to the last in September, 1965,

Kurtzman received help with appearances from
writers and comedians Dick Van Dyke, Gloria
Steinem, Roger Price, Sylvia Miles, Orson Bean,
Algis Budrys, Ed Fisher, Phil Ford, Mimi Hines,
Henny Youngman, Jack Carter, Jean Shepherd,
Bernard Shir-Cliff, Russ Heath, Woody Allen,
John Cleese, and many others.
A couple of Kurtzmans assistants, Terry
Gilliam and a young Gloria Steinem, would go
on to fantastic careers of their own. Steinem was
instrumental in gathering the celebrity comedians who would appear on the covers of each
issue, as well as appearing in the fumetti
strips. Gilliam, aside from meeting Cleese
for the first time years before their work
together in Monty Pythons Flying Circus,
was also instrumental in gathering the best
younger talents such as R. Crumb, Gilbert
Shelton, and Jay Lynch.
Science fiction writers such as Algis
Budrys, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C.
Clarke were regular contributors of prose
and scripts. With the input from all this
varied talent, Help! became a somewhat
more adult and risqu publication than
Mad. Not as sexually explicit or taboobreaking as the comix, the contemporaneous The Realist, or the later National Lampoon were or would become, it served as an
original locus for a wide range of talent.
The greatest article to appear in Help!
was the comic strip Goodman Beaver
Goes Playboy!, a ribald parody of Archie
Comics, created with the inspired help of
Kurtzmans collaborator, Will Elder. The
mordant fables of Goodman Beaver pitted
the Candide-like Goodman against the
stark hypocrisies of life.The Archie parody

invoked the wrath of publisher John Goldwater

and resulted in a lawsuit.
Despite a talented roster of friends and contributors, including Gahan Wilson, Ed Fisher, Paul
Coker, Jr., Phil Interlandi, Arnold Roth, Jack
Davis, and Al Jaffee, the magazine folded after 26
issues.The untimely demise of Help! led directly
into the underground comix movement. Kurtzman was the inspiration for many of the seminal
cartoonists of the movement. They followed his
work in Mad, Trump, Humbug, and many contributed to the Public Gallery in Help!, for
which Kurtzman paid $5 for each piece he used.

Hit Parader |
First appearances include Skip Williamson, Dennis Ellefson, Don Edwing, Stew Schwartzberg,
Gilbert Shelton, and R. Crumb.
In the middle of the Help! run, Kurtzman
began the most lucrative production of his fabled
career with the production of a color strip in the
pages of Hugh Hefners Playboy. Titled Little
Annie Fanny, it would become a formulaic parody of the hip type of sex carried in that magazine. With Elders help, the two- to seven-page
strips began to appear in 1962 and continued
erratically until 1988.
Harvey Kurtzman died on February 21, 1993,
his illustrious career finally over. In his 68 years, he
had gone from chalk on the sidewalk to the
heights of the publishing industry. Routinely celebrated for his visual verve and artistic successes,
his critical reputation will outlast his career valleys
and formulaic and disappointing projects.EVN

THE HIDDEN WORLD

The Hidden World appeared in early 1961 and ran
through 1964, publishing 16 issues. It was one of
Raymond Palmers stable of magazines dealing
with the Shaver Mystery, a weird series of stories
and articles that began in the March, 1945 issue of
Amazing Stories, and was supposedly based on the
true experiences of Richard S. Shaver. Shaver
claimed to have discovered remnants of a vast subterranean civilization that came to earth from
another world in prehistoric times. The descendants of this early alien invasion still lived underground. Shaver called them Teros and Deros, the
Deros being deranged robotic entities responsible
for much of modern-day human suffering through
the use of advanced machines that they used to
beam negative thoughts into human minds.
Shavers variation of the hollow earth theo-

ry was rewritten by Palmer and appeared as I

Remember Lemuria in 1945.The issue sold out
and began such a deluge of Shaver material over
the next few years that some sf fans started a
revolt. Palmer and Shaver claimed that all of the
stories and articles were based on facts.The Shaver
material led to Palmer leaving Amazing and starting up his own business in order to publish Other
Worlds, Fate, Mystic, and Flying Saucers from Other
Worlds. Palmer also appeared to have taken part in
The Shaver Mystery Magazine (1948), which was
sent to members of the Shaver Mystery Club and
was mostly made up of fact-fiction stories written by Shaver. The Hidden World recycled Shaver
and UFO material from earlier Palmer publications, and including original letters and Shavers
artwork.LO [see Fate,Amazing Stories]

105

HIT PARADER
Charlton Publishing
Charlton Publishing began when John Santangelo,
an Italian immigrant, met Edward Levy, a disbarred
lawyer, in prison. Santangelo had gone to jail for
selling bootleg song sheets without paying the
necessary licensing fees to ASCAP. Getting out of
jail in the mid-1930s the pair decided to become
business partners and bought a marginal little publication called Hit Parader and Song Hits, which
published the lyrics to popular songs. Santangelo
now had Levy to negotiate usage rights to songs
with ASCAP and past indiscretions were forgotten. In 1945, the company took on the name
Charlton Publishing, derived from the two partners sons having the same name: Charles. Little by
little they began adding features to the Hit Parader

FADS & ONE-SHOTS

106 | Hit Parader

to make it more appealing to readers and by the
early 1950s the magazine was carrying a cover
blurb that read: Largest circulation of any song
magazine. Charlton published other song magazines as musical taste changed over the years: Country Song Round-Up, Best Songs and Popular Songs,
Hillbilly and Cowboy Hit Parade, Rock & Soul, Rock
and Roll Songs Magazine, and Song Hits Magazine.
By the late 1940s they had set up an all-inone operation in Derby, Connecticut, which
included a typesetting shop, printing, distribution
with railroad siding coming right up to the warehouse loading docks, and editorial offices. Having
a press in-house meant that Charlton had to keep
it running all the time to justify its overhead.This
translated into a flood of comic books, one-shots
(covering everything from astrology to crossword
puzzles), scandal sheets (Hush Hush and Top
Secret), exploitative magazines (Picture Detective

and Actual Confessions), pin-up (Peep Show), movie

monsters (Werewoves & Vampires, Horror Monsters
Presents Black Zoo, and Mad Monsters), and unclassifiable titles (Adventures in Horror, Horror Stories,
Tales of Terror, and Psychic Dimensions).
Charlton became a paragon of low-budget
publishing. Their comic book line was mainly
noted for having talented people producing
mediocre work. It did not help that the companys main printing press was antiquated, and originally manufactured to print cardboard packaging. It was common knowledge among kids that
Charlton comics looked bad.
Hush-Hush and Top Secret were bona fide
competitors to Confidential, often breaking new
stories and scandals that other scandal magazines
missed, and is a prime example of the life of a
scandal magazine from modest beginnings to success to fading with the times. Peep Show and Paris

Life were pin-up magazines that imitated Robert

Harrisons Beauty Parade and Eyeful by showing
lots of pictures of women in lingerie. Beatles Story
with news, lyrics, and pictures of the group
appeared between 1964 and 1966.
Charlton went out of business in 1991. One
of the last magazines left at the end was the one
that had started it all, Hit Parader.JH

ALFRED HITCHCOCKS
MYSTERY MAGAZINE
AHMM is the only survivor of a plethora of
digest-size crime and mystery magazines that first
appeared in the mid-1950s. Many were in imitation of Manhunt, the most successful of the 1950s
digests, which had emphasized violence and sex
in its fiction. AHMM had the distinction that

while not an imitation of Manhunt, it ran fiction

by many of the same writers, and it came from
Manhunts publisher, Michael St. John. St. John
had only recently taken over the company, following the death of his father, and was still experimenting with various crime magazines, hoping
to find the same successful formula as Manhunt.
During 1956 he launched three such titles:
Mantrap, Murder, and Verdict, but none survived for
more than three issues.
AHMM was a much safer option. It not only
had the bonus of being able to use the Hitchcock
name and display his face on the cover, but the
television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents had aired
to considerable success in October, 1955.
Although the magazine, which first appeared in
November, 1956 (cover date December), ran all
new stories, there was a likely affinity in the publics mind between the TV series and the maga-

MACFADDEN PUBLICATIONS

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine |

PG 106, Bot band, L to R MIDNIGHT, Oct. 7, 1922 ( Macfadden Publications); MASTER DETECTIVE, Jan. 1942
( Macfadden Publications); GHOST STORIES, May 1930( Macfadden Publications); PG 107, L to R ALFRED
HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE, Nov. 1957 ( respective copyright holder); ALFRED HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE, Aug. 1960 ( respective copyright holder); ALFRED HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE, Nov. 1960 ( respective copyright holder); ALFRED HITCHCOCKS MYSTERY MAGAZINE, Sept. 1963 ( respective copyright holder).

zine. It was also agreed that stories published in

the magazine could be optioned for the TV
series, thus attracting major writers and adding
kudos to the magazine. Borden Deals story of a
judge seeking retribution for his wifes infidelity,
A Bottle of Wine, from the first issue, became
the first to be picked for the TV series and was
broadcast in February, 1957.
A separate imprint was set up to run the magazine, H.S.D. Publications, on Fifth Avenue in
New York, the initials purportedly standing for
Hitchcock, St. John, and Richard E. Decker (St.
Johns general manager). Once the magazine was
up and running, St. John decided to split his
organization. He continued with Manhunt and the
Playboy-style Nugget, while AHMM was taken by
Decker.The editor was author and former professional boxer William Manners, who had achieved
some recognition with his novel of a writer struggling against a terminal illness, One is a Lonesome
Number (1950), and who had edited Manhunt.
Although Hitchcock lent his name to the
magazine, he wrote nothing for it directly (unlike
Frederick Dannay of Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine), but his daughter was involved.Actress Patricia Hitchcock was one of the associate editors
under her married name, Pat OConnell. She
remained in Hollywood, but was sent, and commented upon, all the proofs, and visited the offices
from time to time. Hitchcocks presence was felt in
other ways. Not only was his image always shown
on the cover, there was also always a message purportedly by Hitchcock at the start of each issue,
plus his comments opened each story.They were
probably written in-house by one of the editorial
staff perhaps even advised by Patricia but they
sharply reflected Hitchcocks style of dark humor.

Because of his introductions to the TV series, you

could almost hear him talking to you from the
magazine. Finally, but most importantly, the stories
had to reflect the style most associated with Hitchcock and the TV series, namely cleverly constructed stories of growing suspense, often with a surprise ending.There was no direct violence, no sex
or gore, although it might be implied, but rather
occasional sardonic humor, ingenious plots, and
characters with whom readers could easily identify. Moreover, they tended not to be detective stories, but rather stories of how crime or mystery
affected everyday people, and were often deeply
psychological.They were generally stories of smalltown or suburban America.There were no British
writers and no classic stories.
The authors who soon became regulars were
those able to produce such sharp, clever stories,
including Henry Slesar, Robert Arthur, Fletcher
Flora, C.B. Gilford,Talmage Powell, Jack Ritchie,
Lawrence Treat, and Bryce Walton.The magazine
became known for its coterie of regular writers,
who, though they sold elsewhere, soon made
AHMM their primary market and thus molded it
to their style.
At the outset there were a few special names.
C.L. Moore, usually better known for her weird
tales, led the first issue with Here Lies, a
twisted tale of suicide and revenge. Jim Thompson contributed two stories featuring hustler
Mitch Allison, The Cellini Chalice in the first
issue, and The Frightening Frammis in the
third.William Campbell Gault also made a couple of appearances in the early issues, but nothing
thereafter.Thompson and Gault were also writing
for St. Johns other magazines and their stories
here were probably a consequence of shuffling

107

108 | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

the inventory to see what best fitted where.These
authors never reappeared in the magazine. Manners simply cultivated a key coterie of writers and
let them develop the magazine.
Surprisingly, one group of authors whose
work was ideal for AHMM was rarely seen,
namely those closely associated with Ray Bradbury and the Weird Tales school. Bradburys stories
are arguably definitive Hitchcock material, but he
never contributed a single story, though The
October Game was reprinted in the June, 1957
issue. Robert Bloch contributed only two new
stories in the days before his novel Psycho was
turned into Hitchcocks most famous film.
Charles Beaumont never appeared, William F.
Nolan had just one story, in the first issue, and
Richard Matheson two, both in the March, 1957
issue. In fact, of the Weird Tales school, only Joseph
Payne Brennan became a regular contributor, and
that was not until 1965.
At the outset the magazine had several anomalies. Collectors noticed that although the first
issue was clearly identified as the first issue from
Hitchcocks introduction, it was labelled number
12. It has been suggested that this was because the
number reflected the month when the issue was
published, which may explain another anomaly.
After just four issues, the magazine was
switched from the digest-size to the large-flat format in common with the mens magazines. The
same happened with Manhunt. In the case of
AHMM, it missed an issue in the process. In his
introduction, Hitchcock related that hed been told
paper for that issue had been hijacked while en
route from Canada. The fifth issue, which would
have been dated April, 1957, was delayed, so when
it did appear, in the large format, it was dated May
and was catalogued as Volume 2, Issue 5, even
though the previous issue had been Vol., 2, #3.
The large format AHMM looked good, but
apparently did not sell well probably because it
was not stacked among the other mystery digest
magazines. After just ten issues the hardest ten
to find of all the early copies it reverted to the
digest format and has stayed that way ever since.

PG 108, Top to Bot HIT PARADER, Apr. 1967 (Charlton Publications); CINEMAGIC, #19, 1983 ( Starlog Publications); PG 109, Bot band, L to R THE MYSTERIOUS WU FANG, Nov. 1935 ( Popular Publications); DR. YEN SIN,
July-Aug. 1936 ( Popular Publications); THE MYSTERIOUS WU FANG, Mar. 1936 ( Popular Publications).

As AHMM continued, several new names

appeared. Among them were William Link and
Richard Levinson, best known for their TV
work, especially Columbo. They contributed fifteen stories including Dear Corpus Delecti
(March 1960) which, like the later Columbo stories, has a man believe he has committed the perfect murder only to be caught out by one small
clue. Charles Willeford appeared just three times,
starting with a voodoo story, The Alectryomancer (February 1959). Arthur Porges began
his long association with the magazine with
Sheep Among Wolves (June 1959). His many
contributions included a number of locked-room
stories, starting with Dead Drunk (December
1959). Donald E.Westlake put in his first AHMM
appearance in June, 1959 with One on a Desert
Island, and was soon contributing regularly,
including the series featuring New York police
detective Abe Levine, who first appeared in The
Best-Friend Murder (December 1959). Richard
Deming had contributed just one story in 1957
and another in both 1961 and 1962, but became
a regular from November, 1963.
It was a while before Lawrence Block included AHMM among his markets, with If This be
Madness (January 1963), seen through the eyes
of a psychopath. Edward D. Hoch opened up his
batting at AHMM just before he stormed Ellery
Queens Mystery Magazine (EQMM)s battlements
with Twilight Thunder (January 1962). He
developed very few series in AHMM, although
occasionally one of his series from EQMM would
stray across, such as the Captain Leopold story,
The Vanishing of Velma (August 1969). In its
first decade, AHMM ran very few series, and one
of the most surprising was August Derleths Solar
Pons stories, which found a home there starting
in February ,1961. They were the only period
pieces AHMM ran at that time, and included

some of the few supernatural stories in the magazine. Although AHMM ran occasional weird
tales, such as Joseph Payne Brennans Lucius Leffing stories, they were the exception, the editors
preferring stories of suspense and the macabre.
Few of the stories from AHMM were singled
out for award nominations that, at that time, were
dominated by more traditional crime stories.
Only two were nominated for the Edgar Award
and both were from the same issue, October,
1960. Even more remarkable was that both stories,Summer Evil by Nora Caplan and A Real
Live Murderer by Donald Honig, concerned
children and crime.
There were a number of changes during this
period. In the summer of 1960, Richard Decker
moved his operations to Palm Beach, Florida.
Manners remained as editor for a year,but resigned
in July, 1961. He was replaced, briefly, by Lisa
Belknap, before Decker took over editorial duties
himself. Finally, in October, 1964, Deckers wife,
Gladys, who had been the managing editor since
June, 1959, became the full editor, initially under
her maiden name of G.F. Foster. Gladys Decker
was further elevated to editorial director in June,
1967 and Ernest Hutter became the new editor.
This team, of the Deckers and Hutter, remained
stable for the next nine years.These changes had
been scarcely noticeable in the magazine content,
so disciplined were its contributors. If there was
one thing most noticeable about AHMM during
its first 20 years, it was its consistency, almost to a
fault. Despite the continued ability of the authors
to produce clever and entertaining stories, the
magazine became almost predictable.
Yet it continued to prosper even beyond the
end of the Hitchcock TV series that, in its extended form as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, had ceased in
June, 1965. Circulation rose slowly but steadily,
perhaps because the absence of new TV episodes

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine |

sent devotees in search of a substitute. If anything,
the mid-1960s was when AHMM took on that
cult aura. It was the only magazine providing regular stories of suspense and trickery, rather than
straight crime and detection, and it had a coterie of
writers whose work, by and large, was highly individual. Further new names appeared. John Lutz
debuted in the December, 1966 issue with
Thieves Honor. Bill Pronzini put in his first
appearance in December, 1967 and introduced the
first of his Nameless Detective stories,Sometimes
There is Justice, in the August, 1968 issue. The
inimitable George C. Chesbro first appeared in the
March, 1969 issue with the grotesque Snake in
the Tower and, onward from March, 1972, his stories about Mongo the Magnificent, the dwarf
criminologist, became regular fare.
Toward the end of 1975, Decker decided to
sell AHMM. Circulation data is not available for

that period, but there is no reason to believe that it

had fallen significantly. It is more likely that Decker wished to retire. Learning the title was up for
sale, Joel Davis, the publisher of Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, acquired it.The handover came with
the March, 1976 issue. Because the two magazines
used the same printer, Davis was able to keep
AHMM in exactly the same format and,apart from
a few minor changes, it is unlikely many noticed
the change of ownership. Davis kept the same
cover style, the same print format, even the same
font size and the same weak, sketchy story illustrations that had given the magazine a distinctly
cheap appearance for the previous 20 years. The
contributors also stayed the same. This was a
remarkable feat by Eleanor Sullivan, who had only
recently become editor of EQMM. Now she was
endeavoring to compile another magazine that was
utterly different in content. She was helped to

some degree by Frederick Dannay, the half of the

Ellery Queen writing team who was the editorial
director of EQMM, but sustaining AHMM in its
style and form was still a singular achievement.
Inevitably changes did occur and they began
to accumulate by 1979.The most noticeable was
the inclusion of more stories with a historical setting such as one of Barry Perownes Raffles stories, Raffles and Operation Handcuffs (February 1979). The series had been running in
EQMM for several years and was far adrift from
anything AHMM had previously published. S.S.
Raffertys Captain Cork series, set during the
Revolutionary War, also slipped across from
EQMM. Also against the grain were stories set
outside America, especially one set at a public
school in England, as in Trial by Fury by Caryl
Brahms and Ned Sherrin (April 1979), while
Charles Sheffields The Lambeth Immortal

109

(June 1979), combined the two transgressions by

featuring Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwins
grandfather) investigating a bizarre mystery in
eighteenth-century Britain. Regardless of the
quality of the stories, these were totally at odds
with all that AHMM had represented.
While some of the regular writers continued
to contribute Lawrence Block, John Lutz, Bill
Pronzini, Lawrence Treat, Stephen Wasylyk, plus a
few new ones, notably Loren Estleman and Barry
Malzberg the changes piled up rapidly. A nonfiction column was introduced, the first ever in
the magazine,Crime on Screen, and soon after,
a letter column. Along with EQMM, the magazine went four-weekly at the start of 1980.
Then came the inevitable. Alfred Hitchcock
died on April 29,1980.There was no major recognition of his passing in the magazine, but his
signed introductions ceased after the issue for

YELLOW PERIL PULPS

110 | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

June 18, and his picture was dropped from the
cover on April 1, 1981, the first time in nearly 25
years. It provided an opportunity for a complete
break with the past. Davis did not rush into it, but
rather than provide extra work for Eleanor Sullivan, he brought in a new editor, Cathleen Jordan,
who formally took up post from the December 9,
1981 issue. She gave considerable thought to the
changes, partly so that the magazine retained
something of the past in its stories of suspense and
the macabre, but primarily so that it complemented EQMM.This would prove the most significant
shift.Whereas EQMM concentrated on the traditional mystery and crime story, AHMM shifted
toward the hard-boiled private-eye story and the
unconventional. Also, while Edward D. Hoch
tended to have the monopoly on impossiblecrime stories in EQMM, it was open house in
AHMM, and a wide range of puzzling tales
emerged. AHMM also included more stories with
historical or international settings, running several
stories by or set in the Far East.
The changes took full effect starting with the
August, 1982 issue.The magazine had a complete
face-lift, a new cover design (into which a small
photograph of Hitchcock was once again inserted, rather like his brief walk-on moments in his
films), improved interior illustrations, and a wide
range of new features, including an expanded letter column, puzzle contests, book reviews, and a
mystery classic reprint, starting with Daphne
du Mauriers original story behind the film,The
Birds. There was a column on unsolved crimes
and a further feature, Off the Record, with
authors chatting about the mystery genre, was
added in August, 1983. From there on, there was
no doubt that AHMM was a totally different
magazine. It neither looked nor felt like the original, and there was scarcely even a token nod to
the Deckers approach, although a few of the
original authors occasionally appeared.
Whether the magazine was better was for the
reader to judge, and the selection of approving letters may not be entirely unbiased. Certainly the
number of stories from AHMM nominated for an

Edgar Award increased there had only been eight

in the 25 years before Jordan took over, and there
were fourteen in the next 20 years, including three
that won the award:Ride the Lightning (January
1985) by John Lutz,Flicks (August 1988) by Bill
Crenshaw, and The Dancing Bear (March 1994)
by Doug Allyn. Other new awards were instigated
alongside the Edgar and, with the shift to privateeye stories, AHMM fared especially well with the
Shamus Award presented by the Private Eye Writers of America. Over 20 stories were nominated
during Jordans editorship, four of which won.Ten
stories won the Robert L. Fish award for Best First
Short Story. Jordan did a fine job of encouraging
new writers among whom were Bill Crenshaw,
Doug Allyn, and Mary Kittredge.
Another sign of the magazines popularity
was the dramatic rise in sales. Joel Davis was a
wizard at promoting magazines and developing
subscription drives and special deals. Within five
years of taking the magazine over from Decker,
subscriptions for AHMM alone had risen, on
average, from 16,000 to 118,000. In the next ten
years under Jordan they would more than double
to 245,300. In fact, by 1986 AHMM was outselling EQMM. Between them, Davis and Jordan
had not only captured a new readership, they had,
more importantly, retained it.
Clearly the new AHMM was a more popular
magazine than the old. In recognition of this, in
2002 Cathleen Jordan was awarded the Ellery
Queen Award, presented to honor outstanding
people in the mystery publishing industry. Alas,
she did not live long enough to receive the award,
as she died on the January 31, 2002. She had
made AHMM the most popular mystery magazine in the world, but it was at the cost of losing
the old, eccentric, but highly distinctive original.

There has never been another magazine like

Deckers AHMM, and while its current incarnation continues under a new editor in the same
vein developed by Cathleen Jordan, there are
probably some readers who remember the original, with its idiosyncratic stories of surprise, devilment and small-town intrigue, who may well
reflect and say,those were the days.MA

HORROR STORIES (Popular)

see Terror Tales
HORROR STORIES (Charlton)
see Hit Parader
HUMBUG
see Help!
HUMORAMA
The Humorama line of cartoon panels were used
in a variety of mens magazines from the mid1950s to the mid-1960s.The titles of those mens
magazines included: Breezy, Cartoon Parade, Comedy, Eyeful of Fun, Fun House, Gaze, Gee-Whiz,
Humorama, Instant Laughs, Laugh It Off!, Jest, Joker,
Laugh Circus, Laugh Digest, Laugh Riot, Popular Cartoons, Popular Jokes, Romp, Stare, Snappy, and Zip.
The Humorama line was the creation of
Martin Goodman, an American publisher noted
for his diverse enterprises such as paperback
books (under the Lion imprint), mens adventure
magazines, and for his major contribution to the
field of comic book publishing. Goodman is best

PG 110, Top to Bot MAGAZINE OF HORROR, #23, art by Virgil Finlay ( Health Knowledge Inc.); STARTLING MYSTERY
STORIES, #6 ( Health Knowledge Inc.); PG 111, L to R [Humorana magazines] JOKER, May 1966
( Humorama); SNAPPY, No. 1959 ( Humorama); LAUGH DIGEST, Feb. 1962 ( Humorama); POPULAR JOKES,
Aug. 1964 ( Humorama); Bottom tier: GEE-WHIZ! ( Humorama); HUMORAMA, May 1962 ( Humorama); JEST,
May 1955 ( Humorama); BREEZY, Feb. 1957 ( Humorama).

Humorama magazines |

111

112 | Humorama
remembered for launching the company that
would become Marvel Comics.
In 1939, Martin Goodman and Louis Silberkleit joined John L. Goldwater to found the
company that became Archie Comics. Goodman,
the mastermind of the group, employed several
different corporate names for their various publishing ventures. Red Circle was the company
name for their pulp magazines, which included
the science fiction magazine Marvel Science Stories,
the weird menace Uncanny Tales and Real Mystery,
and the Tarzan-like Ka-Zar.
That same year, Marvel Comics #1 debuted
under Goodmans umbrella title of Timely
Comics. It featured the first appearance of Carl
Burgoss Human Torch and reprinted Bill
Everetts Namor the Sub-Mariner. In the 1950s,
Timely Comics would become Atlas Comics,
eventually evolving into Marvel Comics.
Mens adventure magazines such as For Men
Only, Male, Mans World,True Action,Action for Men,
and the popular Stag, edited during the 1950s and
1960s by Noah Sarlat and Bruce Jay Friedman,
would be published under the umbrella of Goodmans Magazine Management Company. Beginning in the early-to-mid-1950s, Goodman also
published many other general interest magazines
(romance, film and television, and sports) as well as
mens adventure magazines and Humorama.
Among these were such male oriented 5x7
digests as Focus, Photo, and Eye, which were part of
the evolutionary development into Humorama.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, another division,Humorama,headed by Abe Goodman,
Martins brother, published digest-sized magazines
of girlie cartoons by such well-known cartoon
artists as Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel, and Archie Comics
great Dan De Carlo.These magazines would also
feature black-and-white photos of pin-up models
Bettie Page, Eve Meyer, stripper Lili St. Cyr, and
actresses Joi Lansing, Tina Louise, Irish McCalla,
Julie Newmar, and others.Titles included: Breezy,
Gaze, Gee-Whiz, Joker, Stare, and Snappy.
For nearly 50 years, Dan DeCarlo was the
principal artist at Archie Comics, not only work-

PG 112, Top to Bot METROPOLITAN JAYBIRD ( Jaybird Enterprises); MODERN SUNBATHING, Sept. 1951 ( respective copyright holder); PG 113, Top to Bot PHYSICAL CULTURE, July 1939 ( Macfadden Publications); SUPER8
FILMAKER, vol. 5, #6, 1977 (P. M. S. Publishing Com.).

ing on the companys title character and his

friends, but also credited with co-creating Josie and
the Pussycats and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.Within
the innocent context of these comics for juveniles,
DeCarlo is best known for defining the look of
every adolescent boys wet dream, Betty and
Veronica, with their trademark upturned noses,
tight sweaters, and barely-there mini-skirts. His
heroines had a surprising degree of sex appeal, and
they influenced the work of younger cartoonists
from the Batman cartoons Bruce Timm to Jaime
Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame.
DeCarlos rendition of Riverdales teenage
populace entertained and influenced generations
of young people. Next to the innocence that was
Riverdale, and unknown by many, DeCarlo also
populated another world, one filled with his cartoons featuring girls in lingerie and often less,
based on the perennial blonde next door and
rich-bitch socialite.
From 1956 to 1963, DeCarlo produced hundreds of pin-up cartoons for the Humorama line
of girlie digests. His line drawings and ink-wash
paintings shared the pages with contributors Jack
Cole, Bill Ward, and Bill Wenzel, and photos featuring Bettie Page and other cheesecake models.
DeCarlos gag cartoons for the Humorama
line of mens magazines seemed out of place in
that blatantly risqu world of girlie pictures. His
cheery caricatures are unable to match the erotic
appeal of more illustrative pin-up artists of the
time. They depict a dated, pre-feminist world
where young, buxom women make themselves
available to men who often look less attractive,
much older, and smug. Intended, in their day, to be
adult and sophisticated, these cartoons now reveal
the sexual underside of the repressed 1950s.
Jack Cole was another of the great Humorama cartoonists. Cole, justly celebrated as the creator of Plastic Man, was an innovative comic

book artist of the 1940s. Cole had sold a handful

of cartoons to Boys Life, Colliers, and Judge in the
1930s and 1940s, but after finishing his 14-year
run on Plastic Man, he found himself starting over
in the mid 1950s.
According to Cole, it was the Humorama line
of down-market digest magazines that saved his
career.The girls and gags magazine circuit proved
to be the perfect training ground for him to regain
his footing and develop his craft at single panel gag
cartoons. In the pages of the Humorama line,
Cole began to hone his skills as a gag writer.
In comparison to his contemporaries, however, Cole was probably Humoramas least prolific
artist. Even though his drawings were frequently
used for covers, Coles gag cartoons were few and
far between, with scarcely a single drawing
appearing every five issues.
Coles exquisite line drawings and masterful
use of ink-wash led to the artists final gig, as Playboys first star cartoonist. Under publisher Hugh
Hefners guiding hand, Coles quirky line drawings and sensual watercolors catapulted him to
stardom in the 1950s as Playboys marquee cartoonist, a position he held until his untimely suicide at the age of 43.
The Humorama line marks a narrow chapter
in the history of magazines.The sexy gag cartoon,
now dated, has been replaced by much more
graphic representations of human sexual interactions. Those archaic Humorama drawings now
inhabit a small niche between nostalgia and the
collectors auction.
In 1961, Atlas Comicss editor-in-chief Stan
Lee and freelance artist Jack Kirby created and
launched The Fantastic Four #1, the first hit of
what would later become Marvel Comics. This
would usher in a new type of superhero, who
behaved like an ordinary person rather than the
traditional noble archetypes. The comic books

Jaybird |
side of the business was a small part of Goodmans
publishing enterprise, accounting for 25%30%
of income until the 1960s.
The range of these publications included the
black-and-white nudie cutie comic, The Adventures of Pussycat (October 1968), a sexy, tongue-incheek secret-agent strip. Marvel/Atlas writers
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Ernie Hart, and artists
Wally Wood,Al Hartley, Jim Mooney, Bill Everett,
and cartoonist Bill Ward contributed to all these
other ventures.
Goodman sold Magazine Management to the
Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation in 1968,
which was later brought out by Cadence Industries, and he remained on as publisher until retiring in 1972, leaving his son Chip to run things.
Cadence Industries kicked out Chip Goodman
before long, and his father set him up in a new
comic book publishing entity,Atlas/Seaboard that
failed to produce books that anyone wanted to
buy. Subsequently, father and son were behind
relaunches of Stag and Swank as slick mens magazines. Today Magazine Management is long
gone and Marvel Comics dominates the comic
and graphic novel marketplace.RA

I
IMAGINATION
see Rogue

J
JACK DEMPSEYS FIGHT
MAGAZINE
see Stephen Kings
Horror Magazine

JAGUAR
see Sunshine & Health
JAYBIRD
Milton Luros was born in 1911 in New York. As
a young man he worked as a commercial artist
and art director for a variety of pulp magazines
with titles like Dynamic Science Fiction, DoubleAction Western, and Real Men. Luros art appeared
on covers for magazines like Mens Life and
Dynamic Science Fiction.
Toiling as a freelancer in the declining years of
the pulps must have been a frustrating experience
for a creative and ambitious young man. If Luros
harbored dreams of mastering his own destiny in
the pulp jungle, they were fast fading for no
longer did the pulps rule the newsstands. By the
early 1950s, the pulps own distribution system
was given over to circulating the better-selling
paperbacks and girlie magazines the latters
nearly nude cover models easily quashing any
competition from even the most seductive of
girlie-art pulp covers.
In mid-life, at 44 years of age, he had already
formed the company by which his empire would
later be known, and boldly named it The American Art Agency.
In 1958, with the collapse of the giant American News Company distribution network and
the general upheaval in the magazine publishing
world, Luros took his family and American Art
to California.
Luros was soft spoken and unassuming.There
were always hints of a crooked little smile tormenting his lips and, with special friends, he
could communicate extensively with the twinkle
in his eyes. Colleagues who knew him well
enough to become friends loved him. He was a
proud, one-of-a-kind man who knew who he
was and what he wanted.
Once relocated in Los Angeles, Luros began
producing a variety of uniquely quirky, highquality printed mens periodicals, with thick

glossy pages, that showcased the crisp photography of near fetishistic posed nudes. They were a
smash. Leaving Hugh Hefner and his competitors
to duke it out for newsstand dominance, Luros
found distribution exclusively through liquor
stores, smoke shops, and other primarily male
venues. In those dank dens of manliness, his magazines sold like hotcakes with syrup. Building
upon their success, he linked up with nudist magazine veterans Stan Sohler and Ed Lange to form
Sun-Era, which quickly became a leading force in
nudist magazines, pushing the line past the legal
display of nudists to the legal display of housewives, students, and models who liked to be
naked as a jaybird.
But it was Jaybird, the magazine and its whole
nest of spin-off titles, which became the sensational seller for Luros.These titles were a natural
result of many years of legal and cultural
advances.They followed the lead, publication, and
courtroom battles, of Bernarr Macfadden (Physical Culture), Hugo Gernsback (Sexology), and
Reverend Ilsley Boone (Sunshine & Health), each
in his own way fighting against legislation prohibiting First Amendment rights.
In his quest to serve his readership with access
to quality pop-erotica (paying special attention to
quirks and fetishes), Luros had to push at the barriers of what was then legally acceptable in literary and visual terms. With the charismatic First
Amendment rights lawyer Stanley Fleishman by
his side, Luros skillfully navigated through the
obscenity courts and triumphed in nearly all of
his court cases.
Though showing pubic hair was definitely
illegal for mens magazines, the courts had granted legal dispensation to traditional nudist magazines in 1958. Luross artistic sensibilities orchestrated an alliance with some of the leading photographers of the traditional nudist movement.
With official sanction of some of the nudist
groups, Luros founded a new venture known as
Sun-Era which, as a nudist magazine, was free
to publish pubic hair.
But, in order to properly market his coup, he

113

114 | Jaybird
needed to get his nudist magazines onto the same
racks as his mens magazines.Thus he established
his own distribution company, Parliament News,
cutting his overhead and ensuring each of his
quirk, fetish, and nudist publications would have
a place in the ideal sales milieu the liquor stores,
smoke shops, and adult bookstores that had
become his most effective sales venues.
Capitalizing on his solid sales relationships
with retailers, Luros set up the periodical distribution network that would be the key to his
empire-building success, Parliament News. Once
the pipeline had been built, it was only a question
of how to fill it and keep it flowing and here
Luros was more than able. Truly relishing the
human form in all its aesthetic wonder was only
one aspect of Milton Luross strengths as a publisher. He was committed to producing magazines
of superior quality both in form and content, as
evidenced by the bright glossy paper stock that
pristinely preserves his sumptuous photo spreads
to the present day.
The little initials PN on the cover of certain
1960s magazines mean more than Parliament
News, the company that distributed them.PN
stood for high-quality quirkiness during the flowering of the sexual revolution, and the blossoming
of a new world largely without censorship.
As friendly fetish erotica on thick glossy paper,
as opposed to the darker East Coast sex journals,
Luross magazines offered high heels, hosiery, lingerie, lace, fringe, eyewear, feathers, dolls, you
name it, all presented alongside the prevalent
body fetishes breasts, buttocks, legs, feet, and
hair. Cleverly, Luros made props, settings, and
adornments appear as erotically charged as the
boobs, plump rumps, and luscious leggy ladies he
presented in his magazines.
The Luros touch was that of a creative child
at play with the biggest box of crayons and all the
sketch pads in the world. Rather than simply creating one magazine and fulfilling a monthly
issue, year after year Luros spawned dozens and
dozens of magazine series, new ones popping up
every few months.

PG 114, Top to Bot interior illustration from MANHUNT, May 1953 ( Flying Eagle); MANHUNT, #1 ( Eagle Publications); PG 115, L to R SUNBATHING AND HEALTH MAGAZINE, June 1942 ( respective copyright holder); AMERICAN SUNBATHER, Aug. 1963 ( respective copyright holder); HEALTH & EFFICIENCY, Oct. 1946 ( respective copyright holder); SUN, Dec. 1961 ( Nudist Digest).

From the beginning, Luross magazines were

united by their look, which included doublethick glossy cover stock and a glossy heavyweight
interior page stock. While the use of slick paper
might lead one to imagine a cavalcade of richly
reproduced color imagery, instead Luros presented predominantly black-and-white nudes, with
only 4-8 color pages per issue. However, there
was something unique in the way Luros prepared
his B&W nude images. First, there was the use of
color tinting, wherein the entire image was
bathed in a particular hue golden yellow, purple, or something similarly vibrant. This simple
creative decision lent the Luros mens magazines
continuity with the earliest roots of commercial
erotic photography, the French postcards. Those
illicitly sold snapshots were often hand-tinted to
enhance the verisimilitude of the image.The tinting was one aspect of an old-timey personality
that helped lend the Luros magazines an aura of
the erotic, as opposed to the all-American sex
appeal of the Playboy universe.
Another element of the Luros look was the
specific manner of airbrush retouching as a means
of enhancing his magazines nude imagery. The
Luros B&W nudes were given another dimension
through highly detailed airbrushing, which accentuated the roundness of the models, often giving
their proportions a distinctive slippery sleekness as
well as a bursting-out quality.While other magazines used airbrushing to erase blemishes and
smooth over imperfections both physical and photographic, Luross artists, at his direction, wielded
the airbrush as a tool to plump up and voluptuize
his ladies, to create a shimmering sensuality with
light and dark. So, rather than the Playmate of the
Month, Luros conjured a playmate of the mind,
an erotic dream that hovered between the realistic
and the abstract through use of artful black and

white reproduction. Indeed, Luros was stretching

to create a new American Art.
In contrast to the Playboy photo shoots, which
often captured the Playmate in a high-end
bachelors den or her own girly boudoir, the
American Art/Parliament magazine models were
shot in more common real-life settings (often
masculine in nature), such as mechanics garages,
stock rooms, printing factories, back offices, apartment bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, or outside in Everymans woods, back yard, or beach.
In many cases, Luros personally supervised
the photo shoots, pored over the contact sheets,
ordered retouches, and demanded specific color
saturation balances in the printing process itself.
The last element was made easier when, after a
few years of success, Luros set up his own printing operation that he elegantly dubbed London
Press. It must be mentioned that the purchase of
the printing plant was an expensive move,
whose financing may have proved more costly
than he imagined, as it is rumored Luros contracting with a Brooklyn-based Mafia loan shark
for the sum of $10,000.
Throughout his entire Los Angeles career,
Milton Luros was continuously besieged by two
extremely ruthless and illegal major crime syndicates, the law-enforcement community, especially
at the United States federal level, and the Mafia. It
was almost impossible to tell them apart and they
were both after the same thing: Luross accounts
receivable in cash no receipt, no records.
Life under a microscope is hardly life at all.
Luros was under total surveillance 24/7 wiretaps, microphones, recorders, transmitters, cameras. It must be very difficult trying to live when
your every action, however intimate or personal,
is heavily scrutinized. And it continued, all the
stalking, the following, the watching, and listen-

Jungle Stories |

ing, and the squeeze from the Mafia continuously pressing.

Yet Luros never lost his flair. Although he
was close to selling his empire in 1972, he supervised the launch of one final magazine that
stands among his finest creations. Returning to
the avowed sensuality of his early nudist magazines, Luros presented Sensuous Living. This
clever magazine promotes nudism and sensual
beauty with almost none of the sneaky feeling
of exploitation that was hard to ignore in the
nudist and Jaybird efforts.
Sensuous Living is thoughtful. It is full of
instruction and exploration toward becoming a
more sensual person, not just for sexual pleasure,
but for the inherent rewards of more greatly
appreciating ourselves and the world around us It
presented a sincere case for loving all the shapes,
smells, feelings, and experiences of life itself. Luros
aligns his form with the content, printing the
magazine not on the signature Parliament high
gloss stock, but alternating the stocks throughout
the magazine; rough (but acid-free) paper for

pieces on tactile experiences (bananas, watermelon, home-made clothing) and high-gloss for
visual explorations (which were actually some
earlier color spreads from Line and Form).
This was Luross last hurrah, for within a few
months, under mounting pressures, he would
sell his Parliament magazine, book, and distribution empire to the Cleveland-based adult-distribution mogul, Reuben Sturman, and fade away
into quiet retirement.
Other nudist titles include: Jaybird Journal, Jaybird Safari, Campus Jaybird, International Jaybird,
Metropolitan Jaybird, and Urban Jaybird.TJ [see
Modern Sunbathing]

JUNGLE STORIES
Fiction House, Inc. was one of the early pulp
publishing companies. It got its start in the 1920s
with aviation and western titles such as Air Stories,
Black Aces, North-West Stories, and North-West
Romances, as well as several different sports titles.

By the 1930s, Fiction House had entered the

detective genre with the popular pulp, Detective
Book Magazine.
Two of their most popular titles were Jungle
Stories, which ran for 59 issues, and featured KiGor, a Tarzan-like jungle hero.And, of course, the
science fiction great, Planet Stories, which ran for
71 issues.
There was an earlier series of Jungle Stories.
This first series, published by Clayton Magazines
and edited by H.A. McComas out of New York,
started in 1931 and ran for three bi-monthly
issues, August, October, and December, before it
folded. At 25 cents and a whopping 160 pages, it
was a pricey purchase and failed to maintain the
reading publics interest.
The great authors, good stories, and wonderful cover were not enough, even though the first
issue featured a stunning cover by Domingo F.
Periconi, a great cover story, Sangroo the SunGod, by J. Irving Crump, and a short story,The
Man Who Went Black, written by Will F. Jenkins, who would become better known in science

115

fiction circles by his pseudonym Murray Leinster.

The first issue of the second series of Jungle
Stories hit the newsstands with the Winter, 1938
issue, featuring a cover story,Ki-Gor King of
the Jungle, by John Murray Reynolds. The 20cent pulp was significantly smaller than the first
series version; each issue was a compact 128-page
pulp filled with action and adventure.The remaining 58 title stories in the total of 59 issues would
all be written by John P. Drummond, a house
name used by the magazine. The authors that
wrote as Drummond would fill the series with
stories of voodoo, terror, devils, witches, cannibals,
and, of course, lost cities. With the Spring, 1954
issue, the last title by Drummond appeared,
White Cannibal, and then the line folded,
unable to compete in the growing marketplace of
comics, paperbacks, and slick magazines.
The continued success of Jungle Stories was
due to the title character, Ki-Gor, who was one
of the most popular of the Tarzan imitations. KiGor was actually Robert Kilgour, the son of a
Scottish missionary who was killed in the jungles

116 | Jungle Stories

of Africa. Much like Tarzan, the blond, gray-eyed,
darkly tanned Ki-Gor lived alone in the jungle,
but unlike Tarzan, he raised himself.And also like
Edgar Rice Burroughss creation, Ki-Gor has his
very own Jane.
In the first novel in the series written by John
Reynolds, a rich young society girl, Helen Vaughn,
crash lands in his jungle territory. He rescues and
saves the beautiful redhead, and after many adventures together, helps her to return to civilization.
Helen is, of course, very grateful, and marries KiGor. Eventually, they return to his jungle home
together to try and keep the peace between the
various warring tribes that inhabit the wild lands.
Ki-Gor lives for adventure, the stranger the
better, as he fights hostile natives, giant sea serpents, talking gorillas,Arab slavers, and zombies.As
an aid in his many adventures, he has two close
friends besides the luscious Helen. The first one
was Timbu George, aka George Spelvin, an enormous African-American who was a former ships
cook, but ended up becoming the chief of the
MBala tribe in the East Congo. Ki-Gors other
friend and aide is NGeeso, chief of the Kamazila Pigmies, only four feet tall but a fierce fighter, is
Jungle Stories was essentially a character pulp
and each issue featured a lead novel about KiGor. Because he was clearly an imitation of
Tarzan, the pulp was both very successful in its
time and is still ardently collected by some Burroughs fans. However, Ki-Gor was not able to
communicate with animals like Tarzan did, making the series somewhat more realistic.The novels do contain some fantasy elements, but as a
whole are not fantasy.
In January, 1940 Fiction House created a spinoff comic book, Jungle Comics, in an effort to duplicate the success of their pulp line in the new medium. Kaanga was the name of the new character, a
derivative of Ki-Gor, and remained the title character throughout the run of the comic.The writer
who wrote Kaanga is unknown, but the artist was
Alex Blum, who also worked for Fox Feature Syndicate, where he co-created their Samson. He also
drew quite a few issues of Classics Illustrated.

Eventually Kaanga would appear in his own

comic book, but nearly a decade later, in Kaanga
Comics, which first came out in spring 1949. It lasted 20 issues; the last was dated Summer, 1954.That
was also the date of the final issue of Jungle Comics
(163 issues). The pulp magazine Jungle Stories also
ceased publication at that time. In fact, thats when
the company itself got out of the comic book business, responding to the recent formation of The
Comics Code Authority, which frowned on its
extensive use of half-naked women.
For some reason, though, the Kaanga-like
character Ki-Gor was a huge hit in the Fiction
House pulps, the now much-better-known
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle barely made a blip
on the pulp scene, especially considering her
impact on the comics. Ki-Gor appeared in 59
consecutive quarterly issues of Jungle Stories, but
Sheenas only pulp stories were published in a
one-shot Sheena pulp in 1951 (three stories) and
in the final issues of Jungle Stories.
Now, almost forgotten, there was a time when
Ki-Gor reigned supreme as King of the Jungle, a
mighty competitor of Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle. For nearly a decade the quarterly pulp fascinated and delighted readers with fantastic cover art
and heroic stories about lost empires and far horizons.Todays reader can still find much pleasure in
re-examining these pulp epics about a time when
the worlds frontiers were still unknown.WU

K - L
STEPHEN KINGS MAGAZINE
OF HORROR
Celebrity writers magazines
There is no Stephen Kings Magazine of Horror or
J. K. Rowlings Fantasy Magazine because these
authors do not want such a publication in the
marketplace. But there have been many other
writers that were not so recalcitrant.
It is likely today that only a handful of people
remember the fantasy writer Abe Merritt, but he
was once an author popular enough to have a
pulp magazine named after him. Of course, there
is a long history of magazines named after real
people. The practice started in the 19th century
when publishers used their names for magazines
(Scribners, Munseys, Lesleys, MacFaddens, Pearsons),
but this was more of a brand title or publishers
conceit and not something to be counted on
to aid in building circulation. There were also
dime novel fictional characters, such as Nick
Carter, that became popular and had their exploits
written up as true stories of real people. Frank
Reade Weekly Magazine ran from 1902-1904. During the 1930s, pulp publishers began originating
character-centered magazines like The Spider, Doc
Savage, and The Shadow, licensing characters from
other media, like Flash Gordon Strange Adventure
Magazine (1936), or using real-life figures like Jack
Dempseys Fight Magazine (1936), edited by Jack
Dempsey, or the 64 page one-shot, Blackstones
Magic, produced by Walter B. Gibson, writer of the
The Shadow. Even Nick Carter returned in Nick
Carter Detective Magazine (1933).
It did not take long before publishers realized

PG 116 inhouse ad for JAYBIRD magazines ( Jaybird Enterprises); PG 117, L to R A. MERRITTS FANTASY MAGAZINE,
July, 1949 ( Popular Publications); MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED, Oct. 1954 ( respective copyright holder); LAFF ANNUAL, Winter 1956 ( Volitant Publications); MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED, May 1956 ( respective copyright holder).

Lunatickle/Myron Fass |
that the name of a hugely popular writer might
be a better way to sell magazines. Edgar Wallace
came close to having a magazine named after him
when he was listed on the cover of the British
Hush (1930), as editor, in type almost as big as the
masthead. Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine had to
wait until 1964 to reach newsstands, long after the
authors death. Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine
(1941) appears to be the first true author-named
magazine on newsstands. Rex Stouts Mystery
Monthly and Craig Rice Mystery both appeared in
1945, followed by Zane Greys Western Magazine
in 1946. Popular Publication followed with A.
Merritt Fantasy Magazine (1949), Max Brands Western (1949), and Wash Coburn Western (1949).
In the 1950s, the mystery field burgeoned,
with Hank Janson Detective (1951), Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine (1954), Jack Londons Adventure Magazine (1958), Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
(1957), and Ed McBain Mystery Book (1959).
Although he was not a writer, Alfred Hitchcocks TV show was popular in the late 1950s and
his droll personality was a perfect branding element for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. In
1960, Great American Publications was prepared
to bring out a monthly Boris Karloff fiction magazine similar to their The Saint Mystery Magazine.
At the time Karloff was hosting Thriller, an
anthology TV program featuring a different suspense story every week, and the show already
used stories from genre fiction magazines. The
Karloff fiction magazine never materialized, but
Great American did publish Fear! later that summer. A Gold Key comic book, Boris Karloff:
Thriller, appeared a few years later.
Some latecomers to this field include Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Magazine (1977), Rod Serlings
The Twilight Zone (1981), Marion Zimmer Bradleys
Fantasy Magazine (1988), Louis LAmour Western
Magazine (1994), and H.P. Lovecrafts Magazine of
Horror (2001).LO [see Famous Fantastic Mysteries,Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery
Queens Mystery Magazine, and Zane Greys
Western Magazine]

KNIGHT MAGAZINE
see Adam
LAFF
see Volitant Publishing
LUNATICKLE
Myron Fass
Sales reports from magazine distributors were the
only real reading that publisher Myron Fass ever
did. He would crow when one of his slapdash,
one-shot magazines, rushed out at the last minute
to take advantage of some cultural zeitgeist, hit
the jackpot. In the 1960s the Beatles, JFKs assassination, and Jackie Kennedy were favorite subjects (Myron declared [Jackie] sells because
primarily she is a heroine figure.).When celebrity interest flagged, he was fully capable of making
up events to sell magazines, such as the destruction of a whole town by UFOs. In the office Fass
was droll, efficient, and recognized by underlings
as a semi-crazed monarch who would at times
clock in workers while holding a loaded handgun. All of Myrons publishing concerns were
partially staffed by family, including his brothers,
Irving and Jeff, and son David.
Myron had started out as a comic book artist
during the 1950s, specializing, oddly enough, in
romance and horror comics. His first publishing
ventures appear to be the Mad magazine knockoff Lunatickle, which managed two issues in 1956,
and True Problems (June, 1956) a riff on the pictofiction magazines being put out by Entertaining
Creations (the new name of EC horror comics).
In 1957 he was the editor of Foto-rama, a pin-up
girlie magazine. A single issue of Shock Tales
appeared in January, 1959, and managed to be a
slightly more adult looking version of Famous
Monsters of Filmland. Eventually he would branch
out to comic books in the mid-1960s: Captain
Marvel (not the 1940s superhero), Henry Brewster

117

118 | Lunatickle/Myron Fass

(an Archie rip-off), and a western comic titled
Great West. From there he moved into pop
celebrity exposs, gun aficionados, UFOs, and
lowbrow girlie magazines. One can gauge Fasss
attitude toward publishing by the name of one of
his erotic movie magazines: FLICK (1975), a
word long forbidden, in uppercase print due to
the eyes tendency to read the side-by-side combination of L and I as a U.
In 1960, Myron hired William Harris, a printer and print broker, as a production manager for
his company Countrywide Publications and
began printing his magazines in Texas and St
Louis on large color Web presses, which were
only economical on print-runs over 100,000
copies. This figure became the base number of
copies printed; distribution and shipping cost
were also cheaper from these regions.
Harris was well into his sixties and brought
his son Stanley into the company to help him. By
the early 1970s Stanley was a 50% stockholder in
Countrywide, along with Myron. The partnership would last until the two had a fistfight in the
office around 1977 some witnesses called it a
beating with Stanley Harris the loser.This was
not long after Myron fired one of his firearms
through an office wall, almost killing Harris.
The magazine market had greatly expanded
during the 1960s free love movement and the
falling away of censorship. Myron was one of
many publishers, some enlightened, some
crooked, some benighted, driving the nationwide
promulgation of exploitative periodicals. As one
consultant in the magazine field put it in 1966:
All you need is a line of credit.
Al Goldstein, fresh out of Pace University, got
his start in publishing at Countrywide before
starting Screw: The Sex Review in late 1968 (it
would later carry the motto Best in the Field It
Created). Screw was just a hardcore version of the
Fass tabloid Hush-Hush News, where Goldstein
had worked writing fake news stories. Goldstein
called them sexo-sado-pseudo-mash.
In the 1960s, Fasss Eerie Publications printed
refurbished horror comics from 1950s pre-comic

code comic books (from magazines put out by

Ajax-Farrell, Harvey, and Quality, and refurbished
for Fass by Dick Ayers, Chic Stone,and A. Reynos)
and sold them under new titles (Tales from the
Crypt,WitchesTales) as kid fare. Mom & Pop-run
stores wouldnt touch any of the Eerie Publications; nonetheless the magazines appealed to kids
enticed by the terrifying pleasures promised by
R rated covers that included splattered blood,
guts, exposed bones, dangling eye-balls, and decapitations.This was a slightly different audience from
the one that Jim Warren was catering to with bare
breasted wenches drawn by Richard Corben and
Wally Wood in Vampirella,or werewolves and vampires in Creepy and Eerie. One always got the sense
that bullies read Eerie Publications more nihilistic
magazines and their victims read Warrens books.
Official UFO (April 1978) reported the
destruction of the town of Chester, Illinois, by
aliens in flying saucers. Fass told a reporter calling
for more information that he had obtained a
dozen photographs, taken by a Chester resident on
the night of the attack, showing the town burning.
Fass also had evidence of mutated grass from a
flying saucer landing site.When asked if Fass had
checked the accuracy of the story he said, We
dont look for exact proof. If I started to look for
exact proof I dont think Id be doing my job.
Myrons son David edited most of the rock
magazines, including Fever, Punk Rock, Acid Rock,
Hard Rock, and something called Groupie Rock.
David looked the part of a rock star, and had
dreams of becoming one, but only got as far as
having a substance abuse problem. He died in
2000.
What made Myron a paragon of late-twentieth-century exploitation publishing, besides the
sub-basement themes he exploited, was the
sweatshop labor that went into each of his gaudy
magazines. Editors and writers came and went.
(In many cases the editor was a magazines whole
staff of writers, under various assumed pen
names.) Copy editing was non-existent. Still,
Myron referred to his magazines as masterpieces
on cheap paper. By the late 1970s (after buying

out all the sex magazines from bankrupt Acme

News Company), Fass was the number one purveyor of magazines on American newsstands with
close to fifty different periodicals published every
month. These covered every imaginable subject
from guns to dogs, rock stars to muscle cars, and
naked girls to aliens from other worlds.
Jeff Goodman, the editor of Gasm (a Heavy
Metal copycat) gave an idea of the behind-thescenes working of Fasss company in a 1978 editorial: In case you contributors are under the
delusion that when you send artwork to Gasm, it
reaches an orderly, businesslike office, you are
sadly mistaken. Let me tell you that we are a staff
of illiterates, incompetents, and infants, and worse.
We put out 50 other magazines besides Gasm (no
lie) for an immense magazine corporation, and
there are only six or seven imbeciles here to do
it.... Even if we dont lose your artwork, your
chances of getting paid for it are slim since we
always lose all your bills.
With Countrywides aggregate production,
all a magazine needed to survive to a next issue
was a newsstand sell-through of at least 35% of
copies printed. Subscriptions were rarely offered.
But Countrywides real bread and butter was
always one-shots, with the newsstand life of a
mayfly, tied to a big movie, such as Star Wars and
Jaws, or a newsworthy event or crime. Some
ephemeral bestsellers in this category included
Son of Sam Caught!, Led Zep vs. KISS, and Ancient
Astronauts (using Erich von Dnikens Chariots of
the Gods as its inspiration), and any topic that
Myron termed fun death.The latter seemed to
cover everything from mob wars to Elvis and
Jaws. One-shots built around conspiracy theories
surrounding the assassination or love life of JFK
were proven moneymakers for Fass.
Over the years Fass formed many publishing
companies (Tempest Publications, MF Enterprise,
Countrywide Publications, Eerie Publications,
National Mirror, Inc., Jaguar Publications, Stories,
Layouts & Press, Inc., and Creative Arts) to bypass
legal problems and creditors. In the early 1990s he
moved his operation to Ocala, Florida, and was

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction |

PG 118, Top to Bot JAGUAR, #1, 1961 ( American Art Agency, Inc.); RANCH ROMANCES, April 1957 ( Thrilling
Publications); PG 119 SUNBATHING REVIEW, fall 1958 ( respective copyright holder).

concentrating primarily on gun magazines, which

had a strong market in the south, while running a
gun shop in Florida a sideline he shared with
his friend Al Goldstein. Myron Fass died on September 14, 2006; he was 80.
A few of Fasss magazines include: Screen Monsters,True War, Movie TV Secrets, Homicide Detective,
Space Wars, UFO Confidential, Photoland, Beatles
Film Festival, .44 Magnum,Terror Tales, Horror Tales,
Gasm,WitchesTales, Space Trek, JFKs Love Affairs,
Jaws of Horror, Confidential Report: Jackie Onassis,
Tales from the Tomb, Poorboy, Stud, Buccaneer, Hall of
Fame Wrestling, Strange Galaxy, Close Encounters
with Space Aliens, Weird Vampire Tales, Space War
Heroes, Jaguar, Erotica, He & She,Weird Worlds, Confidential Sex Report,Weird,Terrors of Dracula, Clones,
Rock's Nova Bowie, Shock Tales, Shotgun Journal, Sea
Monsters, Murder Squad Detective, Dracula Classic,
Strange Unknown, Mobs and Their Gangs, Star Wars
Magazine, Space Wars, and Tales of the Killers.LO

M
THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY
& SCIENCE FICTION
The primary publication of Mercury Press was
American Mercury, a magazine started by H. L
Mencken and George Jean Nathan in 1924. In
1941, Mercury Press publisher, Lawrence Spivak,
added Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. In 1949
Spivak brought out the first issue of The Magazine
of Fantasy. The timing could not have been better. Sales of the two other major science fiction
magazines of the time, Amazing Stories and
Astounding, had been sagging. Amazing had
become embroiled in the Shaver Mystery and

Astounding was becoming sidelined by a growing

interest in fringe science.Anthony Boucher and
J. Francis McComas, as co-founding editors, had
the right idea: to produce a magazine fusing
together literary quality and fantastic fiction.
With the second issue, they made only one
change, adding and Science Fiction to the title.
(The magazine is often referred to as F&SF.)
Otherwise, the exact same digest-size publication
would be produced year after year to this day. Initially, it was published as a quarterly periodical,
then bi-monthly, and eventually monthly, for
decades. In 2009 it became a bi-monthly and the
extended anniversary double issue every October has been dropped. It continues to print the
best literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror
stories in the marketplace.
All the people at the helm of this magazine
have been talented, creative writers or editors.
Anthony Boucher was the first English translator
of Jorge Lus Borges, translating El Jardn de
Senderos que se Bifurcan for Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. He would go on to help found the
Mystery Writers of America in 1946. Later in that
year he would become one of the first winners of
the MWAs Edgar Award for his mystery reviews
in the San Francisco Chronicle.
McComas was a similarly talented individual.
Along with Raymond J. Healy, he was one of the
co-editors of the early science fiction anthology
Adventures in Time and Space (1946). He would
remain as co-editor of F&SF until 1954, when he
left the position of active editor, although he continued in the role of advisory editor until 1962.
McComas wrote several stories during the 1950s
using both his own name and the pseudonym
Webb Marlowe.
Many of the original principals involved with
the operation of the magazine would end up
changing roles and levels of involvement over the
following years. In 1954, Lawrence Spivak

119

120 | Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

resigned to pursue his interest in the television
series Meet the Press, and Joseph Ferman became
the magazines publisher.
Robert P. Mills was then managing editor of
the magazine, becoming editor in 1958 when
Boucher resigned. Mills would go on to win two
Hugo Awards for best magazine (1959 and 1960).
He was succeeded as editor in 1962 by Avram
Davidson.
Avram Davidson was a noted author in his
own right. Many of his unforgettable stories are
hard to classify, but won him a Hugo Award and
made him three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award in science fiction and fantasy. He also
won a Queens Award and an Edgar Award in the
mystery genre. Davidson would remain as editor
of F&SF until 1964.
In September,1962,coinciding with the World
Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, where
Theodore Sturgeon was guest of honor, F&SF
would inaugurate the first of the special authors
series. May, 1963 would feature Ray Bradbury.
Next, Edward Ferman took over as editor.
Avram Davidson, due to his residence in various
Latin American locales, could no longer practically continue editing. Postal delivery was, at best,
unreliable. For his first two years his father, Joseph
Ferman, was listed on the masthead of the publication as both editor and publisher. Edward gradually took over the role of publisher as his father
retired, finally becoming publisher in his own
right in 1970, and Joseph took on the title of
Chairman of the Board of what had clearly
become a family business.
Edward Ferman received the Hugo Award for
Best Professional Editor three years in a row
(1981 through 1983). Previously, F&SF had won
several other Hugo Awards under his leadership.

Edward had become famous for conducting, at

least in the last decade of his tenure, the family
business from a table in his Connecticut house.
The magazine that had become well noted for
the longevity of its editors would also feature
long-standing contributors like Isaac Asimov who
wrote a science fiction column for the magazine
that ran for 399 monthly issues without a break.
Robert Bloch wrote a notable series of essays on
fandom in the 1950s. The artist Gahan Wilson
would go on to contribute a cartoon to every
issue for more than fifteen years. Ed Emshwiller
would become the most prolific cover artist for
the magazine, producing 71 covers out of 633.
Edward Ferman remained as editor until
1991, when he hired his replacement, Kristine
Kathryn Rusch. While Ferman was the editor,
many other magazines in the field began to fold
or were short-lived. F&SF was one of the few that
maintained a regular schedule and sustained critical appreciation for its contents while doing so.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is also a well-known
writer who won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2001 for her story Millennium Babies.
She also wrote a mainstream novel, Hitlers Angel,
as Kris Rusch. She would edit F&SF from mid1991 through mid-1997, winning one Hugo
Award as Best Professional Editor. Among other
activities, Rusch and her husband, fellow writer
Dean Wesley Smith, would operate Pulphouse
Press for many years.
Edward Ferman remained as publisher of the
magazine until he sold it to Gordon Van Gelder in
October, 2000.Van Gelder had a long-term relationship with the magazine beginning in January,
1997 when he became editor upon the resignation
of Kristine Kathryn Rusch. During his tenure at
the helm of F&SF,it became the second most pro-

PG 120 MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, July 1953, art by Ed Emshwiller (Spilogale, Inc.); PG 121,
Lt to R, Top to Bot MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, fall 1950 (Spilogale, Inc.); MAGAZINE OF FANTASY
& SCIENCE FICTION, Oct. 1951 (Spilogale, Inc.); MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION (Spilogale, Inc.);
MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, fall 1949 (Spilogale, Inc.); PG 75 JACK DEMPSEYS FIGHT MAGAZINE,
Dec. 1936 ( Champion Asso. Inc.).

Manhunt |
lific science fiction magazine in existence, finally
surpassing Amazing Stories in total number of issues
published. Only Analog has remained to overshadow its performance.Van Gelder has changed the
focus of the publication of themed anthologies
from the best-of annuals published during Edward
Fermans heyday, drawing instead on the massive
backlist that the magazine has accumulated.
Van Gelder worked two other notable
changes on F&SF. First, he founded his own
press, Spilogale Inc., named for a genus of spotted
skunk, in order to continue publishing the magazine. Second, he also moved the editorial offices
from New York City to Jersey City, New Jersey.
F&SF has been incredibly successful. It has
won the Hugo Award for Best Magazine in 1958
and Best Professional Magazine an astounding
seven times, in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1969, 1970,
1971 and 1972, the last year in which an award
was made in this category. Isaac Asimov won a
special award in 1963 for his long-running series
of fact articles in F&SF. Kristine Kathryn Rusch
won a Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor
in 1994 during her tenure as editor of F&SF.
Many of the exceptionally fine stories that
first appeared in the pages of F&SF have gone on
to win many awards.The list of notable works that
first appeared in the magazine reads like a list of
the best fantasy and science fiction ever written.
Among these works are: Harrison Bergeron by
Kurt Vonnegut; One Ordinary Day, with
Peanuts by Shirley Jackson; Born of Man and
Woman by Richard Matheson; A Rose for
Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny; Jefty if Five by
Harlan Ellison;Born with the Dead by Robert
Silverberg; All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein;The Women Men Dont See by James Tiptree; The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M.
Disch; Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes;
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock; The
Martian Child by David Gerrold; and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Through diligence and persistence, F&SF has
become the queen of science fiction magazines, a
well deserved reputation.The quality and consis-

tency of the magazine has made it one of the preeminent magazines ever published. F&SF was
especially noted for its breadth of vision and willingness to publish challenging material.RA

MAGAZINE OF HORROR
see Health Knowledge Magazines
THE MALE FIGURE
Bruce Bellas (1909-1974), better known as Bruce
of Los Angeles, launched The Male Figure in 1956.
He was already known for his photography for
Weider muscle magazines. Postal regulators prohibited Bellas from sending his publication
through the mail, so he traveled across the country selling magazines to the few vendors who
were willing to take on male erotica. Bellas would
photograph some of the most important bodybuilders of the era for The Male Figure, including
Steve Reeves, Bob McCune, Joe Dallesandro, and
George Eiferman. He helped to develop a style of
male body photography that influenced later
photographers Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, and
Robert Mapplethorpe.LO [see True Strange]

MANHUNT
Although the leading hard-boiled crime-fiction
magazines are generally regarded as the pulps
Black Mask and Dime Detective, one of the most
influential was the digest magazine Manhunt.
Whereas Black Mask and Dime Detective led the
way, their contributors were the prime writers of
the 1920s and 1930s. Manhunt reveled in the new
post-war generation, with stories by Lawrence
Block, Evan Hunter, Jack Ritchie, Donald Westlake, and Mickey Spillane.
The first issue is dated January, 1953, but
appeared on the newsstands a month earlier. It
was priced at 35 cents for 144 pages and was generally unillustrated apart from brief sketches at the

121

122 | Manhunt
start of several stories, some by comic-book artist
Matt Baker. It was published by Eagle Publications (later Flying Eagle) on New Yorks Fifth
Avenue.This was an imprint of the comic book
publisher St. John Publishing, headed by Archer
St. John, whose main claim to fame, previously,
was that in 1925, when only 20, he had been
abducted by Al Capones hoodlums for threatening to expose Capones plans to manipulate a
local election. St. John had launched his own
publishing company in 1947 and though he initially published such harmless comics as Mighty
Mouse and The Three Stooges, he later issued the
shock-horror comics Strange Terrors and Weird
Horrors. These would fall foul of the Comics
Code introduced in October, 1954 following a
report by Dr Fredric Wertham that claimed that
many of the crime and horror comics were having an adverse affect on the morals of the young.
Spillane led the first issue with his serial,
Everybodys Watching Me, where a young boy
is caught up in a vendetta between a professional
killer and a series of racketeers and thugs. It was
the only time Manhunt ran a serial, but it was
worth it. Spillanes sales in those days were in the
millions, and his new novel, spread over four
issues and splashed across the covers (adorned
with suitably voluptuous damsels in distress), gave
Manhunt the start it needed.Also in that first issue
was Richard S. Prather, second only to Spillane as
the most popular writer of private-eye fiction in
the 1950s. He was best known for his detective
Shell Scott, present in that first issue with The
Best Motive.Although the stories drew upon the
Chandler formula, their fun is in Prathers eccentric and often ingenious imagery, more from the
Robert Leslie Bellem school of writing. He
describes the girl in trouble in the story as having
a shape like a mating pretzel.
These two alone were sufficient for Manhunts
impressive sales. Its initial print run of 600,000
sold out within five days and it was soon proclaiming itself the Worlds Best-Selling CrimeFiction Magazine.
Manhunt had pitched itself at the other end

of the spectrum from Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, previously the most popular genre magazine specializing in the traditional mystery. Manhunt aimed at a market that wanted gritty realism
and hard-hitting crime with an emphasis on sex
and violence, as depicted on the lurid covers.
Other significant contributors in the first few
issues were Kenneth Millar, Evan Hunter,
Jonathan Craig, Richard Deming, and Frank
Kane. Kanes story featured his private eye, Johnny
Liddell, whose books were also then selling in the
millions. Liddell, who was a methodical gumshoe,
became a regular in Manhunt over the next three
years. Kenneth Millar was the real name of Ross
Macdonald. Millar was also in the second issue,
this time under the confusing name John Ross
Macdonald, with a Lew Archer story,The Imaginary Blond. Howard Browne, who was at that
time editing Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures, and would doubtless have given his right arm
to have edited Manhunt, was also in the second
issue under his alias John Evans with a Paul Pine
story, So Dark for April. Evan Hunter later
became better known as Ed McBain, but for the
time being his stories appeared either as Hunter or
under the aliases Hunt Collins or Richard
Marsten. Jonathan Craig could always be relied
upon for the unusual. His story, Dirge for a
Nude,in the second issue,must be unique among
the annals of hard-boiled crime, as it opens with
the main protagonist playing a spinet.
During the first two years Manhunt also ran a
new Saint story, The Loaded Tourist, by Leslie
Charteris (March 1953), The Wench is Dead,
by Fredric Brown (July 1953), several stories by
Craig Rice, including ones featuring her lawyer
John J. Malone, and contributions by David
Goodis and William P. McGivern. For fans of
hard-hitting private-eye stories, Manhunt delivered what it promised.
There was also fiction by William Irish, the
alias of Cornell Woolrich. Woolrich upset the
magazine editor, John McCloud, when he discovered that Woolrichs story, The Hunted, in
the first issue, was the same as Death in Yoshi-

Manhunt |
wara from a 1938 Argosy. Manhunt promised all
new stories and readers were quick to point out
the deception. Although Woolrich was reprimanded, he did not change, later selling them his
1942 Dime Detective story, The Hopeless
Defence of Mrs. Dellford as The Town Says
Murder (January 1958). This time the editor
demanded the money back and Woolrich was
obliged to pay.Thereafter there was nothing more
by Woolrich in Manhunt, a sad loss, as the magazine was an obvious market.
The success of Manhunt had several repercussions. First it acquired a number of companions:
Verdict (from June 1953), Menace (from November
1954), Mantrap (from July 1956), Murder (from
September 1956), and the western magazine Gunsmoke (from June 1953). Its best-known companion, though, and the only one to survive from the
1950s, was Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery Magazine,
issued under an affiliated imprint, H.S.D. Publications, in December, 1956. Manhunt also had a
British edition, which began in August, 1953,
reprinting the original United States sequence.
That ran until September, 1954. A later British
magazine, Bloodhound, which began in May, 1961,
was also a reprint of those same early issues.
Second, it was honored by imitation. There
were soon plenty of Manhunt look-alikes from
rival publishers, such as Private Eye from John
Raymonds publishing empire, which saw only
two issues (July and December 1953) and Pursuit
and Hunted, twin sisters from Star Publications
that ran (alternate months) from September, 1953
to November, 1956.
Finally, the demand for back issues was so
great that Flying Eagle reissued the first four
issues, which contained the Spillane serial, in one
bumper volume called Giant Manhunt. That also
sold so well that they continued to issue them
over the next four years.
Yet despite the success of Manhunt, St. John

was having financial difficulties. In July, 1953 he

had published the first ever three-dimensional
comic that had sold over a million copies. Flushed
with this success, St. John had decided to switch
all of his comics to 3-D, at an enormous cost, only
to discover the publics fascination had been a
flash in the pan.
Hard on the tail of this came a second whammy.At the end of 1953, Dr. Fredric Wertham had
issued his report linking juvenile delinquency
with the horror comics and a Senate sub-committee was set up in early 1954. Recognizing the
likely outcome, some publishers cut back and St.
John Publishing dropped its weird-horror titles, at
a considerable loss of income.The expense of the
3-D experiment coupled with a loss of crucial
revenue had the inevitable affect, and St. John cut
back on all his publications.
Manhunt missed the March and April, 1954
issues and when it re-emerged in May, its covers
were no less violent or sexy. It continued to publish the same kind of material.Among the formulaic hard-edged private-eye stories were some
surprises.The enigmatic B.Traven, best known for
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, had stories in the
August and September, 1954 issues. James T. Farrell and Erskine Caldwell made rare appearances.
John D. MacDonald began to contribute in January, 1955. The magazine began to tone down
slightly.The April, 1955 issue included an Inspector Schmidt story by George Bagby, an Alphabet
Hicks story by Rex Stout, and a rare early story
by Ira Levin,Sylvia. Anthony Boucher began a
book review column under his alias H.H.
Holmes.Vincent H. Gaddis, in the days before he
created the phrase the Bermuda Triangle, ran a
series of short real-crime anecdotes while Fred
Anderson ran a series of puzzle stories.The variety gave these issues a more comprehensive feel,
but to many readers Manhunt had lost some of its
gritty edge and its circulation began to suffer.

PG 122, MOVIE ACTION MAGAZINE, Jan. 1936 ( respective copyright holder); PG 123 MOBSTERS, vol. 1, #2, Feb.
1953 ( Standard Magazines).

123

124 | Manhunt
It may be that the sudden loss of revenue
among his comics and the inevitable knock-on
effect tipped the edge for Archer St. John. He was
found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills in
a New York apartment in August, 1955, though
whether by suicide or accident was never fully
resolved.The company passed to his son, Michael
St. John, then aged 25, who began to pump life
back into Manhunt.
New names and contributors appeared during
1956. Both Herbert D. Kastle and Robert Bloch
were in the February, 1956 issue; Harlan Ellison
appeared with Rat Hater (August 1956), followed by William Campbell Gault in October.
Evan Hunter made his debut as Ed McBain in
February, 1957 with an 87th Precinct story, The
H Killer.This marked the first appearance of the
McBain name in any crime-fiction magazine.
From March, 1957 on there was a major
change.The market for Manhunt almost certainly
overlapped with some of the leading mens magazines such as Argosy, For Men Only, or Stag. St. John
decided to aim directly at that market and
switched the magazine from the digest format to
the full flat format. Along with this, the magazine
again placed greater emphasis on sex and sadism.
Unfortunately for St. John and Flying Eagle, the
change was noticed in other quarters and the
April, 1957 issue was withdrawn from sale by
authorities in New Hampshire (where the magazine was printed and distributed) on the grounds
of publishing indecent material. It resulted in an
important trial where the question of what constituted obscene material was explored. Although
St. John, along with his general manager and art
director, were found guilty, the original judgment
failed to specify what it was in the April issue that
was regarded as obscene.There was an appeal that
was not resolved until January 1961.The original
judgment was upheld even though the only items
now specified as obscene were one illustration
plus Al Jamess story Body on a White Carpet.
The illustration, by Jack Coughlin, for the vignette
Object of Desire by Paul G. Swope, was clearly
obscene, as what might have been intended to be

PG 124, Top to Bot HORROR STORIES, Apr. 1971 ( Charlton); MYSTERY ADVENTURES MAGAZINE
( Fiction Magazines, Inc.); PG 125, Bot band, L to R EXCLUSIVE DETECTIVE, Nov. 1942, with Peter Driben cover art
( respective copyright holder); WEIRD TALES, Oct. 1933, with M. Brundage cover art ( respective copyright holder); THRILLING MYSTERY, Sept. 1936, with Belarski art ( Beacon).

a fold in a mans trousers is far more evidently an

erect penis.Al Jamess story, though, is nothing out
of the ordinary for Manhunt (a woman uses sex to
lure a man into disposing of a dead body). Nevertheless, both were regarded as sufficient to declare
the whole magazine obscene,the judge commenting:An obscene picture of a Roman orgy would
be no less so because accompanied by an account
of a Sunday school picnic which omitted the
offensive details. (United States Court of Appeals
285 F.2d 307, January 10, 1961) Flying Eagle was
forced to pay the fine.
Manhunt had already switched back to the
digest format in June, 1958, and had gone bimonthly from the previous issue, always a sign of
financial trouble.The experiment had not been
a success. A new editor, John Underwood, was
installed, and with this change there is a sense
that some of the fight had been knocked out of
the magazine. During the period of the court
case, Manhunt had continued to run provocative
covers, but after the final judgment they became
milder and the stories less hard-boiled. Sales
continued to fall. The reported figure for
1961/2 was just over 178,000, impressive by
todays standards, but less than a third of sales
only six years earlier. Some of the market was
being siphoned away by paperbacks and the
growth in television, but it is also clear that Manhunt had lost much of its original bite.
Yet, in hindsight, these mid-period issues have
much in their favor. Donald E.Westlake had made
the first of several appearances in the January,
1958 large-size issue with The Arrest, his third
or fourth published story. Avram Davidson first
appeared in the same issue, and Lawrence Block
turned up with his very first story sale,You Cant
Lose in the February, 1958 issue. Block became
a regular for the next few years. Nelson Algren

put in a surprise appearance with Say a Prayer

for the Guy (June 1958). Joe Gores was also now
a regular.The February, 1960, issue carried a Raymond Chandler story,Wrong Pigeon, previously published only in Britain. Other contributors
included Jack Ritchie, James M. Reasoner (who
slyly contributed under the alias M.R. James), and
Robert Turner, but by the early 1960s most of the
contributors were little-known writers. The last
issue of any note is probably that for April, 1963,
which had both a Joe Gores novelette and Westlake, writing as Richard Stark, with The Outfit.
Thereafter any remaining luster faded away. The
magazine started to reprint material from its early
issues, including the Spillane serial as one complete novel (in fact, it reprinted that twice, having
already re-run it in a bumper issue in June 1955).
Theres almost nothing of interest in the last two
years besides the reprints. Manhunts final number
was dated April/May, 1967, making a total of 114
issues. Its declared circulation at the end was just
over 74,000.
Manhunts final days may have been ignominious, but for a brief period of three or four years, it
erupted like a volcano, spewing red-hot fiction
across the newsstands of America and searing life
back into the hard-boiled genre.That eruption was
eventually quelled by a mixture of over-ambition
and the courts, in a country where free speech is
fine, provided you dont shout too loudly.MA

MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the United
States was largely rural. The Great Depression
caused a shift from the farm to the urban life of
the city. These new urbanites were still farmers,
and from families of farmers who were used to

Mechanix Illustrated |
making their own goods and repairing their own
equipment.The internal combustion engine and
the radio were core technologies of that period,
and both were relatively simple to build and
maintain. If you could build a boat, you probably
thought you could build a car, or an airplane.
If you were one of those types of people, then
Modern Mechanics and Inventions, which debuted in
1928, was the magazine for you. Originally this
magazine was for the home tinkerer. It was full of
designs for little devices, bigger devices, and even
cars, boats, and airplanes. Billed as The How-ToDo Magazine, Modern Mechanics aimed to guide
readers through various projects from home
improvements and advice on repairs to buildyour-own (sports car, telescope, helicopter, etc.).
Modern Mechanics became the flagship of the
Fawcett publishing company. Wilford Hamilton
Captain Billy Fawcett founded the company in

1919, after returning from service in World War I.

While serving as an Army captain, Fawcett gained
experience with the publishing world through
the Army publication Stars and Stripes, That gave
him the notion to start his own similar publication after the war. His bawdy cartoon and joke
magazine, Captain Billys Whiz Bang, became the
launch pad for a vast publishing empire.
Fawcett began publishing Captain Billys Whiz
Bang in October 1919, and by 1921 he was on the
way to becoming a millionaire. By 1923, the magazine had a circulation of 425,000 with $500,000
in annual profits. During the late 1920s and early
1930s, Fawcett and his sons established a line of
magazines that eventually reached a combined
circulation of ten million a month in newsstand
sales. Modern Mechanics and Inventions was their
premier publication throughout the 1930s and
into the late 1940s, until it was eclipsed in sales by

Womans Day, added to the line-up in 1948 and

reaching a circulation of 6,500,000 by 1965.
From its debut in 1928, Modern Mechanics and
Inventions went through a number of permutations. In August, 1932 the title was changed to
Modern Mechanix and Inventions, and changed
again in 1937 to the shorter Modern Mechanix, and
finally to Mechanix Illustrated in 1938. In 1984 it
was once again retitled to Home Mechanix.When
the magazine was acquired by Time, Inc., in 1993,
the title was changed to Todays Homeowner, severing any noticeable connection with the original.
From its beginning until the late 1930s, the
magazine sported wonderful futuristic covers and
similar articles, showcasing amazing, impossible,
and unlikely machines, like the spinning top airplane, the great wheeled ocean liner, or the dirigible airfield. Covers were mostly done by the
illustrator Norman Saunders, who became a

125

Fawcett staffer in 1927 after doing some spot

illustrations for editor Weston Westy Farmer.
Saunderss first cover illustration was for the
August, 1929, issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions.The art on his covers, with its bright palette
of orange and red contraptions against green and
purple, hazy backdrops, caught the eye of readers
and home inventors, who were also reading the
adventures of Buck Rogers on Sundays.
Saunders continued to do covers for Fawcett
Publications until 1934, when he moved to New
York. He worked in almost all genres westerns, weird menace, detective, sports, and the
Spicy magazines producing 100 paintings a
year, two a week from 1935 through 1942.
Larry Eisinger, the workshop and science editor of Mechanix Illustrated, began the national doit-yourself craze as the editor-in-chief of Fawcetts How-To book series and special interest

CULT ARTISTS 1

126 | Mechanix Illustrated

magazines. He created Fawcetts Mechanix Illustrated Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia and The Practical
Handymans Encyclopedia, which had combined
sales of almost 20 million copies.
After an incredible growth spurt in the early
1930s, Fawcett Publications relocated to both
New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut, in
the mid-1930s. Of note, the same year that
founder Captain Billy Fawcett died (1940), the
company launched Fawcett Comics, creating the
character Captain Marvel.
The World War II paper shortage saw Fawcett
terminating many of its magazines and shifting to
both comic books and paperback publishing.
Modern Mechanix endured both the corporate
shake-up and the shift in culture caused by the
war, and became a more mainstream magazine,
less focused on How-To and more on articles
about existing technology.
Beginning in the mid-1940s, the most eagerly-awaited and read features were Tom McCahills
monthly automobile tests, which ran until the
early 1970s. McCahills feisty opinions were
delivered in a prose laced with similes that are still
quoted today among car enthusiasts: As anyone
brighter than a rusty spike must know; flooring the accelerator pedal on a certain car is
like stepping on a wet sponge. McCahill
died in 1974.Three years later, CBS bought Fawcett Publications.
Tom McCahill first began selling his articles
to Mechanix Illustrated in February 1946, reporting
on his own 1946 Ford. His opinions were fearless
and this endeared him to some in the automotive
world, but created his share of enemies, too. He
became a personal friend of Walter P. Chrysler,
due to his ardent appreciation of the handling and
performance characteristics of the late 1950s and
early 1960s Chrysler automobiles.
McCahill did not pull any punches, reporting
in a 1949 road test that the new Dodge was a
dog. He considered the early 1950s Chevrolets
mundane. His wife, Cynthia, acted as his photographer on his early road tests, and would accompany him, usually with their black Labrador

retriever. His later assistant was the professional

driver and photographer Jim McMichael, who
became known as the trunk tester, as he was often
photographed, sitting or lying, in every trunk of
every make tested.
McCahill made more enemies by demanding
that the United States stop accepting imports in
lieu of war reparations; this led to England, Canada, and France (where one could purchase an
English or German car, but no United States
models) having to accept the forced sale of hundreds of thousands of used United States cars.
After his death, the magazine was never the
same. In 1984, the renamed magazine, Home
Mechanix, featured more home repair, remodel,
and woodworking projects, while featuring
fewer articles on general technology and automotive subjects.
A memorable, long-running feature of
Mechanix Illustrated was MI MI, a shapely young
woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and
white vertical stripes. She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, laying on, or just
in the picture with, a new product each month.
Each MI MI held the job for a year. Their
names were never given except for the
announcement of a new MI MI in the January
issue.MI MI was discontinued with the change
to Home Mechanix.AW

MEDICAL HORRORS
Harold Hersey
Harold Brainerd Hersey (1894-1956) was the
publisher or editor of some of the weirdest magazines ever produced, and a few were even surprisingly successful, like Ranch Romances, created during a short stint with Clayton Publications, but

most of his oddities ultimately failed to find readers. Prison Stories (1930), Fact Spy Stories (1939),
Mobs (1930),The American Autopsy (1932), Famous
Lives (1929), Miracle Fantasy & Science Stories
(1931), Lucky Stories, Thrills of the Jungle (1929),
Strange Suicides (1932), and Pictorial Detective are
only a few of his misses.
Medical Horror (January 1932) is an example of
one of Herseys many esoteric magazines published during the Great Depression, and came
about when, as Hersey tells it: A friend of mine
had ached to take a crack at medical frauds and
malpractice. He said he would finance a publication that hotfooted it after quackery and chicanery
among doctors if I would supervise its publication.
I was to have a share of the profits as a reward for
my labors. I formed a company separate and distinct from those associated with the fifty-odd
magazines I was publishing or distributing at the
time, taking care to keep my name off the indicia
on the contents page. I was so effective in hiding
my identity that it took almost twenty-four hours
for the entire trade to learn my secret!...
The first issue carried the following cover
stories: Confessions of a Nurse, 76 Babies
Murdered, Did She Pass Her Examination?
and The Drug Racket, all presented as behindthe-scenes exposes.The cover stated in large type
that $1000 would be paid for the best original
stories of actual experiences with doctors and
Hersey was not looking for syrupy scenes of
genial doctors handing out lollipops to children
as smiling mothers looked on.
By Herseys own account, the title was an
instantaneous success, but he had overlooked
something. No one knew better than I did
that drugstores constituted a large percentage of
the retail outlets for magazines, especially in smaller towns where the druggist uses his fully-returnable magazines as a constantly changing library for

PG 126, Top to Bot REAL CONFESSIONS, vol. 1, #1, Mar. 1937 ( Red Circle); THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE ( Phantom
Detective Inc.); PG 127, Top to Bot NEW DETECTIVE ( Popular Publications); THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE, Nov. 1940
( Phantom Detective Inc.).

Monsters & Heroes |

his customers. I could not afford to lose these outlets. Once the manufacturers passed the word
along the line that I was responsible for Medical
Horrors my goose was cooked.To avoid a backlash against his other magazines, Hersey pulled the
plug on Medical Horrors.After this he found it much
easier, and more profitable, publishing pulp fiction.
Other Hersey publications were Slapstick, Sky
Birds, The Underworld, Speakeasy Stories, Harlem
Nights, and Headquarters Stories. As editor, Hersey
worked on Burtons Follies, Screen Humor, Mystery
Adventures, and Strange Suicides. Of the latter magazine Hersey once said, If I grow to be a hundred I will never live down Strange Suicides.
Herseys ex-wife Merle Williams Hersey was
the editor for Irving and Harry Donenfelds Merwil Publishing Co., which was named after her.
She began with them in 1929 and by 1933 was
the editor of Pep, La Paree, Spicy Stories, Gay Parisienne, Snappy, and The Police Gazette, the latter
newly revived in 1933 by the Donenfelds. Ms.
Hersey was not what one expected to see as the
guiding personage behind these magazines.
Daughter of a Methodist minister, she had
worked previously as a secretary to a congressman, and was the mother of a teenage daughter
who she said was a fan of her publications.When
the revived Police Gazette was announced, Ms.
Hersey said that it will contain: Lots of sex,
underworld stuff with a sex angle, and plenty of
semi-nude nightclub girls. LO

MIDNIGHT MAGAZINE
Midnight Magazine was one of Bernarr Macfaddens more unusual magazines. It began as a weekly over-sized bedsheet that featured fiction and
non-fiction crime, true confessions, and exposs.
MM ran from August 19, 1922, through February
3, 1923, changing its name along the way, first to
Midnight Mysteries, then Midnight Mystery Stories. It
ran into trouble when one issue was deemed too
risqu and most of the print run was destroyed by
court order. Macfadden later tried to corner the

market for magazines using true in the title: True

Experiences,True Story,True Romance, and True Detective Mysteries.LO [see Physical Culture]

MOBSTER TIMES
Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley were the publishers
of Screw: The Sex Review and brought out Mobster
Times in 1972 as a satirical forum to attack FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Nixon, and
their ilk.The simulated bullet-hole-spattered mug
shot of Al Capone gracing the cover of the first
issue exhibited a fuhgeddaboutit, what-me-worry
look worthy of Mad Magazines Alfred E. Neuman.
In the war between the bad guys and the good
guys it was oblivious whose side Goldstein and
Buckley were on.The tabloid (10.5 x 13.25) had
Joseph Crazy Joey Gallo as a film critic. He gave
his review of The Godfather in an interview with
Goldstein. Crazy or not, Gallo proved to be articulate and knowledgeable. Features in the first issue
were Murder as a Career and How to StartYour
Own Racket. The subtitle of the magazine
Crime Does Pay said it all. Later issues included
a crime calendar, a story on fake nuns in New York
City subway stations grubbing for handouts, and
an expos on industrial spying. The tone of the
magazine was one of admiration for crooks and
enterprising underdogs illegally ripping off the
gullible. Mobster Times was the opposite of standard
pro-law-enforcement-glorifying publications like
Feds and Mobsters; the latter subtitled Stories of the
Fight Against the Underworld.
Mobster Times seemed like the right idea at the
right time, but only lasted three issues. From the
beginning the magazine had trouble reaching its
intended audience readers of the National Lampoon. It also didnt help that the publishers used the
same mob controlled printer that was printing
Screw to do Mobster Times. Watergate was just
around the corner and Gallo was shot in a gang
style hit on April 7, 1972, in Umbertos Clam
House, a Little Italy eatery, before the first issue
appeared on newsstands. A very young wise guy

named Steven Heller was the art director, and artist

Brad Holland (better known for his Playboy work
at the time) did the cover art for the second issue.
Heller was the gunman behind the bullet-holeridden photo of Capone. Heller would go on to
art direct Evergreen Review and the New York Times
Book Review. Jim Buckley was listed through the
run of the magazine as the editor. LO

MONSTERS & HEROES

Larry Ivie was a jack-of-all-trades in the New
York world of comic books, science fiction, and
monster magazines throughout much of the
1960s. He was involved in early issues of Calvin
Becks Castle of Frankenstein as writer and cover
artist, was an assistant to artist Wally Wood, did
illustrations for Galaxy Science Fiction, and almost
became the first editor of James Warrens Creepy.
(In later interviews Warren spoke of Ivie as someone who had an apparently inexhaustible supply
of publishing ideas.) Ivie wrote the story for the
last comic story drawn by Frank Frazetta,Werewolf, which appeared in Creepy #1.
Ivie had the idea for a pictorial magazine of
imagination for a long time before he began shopping the project around to various publishers and
distributors. At one appointment with a DC
Comics editor, he was ready to present a mock-up
of his magazine.According to Ivie, before he could
start his presentation, the DC person excused himself from the meeting and never returned. Ivie
took the mock-up of Monsters and Heroes to a long
list of New York distributors before Acme News
Company,a regional distributor and quasi-publisher that handled second tier magazines, took it on.
The first issue appeared in early 1967. It was Ivies
plan to do a magazine that covered the entire
range of imagination.To Ivie, this meant mythology, Edgar Rice Burroughs, movie serials, comic
books, and classic terror and fantasy films. Monsters
and Heroes was to be a magic carpet.
The full name on the cover was Larry Ivies
Monsters and Heroes, and the magazine was just

127

128 | Monsters & Heroes

PG 128, L to R MOBSTER TIMES, #1, Aug. 1972 ( Friday 13th Publishing); MONSTERS AND HEROES, #3, 1967
( Larry Ivie); interior pages from BACHELOR, June 1961 ( respective copyright holder); PG 129, L to R interior pages from JAGUAR, #1, 1961 ( respective copyright holder).

about all Ivie he wrote all the articles, did the

layout, supplied the story and art for each chapter
of his original superhero Anton Boy (issue number 2 did carry an early comic strip, Dragon
Slayer, by Jeff Jones), and painted all of the covers for the seven-issue run of the magazine.
(Anton Boy first appeared in Castle of Frankenstein.) This egocentric fanzine attitude worked
against M&H, and gave the magazine an insular
and limited viewpoint.The magazine would have
been better if Ivie had used more outside contributions; he had many connections in the comic
and fantastic magazine field. Of course, there was
little money to pay contributors, but some publishers, like Calvin Beck of Castle of Frankenstein,
thrived on limited resources.LO

THE MONSTER TIMES

During the first half of the 1970s, an unusual
monthly fan magazine, The Monster Times,
appeared, published from 1972 through 1976.
Unlike other fanzines and magazines of the period, it was printed on newspaper stock, making it
the worlds first monster newspaper. Due to its
excellent writing and editing, The Monster Times
developed a cult following. Readers were attracted
to each issues take on current and classic horror
and science fiction movies, and news of upcoming
comics and books in the genre. The Monster Times
always contained a lot of comic-related material by
popular comic book writers and artists.The talented contributions of these noted artists could be
seen in the various covers and pull-out posters.
Often labeled as The Worlds First Newspaper of Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy during its four-year publishing run, The Monster Times
began as an ambitious bi-monthly publication.
Sadly, the publications schedule and page count

dropped off in latter issues. The Monster Times lasted as long as it did mostly due to the persistence
and vision of Joe (Phantom of the Movies)
Kane, who became editor beginning with issue
Number 11 and lasted through issue Number 48,
the last issue published.
The short publishing run of The Monster
Times included 48 issues and three special issues:
Star Trek Lives #1 which was billed as a SciFi Super TV Special Issue, released in 1972 with
a cover price of a whopping $1; Star Trek Lives
#2, distributed at the 1974 Star Trek Convention
at 75 cents (for collectors, it is well worth noting
that this issue came with either a blue or gray
background); and The Monster Times Special Issue
#3, the All Giant Monster Posters issue (the
rarest of all The Monster Times published).
The first issue of The Monster Times appeared
on the newsstands on January 26, 1972.A few of
the people behind the scene had work at Al
Goldsteins Screw magazine previously. (Goldstein
may have been mocking the startup when he
published Mobster Times later in the year.) The
Monster Times lasted as a bi-monthly until issue
number 14, published on July 31, 1972. The
struggling magazine missed all of the August publication dates and reappeared as a monthly with
issue number 15, released on September 6, 1972.
In spite of its ever-changing publication
schedule, The Monster Times managed to retain a
consistent cost per issue over its short lifetime,
beginning at 50 cents for issues 1 through 18, and
then a modest price hike to 60 cents from issue
19 through issue 34. July, 1974, with the release of
issue 35, brought its biggest price hike (to 75
cents) which lasted through issue 48.The release
of issue 35 also brought a major change in its
publication schedule: from this point forward The
Monster Times would appear every other month,
with a few attempts at a return to a monthly

Movie Action |
a description. Even now, these lists are still viable.
The Monster Times also filled other apparent
gaps in its publishing niche. From the late 1950s
throughout the 1960s, and even for a few years
into the 1970s, Godzilla and his fellow (Japanesecreated) monsters were nowhere to be seen on
any monster magazine cover that didnt specialize
in covering giant monsters or Japanese sf films.
Godzilla appeared on many early issues of The
Monster Times, providing a much-needed focus on
Godzilla, Gamera, and other giant monsters, while
also including information on other horror and
science fiction sub-genres. This was the very
inverse of the sub-genre focus maintained by
Famous Monsters, which preferred to center its
information on the likes of Frankensteins Monster,Dracula,cinematic werewolves,and the Phantom of the Opera.
The Monster Times briefly held onto its publishing niche, catering to a specialized faction of
monster fans, unlike the general focus of more
mainstream horror movie magazines, until the
schedule, but the writing was already on the wall.
The Monster Times released two issues in 1976, and
then quietly folded.
In the early 1970s Famous Monsters of Filmland
had reached a low point in its history and for a
time it appeared as if The Monster Times would fill
in the void. Every issue of TMT contained a feature article describing a horror or science fiction
movie in detail. Often the descriptions were less
than complimentary.
In February, 1974 The Monster Times released
a memorable issue called The Worst Issue.This
release had an article on the worst in mainstream
comic books, an article on the spoof Schlock
(1971), a blow-by-blow description of Horror of
Party Beach (1964), and an exhaustive story about
the teen monster genre of the 1950s. Continuing
its theme of the worst, it had interviews with
Dennis Steckler, the person behind Incredibly
Strange Creatures (1963), and William Grefe, who
wrote and directed Wild Rebels (1967) and Death
Curse of Tartu (1966).

The capstone in this worst issue was a pair of

lists, the worst in horror movies list, and a runnersup list. Jason Thomas, a writer for The Monster
Times, and Joe Kane, editor-in-chief, started out
with a list of over 100 movies which they considered to be the worst in horror. They carefully
purged any film from the list which had even a
single good thing about it,tossing out most foreign
films (on the off chance that a bad dub could have
caused the impression that it was worse than it
might really have been), and then they arbitrarily
eliminated the majority of gore movies of the late
1960s and early 1970s because they were clearly
dominating the list. Finally they removed entries
they thought might be too obscure for even their
cult-oriented fan base of readers.
The list was presented in alphabetical order
with no ranking; Kane considered all these movies
equally bad. Each winner was listed with its
director, a synopsis, and stars. Closely following
this list were the Dishonorable Mentions, those
movies that were close, but no prize, listed without

129

niche proved to be too limited and not self-sustaining, in spite of the quality of writing and production that The Monster Times maintained until
its demise.ETK [see Famous Monsters of
Filmland]

MOVIE ACTION
The first issue of Movie Action appeared on newsstands at the end of 1935, and it was sort of a pulp
for motion pictures. Street & Smith thought that
moviegoers might want to read condensed story
adaptations of movie scripts before actually going
to the theater.An earlier attempt at this category,
Motion Picture Story Magazine (later renamed
Motion Picture) appeared in 1911 with adaptations
of silent movies, but quickly abandoned that formula and branched out into general coverage of
film personalities.
All issues of Movie Action carried painted covers and were put together by Street & Smiths

130 | Movie Action

PG 130, L to R, Top to Bot THE MONSTER TIMES, #19 ( respective copyright holder); THE MONSTER TIMES, #28
( respective copyright holder); THE MONSTER TIMES, #14 ( respective copyright holder); THE MONSTER TIMES,
#11, 1972 ( respective copyright holder); PG 131, Bot band, L to R THE SPIDER, ( Popular Publications);
THRILLING WONDER STORIES, June 1949 ( Standard Magazines); FANTASTIC ADVENTURES QUARTERLY, summer
1948 ( Ziff-Davis).

pulp editor John L. Nanovic.The magazine used

the standard pulp format and read as a pulp due
to its many adaptations of low budget adventure,
horror, and swashbuckling films such as Darkest
Africa,The Invisible Ray, China Seas, and The Walking Dead. Movie Action lasted less than a year.Today
a magazine like Script, which prints and emphasized the nuts and bolts of screenplays, has found
an audience that aspires to write for the
movies. LO

MR. AMERICA
see True Strange
MURDER
see Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery
THE MYSTERIOUS WU FANG
Popular Pulps Oriental Menace
The Mysterious Wu Fang was a character pulp
launched in September, 1935 by Popular Publications. It only lasted seven issues, but it achieved
a following of devoted readers. This was mostly
due to the lead story usually being science fiction
in nature, though the back-up stories almost
never were.
Descendants of the Victorian era dime novels, the pulps enjoyed their heyday in the 1930s
and 1940s.Their readers plunked down more than
a million dollars a month in small change to follow the adventures of Doc Savage,The Shadow,The
Mysterious Wu Fang, G-8 and His Battle Aces, or
Captain Satan, King of Detectives. There were sci-

ence fiction pulps, crime pulps, aerial-combat

pulps, westerns, jungle adventures, and more.
Americans were eager for cheap escapist entertainment during the Depression and the war years
that followed, and the pulps delivered.
In 1935, Dell entered the marketplace, replacing All Detective with the first anti-hero pulp, Dr.
Death. War Birds became Terence X. OLearys War
Birds. Both titles failed after three issues. At the
end of the year, Dell put out their short-lived
Public Enemy, a G-man pulp. It came out only two
months after Standards G-Men, which was the
first and longest-running G-Man pulp. Popular
Publications attempted to compete with Dr.
Death by bringing out their own anti-hero pulp,
The Mysterious Wu Fang. Seven issues later Wu
Fang was replaced by Dr.Yen Sin, but with no better success.
It was a small wonder that Popular Publications first all-villain pulp should be titled The
Mysterious Wu Fang. In September, 1935 when
The Mysterious Wu Fang magazine made its
debut, the name of Fu Manchu was already a
household word; the Fu Manchu books were
bestsellers and they were usually serialized in
such prestigious slick magazines as Colliers and
Liberty. If the public confused one character with
the other, the confusion could only aid the sales
of the humble pulp magazine.
During its existence, Popular Publications was
the largest publisher of pulp magazines in the
country. The company was formed in 1930 by
Henry Harry Steeger. It published titles in
every genre, but they were best known for their
several weird menace titles, such as Dime Mystery and Terror Tales.
The ten-cent, 128-page monthly was edited
by Edith Seims and all of the title stories were

The Mysterious Wu Fang |

written by Robert J. Hogan. In their hands, Wu
Fang became the most diabolical of all the
genius Orientals. In many ways a Fu Manchu
copy, Wu Fang is still fondly remembered by his
devotees for the story and character twists that
made him unique.
Wu Fang was a scientist, of course, capable of
breeding monstrous new species of poisonous
insects and snakes. He also made use of spiders,
bats, and lizards.The genius Wu Fang was capable
of creating new species that combined the worst
parts of the rat, the lizard, and the toad. More sinister than that, though, was his affection for pain
and torture other peoples pain via torture.Wu
Fang was headquartered in Limehouse, London,
but his war on good spread across the entire
world.Wu Fang was not alone in his war of terror, he had a number of aides, including Zaru, the
part-ape beast-man, but Wu Fangs main helper

was his daughter, Mohra.

Fighting against the villain Wu Fang was Val
Kildare, the former number one investigator of
the United States Secret Service. Kildare is assisted by his best friend and sidekick, Jerry Hazzard,
a newspaper reporter, but Hazzard is eventually
crippled at Wu Fangs hands and is replaced by
Rod Carson.
Kildare and his friends managed to stop Wu
Fangs plots on several occasions, although not
without being tortured or badly beaten. Eventually, Mohra fell in love with Hazzard, escaped from
Wu Fang, and married him.Wu, after being killed
and resurrected many times, was finally captured.
Robert Jasper Hogan wrote all of the title
stories:The Case of the Six Coffins (September
1935), The Case of the Scarlet Feather (October 1935), The Case of the Yellow Mask
(November 1935), The Case of the Suicide

Tomb (December 1935), The Case of the

Green Death (January 1936), The Case of the
Black Lotus (February 1936), and The Case of
the Hidden Scourge (March 1936).
However, Hogans literary efforts were not
enough for the magazine to establish a significant
foothold in the marketplace. Dr. Yen Sin was a
short-lived pulp magazine published by Popular
Publications in 1936. It was used to replace The
Mysterious Wu Fang magazine from the same publisher after it ceased publication in March, 1936,
another attempt to break into the Oriental villain
niche.The title characters in both magazines,Wu
Fang and Dr. Yen Sin, were pointedly Yellow
Peril villains in the mold of Fu Manchu.
Only three issues of Dr.Yen Sin appeared, with
cover dates of May/June, 1936, July/August, 1936,
and September/October, 1936, before it also folded due to a lack of popular support. Each issue

131

contained a lead story written by Donald E. Keyhoe. Keyhoe later became famous as the author of
Flying Saucers Are Real.The titles of the three novels, in chronological order, are: The Mystery of
the Dragons Shadow,The Mystery of the Golden Skull, and The Mystery of the Singing
Mummies.
The title stories are set in a dark, fog-shrouded version of Washington, D.C., that resembles the
Limehouse of Hogans Wu Fang novels. Dr. Yen
Sin, described as the Yellow Doctor and the
Invisible Emperor, combines the mysticism of
the East with the latest devices of the West, with
diabolical results. He uses blowguns, Dacoit stranglers, death rays, and science laboratories to
achieve his evil ends. He is opposed by Michael
Traile, a man who is incapable of natural sleep due
to a bungled brain operation, and who uses yogalike relaxation sessions to recharge his vitality.

SNAKEBIT

132 | The Mysterious Wu Fang

Popular Publications would continue to produce pulp magazines for decades to come in spite
of the failure of their Yellow Peril line. In 1942,
the firm acquired the properties of the Frank A.
Munsey, Co., most notably Argosy magazine. In
1972, the companys rights were sold to Blazing
Publications, but not before they had created an
admirable legacy in a highly competitive arena.
RA [see Yellow Peril]

MYSTIC
see Other Worlds

N
NEMESIS
see Doctor Death
THE NOSE
The Nose began in 1989 as a San Francisco
black and white journal focused on local Bay
Area doings. The magazines co-founders David
Latimer and Jack Boulware, a former stand-up
comic, were fascinated by odd human behavior
and saw the magazines audience as the same sort
of weird people it covered. The Nose was at first
seen as a left coast version of Spy magazine that
explored bizarre news surrounding sex, crime,
drugs and outlandish human behavior west of the
Mississippi. If Spy can be said to be the ungrateful, silver-spoon-fed child of the greedy 1980s,
then The Nose is the nose-picking foster child
that eats with its fingers.
Some issue topics: Genital piercing (#3);
Smelly-shoe fetishism (#11); Foreskin restoration
(#9); Hunter S. Thompson write-alike contest;
and The Evil Cult of Rush Limbaugh. LO [see
Spy, Future Sex]

PG 132, Top to Bot MEN, Sept. 1964 ( respective copyright holder); FRENCH MODELS, #4, July 1935 ( respective copyright holder); PG 133, Bot band, L to R OPERATOR #5, Sept. 1938 ( Popular Publications); OPERATOR
#5, Feb. 1937 ( Popular Publications); OPERATOR #5, May 1934 ( Popular Publications).

O
OPERATOR #5
Americans were deeply shattered by the Great
Depression of the 1930s. The nightmares of the
Great War,World War One, were still fresh in their
memories. Americans had begun to see new
threats and new potential nightmares developing
around them that would soon plunge the whole
world into another great war. These fears found
root in their imaginations as possible acts of espionage and terrorism on American soil. It was
clear that America was not beyond the reach of
tyranny, invasion, and occupation.
In April, 1934 Americans began to find
renewed hope in a new fictional character, Jimmy
Christopher, Americas Undercover Ace, also
known to all as Operator #5. He made his first
appearance in that April issue in the self-titled
Operator #5 magazine published by Popular Publications. Operator #5 was ready to face the
threat of United States invasion and lead Americans out of the gloom of the Great Depression
into glorious victory.
Operator #5 was a ten-cent pulp that ran for a
total of 48 issues, ending in November, 1939. In
the pages of the magazine, Jimmy Christopher
fought against dire enemies and led the United
States forces into victorious battle against the evils
that threatened this great land. Operator #5 was
an American spy at a time when there was no
agency for secret agents in existence.The enemy,
saboteurs, and foreign menaces knew him by his
trademark skull ring, and feared the sharp rapier

curled inside his belt.

The amazing adventures of the pulp hero
Jimmy Christopher were written by Curtis
Steele, a house name used by Popular Publications, but it was Frederick C. Davis who wrote
issues one through 20. Emile C. Tepperman followed Davis, writing issues 21 through 39.Wayne
Rogers finished the run of Operator #5 by writing issues 40 through 48. There were also short
back-up stories written by other authors
throughout the series, just like all the other pulps
published during this era. A final, unpublished
story, Hells Lost Battalion, was written by
Wayne Rogers.
Formed in 1930 by Henry Harry Steeger,
Popular Publications magazines included detective, adventure, romance, and Western fiction.
Most notably, they published The Spider, and Dime
Detective. In 1942, Steeger bought out the properties of Frank A. Munsey Co., which published the
famous Argosy magazine. The company was sold
in turn to Blazing Publications in 1972, which
renamed itself Argosy Communications in 1988.
During the Great Depression it was the patriot James Jimmy Christopher, the secret agent,
who covertly defended America. He was
described as a young man in his early 20s, strong
and clean-shaven, bright blue eyes alert, chin
determined, possessed of a poise beyond his years.
On the back of his right hand was his only distinguishing mark, a peculiar scar, a spread-winged
American eagle, straining to take flight.
Hidden by a mask of black velvet, a rapier
concealed in his belt, and a deaths head ring
bearing the number 5, and containing a powerful explosive in the hollow top, he was the very
epitome of a true hero.The enemies of America
would learn to fear him, and his small, secret, gold
skull, ruby-eyed, filled with a silver ball of Diphenolchlorasine, a death-dealing poison gas.

Operator #5 |
Operator #5 was aided in his fight to protect
America by a number of friends.There was Tim
Donovan, a young shoeshine boy, who had saved
Jimmys life when a gangster went gunning for
him. Adopted by Jimmy, he became his assistant
and sidekick, the only other character to appear
in every novel. Later the two-fisted young man
would enter the Service, where his street smarts
and young appearance allowed him to go unnoticed and undetected in the face of the enemy.
Another agent of the Service was Jimmys
girlfriend, Diana Elliot, an ace reporter for Amalgamated Press. After a big scoop, she frequently
needed to be rescued by Operator #5.The Chief
of Intelligence of the Service was Z-7, garbed in
gray, hair raven-black, eyes shining with the deep
brilliance of black diamonds, eventually replaced
as the leader by Jimmy. During times of danger,
he delegated all operational control to Operator

#5, acting as liaison to the White House.

Then there was John, Jimmys father, a former
Service Operator, Operator Q-6.A bullet near his
heart had forced him to retire, but he still managed to help Jimmy, along with Nan Christopher,
Jimmys twin sister, who often impersonated
Operator #5 in order to mislead the enemy. Not
to be forgotten was his friend Slips McGuire.
However, it was the Hidden Hundred, a
group of 100 men, former members of the Secret
Service, who were the most help. Dismissed by a
stupid Secretary of State, the Hidden Hundred
continued to fight for America, and Operator #5
was their leader.
The most famous story line in the entire run
is the thirteen inter-connected novels, written by
Emile Tepperman, that make up The Purple
Invasion. In this series, the Purple Empire, an
unnamed European power that is a thinly veiled

Germany, conquers the United States and the

world. Operator #5 leads the insurgency against
them.
The series really came alive with issue 26,
Deaths Ragged Army (June 1936). Until then
the enemies had been many, often from countries
with fictional names. In issue number three,
Operator #5 fought against The Yellow
Scourge (June 1934), but everyone knew it was
the Chinese. Issue 20, Scourge of the Invisible
Death (November 1935), was a fight against a
British secret society using cosmic rays from
space. Issue 21, the first written by Emile Tepperman, Raiders of the Red Death (December
1935), was a fight against Montezuma the Third
who was trying to establish an Aztec empire using
a weapon that caused people to explode.
With issue 26, the single-issue wars ceased.
Deaths Ragged Army begins on the 22nd day

133

of the invasion of America by the Purple Empire.

Emperor Maximilian I of Balkaria, who had
planned the invasion and a reign of slaughter, is
killed by a bomb thrown by Plugger Dugan.This
gives his bloodthirsty son, Rudolph, an excuse to
take over. He blames Operator #5 for the death
of his father, and the invasion begins.
As the story starts, the invaders from the Central Empire (Germany) hold all New England
and most of the Eastern Seaboard. In the last
scene of the first installment, the President, hiding
in a temporary headquarters in Jacksonville,
Florida, appoints Operator #5 to take charge of
the fight. Thus begins the battle that will be
fought across America, and that will last until the
end of issue 38.
Operator #5 leads a rag-tag army of Americans in those battles. Fighting in towns across the
country, in the sky, and at sea, they all face great

OPERATOR #5

134 | Operator #5
danger. Operator #5, as a master of disguise,
learns the secrets of the invaders as whole populations are massacred.The evil enemy chops heads
off at whim, bayonets helpless women and babies,
and uses poison gas on whole towns.
The Warlord of the World, and his gray-clad
hordes, sweeps across America, marching down
from Canada, flanking the last, desperate army of
Americans. By issue 29,Americas Plague Battalions (December 1936), the Purple Forces have
conquered Europe, Asia, and most of the United
States. Rudolph begins to release cholera bombs
on the remaining fighters standing against him.
San Francisco is beset by an immense foreign
fleet of super-dreadnoughts.
The fight continues against secret weapons
from a final stronghold in the Rockies. Issue 33,
Revolt of the Lost Legions (May 1937), finds
America beaten and its people in chains, laboring
for a blood-maddened dictator. The few defiant
patriots are caught and beheaded, but Operator
#5 fights on.
The goose-stepping armies of the Purple
Emperor mass in the passes of the Continental
Divide, ready to destroy the last American defenders. Rudolph threatens to kill every eldest son in
the occupied territories if they do not surrender,
but the defenders continue to fight, even when
they find the Purple Army hiding behind a wall of
helpless Americans.The Purple forces are defeated.
However, the war is not over. Mongol hordes
have also invaded America, marching through
Pennsylvania, and a Purple fleet is sailing to
destroy New York. A small band of gallant patriots waits at Valley Forge to try to stop them.The
thin line holds against the Mongols.The Emperor releases the Black Death in a last-ditch effort
to defeat the American forces.
Issue 38, The Siege that Brought the Black
Death (March 1938), the final issue in the series,
ends with the cowardly Purple Emperor,
Rudolph, at the mercy of Operator #5. But he is
shot by one of his own men instead.The Purple
Invasion is over, and the defeated force sails off.
The breathtaking, realistic invasion of America

has reached its climax. Operator #5 and his ragtag warriors are victoriousfor now.
In a clever twist, rarely pursued in pulp magazines,America was not fully recovered by the time
of the first new novel that followed the end of the
Purple Invasion series. Still reeling from the
bloody war, America is vulnerable to another
would-be conqueror, an oriental power, obviously Japan, led by the Yellow Vulture.This powerful new sequence started in issue 45, Winged
Hordes of theYellowVulture (May 1939), but was
never finished, as the magazine ceased publication.
The last issue, The Army from Underground (November 1939), has the oriental
(Japanese) warlord Moto Taronago still undefeated. Finally, the adventures of Operator #5 had
reached the point where they were on the verge
of becoming real as the advent of the next world
war began in September, 1939.
In 1966, at the height of the camp craze
brought about by the success of the Doc Savage
reprints, Corinth Press issued eight Operator #5
adventures in paperback, including such titles as:
Legions of the Death Master (July 1935); The Invisible Empire (May 1934); Blood Reign of the Dictator
(May 1935); and Invasion of the Yellow Warlords
(June 1935). Due to their fine efforts, yet another
generation of readers would be privileged to
experience the realistic adventures of Operator
#5. Due to their great cover art, low production
numbers, and light distribution, they almost
immediately became collectors items.ETK

THE ORGAN
It was 1970, the 1960s were nominally, if not actually, over, and Hey Kids, Lets Put on a Show (I
know someone with a garage) had been replaced
by Hey Kids, Lets Start a Magazine (I know
someone with money.)Printing presses were running, the tabloid fold periodical was cheap to produce, and San Francisco was the place.
Cartoonists and poets and misfits of all sorts
had fled their inland tortures for the more refined

The Organ |

PG 134 THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE, Jan. 1934 (Phantom Detective Inc ); PG 135 L to R THE ORGAN, #1, July
1970 ( respective copyright holder);THE ORGAN, #5, Mar. 1971 ( respective copyright holder);THE ORGAN, #3,
1970 ( respective copyright holder).

pains, including their disappointment at learning

that they were the 11,032,087th person to show
up thinking that San Francisco had been holding
its breath for just that one more person looking
to get his/her Hip Card punched. Some of them
had talents, but were without outlets.
America was not only rejecting the drugged
and stupid, those who actually believed that San
Francisco nights were warm and that wearing
flowers in your hair wouldnt just mark you as
potential for fleecing in the same way the green
hat had marked newbies just off of Ellis Island 5060 years before; America was also rejecting those
who understood that a brave new world of crew

cuts and panty girdles was not the most desirable

future that could be imagined.
Sex was no longer taboo. Pornography was
not only legal, but had become somewhat fashionable.The First International Erotic Film Festival, attended by the Pacific Heights society
crowd, had just taken place in San Francisco.
Mary Rexroth, the daughter of Poet Kenneth
Rexroth, the icon of the San Francisco Poetry
Renaissance, had starred in a Triple-XXX-rated
metaphysical mind-scrambler titled Intersection.
Porn wasnt fashionable in all circles, though.
Dianne Feinstein, head of the citys Board of
Supervisors, decided she had to protect the

morals of her constituents and went to see for

herself. Her conclusion: What we found was
total degradation of the human spirit.
The fact that she had gone to the Three Street
Peerless Theater to watch the long-running Danish film,Animal Lover, may have had something
to do with her revulsion. Arlene Elster, proprietress of the New Age Triple XXX Sutter Street
Cinema, wondered why she hadnt gone to see a
movie in which humans have sex with other
humans, while a member of Ms. Elsters staff suggested that since Ms. Feinstein was Jewish, perhaps the scene in which the Danish farm girl star
had sex with a pig might have been offensive on
religious as well as sexual grounds.
Into this zeitgeist came almost everyone who
wanted to start a magazine. San Francisco had
long been the printing center of the west and
keeping those presses busy allowed opportunities

135

for creating the internationally celebrated, visually radical rock posters and what seemed like
countless newsprint publications featuring musicians, armadillos, and hippie chicks. Rolling Stone,
of course, Berkeley Barb, Rags, The Maverick, and
The Oracle those were just some of the start-ups
in the San Francisco Bay Area; add in Ramparts,
Scanlans, Good Times, Rags,Tribe,Aquarian Age, and
Freedom News.
And then along came The Organ, unlike any
of the others and, in many ways its brashness,
achievements of outrageousness and crudeness,
artistic merit and intellectual seriousness, its perceptions of popular culture as it went by, and all
of that in each individual issue unlike anything
anyone had ever seen before. (Something like the
old Vanity Fair of the 1930s inseminated by Snatch
Comix and giving birth to Ludwig Wittgenstein
singing dirty sailor song duets with Oscar Brand.)

ORGAN

136 | The Organ

The Organ was the love child of publisher
Christopher Weills and editor Gerard van der
Leun. Weills was a San Francisco native from a
political family, who had worked with Ramparts,
and who had found a financial backer for a new
magazine. Gerard van der Leun had been making
films at USC and came north to become editorin-chief in order to do something new and amazing with that money.
Van der Leun was a literate and educated fellow of some genius, and he and Weills decided
that what the world needed now was a socially
subversive, objectively erotic monthly. Stevie Lipney, a San Francisco State University veteran who
had left for LA a while before, came back to the
City by the Bay to be art director. Jon Stewart
showed up and started writing some excellent
journalism, and The Organ was born. As with
every publication of the time, a variety of writers
and photographers and artists wandered in, and
some were talented.
The letter O of The Organ logo, incorporating both male and female sigils, made it clear the
subject was sex. The picture of Rrose Slavy
(Marcel Duchamps drag persona) saying Loving
You has Made Me Bananas gave the Mission
Statement.
Their first offices were literally underground,
in the basement of the Firehouse at 451 Pacific
Avenue, downstairs from Scanlans. They soon
moved to a former poultry processing plant at the
foot of Telegraph Hill known as The Chicken
Factory. The thickness of the walls made the
place virtually soundproof and it attracted artists
and musicians. Organ offices were just inside the
front door, in a two-room former freezer, each
room being large, perhaps 30 feet square. Just
about everyone there dreamed of greatness in one
form or another, including a modest young guitarist named Carlos Santana, who waved a hello
on his way to his studio on the second floor.
The cover of the first issue had a black and
white photograph by Walter Chappell, one of the
great local outlaws of the camera. It was a photograph of a naked couple tongue kissing beneath a

waterfall, their genital areas in shadow except for a

bright willy-tip that caused a great deal of consternation among newsstands and distributors.
It was only fitting that that first Hey Kids,
Lets Make a Magazine issue should have devoted a large amount of space to the last of the Hey
Kids, Lets Put on a Show people, the Cockettes,
an all-singing, all-dancing ensemble of drag
queens, some with full beards sparkling with glitter.The group included women pretending to be
men in drag. Also in the first issue was an interview with Allen Ginsberg talking about the character assassination and persecution of Timothy
Francis Leary and how whatever happened to
Tim Leary, would happen to America, plus a full
page of S. Clay Wilsons Suds Smut poly-sexual
biker/biker chick/bikers gay neighbor porn, and
poetry and photography and a Tarot column, too.
For the next issue the question,Okay, good,
but we dont have to just keep on doing sex stuff,
do we? arose.
Hey, it was 1970, so no one had to do anything they didnt want, other than beat the draft
and not get caught with drugs.
The second issues of The Organ continued
with Robert Crumbs Notebooks, collage by
Satty, an article on Taos communes, the History of
Snatch Comix, art reviews, and Kenneth Anger
and his Demon Brother, a review article by Steve
Schneck (author of the award-winning Grove
press novel, The Nightclerk) of the porn film made
by Jack Rubys girlfriend, Candy Barr; a wild
Scream of Consciousness on the war by Ed
Sanders that read like a Dr. Bronners Soap Label
written on good coke and bad acid; an interview
with Warhol director Paul Morrissey by Scott
Winokur, and reviews of films like Jon Avildsens
first major breakthrough film starring Peter Boyle
in the title role of Joe.
The introduction of Stevie Lipneys little
monkey obviated Rrose Selavy as the magazines
mascot and indicated a change the little cartoon monkey drawn by Ms. Lipney, rubbing its
hands together and pondering the great fundamental question of civilization:Do we bomb it

The Organ |
or kiss its ass?
Then Gerard van der Leun introduced himself to me, your humble author, and asked if I
wanted in, quite possibly because he knew I had
just finished assembling the above-mentioned
First International Erotic Film Festival. I joined
the staff as associate and review editor.
And for my sins in the world of advertising, I
was able to bring along Paul Bianchi, a genuine
print production person whose lack of neuroses
enabled him to act and work as a true professional
and ramrod the endless production process without drama or hysteria. (This was the Rubylithic
Era when print-medium dinosaurs crashed
through paper swamps cutting rubylith overlays,
doing razor-blade edits on sheets from the typesetter, using manual typewriters, carbon paper, and
white-out).A little later, I found a genuine former
copy editor from a national NewYork-based major
weekly, one Karen (later Kayla) Sussell.
Why would these consummate professionals
be willing to work for what was essentially an
insanely amateur operation for almost no money?
Simple. Because we had all worked at straight jobs
that paid a lot and took their pound of flesh in sanity and integrity. That word amateur, from the
root meaning to love. It was an act of love.And,
mirabile dictu, something within general shouting
distance of professionalism started to emerge.
And here we need a drum roll announcing
impending BIG TIME. The New York Times people showed up, one of their writers having convinced editorial management they should pay for
him to go to San Francisco and watch porn films,
nice work if you can get it.The article, titled The
Porn Capital of America, ran in the NY Times
Sunday magazine on January 3, 1971. Our staff
meeting was photographed and printed over the
heading:Porn Publishers. (A personal aside: thats
when I got the first phone call from my father in many,

many months. All his friends had seen the picture and
called him to tell him his son was infamous. I told him
it wasnt really porn. He was generous: Thats okay.
Pornography is important. I told him Id send him a
copy, but hed be disappointed.)
With the magazine finally appearing above
the radar, it was fitting to run another article on
the Cockettes, who were also becoming recognized, nationally, even if primarily for their
enthusiastic lack of talent (so said Gore Vidal).
People loved it, and universal approval also came
for a fine article by Dick Lupoff about the
Comics and the Comics Code of the 1950s, titled
Is this Good-bye Captain Bright-Tights? It was
the first public recognition that comix were not
a momentary fluke. People loved the article about
John Lennons primal therapy with Dr. Arthur
Janov. A little more to the edge was Tom Veitchs
Mick Jagger Story, about a groupie doing a
razor-blade edit of the singers jib-jobs, and that
castration resulting in a weight gain to 300
pounds. Neither here nor there was an article
about Rossmoor, the newly-established Senior
Citizen Community in Walnut Creek, titled The
45-Year-Old and Over Plastic Marsupial Pouch:
What to Do till the Reaper Comes.
But that issue also featured a historical and
excellent (and even important) section, looking
in the opposite direction from the mainstream
media, who were all agog about The New Left.
Organ ran a section titled The New Right,
focusing on authoritarian organizations Scientology, The Process, Krishna Consciousness,
Synanon, and Ayn Rand followers all of whom
were represented in a wonderful Greg Irons fullpage cartoon on the opening fold.
Uh-oh.
I happened to be the only editor in the office
when the Church of Scientology duo showed up
with libel on their minds. I had not edited the

PG 136, L to R DETECTIVE NOVEL, vol. 15, #2, 1945 (Standard Magazines); THRILLING MYSTERY, Aug. 1936 ( Beacon
Magazines, Inc.); PHYSICAL CULTURE, Mar. 1922 ( Macfadden Publications); G-MEN, ( Standard Magazines); PG 137
MOBSTERS, vol. 1, #2, Feb. 1953 ( Standard Magazines).

article, I hadnt even read it. Opening the issue

while they were there, and looking at the illustration of L. Ron Hubbard with a box of soapsuds
pouring over his head and a sub-head that mentioned both the annual gross of the church and
comparing his science fiction to his religion, I
realized there was no way in hell I was going to
be able to imply it was all in their imagination.
They were there to double-team me, a man
in black priest garb with a gold sunburst chain
where a gold cross would be in some other religion, representing the AUTHORITY that was
supposed to make me nervous, and a toothsome
bit of Scientological pulchritude in a jersey top
with a cardigan, pressing her blouse bunnies in
my direction to add distraction. Amazing how
obvious the tactic was.
Well, after having spent three weeks sitting in
a darkened room with Bruce Conner and Paul
Lawrence the year before, watching porn films
for the Erotic Film Festival, I had lost some shyness, and was the only person I knew who really
did read Playboy for the articles. So, to simplify
things, and reduce my focus to one person, I
ogled her beautiful bumps until she shrank back,
put her shoulders forward and pulled the cardigan
tight around her, crossing her arms in front and
pulling out of the conversation. (Who knows
what might have happened had she offered more
than just a Hey, look at these?)
Okay, now down to Father Flotski:What do
you want?
He wanted a retraction, of course, and as they
talked and I read, I realized our reporter had
quoted bizarre claims he said had been made by
recruiters, such as how joining Scientology
would enable a woman with a hysterectomy to
re-grow her uterus. Whether it had really been
said by a recruiter or it was a rumor someone
had told him was irrelevant neither he nor we
could ever substantiate it in a court of law. I took
down the list of seven or eight items they wanted retracted, including misspellings of official
Scientological words.
And yet, the magazine went on and got bet-

137

138 | The Organ

ter: a long article/interview with a pre-op transsexual and his/her community, articles on The
Battle of Berkeley, a hoax about three young men
who had constructed a giant raisin of papiermch to take to Mount Rushmore and stuff up
George Washingtons nose in protest of the 1968
Chicago Democratic Convention.
And it got better still: Jerry Lee Lewis, articles
by William Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson,
an interview with Melvin van Peebles on
Decolonization of the Mind (referring to his
intention in Sweet Sweetbacks Badass Song),
William Wileys Art, and then a major journalistic
coup the Heroin in the Military issue.
The government had insisted everyone
returning from Vietnam had been detoxed. So
writer Jon Stewart and photographer Robert
Footherap drove over to Treasure Island, the open
Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay,
and asked the Marine at the gate Wheres the
dopers barracks? Down that way and take a
right and youll see it on your left, sir.
And there it was, doors wide open, men
shooting up and smoking dope, graffiti saying
The Navy is like a joint the more you suck the
higher you get.
Stewart and Footherap were arrested and held
until no one could actually say what law theyd
broken.T.I. was an open base, etc., etc. It was a rare
thing for a monthly to break a story that is then
picked up by the dailies.That issue also included a
report from an army officer serving in Vietnam
attached to the detox program, an article by
Michael Rossman on the drug plague back here in
the world, and a full page of Greg Ironss wonderful Adventures of Sergeant Smack and Easy Co.
The same issue included an interview with
John Waters Divine and Stan Cotton, a mayoral
candidate of extraordinary vision. But we were
pretty sure it was the drugs that brought strange
retribution. Small squirrelly-looking men in
black raincoats would open the freezer door to
the office and just stand there, expressionless,
looking at us.
Can we help you?

No.
Ahh, paranoia is its own reward.
We decided to do the retraction for the Scientologists, but in our own fashion, as a contest to
write the most libelous retraction.Winner to get
a free one-year subscription. But it was not to be.
It was over. The internal dynamics had
changed. Up through Issue #9, each issue had
been assembled with hard decisions as to what we
needed to leave out (we only had 36 pages,
including the cover).And now we had come to a
time when we were wondering what we could
get to put in. Painful though it was, especially for
Gerard and Christopher, whod put more blood
and sweat and suffering into it than any of us, we
decided to let it be done, let it remain as a period
of time that we left without holding onto it and
dragging it into ordinariness.
Our exit from the world of publishing was
also helped by the results of mocking both the
Scientologists for their pretensions and the government for its lies about heroin addicts not detoxed in Vietnam; threat and pressure and sabotage were brought to bear.
Someone, whether Scientological or military
or what, had dumped the entire New York distribution (3/4 of the press run) into the East River.
That helped make that decision a bit less conflicted, if no less painful. It made it a bit easier to allow
The Organ to finish its arc, like a dolphin, disappearing beneath the waves, leaving behind just a
bit of a splash in the memory.HP

P
PEARSONS MAGAZINE
The original Pearsons Magazine was British. It
began in January 1896, published by C. Arthur
Pearson (1866-1921), who had founded Pearsons
Weekly in 1890 and would later launch the Daily
Express newspaper in 1900. Pearson had previously worked for George Newnes, whose weekly
magazine Tit-Bits had revolutionized the popular
paper. Pearsons Magazine was created in imitation
of Newness popular Strand Magazine, which had
started in January 1891, itself inspired by the
heavily illustrated American general interest magazines The Century and Scribners. Newnes had
priced The Strand at sixpence, then the equivalent
of about ten cents, and this had instigated a price
war, not only in Britain, but also in America,
where the ten-cent magazine emerged in 1893
with McClures and Munseys. Pearsons was a similar general interest magazine, one of many that
proliferated in Britain at the end of the 1890s, and
it had little to distinguish it from its rivals except
that it liked to promote the warning or disaster
story, best exemplified by H.G.Wellss The War of
the Worlds (April-December 1897). It also liked to
present some of its fiction as fact, as in the series
Real Ghost Stories by E. & H. Heron, starting
in January, 1898, which introduced the occult
investigator Flaxman Low.And it liked to explore
secret histories: the series Historical Mysteries
by Allen Upward, which began in January, 1900,
was one of the most popular the magazine ran. Its
most popular series character, almost rivaling
Sherlock Holmes, was Captain Kettle, an irascible,
jingoistic merchant seaman with a boat for hire
who ends up in all manner of nefarious international adventures.

PG 138, Top to Bot THE NOSE, #16, 1992 ( Acme Publications Inc.); ROGUE FOR MEN, Oct. 1957 ( Greenleaf Publishing Com.); PG 139 STRANGE STORIES, Aug. 1939 ( Better Publications).

Pearsons Magazine |
Pearsons had been distributed in the United
States from its first issue, but in March, 1899 a
separate American edition was printed and published in New York.To promote this, Pearson sold
the magazine at just eight cents, undercutting its
rivals, though it reverted to ten cents after six
issues. It helped to establish a reasonable sales figure of around 100,000, though this fell far short
of the field leader, Munseys, at 700,000, or
McClures and Cosmopolitan, both in excess of
300,000. Its contents were still primarily from the
British edition, but a few original items appeared,
including articles by Theodore Dreiser, stories by
Jack London, and a series, The Story of the
States, by various contributors, which began in
the February 1901 issue.
Sales remained static, however, and in 1902
Pearson sold the magazine to its printer, Joseph J.
Little. Little, who had set up a printing business in
1867, had served as a Congressman from 1891-93,
and as a Commissioner of Education, and held
strong political views. Both he and his son,Arthur,
wanted the magazine to be representative of
American news and opinion, as well as reflect their
socialist views.They had already tried to encourage
new contributions and the changes became evident with the magazine receiving a facelift and
new promotion in January 1903. For a few more
years, it still drew upon fiction from the British
Pearsons, but increasingly the content was original.
In the words of Arthur Little, who became the editor, it was an American magazine, for Americans.
As if to celebrate, from February, 1903 on,
Pearsons began a new series by Gelett Burgess,
The Picaroon, written with Will Irwin. It was
subtitled A San Francisco Nights Entertainment, and each story looked at a scam perpetrated by a rogue or charlatan. It suited the mood of
the moment. The first decade of the twentieth
century was the era of what became called
muckraking by Theodore Roosevelt. It was the
dawn of the investigative journalist, whose delvings into social, political, and financial injustice
began a decade of reform.The major muckraking magazines were Colliers, McClures, Cos-

mopolitan, American, and later Hamptons, and the

Littles wanted Pearsons to play a part in this
action. They would eventually inherit several of
the major investigative journalists from these
other magazines, especially Arthur Henry Lewis,
David Graham Phillips, and Charles Edward
Russell, but that was later. Pearsons began in a
small way and with more focused material, usually reporting on the nature of the reforms rather
than exposing the corruption. Starting in April,
1903 they ran a three-part article looking at the
work of the crusading district attorney, William
Travers Jerome, who was spearheading a campaign against political corruption.
Social and political injustice was also reflected
in the fiction.Albert Bigelow Paine, who went on
to become the literary executive and biographer
of Mark Twain, was one of Pearsons leading contributors at this time. Among his many items,
which included a study of the nineteenth century political cartoonist, Thomas Nast (AprilNovember 1904), was the controversial story,
The Black Hands (August 1903), where, as the
result of an accident during an operation, a white
man becomes black and experiences prejudice
and injustice.Another regular was Owen Kildare,
who had been raised in the Bowery slums in
New York, had run with a street gang, and had
written about his life in My Mamie Rose (1903,
subsequently adapted for the stage [1908] and
cinema [1915] as The Regeneration). He wrote several stories for Pearsons which none of the other
leading magazines would touch because they
were too true to life. One of these was The Level
of the Sodden (March 1905), which looked at
how the lives of the poor were ruined further by
drink. It was that level of realism that distinguished Pearsons from its rivals.
Pearsons only steadily moved toward the
exposs, preferring informative articles to sensationalism, and seeing its role as advising the public. One such series was The Profession of Getting Hurt (June-October 1905), by Theodore
Waters, which looked at the growing number of
bogus insurance claims and the resultant consider-

139

140 | Pearsons Magazine

able rise in insurance premiums.The issues raised
by the series led to the creation of a monitoring
agency, the Alliance Against Accident Fraud.
Otherwise, the emphasis during 1904/05 was
on articles exploring the history of the United
States. These included Indian Fights and Fighters (March-November 1904), by Cyrus
Townsend Brady, which looked at the relationship
between the American government and the
native Americans over the last 40 years, and The
Romance of Aaron Burr (June 1906-May 1907),
by Alfred Henry Lewis, which painted a rather
more positive picture than most of the enigmatic
revolutionary. Lewis, who had been a cowboy in
his youth, and a lawyer, and wrote one of the earliest volumes of western fiction,Wolfville (1897),
did not regard himself as a muckraker, but did
like to expose growing problems. Although he
continued to contribute articles delving into the

underbelly of American politics to the Saturday

Evening Post and Cosmopolitan, where he had
established his reputation, he also built a following
in Pearsons, investigating financial institutions and
risks such as gambling and the Stock Exchange. In
later years, he studied crime and criminals, resulting in perhaps his most popular series for the
magazine,The Apaches of New York (February
1911-April 1912), which brought alive the world
of petty criminals, and which may have influenced Damon Runyon, who was soon contributing to Pearsons.
Another of Hearsts journalists who was
attracted to Pearsons was James Creelman, the
noted war reporter. Although his first contribution, Who Makes the Spirit of War? (April
1906), was on his chosen subject, he soon moved
on to other matters: championing the need for
innovators in The Cry for Brains (August

1906), tackling political issues, most notably his

tirade against Theodore Roosevelt in Theodore
the Meddler (January 1907), and his study of the
then Secretary of War ,The Mystery of Mr.Taft
(May 1907). His contributions continued on a
near-monthly basis for three years, covering a
wide range of subjects.
Fiction was never as dominant in the American Pearsons as in the British, though the magazine ran some fine stories including the Kid
Brady boxing stories by P.G.Wodehouse (begun
in September 1905), The Corrector of Destinies series by Melville Davisson Post (February
1907-May 1908), several Hopalong Cassidy stories by Clarence E. Mulford and various mystery
and espionage series by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
The combination of investigative articles and
interesting fiction caused Pearsons sales to treble,
hitting 300,000 during 1906, and sales did not

falter when the cover price rose to 15 cents in

August, 1906.
Apart from a slight diversion during 1908,
when book publisher Edward J. Clode served as
editor, and re-introduced a number of British
authors, including M.P. Shiel, Louis Tracy, and
H.G. Wells, the magazine continued in a similar
vein until 1912.Among its more prominent government exposs were The Looting of New
York (May 1909), by William J. Gaynor, Justice of
the Supreme Court, about the financial disaster of
the construction of the New York street railway,
and The Plunderers of Washington (November
1909), by Robert Wickliffe Woolley, about the
misappropriation of central funds.
During all these years, Pearsons remained popular,but could scarcely be called a cultmagazine.
However, in April, 1912 all that changed. With
that issue Arthur Little switched the magazine

DEATH THEME

Pearsons Magazine |

PG 140, L to R STRANGE SUICIDES, Feb. 1933( respective copyright holder); MARILYN MONROE, 1962 ( respective copyright holder); CAROLE LOMBARD'S LIFE STORY, 1942 ( respective copyright holder); PG 141, Top to Bot
PSYCHO, #11 ( Skyward Publishing); PEARSONS MAGAZINE, Feb 1919 ( respective copyright holder).

from its standard glossy format, printed on quality

coated stock, fully illustrated and supported by
over 40 pages of advertising, to a pulp magazine
with scarcely any advertising and no illustrations.
Little argued that he did not want to be beholden
to advertisers, whose presence might inhibit the
investigative articles that he could publish. Little
had seen the success Frank Munsey had achieved
with The Argosy and his other pulps, which survived by sales revenue alone and, with a circulation of around 250,000, he believed he could do
the same. The lack of advertising meant that not
only could Pearsons be totally independent, but it
could also push a stronger left-wing message.
Pearsons had always supported a socialist outlook, but this had been softened by the broader
crusading issues and general interest articles.
These now shifted to blatant socialist propaganda,
virtually becoming the unofficial organ of the
Socialist Party of America. The trend had been
noticeable since late 1909, when journalist and
former newspaper editor Allan L. Benson became
their new lead writer, contributing articles on
food prices, income tax, and the excessive power
of the courts.The latter articles were reprinted as
a pamphlet in 1911 and sold over a million
copies. Another Pearsons article, The Growing
Grocery Bill (January 1912), was also released as
a booklet and sold nearly two million copies.This
convinced Little that there was a market for an
independent socialist magazine. Thereafter, Pearsons ceased to be a popular general-interest magazine and became an overtly political one. Significantly, this change happened at a time when the
muckraking articles in other magazines had
become milder, leaving Pearsons as the most
prominent voice of the masses against injustice.
The magazine immediately found itself in
trouble. Dealers were uncertain about stocking it
and it soon fell foul of the reactionary attitude of

the new all-powerful Postmaster-General, Albert

S. Burleson, when he took office in March, 1913.
Ironically, Burleson did institute some of the policies that Pearsons had called for, such as a national parcel post, but Burleson believed that the
provocative socialist articles by Benson, Charles
Edward Russell, Eugene V. Debs, and others, were
not in the interests of the State and did all in his
power to thwart the magazine. Pearsons sales
plummeted and Arthur Little instigated a subscription drive that, over the next few years,
achieved remarkable results, eventually accounting for about half the magazines sales.
However, just at this time, in February, 1913,
Joseph Little died.While Littles estate was worth
over a half million dollars, the holdings of Pearson
Publishing were treated as of no value. It was
revealed that Pearsons had been operating at a loss
since 1910. The fact that the magazine survived
until 1925 and managed to rebuild its circulation
demonstrated that there was a need for a magazine that was not afraid to speak its mind, and it
was this that gave it a cult status. Indeed, that status rose when, in September, 1916, Little brought
Frank Harris on board as the new editor.
Harriss reputation was well known, much of
it spread by himself. Though born in Ireland,
Harris had completed his education in America,
where he qualified as an attorney at the University of Kansas. He traveled extensively, undertaking further studies in Germany. He was extremely well read, with a passion for the works of
Shakespeare and Goethe.Today, Harris is remembered chiefly for his sexual adventures, related in
his notorious My Life and Loves (4 volumes, 192227), but the extent to which he was a philanderer has been exaggerated over the years, impelled
by Harriss own braggadocio. At the core, Harris
was an excellent journalist, a brave editor, and
very faithful to his friends. He did his best to save

Oscar Wilde from his self-destructive attitudes

during his notorious trial. Harris was the first to
publish the stories and articles of Max Beerbohm
and H.G. Wells, and encouraged the work of
George Bernard Shaw. In the 1890s, he made the
Saturday Review the foremost political and literary
weekly of its day. He had similar plans for Pearsons, bringing to the magazine not only his strong
views on injustice, but also a wide understanding
of art and literature and an ability to talk (his
bombastic editorials and essays always read like he
is talking straight to you) endlessly on almost any
subject. The many celebrities that he had met
over the years formed the basis for a series of
character sketches that he wrote, later collected in
one of his volumes of Contemporary Portraits,
among them George Bernard Shaw, General
Haig, Sidney Sime, George Moore, Algernon
Swinburne, and Winston Churchill.
Harris filled at least half the magazine with his
own material, writing about the life of Edward
VII, then Prince of Wales, the Russian Revolution, atrocities in Ireland and, of course, scandals
in New York. Perhaps his biggest crusade was
against the judgments in the Night Courts.These
had been set up by Theodore Roosevelt with the
aim of controlling prostitution, but Harris discovered that many of the judges running the courts
took the word of the police for granted and gave
little chance for the defendants to argue their
case. He believed that many innocent people
were wrongly sentenced, with many arrested
falsely following entrapment. His transcriptions of
the proceedings led to him being summoned to
court for publishing an alleged obscene article
in the May, 1917 Pearsons, even though this was
simply a verbatim report.
The most contentious articles Harris published
featured his views on the war in Europe and the
Irish Revolution. Harris was strongly anti-war, but
often pro-revolutionary, if the cause was just. He
thus supported the activities of the Irish Republicans, but condemned many of the actions of the
British generals in the war. He was against conscription and supported conscientious objectors.

141

142 | Pearsons Magazine

His comments, right from his first issue, led to the
magazine being blacklisted in Britain and banned
in Canada. The Federal authorities were directed
to various statements in the January, 1917 issue that
were seen as sympathetic both to Germany and to
the Russian Bolshevists. Harris was never one to
be muffled and he continued his protestations,
becoming even more vociferous after America
entered the World War I in April,1917.At that time
the public sentiment was against being involved,
and so supported Harris, but the sinking of the
troopship Tuscania in February 1918 saw the tide of
opinion shift and, by May, 1918,Pearsons was taking a pro-war stance, arguing that the war had now
become a fight for democracy.
The notoriety of Pearsons attracted public
attention and sales rose, but Harris also had to face
the tactics of Postmaster-General Burleson, who
delayed issues in the mail,which had an increasingly deleterious effect. Despite the public support for
Pearsons, a combination of these tactics, increased
wartime restrictions, and the debts inherited following Joseph Littles death, meant that by the
spring of 1917 the company was in financial difficulties.To save costs, the magazine changed to the
large, flat, side-stapled format in July, 1917, but it
looked increasingly beleaguered. Although pleas
for contributions to a special fund were met with
a flurry of interest, Pearsons remained in financial
straits,and in September 1917 the publishing company went into receivership.
The title and circulation list of Pearsons Magazine was auctioned and acquired by the publisher
and fellow socialist Allan W. Ricker. Harris continued to write the majority of the contents, including his autobiographical western novel, On the Trail
(May-November 1917). He was assisted by his
mistress, Helen OHara, and the noted bohemian
Guido Bruno, along with occasional contributions
by Aleister Crowley and Upton Sinclair. These
gave the magazine an idiosyncratic flavor, which
was an allure for the curious, but did little to sustain circulation.A new company was established to
run the magazine and from July, 1918 on, Harris
took on the role of publisher as well as editor. It

was a huge drain on his time and resources and

though Harris told Whit Burnett in 1926 that he
had made lots of money from Pearsons, the truth
is it virtually bankrupted him and by the autumn
of 1921 he put the magazine up for sale. He took
on a new managing editor, Alexander Marky, and
Harris left America for the south of France,though
he continued to write for the magazine.
It took Marky a year to find the funds, but in
October, 1922 he took over as publisher. The
magazine instantly looked better, with internal
artwork returning and an improvement in paper
quality, but the contents were of less interest. Support for socialism had waned in America after the
Russian revolution, and Marky was unable to
inject the enthusiasm and sparkle into the magazine that Harris had made. The magazine had
become more of a literary review. Marky damaged his reputation by his support for the fraudulent claims of Dr. Albert Abrams, who maintained he could cure most ailments through electronic impulses. Abrams was later discredited,
though not before he had become a millionaire.
The American Pearsons eventually folded in
April, 1925 after some 313 issues. The British
Pearsons continued for another fourteen years.Yet
the British Pearsons never achieved the notoriety
of the American edition, especially during the
editorship of Frank Harris. Harris was the kind of
editor who made people take notice and, because
of him, the name of Pearsons became synonymous with those who champion the underdog
and human rights.MA

PEEK-A-BOO
see Health Knowledge Magazines
THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE
The Phantom Detective was the Sherlock Holmes
of the pulps. He was a truly American creation,
originated as Standart Publications response to
the successful Shadow, which had just hit the

newsstands. The Phantom Detective was thus the

second such pulp hero to appear, coming only a
month before Doc Savage, another memorable
adventure character, which appeared in March,
1933.
The Phantom Detective was first published
under the imprint of Phantom Detective Publishing, a subsidiary of Standard Publications.
Beginning with its February, 1933 issue, it ran for
170 issues: far fewer than the longer-running
Shadow, and less than the Doc Savage run of 181
issues. Oddly enough, its less frequent schedule
meant that at its end, with its Fall, 1953 final issue,
The Phantom Detective would hold the record for
the longest-running single-character pulp magazine, lasting for over 20 years.
The publisher was Ned Pines. His company
was generally known as the Thrilling group
because of editor Leo Margulies insistence on
sticking thrilling onto the names of the magazines they published such as Thrilling Mystery and
Thrilling Adventure. Ned Pines also had a comic
book imprint, which most collectors usually refer
to as Nedor Comics. The Phantom Detective had a
series under their title Thrilling Comics. The Phantom Detective should not be confused with the
much later comic strip creation The Phantom by
Lee Falk.
For The Phantom Detective, Margulies would
use a wide variety of short stories, both in the
hero and crook pattern, averaging up to 6,000
words. In all of them, the story excitement usually began with the first sentence and moved
steadily toward a smashing climax. Margulies
insisted that his writers avoid mechanical plot
construction and steer clear of super-sensational
murder methods, such as death rays, unknown
poisons, and Rube Goldberg-type murder
devices. He believed that in the detective story it
was better to keep the identity of the criminal
hidden until the end, leaving a trail of convincing
clues by which the criminal was finally revealed.
Of the 170 Phantom adventures, the first
eleven were published under the house pseudonym of G.Wayman Jones, though they were all

Phantom Detective |
probably written by D.L. Champion. The rest
were written, under the pseudonym of Robert
Wallace, by Edwin Burkhilder, Norman Daniels
(36-plus), Jack DArcy, Anatole F. Feldman,
Charles Green,W.T. Ballard, Laurence Donovan,
and Ralph Oppenheim. Noted science fiction
writers Henry Kuttner and Ray Cummings also
contributed to the long-running series, as well as
Fredric Brown, who wrote Client Unknown
for the April, 1941 issue under his pseudonym of
Carey Rix. Since no accurate records were kept
by the Thrilling group editors, no one knows
who wrote which stories, though Ryerson Johnson is credited with #46,The Silent Death.
With the success of The Shadow and the
growing popularity of The Phantom Detective,
Street & Smith decided to create a totally different kind of character to help them compete
against the Better Publications master sleuth.
Instead of generating another cheap imitation,
Henry Ralston, their chief of circulation, and
John Nanovic, an editor for Street & Smith, succeeded admirably with the inception of the third
great pulp adventure hero, Doc Savage.
Instead of another mysterious night-time
avenger, they chose to cultivate a hero who cooperated with authorities, a believable superman
who was the epitome of human perfection in
mind and body. Doc Savage debuted in March,
1933 in the story The Man of Bronze. Most of
his 183 adventures were written by Lester Dent,
under the pen name Kenneth Robeson.
The Phantom, as he was called, never the
Phantom Detective, was never outdone by Doc
Savage.A mere mortal, not a superman, the Phantom was Richard Curtis Van Loan, a wealthy playboy who thought crime was evil.Van Loan had
become an orphan at an early age, but inherited
vast wealth. Before the Great War, he had been an
idle playboy. During the war he became an ace

pilot, shooting down many German planes.

Van Loan had gained a taste for adventure
during the Great War, WWI. When he returned
to the big city he had quickly grown bored with
society life. Having a difficult time returning to
the arduous life of an idle playboy, his best friend,
Frank Havens, publisher of the local tabloid the
New York Clarion, challenged Van Loan to solve
an interesting case the police were having difficulties with. To his amazement, Van Loan did
solve the case, and while doing so, discovered he
had a talent for detection and fighting crime. He
decided he had found his calling, where he could
have a life of adventure and danger.
Thus the Phantom Detective was born, but he
did not appear overnight.Van Loan did not put
on his Phantom trademark tuxedo and mask
immediately. He began by first learning everything he could, training himself to be an expert in
crime detection and forensics. He became a master of disguise and escape, of criminal psychology,
hand-to-hand combat, and everything that could
help him against the bad guys. Tall, tanned, and
powerfully built, the Phantom was a veritable
chameleon when it came to disguise. His mastery
was so complete, he could imitate anyone, as far
as personal and physical traits were concerned,
with the utmost success.
In order to keep his alter ego a secret, Van
Loan built a hidden crime laboratory that he
would use as his headquarters in the war against
crime.The Phantom, ready at last, went to work.
Eventually the Phantom would become known
throughout the world, respected by law enforcement agencies and feared by all criminals.
Among the Phantoms confederates in his war
against evil were publisher Frank Havens and his
sister Muriel, who he was in love with, but could
not get involved with because of the unrelenting
danger he faced in his life as the Phantom; Clari-

PG 142,Top to Bot ARCADE, #1, 1975 ( Print Mint); SCIENCE-FICTION PLUS, Oct. 1953, art by Frank Paul
( respective copyright holder); PG 143, Top to Bot PSYCHOTRONIC , #35, 1982 ( Michael Weldon);
PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO, #1, 1989 ( Psychotronic Video).

on ace reporter Steve Huston; and the closest

thing the Phantom had to a kid sidekick, Chip
Doren.The Phantom faced only one villain (Clifford Boniface) twice, he was that good a villain.
Eventually the Phantom started solving
crimes the police could not, and they soon called
upon him for even more help. Only one man,
Frank Havens, knew his secret identity.The police
would approach Havens about contacting the
Phantom.The playboy-turned-crime-fighter was
called into action by using a red beacon atop
New York Citys tallest skyscraper, the Clarion
building.This device predates Bob Kanes comic
creation Batman and his Gotham City bat-signal.
Many a brutal killer or criminal mastermind
met swift justice at the hands of the Phantom during the magazines run. In the initial stories, he was
less of a detective and more of an adventurer, using
disguise and pure luck in order to escape and conclude his cases. Later he tackled the unusual and
the eerie, and exposed those living and preying in
the darkness to the cold naked light of day. His
encounters included one with a vampire, fittingly
enough titled,The Vampire Murders.
A typical Phantom Detective adventure, The
Vampire Murders begins with two fear-stricken
hunters running back to their lodge.They have just
witnessed the impossible, the notorious Count
Mattopikyi rising from his tomb in the dead of
night. The count curses them and the three
remaining members of their hunting lodge. His
curse comes true as all die amid chilling screams.
The Phantom tracks down the count, discovering the ancient legend associated with Vampire
Mountain, upon which the hunting lodge is built.
During the Revolutionary War, Hungarian cavalry officer Count Mattopikyi built a fortress on the
mountain. Soon local children began to disappear
at night.The villagers raided the fortress and found
it empty, as though unoccupied for years. All that
remained was a tomb with a cryptic inscription.
The action becomes more mysterious as the
novel progresses. Bodies lie scattered everywhere.
The Phantom finds the bloody pieces of the vampire puzzle, but is nearly killed along the way by a

143

144 | Phantom Detective

starved lynx, a gang of criminals, and the vampire.
A great novel, the vampire has a totally logical explanation., and like many of the Phantoms
incredible adventures, it ends in a climactic finale.
The pulp hero wins, of course, surviving to be
ready for the next months installment.
The unforgettable adventures of The Phantom
Detective thrilled a generation. Due to several
reprinted stories over the years, additional generations have been likewise entertained. The most
notable reprints were done by Corinth Books,
which printed about 20 titles.
There were also at least two different British
reprints, one under the title Phantom Mystery
Magazine, as well as a Canadian reprint edition.
ETK

PHYSICAL CULTURE
Bernarr Macfadden started Physical Culture in
March 1899 as a slim pamphlet designed to promote his bodybuilding and exercise equipment,
but it soon grew into an all-around magazine of
physical health. Born in 1868, his real name was
Bernard McFadden, but he changed the spelling
to give it a rougher sound and more distinctive
look. He had a difficult, unhealthy childhood,
shifted from home to home, sometimes starved,
and developing tubercular problems, but this gave
him both the resolve to be fit and healthy as well
as a strong will and independence. He undertook
fitness and strength exercises during his teens and
opened a keep-fit studio when he was 18, subsequently becoming a fitness coach.
He began the magazine after a visit to England. He had become friends with the renowned
international strongman Eugene Sandow, who
had started his own magazine called Physical Cul-

ture in April, 1898. Macfadden was impressed not

only at how it provided an opportunity to promote his work, but also by how much revenue it
could gain from advertising.When he returned to
America, he promptly began his own magazine,
co-opting Sandows title, which had not been
registered in the United States. Somewhat
piqued, Sandow changed his magazines name to
Sandows Magazine. Sandow had run fiction from
the earliest issue, none of which had anything to
do with health or fitness, and Macfadden did the
same. He serialized his own short novel, The
Athletes Conquest, which he had privately published in 1892. Macfadden was no writer and the
story was crudely written, but Macfadden did not
feel he was writing for an elite readership, but for
those who wanted to improve themselves. He felt
that the magazine could become the conduit for
his views and opinions, of which he had many.
The Athletes Conquest, for example, though it
does deal with fitness, was really a crusade against
the corset, a garment that Macfadden believed
was harmful and unhealthy.
The magazine consisted chiefly of articles,
many written by Macfadden himself, until the
magazines sales were sufficient for him to be able
to pay contributors.They covered a wide range of
material on medicines, healthy minds, diet, and
fasting, but what attracted readers most were the
articles and photographs on sexual matters. Macfadden liked to publish photographs, mostly of
himself in various poses, sometimes nude, and he
also included photographs of women in minimal
attire. Macfadden even started a companion magazine, Womans Physical Development, in October,
1900, though he soon changed the title to Beauty and Health.
The circulation of Physical Culture rose dramatically, hitting 40,000 in 1901 and 100,000 by

PG 144, Top to Bot ECCO, #17, 1992 ( Kill-Gore); PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO, #37, 2002 ( Psychotronic Video);
PG 145, L to R A. MERRITTS FANTASY MAGAZINE ( Popular Publications); ELLERY QUEENS MYSTERY MAGAZINE,
Jan. 1956, art by Ed Emshwiller ( respective copyright holder); A. MERRITTS FANTASY MAGAZINE, ( Popular Publications); IMAGINATIVE TALES , #5, May 1955 ( respective copyright holder).

1903. It drew attention from the authorities, particularly the Society for the Suppression of Vice
run by Anthony Comstock. In October, 1905
Physical Culture sponsored a contest for the worlds
most physically well-developed man and woman
to some extent the first Mr. Universe and
Miss World competitions. Comstock was
appalled at the sight of scantily clad men and
women parading in Madison Square Garden and
alerted the police, who raided the magazines
offices. Photographs were impounded including,
bizarrely, one of the Venus de Milo. The story
made the headlines, the New York Times evaluating
the collision of Comstockery vs. Macfaddenism,
and Macfadden was arrested and tried and,though
found guilty of promoting indecency, his sentence
was suspended, much to the ire of Comstock.
Macfadden continued his activities, founding
a utopian-style Physical Culture City in Helmetta, New Jersey. The basic idea was of a health
farm, with people exercising and undertaking a
healthy diet. However, another of Macfaddens
crusades was against any tight-fitting clothing,
which he believed was unhealthy and, as a consequence, both men and women would exercise
either partially or completely in the nude. The
local postmaster informed the police whenever
men or women from the farm came to the local
village loosely dressed.The newspapers picked up
the story and soon Macfadden was being highlighted both as someone encouraging lewdness
and also as a fraud, because Macfadden claimed
that his health regimen could cure anything. One
newspaper, the New York World, made various allegations about sexual freedom at the site, and
Macfadden, fearful of a scandal, sued the newspaper, but lost.
To overcome these allegations, Macfadden
argued that his health regimen also included sexual education, and chose to pursue this by running
a specially commissioned story in Physical Culture.
This was the notorious Wild Oats, written by
dime novelist John R. Coryell under the alias
Robert H. Welford, M.D., serialized during
1906. The story concerns an ill-educated youth

Physical Culture |
who had inherited venereal disease and was further corrupted by lewd books. His profligate
activities ruin the lives of various girls until eventually he goes insane and orders his own cremation. Macfadden intended for this story to alert
readers to the problems of sexual diseases, but
Comstock saw it differently. He charged Macfadden with sending obscene material through the
mail. Macfadden was arrested, tried, found guilty,
fined $2,000, and sentenced to two years in jail.
Macfadden was appalled, as were many health faddists, and a major appeal was launched. Eventually, thanks to the intervention of the new president,
William Howard Taft, Macfaddens sentence was
suspended, but he was not formally pardoned and
he still had to pay the fine.
The scandal had been the death knell for
Physical Culture City, which closed down in
1909. Macfadden had lost a small fortune over the
venture and now attempted to regain that
through a chain of restaurants offering his health
foods, which proved a success.
However, Macfaddens views were soon to
get him in trouble again, and once more it was
through fiction published in Physical Culture.
Macfadden was of the view that the nation needed strong guidance and that he ought to hold
political office as a Secretary of Public Health. He
commissioned Milo Hastings, one of his staff
writers, to produce a novel that showed how
physically and morally degraded America had
become, and how easily it could be dominated by
a healthy race. The result was a science fiction
novel,In the Clutch of the War-God, serialized
from July to September, 1911. Set in 1958, it
shows how easily America is conquered by the
Japanese, who have superior health, leading to
superior minds and advanced science. Japans only
problem is that it cannot grow enough food for
its near-perfect race and so invades the United
States for more land. Hastings made some
remarkable predictions in this serial, including
sea-going aircraft carriers.Although the first flight
from a ship had been made just a few months
before, in November, 1910, there were no true

aircraft carriers until 1922, and none like Hastings

predicted until the 1930s. Hastings also made
some remarkable predictions about the growth in
obesity because of artificial foods.
The authorities believed this story was antiAmerican and that Macfadden was a dangerous
radical. Macfadden discovered that even if he was
not charged with un-American activities, the earlier suspended sentences might now be enforced.
As a result, Macfadden signed over Physical Culture
to his manager, Charles Desgrey, packed his bags,
and fled to England, not returning until 1914, just
before the outbreak of war in Europe. Before he
went, preparations were well in hand for Macfaddens massive Encyclopaedia of Physical Culture,
which ran to five volumes and almost 3,000 pages,
and which was issued between 1911 and 1914. It
was a major undertaking and proved, regardless of
the view of the police and courts, that Macfadden
had a considerable understanding of health matters
and that the nation could learn from him.
While in Britain, he ran another beauty contest with none of the acrimony he had experienced in America, and ended up marrying the
winner, Mary Williamson, his second wife.When
they returned to the States, Mary, who had a fascination for scientific romances, became first
reader and assistant on Physical Culture. She
would bear seven children in the next twelve
years and the strain must have told, as they separated in 1932 and divorced in 1946. Macfadden,
though, always liked to give the impression they
were a happy family.
Macfadden had also written My Life Story
while in Britain and was still working on it when
they returned. It was serialized in Physical Culture
starting in March, 1914.
Once he was back in America, Macfadden
could not resist attacking his old enemy Anthony
Comstock. Through John Coryell, Macfadden
composed two stories dubbed A Modern Gullivers Travels. In the first, A Voyage to Purora
(Physical Culture, August 1915), an unnamed
descendant of Gulliver, who is on a crusade
against slack morals, finds himself on an unknown

145

146 | Physical Culture

island where everyone is naked. His attempts to
reform them are met by resistance from the
islanders, who regard him as having a lewd mind.
He is sent packing in his boat. In A Voyage to
Babyland (October 1915), the modern-day Gulliver seeks the help of the Antonius Cornstalk
Society for upholding morals, and they charter a
ship to return to Purora. It is wrecked in a storm
and all are lost except Gulliver, who is washed up
on another island inhabited almost solely by children. He learns that mothers practice free love
and birth control. He is so horrified that he flees
the island. Comstock may well have read these
two stories, but whether knowledge of them
contributed to his final decline is not recorded,
for he died on September 21, 1915.
Although Comstocks successor, John Sumner, was as virulent in his hounding of anything he
judged obscene, Macfadden found that Physical
Culture was gaining in reputation. It was now
running material by several major writers. Upton
Sinclair had been a regular contributor since
1909, and during 1913 Physical Culture serialized
Sinclairs novelization of the stage play Damaged
Goods by the French dramatist Eugene Brieux.
This play had succeeded where Macfadden had
previously failed in exposing both the social and
medical matters related to venereal disease and
highlighting the responsible manner in which it
should be addressed.The producer of the American version of the play had the sense to provide
an advance performance in April, 1913 solely for
Congressmen, the Supreme Court, clergymen,
the Diplomatic Corps, and other distinguished
officials.They fully endorsed the play and its production, and Macfadden found he could run Sinclairs adaptation without fear of reprisal.
Macfadden also secured reprint rights to Jack
Londons 1910 novel of the benefits of returning
to nature and the homely life, Burning Daylight,
serialized during 1914. George Bernard Shaw,
whom Macfadden had visited in England, and in
whom he saw a fellow health faddist, had allowed
Macfadden to reprint certain of his works free of
charge. His amusing 1908 play about the nature

PG 146, Top to Bot SECRET AGENT X, Sept. 1934 ( Ace Publications); SECRET AGENT X, Sept. 1937 ( Ace Publications); PG 147, Bot band, L to R MODERN MAN, Mar. 1955 ( respective copyright holder); CARNIVAL, Mar.
1956 (Hillman Publications); THE MAGNIFICENT SOHIA LOREN, #1, 1957 ( Classic Syndicate Inc.).

of marriage, Getting Married, was serialized during

1915, ahead of its first American production in
November, 1916.
Starting in September, 1915 Macfadden serialized the remarkable novel, The Man Who
Never Died by Robert Alexander Wason. This
concerns the physician and pioneer anatomist
Andreas Vesalius, who, historically, perished in a
shipwreck in 1564, aged 50. Wason, though,
explains how Vesalius survived and made his way
to India and Tibet. On his travels he discovered
new substances that helped regenerate cells and
learned how to improve the bodys health and
thereby develop longevity. He gathered about
him a group of children on whom he could
experiment, and traveled with them to Africa,
where he established a colony aimed at prolonging life and, through a form of genetic manipulation, create the perfect being, which is where the
novel starts, 350 years later.
For a brief period in 1916, Macfadden secured
the services of John Brisben Walker as editor, but
Walker disliked the constant interference from
Macfadden and resigned after only five issues. He
went on to edit Metropolitan Magazine which, by
one of those twists of fate, he subsequently sold to
Macfadden in 1924, and that survived for two
more years as Macfaddens Fiction Lovers Magazine.
Throughout most of the nineteen-teens, Physical
Culture was edited by John Brennan, who had a
remarkable capacity for satisfying Macfadden and
the readers. He managed to attract contributions
by or about famous personalities of the day, from
screen idols like Douglas Fairbanks to top baseball
player and evangelist Billy Sunday, Willie Hoppe,
and former president Theodore Roosevelt. Sales
were constantly improving, and from February,
1919 Physical Culture switched from the standard
magazine size to the larger flat format of the growing market of slick magazines.

1919 was a major year for Macfadden, as in

May, urged by his wife Mary, he launched True
Story. He had been uncertain about the idea of a
magazine devoted to true stories submitted by
readers (and usually rewritten or embellished by
Macfaddens staff writers), but the idea was an
instant success. Sales of True Story skyrocketed to
such an extent that Macfadden had problems
keeping up the production. He had to raise a loan
to improve his publishing enterprise, but True
Story repaid that in no time at all. By 1926, when
sales hit two million, the magazine was apparently earning $10,000 a day in advertising revenue
alone. Its success gave Macfadden the financial
wherewithal and the confidence to launch a publishing empire, going public with the Macfadden
Publishing Co. in 1924. This included several
magazines in imitation of True Story, such as True
Experiences (begun 1922), Love and Romance
(1923), True Love Stories (1924) and True Detective
Mysteries (1924), plus the short-lived expos magazine Midnight (1922), the even more sensational
newspaper The New York Evening Graphic (first
issue September 15, 1924), and such specialist
magazines as Brain Power (1921-1924), Ghost Stories (1926-1931), and Dance (1925-1931). By the
late 1920s, aggregate sales of Macfaddens magazines exceeded those of all other publishers.
The expanding empire also needed more staff
and although Macfadden remained intimately
involved with all of his magazines, the real guiding hand from 1922 onwards was Fulton Oursler.
Oursler was originally employed in June, 1922,to
oversee the rising number of specialist magazines,
but he soon became Macfaddens deputy and was
also the man chiefly responsible for Ghost Stories.
Learning from the past, Macfadden had established a panel of censors for True Story and its sister titles, mostly clergymen, who advised on what
was admissible. They were surprisingly acquies-

Physical Culture |
cent, perhaps recognizing what Macfadden was
trying to achieve in creating awareness among the
masses to the perils of life and how improved
morals would also improve health.Although Macfadden would continue to clash with John Sumner of the Society for the Suppression of Vice on
the extreme items he published in Midnight and
the Evening Graphic, there were little if any problems with True Story and Physical Culture.
Through all this change Physical Culture continued unabated, boosted by the financial strength
of the company and further encouraged by the
comparative social freedom of the roaring twenties. Its circulation was around half a million by
1920. By comparison with the more extreme
contents of Midnight and the Evening Graphic,
Physical Cultures contents seemed tame, almost
normal. It continued to run some items of wider
interest beyond the usual health and fitness arti-

cles. In 1931, Zane Grey contributed a series

about his expedition to Tahiti in Tales of the
South Seas.The July, 1931 issue ran the literary
sensation of 1931, Jack Londons hitherto
unpublished story,Poppy Cargo. In fact, this was
a variant draft of his published story The Captain of Susan Drew (1912).
By the end of the 1920s, the magazine had
taken a decided shift away from body building to
general family health and issues of interest to
women.The February, 1929 issue, for instance, ran
the banner headline What Makes a Girl Attractive, along with a feature article, A Wife Tells
How to Keep a Husband Fit, and other items on
Is Womans Love Life Over at Forty? and How
to Build a Beautiful Figure. Physical Culture,
despite the title, was directing itself more to the
Good Housekeeping readership, with obvious
though short-lived results. It continued to run

short stories and serials by Faith Baldwin,Warwick

Deeping, Gouverneur Morris, Nina Wilcox Putnam, Achmed Abdullah, even Edgar Wallace,, but
by the mid-1930s. even these had faded away.
From December, 1933 on, it became subtitled
The Personal Problem Magazine, and ran pieces
that would have been equally at home in True
Story or its companion titles. Physical Culture had
become simply another confessions magazine and
had nothing new to offer.
Although Macfadden continued to be featured in the magazine with occasional articles and
cover stories, his interests had moved elsewhere.
With his publishing empire amassing a small fortune, Macfadden believed he could finance his
way into the White House. He had long held
beliefs that the only way he could influence the
nation to follow his healthy living was by becoming president, but nobody wanted him. He was

147

blind to his megalomania and throughout the

thirties he tried time and again to obtain public
office. He eventually ran for the office of governor of Florida and again failed, but this time shareholders in Macfadden questioned where the
money was coming from. Macfadden was indeed
drawing upon company funds to finance his campaigns, and though he argued that maintaining a
high public profile was to the benefit of the magazines, the shareholders held a different view. One
stockholder took Macfadden to court over the
misappropriation of funds and this led to Macfadden resigning as company president in February,
1941. He asked only that he be allowed to continue with Physical Culture as his own magazine.
By then the title was suffering from a misguided effort to turn it into a beauty magazine
and it was sold to Macfadden in 1943. He got it
back on the road again as New Physical Culture,

CELEBRITY

148 | Physical Culture

but wartime paper restrictions meant it appeared
in the less attractive digest format, limiting his
scope for effective illustrations.The magazine was
a shadow of its former self, though he did manage to push the circulation back to around
100,000. However, the magazine then went
through a series of title changes, first National
Hygiene, then Health Review, before returning to
Physical Culture in its final year. By then newsstand
sales had slumped so much that after the January,
1952, issue it was available by subscription only. It
survived until Macfaddens death, a tribute issue
being published in December, 1955.
Macfaddens influence on the magazine field
cannot be underestimated.Although his main triumph was with True Story, it was Physical Culture
that paved that route, and it was with Physical Culture that he fought the battles that enabled him to
create the market and conditions that favored
True Story.Whats more, many of the health ideas
that he proposed in the magazine have since been
proved effective. He was a pioneer in more ways
than one.MA [see Midnight Magazine]

PLANET STORIES
Planet Stories was a science fiction pulp magazine
published by Fiction House, Inc., one of the early
pulp publishing companies. Fiction House was
started in the early 1920s by publisher Thurman T.
Scott, whose pulp imprints included Glen-Kel
and Real Adventures Publishing Co. Publisher
Scott began with aviation and Western titles such
as Air Stories, Black Aces, North-West Stories & NorthWest Romances, as well as several sports titles.
Fiction House entered the detective genre
with the popular pulp, Detective Book Magazine, in
the early 1930s. The company expanded into
comic books in the late 1930s when that emerging medium began to seem a viable adjunct to
the fading pulps. Like most pulp publishing houses of that period, they struggled through the war
years, hanging on until the death of the pulps in
the early 1950s.

Two of their most popular titles were Jungle

Stories, which ran for 59 issues, and featured KiGor, a Tarzan-like jungle hero.The other title was
the science fiction great, Planet Stories, which ran
for 71 issues, beginning with its premiere issue in
the winter of 1939 until its last issue in the summer of 1955.
Planet Stories featured a particular kind of
romantic, swashbuckling adventure in a science
fiction context. Originally subtitled Strange
Adventures on Other Worlds The Universe of
Future Centuries, it quickly developed a reputation for publishing space-opera. The most noted
writers who contributed to the magazine were
Poul Anderson, Philip K. Dick, Fredric Brown,
Ray Bradbury, and Leigh Brackett. Many of Bradburys most famous science fiction stories were
published in Planet Stories, as well as Bracketts
more colorful adventures set on other planets.
The covers of the 71 issues were garish in the
extreme. Its interior art was crude and lurid, but
not without a certain appeal.The covers typically
featured a damsel in distress, while some covers
featured the iconic, and presumably impossible,
image of a woman in space, wearing a bikini and
space helmet. In this it was following the lead of
its competitor, Startling Stories, whose frequent
cover artist Earle Bergey pioneered this imagery
and is often cited as the inspiration for Princess
Leias slave girl costume in Return of the Jedi.
The covers of Planet Stories promised action,
adventure and, more often than not, a definite
hint of sexuality.The publisher,Thurman T. Scott,
knew that on a newsstand, covers sold magazines.
He had no qualms whatsoever about pushing the
boundaries of what was socially acceptable.While
the pulp publishing industry was mostly located
in New York, Scott seldom ever set foot inside his
New York-based studios. Instead, he lived in
Georgia.This does not mean he was not directly

involved in the business. Scotts personal standards

for art were one of the driving aspects of the
company. He was a detail-oriented fanatic regarding the covers his company put out. It was his
solid belief that these particular covers sold his
books.The proposed cover art for each issue was
sent to his home in Georgia and he would send
back detailed suggestions and changes.
Most of the covers were painted by lesserknown artists, though several well-known artists
did at least one cover each:Virgil Finlay painted
the Summer, 1941 issue; Frank R. Paul painted
the Fall, 1941 issue; Hannes Bok painted the winter 1941 issue and Norman Saunders painted the
Summer, 1942 cover. After World War II, Allen
Anderson painted most of the covers, beginning
with the spring 1947 cover, until he was replaced
by the famous science fiction and fantasy illustrator Kelly Freas, beginning with the July, 1953
issue, and continuing until the magazine folded.
Malcolm Reiss was the overall editor-in-chief
and had several sub-editors running the magazine
each left a different imprint on the direction
Planet Stories followed: Malcolm Reiss, Winter,
1939-Summer, 1942; Malcolm Reiss and Wilbur
S. Peacock, Fall, 1942-Fall, 1945; Chester Whitehorn,Winter, 1945-Summer, 1946; Paul Lawrence
Payne, Fall, 1946-Spring, 1950; Jerome Bixby,
Summer, 1950-July, 1951; and Jack OSullivan,
September, 1951-Summer, 1955.
Planet Stories published its best stories under
Paul Payne, but Drexel Jerome Lewis Bixby was
the most noted editor of Planet Stories. Bixby was
also the editor of the companion magazine, Two
Complete Science Adventure Novels, from the Winter, 1950 issue until July, 1951. At the same time,
Jack OSullivan began the reprint magazine Tops
in Science Fiction, selecting material from early
issues of Planet Stories.
Probably Bixbys best known work today is

PG 148, Top to Bot RAW, #3, 1981 ( Raw); RAW, #1, 1980 ( Raw); PG 149, L to R PLANET STORIES ( Fiction
House); PLANET STORIES ( Fiction House); PLANET STORIES ( Fiction House); PLANET STORIES, vol. 1, #11, 1942
( Fiction House).

Planet Stories |
the Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror and the
short story Its a Good Life, adapted as a teleplay
for the Twilight Zone show by Rod Serling and
revisited several times by that franchise. Bixby also
conceived and co-wrote the 1966 film Fantastic
Voyage, later novelized by Isaac Asimov.
In the late 1930s,Will Eisner and S.M.Jerry
Iger, prominent packagers of that time who
produced complete comic books on demand for
publishers looking to enter the field, struck a deal
with Scott and Fiction House, releasing Jumbo
Comics #1 in September, 1938.
The comic division of Fiction House would
become best known for its pinup-style good girl
art, as epitomized by the companys most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
Sheena, the much-imitated female Tarzan,
became famous when writer William Thomas,
a joint pseudonym for Eisner and Iger, and artist
Mort Meskin featured her exploits in the first
issue of Jumbo Comics.
Jumbo Comics proved a big hit, and Fiction
House would go on to publish Jungle Comics, the
aviation-themed Wings Comics, the science fiction
title Planet Comics, Rangers Comics, and Fight
Comics during the early 1940s most of these
series taking their titles and themes from the Fiction House pulps. Fiction House referred to these
titles in its regular house ads as The Big Six, but
the company also published several others, among
them Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and five issues of
Eisners The Spirit.
Planet Comics was a science fiction comicbook imprint of Fiction House that ran from
1944 until 1951. It was a spin-off of Planet Stories.
The comics were first produced in the latter part
of WWII when a growing interest in the exploration of outer space had begun due to technological advances in America, Britain, and Russia.
The space adventures in Planet Comics often
featured muscular, Flash Gordon-style astronauts
saving attractive female assistants from bug-eyed
monsters, although several space heroines
appeared after 1945. When the superhero genre
began to dominate most comics, Planet Comics

stopped production in 1951. From 1945 until it

folded, Gale Allen, female astronaut, was the main
heroine of the series. She led her feminist girls
squadron on adventures. Gale Allen also broke
the mold of the damsels in distress syndrome
typical of science fiction comics in this era. During WWII, many of the finest female artists of the
day came on board.The draft had decimated the
ranks of available male artists and Fiction House
brought Ann Brewster, Marcia Snyder, Ruth
Atkinson, and many others on board to fill the
empty chairs. Much of the work they did equaled
or excelled what the men had been doing.
Many of Fiction Houses pulp-style action
stories either starred or featured strong, beautiful,
competent heroines.They were war nurses, aviatrixes, girl detectives, counter-spies, and animalskin-clad jungle queens, and they were in command.And they did not need rescuing.
Even with an early pre-feminist pedigree, Fiction House became the target of conservative
right-wing politics. In psychiatrist Dr. Frederic
Werthams infamous book Seduction of the Innocent
(1954), comic books were blamed for an increase
in juvenile delinquency. Fiction House was held
up to public scrutiny for its use of sexy, pneumatic heroines.A Senate subcommittee investigation,
coupled with an outcry from parents, created a
downturn in comic sales.The various pulp publications had never recovered from WWII paper
shortages, and had faced increasing competition
for readers and leisure time by the new, booming,
paperback industry and television. Fiction House
shortly met its end and closed shop.FJ

POLICE GAZETTE
see Medical Horrors
PRIVATE DETECTIVE STORIES
see Spicy Adventure Stories

149

150 | Psychotronic
PSYCHOTRONIC
In June of 1981 a b&w, Xeroxed fanzine, looking
very much like another D.I.Y. punk zine, began
appearing in head shops and independent bookstores around Greenwich Village, Soho, and
downtown Manhattan. Psychotronic was a weekly
hand-lettered zine pointing out the most interesting old movies airing that week usually in the
middle of the night on New Yorks seven TV
stations. (Tom Allen also performed a similar service, covering mainstream movies, during the early
1980s at the Village Voice.) The person behind Psychotronic, Michael Weldon, was an obsessive movie
addict from Cleveland who loved offbeat genres:
no-budget horror and sci-fi films, Mexican monsters and wrestling, beach party romps, mad scientists (especially when played by the likes of Lionel
Atwill or Bela Lugosi), blaxploitation, bikers, rock

n roll, zombies, and all bizarre movie obscurities.

These were the kind of movies that regular film
critics usually avoided.
Psychotronic was printed on an at-work
copy machine.The distinctive logo was hand-lettered by Sally Eckoff, who also did much of the
interior lettering.The only typesetting seen in the
zine was from movie ad-clippings taken from a
fifty year run of the Ohio newspaper Middletown
News. Weldon had acquired the movie pages from
a friend who only wanted the comics from the
newspaper.The fanzine version ran 47 issues, each
averaging 6 sheets stapled together. The last
Xeroxed issue appeared in May, 1982. There was
also a tabloid newsprint version that came out in
June of that year and lasted another six issues. Psychotronic became known in New York for its pithy
movie reviews full of obsessive details about storyline, actors, production crews, settings, and

behind-the-scenes gossip.As a one-time drummer

in a rock band, Weldon always noted obscure
bands in any 1950s/1960s rock films. Lester Bangs
became a contributor late into the run of the
fanzine version, and Bob Martin, the editor of
Fangoria, contributed a column in trade for one by
Weldon for Fangoria.An editor at Ballantine, who
was a fan of the zine, approached Weldon about
putting out a book edition of the zine, and the
Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film appeared in 1984.
It was always Weldons plan to do a real print
magazine. During the late 1980s, Weldon had
been doing reviews for High Times, Gorezone, and
Video Review, and in 1989 he found a cheap
printer in Hoboken, New Jersey, whose expertise
was doing penny-savers, and put out the first issue
of Psychotronic Video.
The newsprint paper and shoddy printing
was perfect for a magazine about trash movies.

And there was always Weldons idiosyncratic

writing, which often seemed to include references to 1960s minor music hits Surfer Bird or
its Papa-Ooh-Maw-Maw refrain, and just
about any film made in Cleveland. Reading Psychotronic Video, one had the feeling that they had
come across a secret society with its own buzzwords and convoluted handshake. Weldon may
have been the first to write semi-seriously about
such films as Bloodsucking Pharaohs In Pittsburgh,
The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, and The Adventures
of Rat Pfink and Boo Boo.
Psychotronic Video carried on some of fanzine
versions unkempt ethos, this time typeset, but still
using images from Weldons vast collection of
newspaper movie-clippings, in some cases now
brightly day-glo-colored, for covers. PV still covered drive-ins and grindhouse movies, even
though the original venues for these films were

PLAYBOYS OFF-SPRING

Punk |

PG 150, Bot band, L to R MYSTIQUE, #1, 1961 ( respective copyright holder); TOPPER, Nov. 1964
( respective copyright holder); RASCAL, #12, Mar. 1965 ( respective copyright holder); PG 151 RAY GUN, #4,
Apr. 1993 ( Ray Gun Publishing, Inc.); SCIENCE FICTION EYE, #2, 1987 ( Til You Go Blind Co-op).

fast becoming extinct. A lot of these films were

now finding their way onto video from smalltime operators and movie bootleggers. PV finally
expired in 2001, when it ran into trouble with distributors making payments. PV was the precursor
of other movie zines that reached the newsstands
during the 1990s including Charles Kilgores Ecco,
and Steve Puchalskis Shock Cinema.LO

PUNK
New York City, New Years Eve, 1975: It is a very
different New York City from the one we know
today.The I Love New York campaign has yet
to begin. Crime is rampant. A little while in the
future, a nerdy software engineer will shoot four
young men on the subway who were acting in a
threatening manner, and many people will
understand why.
Life is cheap relatively cheap, anyway.
Storefronts at 30th Street and Tenth Avenue can be
rented for $195 a month, which is precisely what
Ged Dunn and John Holmstrom have done in
order to start Punk magazine. Further south in
Manhattan, an underground music scene is brewing, centered around a Bowery dive called
CBGB-OMFUG, which stands for Country, Blue
Grass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting
Gourmandizers. This is the period of disco and
live music venues are rare.CBGBs provides one of
the few places for unsigned bands to perform and
a substantial number of bands, mostly falling into
the Other Music category, are taking advantage
of the opportunity, and a fan base is growing. Punk
magazine will be a monthly chronicle of this
scene, its influences, its antecedents, and its attitude, as it moves out of lower Manhattan and into
the larger world, eventually dominating commercial rock music and making its publisher, Ged

Dunn, editor John Holmstrom, and resident punk,

Eddie Legs McNeil, internationally famous and
wealthy moguls like Jann Wenner.
Three of us (Ged, Legs, and I) grew up in
Cheshire, Connecticut, and knew each other
from high school, but were not close friends.We
got together in the summer of 1975 to help
Eddie (aka Legs) make a comedy film called
The Unthinkable. Eddie and I moved into a
storefront in November, 1975 and talked Ged
into joining us.
Ged put up the money, I put up the sweat
equity. Legs hung out and became famous
because of his name and title (Resident Punk).
The first issue of Punk appeared in January
1976, having gone to press on New Years Eve at
Peruse Printing.The cover featured a cartoon by
Holmstrom, of Lou Reed looking a bit like
Frankensteins Monster. In addition to Lou Reed,
the cover promises Brando Ramones
Girls Legs, all for only 50 cents.The interview
with Lou Reed, Rock and Roll Vegetable,
immediately established Punk as a rock and roll
magazine with a new, different, and fresh
approach to its subject. The interview combines
hand-lettered questions and answers, photo cartoons, and cartoons by editor and interviewer
Holmstrom. Its a tour-de-force. Reed says little
of consequence, but the illustrations make it all
fascinating: Lou as a devil complaining about the
sloppiness of the Ramones set, while a quivering
Holmstrom grits his teeth nervously in the background. A quick series of panels as they discuss
comics with Holmstrom emulates the styles of
Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson,Wally Wood, and
Bill Elder.The interview unveiled Punk as a magazine with its own style and attitude fully formed.
Holmstrom says, I knew that this interview
would put Punk on the map. he gave me exactly the kind of interview I needed so I could make

a funny comic strip out of it I was, like, writing it in my mind as we talked.

Punk #1 also started the legend of Legs
McNeil. Punks resident punk was generally portrayed drinking, trying (unsuccessfully) to pick up
girls, and hanging out at all the coolest spots.The
issue features a Legs McNeil Famous Person
Interview of Sluggo, the friend from the wrong
side of the tracks in Ernie Bushmillers popular
and long-running comic strip, Nancy. The
embittered, middle-aged, comic strip icon, forced
by his contract to act as a child and friend of the
star he can no longer stomach, dishes dirt about
Nancy and many of the comic strip characters of
the day. Legs McNeil is also featured in a photocomic, or fumetti, showing him failing to pick up
girls while hanging out on the Bowery.
From its very first issue, Punk had a look and
an attitude that was unique among magazines of
the time. The template included hand-lettering
most, if not all, articles; combining text, cartoons,
and fumetti in a seamless flow in interviews;
interviews with fictional characters; and coverage
of little-known, or well-known, pop culture figures from the past who had what might be
termed a punk persona: independent minded
and willing to stick with their own personal
vision regardless of commercial pressures.
Punk #3 featured a change in format and a
price increase to 85 cents. The first two issues
were printed on tabloid-sized newsprint, folded
in half to present a standard-sized cover.The third
issue was a slick-covered magazine format that
still featured the superb Holmstrom cartoon
cover (this one of Joey Ramone, for the feature
article on The Ramones, who had just released
their first album), hand lettering, fumetti, and
interviews that mixed cartoons and photos (this
time of David Johansen, former lead singer of The
New York Dolls). Boris and Natasha Badanov of
The Bullwinkle Show were interviewed, and
one of the earliest appreciations of the movies of
Sam Fuller helped round out the issue.
In addition to format and price changes, Punk
#3 also featured changes to the masthead. Rober-

151

152 | Punk
ta Bayley joined the group as photo editor and
the list of contributors grew. Clearly the magazine
was attracting the talent it needed to produce on
a monthly schedule, but advertising was still
sparse and almost entirely for local New York
businesses in the East Village.With issue number
four, however, national advertisers began to make
their presence felt, with ads from Columbia
Records, Sire Records, and Epic Records.
The regular fumetti features combined with
Legs McNeils interest in filmmaking resulted in
a special feature file fumetti for Punk #6. The
Legend of Nick Detroit starred Richard Hell as
Nick Detroit, former top international agent
and super-killer now become world-weary mercenary battling the infamous Nazi Dykes and
their schemes for world domination. The evil
Nazi Dykes were beautifully led by Deborah
Harry. The cast included half of the New York
punk scene of the late 1970s, including members
of Television, Talking Heads, and Blondie. Even
the ill-fated Nancy Spungen (girlfriend of the
Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, who was charged
with his murder) makes a cameo appearance.
Financial problems, always present when trying to run an independent magazine, became
critical when the ninth issue disappeared amid
the bankruptcy of the printer. Fortunately, the
groups that had always been championed, by the
magazine and the club where many of them had
played their first shows before an audience, were
happy to return the favor ,and a benefit was held
on May 4th and 5th, 1977, at CBGB. By this
time, many of these groups had major record
deals and international followings, so it really
shows the genuine affection that was felt for Punk
magazine when The Dead Boys, Patti Smith,
Blondie, Suicide, Richard Hell, and the Voidoids,
the Cramps, and more, all performed in a benefit
to get the magazine solvent once again.
The benefit was successful, and issue 10, back
on tabloid newsprint like the first two issues, was
released under new publisher Tom Katz.
By 1977, punk rock had become an international phenomenon, with the mainstream press

PG 152, Top to Bot SPEED DETECTIVE, Feb. 1943 ( Trojan Magazines); SUPER-DETECTIVE, Feb. 1945
( Trojan Magazines); PG 153, Bot band, L to R PUNK, #4, ( respective copyright holder); PUNK, #5, ( respective
copyright holder); PUNK, #7, ( respective copyright holder).

declaring it a British invention and a further

example of the decline of Western civilization.The
perceived wisdom was that punk was all about
angry working class youth, who liked violence for
its own sake, and were all anarchists at the least, and
probably nihilists, too. Despite being uninterested
in developing grandiose sociopolitical justifications for punk rock, and generally believing the
British branch to be composed primarily of trendy
fashionistas, Punk magazine covered this new
British invasion, too.This resulted in John Holmstrom and Legs McNeil chronicling the Sex Pistols disastrous United States tour in issue 14
(There is no Punk #13 because we are very
superstitious.).This bizarre tour kept the band far
away from the large coastal cities where they had
a true fan base, and had them scheduled to play
deep in the heart of the Bible Belt where they
were seen mostly as a freak show.The tour culminated with a show in San Francisco (the only town
they played where they probably had a reasonable
fan base) at a sold-out Winterland Arena. Despite
playing before their largest audience ever, the
internal tensions led to an immediate post-concert
break-up, all covered by Punk magazine. For the
mainstream media, this was evidence that punk
was dead and it immediately began saying so.
Punk may have been officially dead (it wasnt,
merely returning to the underground from
whence it came, with occasional eruptions into
commercial success over the next 25 years), but
Punk magazine soldiered on for three more issues.
Punk #15 is another fumetti issue starring
Joey Ramone and Deborah Harry in Mutant
Monster Beach Party. In a very funny twist, the
appalling mutant monster turns out to be cute
British rock star Peter Frampton (his live album
was absurdly popular at the time).
But the writing was on the wall for Punk
magazine. Neither the music it had so assiduous-

ly and cleverly championed, nor the magazine

itself, had reached large-scale commercial success.
The magazine published its final issue, number
17, in May, 1979.
As with punk rock, though, Punk magazine
maintained an underground reputation. In 1996,
the High Times Press published a collection taken
from the magazine and in 2000, John Holmstrom
left his job with High Times magazine to try and
revive Punk. A substantial amount of the original
series is available on the internet at
.punkmagazine.com.
So what is the legacy of Punk magazine besides
fifteen issues produced over three years? It was the
first, and really the only, magazine to truly capture
the music, the personalities, the inventiveness, creativity, and especially the humor that pervaded the
early days of punk rock, well before it was codified
and placed in a pigeonhole of being a very narrow
commingling of music, politics, and fashion.
John Holmstrom continued to produce
excellent cartoons, all too infrequently. After
Punk, he moved to High Times as an editor and
publisher, and also edited the humor magazine
Stop! with cartoonist J. D. King. Legs McNeil has
become a successful author (Please Kill Me,
The Other Hollywood). Roberta Bayleys
photos have appeared on albums, in magazines,
and in galleries. Not a bad legacy for an operation
run on a shoestring by a few young folks with
nothing but talent and ambition to help them
along.RC

Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine |

Q
ELLERY QUEENS
MYSTERY MAGAZINE
EQMM wasnt a cult magazine from the start, but
there is no denying that it was elite, and it was
through that elitism that it developed a cult status.
Frederic Dannay, the half of the Ellery Queen
writing team who was the force behind the magazine, was well versed in the history of crime fiction and had built up his own extensive library.
Dannay and his partner, Manfred Lee, had edited
an earlier magazine, Mystery League, but it was
under-financed and failed after four issues (October 1933-January 1934). Dannay, when not writing the Ellery Queen novels and radio series with

Lee, turned his expertise to anthologies: first a

rather curious item, Challenge to the Reader (1938),
where readers were asked to identify the great
detectives in each story where the names had
been changed; and then a mammoth volume, 101
Years Entertainment (1941), a selection of the best
detective stories of the previous century. Compiling this served to emphasize how much good but
neglected crime fiction had been published, and
which Dannay could not cram into the anthology. So he approached Lawrence Spivak, the publisher of the American Mercury, to see if hed be
interested in an occasional anthology of crime
fiction.
The result is an interesting hybrid. Although
Dannay believed the title, Ellery Queens Mystery
Magazine,rolls easily off the tongue, he made it
clear in his editorial that we are publishing a
book rather than a magazine. Moreover, it was

issued in the digest-sized format, published on

book paper, and sold for the relatively high price
of 25 cents, compared to 15 cents for most pulps.
It was unillustrated, other than minimal cover art.
Dannay wanted to project a sophisticated image.
He made this emphatic in his editorial: we
have for many years shouted need for and
deplored the lack of a quality publication
devoted exclusively to the printing of the best in
detective-crime short-story literature.
There was good crime fiction appearing in
both the slick magazines and the pulps, but the
readership seldom overlapped. Moreover, the
pulps tended to focus on particular modes of fiction: Black Mask and Dime Detective on the tough,
hard-boiled style, while Detective Fiction Weekly
and Clues ran a highly Americanized traditional
form.There was little common ground between
them, and minimal crossover. Dannay wanted to

153

bring the best of all these forms and other material, especially the classic British crime story,
together in one volume, emphasizing quality,
style, and originality over formula and image.
No matter what their source, they will be superior stories, he promised, whether by big-name
writers or lesser-known or forgotten names.
The first volume (which is what it was specifically called, as a book; not issue) was a showcase
of what he meant. All the stories had previously
appeared in print, but only two in book form in
America, and in both cases they were in hardcover. Curiously, one of those was Queens own The
Adventure of the Treasure Hunt. The volume
opened with a Sam Spade story by Dashiell Hammett, Too Many Have Lived, which had previously appeared in The American Magazine in 1932,
but would not be collected in book form until
1944. Similarly, Cornell Woolrichs Dime a

PUNK MAG

154 | Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine

Dance, from Black Mask, would not appear in a
collection until 1946, while neither T.S. Striblings
Poggioli story, The Cablegram, nor Frederick
Hazlitt Brennans Wild Onions, had appeared
(or would ever appear) in any story collection, and
might not otherwise have been seen by mystery
buffs, the stories having appeared in Adventure and
Colliers respectively. This was Dannays strength.
He knew how to find rare and quality stories,
unlikely to have been read before by anyone other
than the most die-hard collector, which were by
both major writers and others not immediately
associated with the field.
Dannay was also on the lookout for new stories, but did not encourage submissions until the
series had settled onto a firm footing. Nevertheless, for the second volume he acquired a previously unpublished story by Frederick Irving
Anderson, The Phantom Guest, featuring his
detective-story writer Oliver Armiston and
Detective Parr. The previous stories about their
investigations had run in the Saturday Evening Post
in the 1920s, and were collected in two volumes,
but this story had not previously appeared and,
indeed, was never collected in any of Andersons
books, its only subsequent book appearance
being in a fiftieth-anniversary anthology selecting
from EQMM.
EQMM soon made its mark. If the Ellery
Queen name had not already been a sufficient
attraction, Dannays abilities as an anthologist and
editor added to the lure.The first three volumes
appeared on a quarterly basis, but sales were sufficient that with the fourth issue, dated May,
1942, it went bi-monthly.Wartime paper restrictions limited any further expansion, but it went
monthly at the first opportunity in January, 1946.
Even though the fourth issue took a further concession to magazine status, being the second
number of volume three, the book pretence
remained, with the cover bearing the slogan,An
Anthology of the Best Detective Stories, New
and Old.This remained a tagline until 1954.
With the switch to bi-monthly, Dannay could
introduce more regular features, starting with

The League of Forgotten Men (or Women),

in July, 1942, selecting lesser -known fictional
detectives.Then came Curiosities in Detection
(July 1943) or Curiosities in Deception as it
became known, which covered more unusual
mysteries, and started that series with what would
become another feature, The Department of
Impossible Crimes, the first story by James Yaffe.
Dannay had a penchant for impossible crimes
EQMM had already run one before this, The
Diary of Death by Martin Cumberland (January
1943) and they have remained a feature ever
since, especially with the work of Edward D.
Hoch.With Speaking of Crime in June, 1946,
Howard Haycraft began an occasional column of
comment. Haycraft was a noted critic and expert
on crime fiction, author of Murder for Pleasure
(1941), the first serious study of detective fiction
as a literary form.The column won him an Edgar
Award for Outstanding Mystery Criticism in
1948.Anthony Boucher took over the column in
February, 1949 and he, too, went on to win an
Edgar in 1950. Dannay also won an Edgar in
1948 for his work on EQMM.
Dannay prided himself on how many authors
sold their first stories to EQMM, making a list of
them as early as the July, 1944 issue, by which
time it already included Craig Rice, James Yaffe,
and Lillian de la Torre. Jack Finneys first story sale
was also to EQMM, The Widows Walk (July
1947), while Stanley Ellin debuted the next year
with the now classic The Specialty of the
House (May 1948). Eventually this became a
firm feature, with the Department of First Stories inaugurated in the May, 1949 issue.
De la Torres debut (November 1943) was
with the first of her Sam Johnson: Detector, series,
which while not the earliest historical mystery
EQMM had run (that was another first, The
Bow-Street Runner by Samuel Duff (November
1942)), it was a distinctive series that set principles
for the genre over 30 years before Ellis Peterss
Brother Cadfael stories created the marketing
phenomenon. Another historical mystery, The
Problem of the Emperors Mushrooms (Septem-

Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine |

ber 1945), arose as a challenge to James Yaffe to
redeem himself after a major error arose in his
story Cul de Sac (March 1945), and the result
became a minor classic.
Dannay also had the temerity to reprint the
scripts of radio plays, something no other editor
would consider, but one that readers of EQMM
more than welcomed, especially when these were
by John Dickson Carr and Queen himself.
What established EQMM as a magazine to
collect (and everyone else did regard it as a magazine rather than a book), were the rare and
unusual stories that Dannay discovered by writers
of significance few, if any, of which would be
familiar to American readers. Issues would boast
names like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers,
Vincent Starrett, Edgar Wallace, G.K. Chesterton,
John Dickson Carr, Arnold Bennett, R. Austin
Freeman, Ellis Parker Butler, Freeman Wills Croft,
James M. Cain, P.C. Wren, Ernest Bramah, C.S.
Forester, Stuart Palmer, Fredric Brown and,
thanks to Anthony Boucher, the very first translations into English of stories by Georges
Simenon. Even A.A. Milne and P.G. Wodehouse
would join the throng. Stories were augmented
by Dannays encyclopedic knowledge of the field
in an introduction about the author or a related
subject that could be over a page long, a miniessay in its own right. He called them a ratiocinative rubric. In the February, 1949 issue Dannay began his own column on the pleasures of
collecting crime fiction,Leaves from the Editors
Notebook, and this included (from June 1949
on), serialization of an updated version of
Queens Quorum, a chronological guide to the
most important detective books ever published. It
was this combination that gave EQMM its elitism
quality, rarity, and specialty.
A further element of this drive for quality was

the inauguration of an annual short-story contest

in June, 1945. It was open to all comers, with a
first prize of $2,000 (today worth over $20,000,)
and six runner-up prizes of $500. Dannay reported that there were 838 submissions. The hard
work of sifting through the bulk of the submissions fell to Dannays managing editor, Mildred
Falk, before a short list was handed to the judging panel of Christopher Morley, Howard Haycraft, Dannay, and Lee. The results were
announced in the April, 1946 issue.The first prize
went to Manly Wade Wellman for his story featuring an American Indian detective, A Star for
a Warrior. It beat stories by no lesser writers than
William Faulkner,T.S. Stribling, Philip MacDonald, Ngaio Marsh, Michael Innes, and Craig Rice.
The stories were all published in EQMM and
subsequently included in the anthology The
Queens Awards, 1946. The contest continued
annually for twelve years, and subsequent winners
included H.F. Heard, Georges Simenon, John
Dickson Carr, Charlotte Armstrong, Stanley
Ellin, and Avram Davidson.
Dannay had a particular penchant for series,
and these have remained a strong feature of the
magazine ever since. He managed to coax new
Poggioli stories from T.S. Stribling, many new
Department of Dead Ends stories from Roy
Vickers, and liked to encourage writers, old and
new, to submit further stories about their characters, such as the Samuel Johnson stories by Lillian
de la Torre, or the Thubway Tham ones by Johnston McCulley. Even among the reprints, he
managed to find hitherto uncollected stories by
G.K. Chesterton featuring his various detectives,
un-reprinted Continental Op stories by Hammett, and the otherwise forgotten Barnabas Hildreth stories by Vincent Cornier. Often the series
character was featured on the contents page

PG 154, Top to Bot L to R ELLERY QUEENS MYSTERY MAGAZINE, winter 1942 ( respective copyright holder); ELLERY
QUEENS MYSTERY MAG., July 1957 ( respective copyright holder); ELLERY QUEENS MYSTERY MAG., Oct. 1957 ( respective copyright holder); ELLERY QUEENS MYSTERY MAG., Nov. 1951 ( respective copyright holder) PG 155 SINISTER
STORIES, Mar. 1940 ( respective copyright holder).

155

156 | Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine

alongside the story title.
This all gave the reader a sense that they
belonged to a special club, one designed uniquely for them in sharing all that was rare and special
in the world of crime fiction. It was an atmosphere that Dannay managed to sustain for at least
a decade. The period of 1943 to 1952 saw
EQMM at its best, at least as far as the mystery
afficianado was concerned.
However, despite Dannays constant enthusiasm, there is a limit to the time and effort he could
spare for the magazine,and to the number of quality, rare reprints he could find. February, 1954 saw
the first issue featuring all new stories.These happened sporadically the next wasnt until March,
1957 but the number of reprints per issue
dropped dramatically. In 1953, Mercury Press also
acquired the title to the venerable Black Mask
magazine, which had ceased publication in July
1951. It was incorporated into EQMM in May,
1953 and a section within the magazine was dedicated to what were classified as Black Mask stories.These were all hard-boiled or gangster stories
and a number were reprints from Black Mask itself.
It was a section that sat uneasily in the magazine,
because Black Mask had stood for an entirely different set of values than EQMM. The section
remained a regular feature until March, 1958, and
thereafter was sporadic, and often seemed forgotten, though it dragged on until it was surreptitiously dropped after the November, 1968 issue,
and then revived with the January 2008 issue.
In August, 1954 Joseph Ferman took over
from Lawrence Spivak as the magazines publisher, and instigated further changes. Robert P. Mills,
who had been managing editor since June, 1948,
took a more active role, and from then on
EQMM developed a more clinical appearance.
Although Dannay remained the editor, restraints
upon his time meant he could rarely write his
long story introductions and these virtually
ceased after September, 1955, being replaced by a
formal Editors File Card, compiled by Mills,
which presented basic facts about the story, but
had none of the appeal of Dannays ramblings.

The big change came in October, 1957,

when Bernard Davis, formerly a partner in ZiffDavis Publishing, and who had responsibility for
Amazing Stories and Fantastic, set up his own Davis
Publications and took over the publication of
EQMM. The most obvious change was in the
covers. Hitherto George Salter had been art
director and had also provided most of the covers. His work tended to be subdued, unsensational, though always with a hint of violence without
any graphic details. These covers had started to
change during the mid-1950s under Fermans
control, to the point when EQMM had two covers one for subscribers, which bore minimal
cover art, and one for the newsstands, which had
more lurid pictures.These increased under Davis,
making EQMM look similar to the other digestsized mystery magazines that flourished on the
newsstands at that time, in particular Manhunt.
During this period EQMM was in danger of losing its individuality.
It recovered some of this under its new managing editor, Paul W. Fairman, who took over with
the November, 1959 issue and remained in the
post until August, 1963. Although Fairman has
long been regarded as a hack writer and a very
poor editor at Amazing, where he had previously
worked under Davis, he was more in tune with
Dannays original intentions at EQMM. More balance was achieved in the fiction between old and
new material, and traditional and modern
approaches. Several new writers emerged through
the Department of First Stories, who would go
on to make names for themselves, including
Robert L. Fish, J.N.Williamson, and future literary
agent Richard Curtis. Lilian Jackson Braun
appeared with her first cat stories (starting in June
1962). Edward D. Hoch made his first EQMM
appearance in the December, 1962 issue, and

would soon become a regular, running several

popular series contemporaneously. Hoch has since
established the remarkable record of appearing in
every issue of EQMM since May 1973, and the
magazine has acquired a cult following for his
work alone. Hoch died in January 2008. His last
story appeared in the November 2008 issue.
However, Fairman began to claim that he was
the primary editor of the magazine and was dismissed. Clayton Rawson took over in September,
1963. He was even more in tune with Dannays
philosophy and, despite the poor appearance of
the magazine, the type of content returned closer to EQMMs early days. Even some of Dannays
lengthy introductions returned. Under Rawson,
other new names who would become regulars
appeared, including James Powell, Jon L. Breen,
Josh Pachter, and William Brittain. Both Powell
and Brittain contributed heavily to EQMM,
Powell with over 100 stories, yet neither have had
their work collected into book form. Both, like
Hoch, are examples of a particular breed of
EQMM contributor, able to produce an infinite
variety of clever, entertaining stories which are
more puzzles and challenges than hard-hitting
action stories, yet who are not desirous of a wider
market. It is their type of work that attracts and
sustains the core of the magazines readership,
providing clever, sharp, and thoughtful stories.
EQMM always was a cerebral magazine, and
Rawson turned on the brainpower.
In May, 1966 Dannay was elevated to the role
of editor-in-chief, though he retained a passionate
interest in, and still vetted, all short-listed contributions. Bernard Davis effectively retired in 1969,
and his son, Joel Davis, became the publisher of
record. Soon after, Rawson stepped down due to
ill health and Eleanor Sullivan became managing
editor. Sullivan had no prior experience of maga-

PG 156, T to B SPICY ADVENTURE STORIES, July 1940 ( respective copyright holder); SUPER SCIENCE STORIES,
Feb. 1943 (Popular Publications); PG 157, L to R WONDER STORIES, ( Gernsback Publications); ROGUE FOR MEN,
Dec. 1956 ( Greenleaf Publishing Com.); TEMPO, Oct. 25, 1954 ( respective copyright holder); ROGUE FOR MEN,
Feb. 1957 ( Greenleaf Publishing Com.).

Ray Gun |
zine editing, or much knowledge of the mystery
field, but she learned fast under Dannays paternal
guidance and the two became an excellent team.
The seventies saw some of that glow and sophistication of the early Golden Age return.The magazine had dropped all cover art in February, 1968
and when it did return, occasionally, after October, 1974, it was unobtrusive. It featured a couple
of series, one with illustrations depicting famous
detectives and the other with photographs of
leading writers. During all this time, it finely
honed the formula that Dannay had developed,
continuing to reprint, sparingly, rare and classic
fiction, introducing new authors, and publishing
the work of major new writers.There was scarcely a leading author whom the magazine did not
feature during these years: Isaac Asimov, Robert
Bloch, Lawrence Blochman, Christianna Brand,
Avram Davidson, David Ely, Nicolas Freeling,
Celia Fremlin, Joe Gores, Ron Goulart, Davis
Grubb, Michael Harrison, Patricia Highsmith,
H.R.F. Keating, Richard Laymon, Barry
Malzberg, Richard Matheson, Hugh Pentecost,
Barry Perowne, Joyce Porter, Henry Slesar, Julian
Symons, and Cornell Woolrich, to name just a
few. And thats just among the new stories. It is a
list that shows how EQMM continued to blend
the old with the new and the traditional with the
modern. Although Dannay contributed little by
way of his detailed introductions, there were other
informative pieces. John Dickson Carr became
the book reviewer in January, 1969, a column
continued by Jon L. Breen after Carrs death; and
Otto Penzler and Chris Steinbrunner began a
Mystery Newsletter in December, 1975, which
included brief interviews with major writers.
The seventies saw EQMMs average annual circulation peak at over 337,000 in 1978, more than
double its original sales. Remarkably, over 80% of
those sales were by subscription rather than newsstand. Newsstand sales had been steadily falling
since 1966, but EQMM managed to increase its
subscription levels over threefold during the same
period. So while the high level of circulation suggests a populist rather than elitist magazine, the

degree to which these were direct subscriptions

shows how personal the magazine was to its readers, and how loyal they were over the years. Unfortunately, as with all magazines, sales rapidly
declined after the 1980s,and even subscription levels dropped after 2000. For a period from 1979 to
1995, the magazine was on a four-weekly schedule, but has since dropped to ten issues a year,
including two double issues. The double issues
are treated as two issues for subscription purposes,
so according to those, EQMM reached it 800th
issue in March/April 2008, but the actual physical
800th issue is in December, 2010. It is the thirdlongest-running crime-fiction magazine after
Detective Story Magazine (1,057 issues) and
Flynns/Detective Fiction Weekly (929 issues).
Frederick Dannay died on September 3,
1982. The last issue bearing the name Ellery
Queen as editor-in-chief was December 2.
Thereafter, Eleanor Sullivan took over as full Editor and she in turn was succeeded by Janet
Hutchings in 1991, who continued through the
change in publisher to Dell Magazines in September, 1992. Both continued the legacy established by Dannay, and though the magazine
ceased to be Ellery Queens in actuality after
1982, it has always remained his in spirit. MA

R
RANCH ROMANCES
see Medical Horrors
RAY GUN
In the late 1970s Search & Destroy, Sniffin Glue
and other punk rock fanzines trashed conventional print design by displaying a do-it-yourself,
mishmash of typography and defiled images in
their zines. By the 1980s Neville Brody, in Eng-

157

158 | Ray Gun

PG 158 SCIENCE AND INVENTION ( respective copyright holder); PG 159, Bot band L to R
SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE MONTHLY, ( Gernsback Publications); SEXOLOGY, Feb. 1961 ( respective
copyright holder); THE ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER, Dec. 1915 ( respective copyright holder).

land, art directed The Face using a postmodernistic sensibility.The appearance of Ray Gun on
newsstands in the late summer of 1992 was a
refreshing juxtaposition of the Northwest grunge
spirit and music magazine design evolution. Parts
of Ray Gun were illegible, but the package as a
whole was hard to dismiss. Art director David
Carson arbitrarily cropped photos, over-lapped
type, and ran articles made up of black type over
dark images as if he was challenging the reader.
Carson presumed that the audience for Ray
Gun was not too preoccupied with words.
Instead of a reading experience he offered a
striking visual encounter, like street graffiti.
Some critic called this all flash. There remains,
however, something viscerally appealing about a
publication that honors our craving for the
excitement and progress that rock has always
managed to engender. You might pick up Ray
Gun once and never again, but if you were
enticed by the intense look and feel of the magazine in the first place and it was street music
for the eyes you were hooked.
Before Ray Gun, Carson had work as the art
director of Bikini and Beach Culture. His
involvement in the latter came about from his
status as profession surfer as much as his graphic talents. Marvin Scott Jarrett, the founding
publisher of Ray Gun, had been the publisher of
the late-1980s version of Creem magazine.
That first issue of Ray Gun tagged itself the
bible of the music + style, and eschewed the
usual premiere issue puff-manifesto. The thing
that set Ray Gun apart from Rolling Stone and
Spin was the artwork.The cover art to the first
issue was suppose to be a painting done by
Henrik Drescher, but this piece of art appeared
too tame when the time came to use it. Instead,
Carson ripped-up a photo of Rollins by Larry
Carroll, photocopied it and then scribbled all

over the photocopy to get the look he wanted

for the cover.
The second issue contained more mainstream
music coverage on REM and Suzanne Vega, and
appeared a bit more readable, though there were
reports that some confused store clerks set out
rack copies upside-down. Readers wrote in to
complain about the legible coverage of bands
better left to Rolling Stone, but the magazine was
back to form by the next issue with articles on
the Flaming Lips and Chainsaw Kittens, and
more copy typeset to look like black ants on a
pavement dropped Snickers bar. One reader
praised the first three issues of Ray Gun as a
vomitrium of music + style.
Carson left Ray Gun in 1995 to start his own
New York design studio. Ray Gun ran 71 issues
through 2000, but was never really the same after
Carson left.LO [see Search & Destroy]

RAVE
The 1950s were particularly scandal-ridden as far
as magazines were concerned. When Rave
entered the marketplace in April, 1953, it specialized in intense behind-the-scenes scandal and
gossip (some even originated by the staff), and
seemed to complement Confidential in creativity;
they were certainly the two standout scandal
magazines of the era. And, along with Confidential, Rave was one of the only two significant
scandal magazines ever sued for libel.
Rave used innuendo and implication to the
extreme, routinely featuring headlines like Liberace, Dont Call Him Mister with a stock photo of
a male model, or Grace Kelly, She-Wolf Deluxe.
Rave, uniquely, seemed to appeal to everyone
and every taste, and was presented in such a wild
and wacky manner that it attracted many younger

Raw |
readers as well.The last issue was published in January, 1958. Without exception, those who cherished Rave thought of it as being a great magazine
with a one-of-a-kind attitude that couldnt be
duplicated.JH

RAW
Between 1975 and 1976,Art Spiegelman and Bill
Griffith edited seven issues of Arcade, a quarterly
comics anthology published in San Francisco.Art
Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor,
and advocate for the medium of comics, best
known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic
memoir, Maus (1992).
In 1975, Spiegelman moved to New York,
and co-edited Arcade until the magazine ceased
publication in late 1976. He started working for

the Topps Company, as a consultant, and began to

prepare an anthology , Breakdowns, for publication. Franoise Mouly first encountered Spiegelmans work while seeking reading material to
improve her English language skills.
In the early-to-mid-1970s, Mouly was an
architecture student at the Beaux-Arts in Paris,but
had grown disenchanted with her studies. Mouly
left Paris and arrived in New York in 1974,
intending to spend a year traveling throughout the
United States Within four months, she occupied
the some Soho building where Art Spiegelman,
lived. She went through a succession of small jobs
until, in 1977, she began doing freelance coloring
work for Marvel Comics, thus beginning a lifelong interest in comics.
Mouly did not go back to Paris, or BeauxArts. She went to a vocational school where she
learned printing, and bought a Multilith press. In

late 1977, she published the first of what would

become an annual project: The Streets of Soho Map
and Guide.The project would support Mouly and
fund her various self-published projects.
The 1978 map was published under the name
Crass Publication, but every subsequent edition
would be a production of Raw Books and
Graphics. Mouly would publish the Map annually through 1990, devoting the last three months
of every year to the projects assembly. By then
she had met Art and in the spring of 1978 they
traveled together to Europe, visiting cartoonists,
editors, publishers, and comic book shops in
major European cities including Amsterdam,
Paris, Brussels, Barcelona, and Milan.The basis for
Raw was originated during the trip.
In Europe, Art would meet Casterman, who
had just started A Suivre, a monthly graphic magazine.A friend, Jacques Tardi, an artist, introduced

159

Spiegelman to Jean-Paul Mougin, the editor, and

Art talked about doing Maus. It was the first time
that Spiegelman wrote an outline for his signature
masterpiece, providing structure, chapters, and
narrative. Nothing would happen with A Suivre,
but his work would not be wasted, Maus would
soon appear in the pages of Raw.
In late 1978, after returning from Europe,
Mouly began publishing projects on her Multilith
press under the Raw name, including prints, stationery, postcards, and a series of eight-page
mailbooks, primarily featuring new work by
American and European cartoonists. The living
European artists were all future Raw contributors,
who Mouly and Spiegelman had encountered
during their 1978 tour of Europe.
Moulys interest in comics and publishing was
sufficiently piqued by these experiences that she
began to entertain the idea of publishing a comics

HUGO GERNSBACK

160 | Raw
magazine. At the time there were quite a few
magazines in France publishing the work of
French artists, such as A Suivre, LEcho des Savanes,
and Mtal Hurlant. The American version, Heavy
Metal, had not appeared yet, and there was nothing in the United States showcasing the talent of
the amazing French artists. Mouly wanted to
publish their work, but Art was reluctant after his
experience with Arcade.
According to the introduction to Read Yourself
Raw, by Spiegelman and Mouly, they finally
agreed to publish a magazine at a 1980 New
Years Eve party. The magazines first issue was
funded by the Soho Map and Guide. Budgets for
subsequent issues would be determined by the
previous issues profits.
The original idea for Raw was a small press
book. The idea came as an outgrowth of Arts
frustrations as a consultant for magazines like
High Times and Playboy, whose interest in comics
was completely modular: Well great, if its got
tits! Spiegelman was despairing that adult comics
might disappear for good and was determined to
make Raw look the way he thought a comics
magazine should.
The couple, now married, became determined to create a magazine of comics and graphics in the broadest sense, containing narrative pictures and text pieces.They would fight the deeply
ingrained prejudices against comics as a kind of
toilet literature that should only be printed on
newsprint and be disposable. There was a contemporary aesthetic at that time, epitomized by
such American cartoonists as R. Crumb in his
visceral Weirdo, of Aw, shucks, its only lines on
paper, and dont take yourself too seriously, and
this is all, like, disposable.
Mouly and Spiegelman decided to print on a
large size, with good paper, and produce a nonreturnable product, in order to force people to see
how beautiful, how moving, this type of work
could be.They would fill the pages with the work
of Europeans, Americans, and people from all
over the world.That was their intent.
The first issue of Raw, published in July, 1980,

The Graphix Magazine of Postponed Suicides,

featured a full-color tipped-on image, glued by
hand onto the black and white cover. A copy of
Spiegelmans small format, full-color Two Fisted
Painters was bound into each issue.According to
a 1985 Village Voice article, Raw #1 was printed
three times before [Mouly] found it acceptable.
Out of roughly 5,000 printed copies, the official print run comprised 3,500 copies that met
Moulys approval. Several of Raws initial contributors, such as Heinz Emigholz and Patricia Caire,
were associated with a filmmakers collective that
Mouly and Spiegelman had interacted with during their European trip. Kaz, Mark Newgarden,
and Drew Friedman were among Spiegelmans
students at the School of Visual Arts, where he
taught classes in cartooning and comics.
In 1980, Spiegelman and Mouly saw the first
seven finished pages of Jerry Moriartys Jack Survives. He needed to know if they were just the
delusions of a comics fan. Raw #1 was in the
works, and they invited him to be in it.
Mouly and Spiegelman were facing an uphill
battle. They had assumed that there would be
many artists who were doing comics, but were
just not finding places to publish them. Instead,
they found very few cartoonists doing comics at
all. They began to solicit work from friends and
acquaintances, but there was a rub: they could not
afford to pay anything.
Issue number one appeared, the first of a
new wave. Raw was meant from the very
beginning to be more artistic and experimental
than Arcade, which had been entertainment-oriented in the tradition of the underground comix
Zap. Two-Fisted Painters was something that
Art did for Raw because he was reluctant to get
started on Maus.Two-Fisted Painters was done
specifically for Raw because they could not afford
to color the entire production; it was tipped-in
for special effect.

Raws second issue included a package containing six out of eight possible bubble gum cards
(drawn by Mark Beyer) and an actual stick of bubble gum.The cards contents tied into a two-page
spread developed by Beyer to provide context for
the insert.The issue also included the first chapter
of Spiegelmans Maus, incorporated as a small-format booklet attached to the magazines inside
back cover. Each subsequent issue would contain
a similarly formatted chapter from Spiegelmans
book-in-progress. Joost Swarte provided the
issues cover, along with color separations for the
covers border design. Swarte indicated a monochromatic tone for the image area, but Mouly
instead elaborately hand-cut full-color separations.
The issue included two consecutive pages by
Drew Friedman. The first, Comic Strip,
includes stereotypical images of African-Americans similar to R. Crumbs Anglefood
McSpade. The second page depicts Spiegelman
and Mouly taking Friedman to task over his
uncritical use of racist imagery; meanwhile, the
Freidman characters coat is stolen by an AfricanAmerican character.
After it was clear that A Suivre was not going
to print Maus, Raw provided Art with the rigorous
deadline he needed, but with less demanding constraints to complete it. Art divided his time
between working on the next issue of Raw, working as a consultant at Topps, and creating Maus,
often just finishing the next chapter when needed.
Raw #2, December, 1980, The Graphix
Magazine for Damned Intellectuals, included
contributions by Ben Katchor and Charles Burns.
Raw #3, July, 1981, The Graphix Magazine
That Lost Its Faith in Nihilism, introduced Gary
Panter with a cover and an interior Jimbo story.
The cover image was adapted from a Panter comic
called Okupant X, after Mouly and Spiegelman
considered and then rejected Panters original
cover design (a version of which would later be

PG 160, Top to Bot DARE, Oct. 1954( Fiction/You Publications); REAL MYSTERY, July 1940 ( Red Circle);
PG 161, RAW, #4, Feb. 1982 ( Raw).

Raw |
used for the cover of Raw volume 2, number 1).
The covers final coloring and design by Mouly
and Spiegelman won a 1981 Print Magazine
design certificate.The issue also included a second
chapter of Maus and a long story by Muoz and
Sampayo, printed on gray paper stock.
Jimbo was the first Raw One Shot, a dedicated artists book of comics, published by Raw
Books and Graphics. The books interiors were
printed on newsprint and the cover was constructed of corrugated cardboard. Black binding
tape and a two-color Jimbo sticker were applied
by hand. Greil Marcus contributed the books
introduction.
Raw #4, March, 1982, The Graphix Magazine for Your Bomb Shelters Coffee Table, featured a die-cut Charles Burns cover with a second, full-color cover beneath, and a bound-in
flexi-disc recording of Reagan Speaks for Himself, a Ronald Reagan audio-collage by Doug
Kahn.A thematically related full-page illustration,
by Sue Coe, appeared alongside the flexi-disc.
The issues editorial matter warned that the following issues Pascal Doury story may invite censorship, and solicits subscriptions.With this issue,
Paul Karasik joined the staff as an associate editor.
The issue includes Mauss chapter three.
Raw #5, March, 1983, The Graphix Magazine of Abstract Depressionism, bears a cover by
Ever Meulen and features Theodore DeathHead, a long story by Pascal Doury that displays,
in its unexpurgated version, rampant phalluses.
The issues editorial text reads:To avoid offending the aforementioned jerk, weve taken it upon
ourselves to block out the private parts of
Theodore Death-HeadSo as a public service,
Raw offers the genitalia as a sheet of stickers for
readers to clip and stick in the privacy of their
own homes. Interested parties were asked to submit proof of age and a self-addressed stamped
envelope. The issue also included a full-color,
newsprint signature, which showcased Fletcher
Hankss Stardust, a late-1930s comic book series
discovered by Jerry Moriarty, as well as a series of
short strips billed as the Raw Comic Supple-

161

ment.The issue included Mauss chapter four.

Raw #6, May, 1984,The Graphix Magazine
That Overestimates the Taste of the American
Public, included a two-color newsprint signature
which included a center spread by Ever
Meulen and Mauss chapter five.
The upper right hand corner of each copy of
Raw #7, May, 1985, The Torn-Again Graphix
Magazine, was torn off by hand; an irregularly
sized corner from a different copy was then taped
onto each copys table of contents.The issue also
featured Tokyo Raw, a section of work by
Japanese artists, many of whom Mouly and
Spiegelman met when visiting Japan in 1983 for
an exhibition of work by Raw artists. In addition
to the sixth chapter of Maus, the issue included a
separate, two-color booklet, reprinting Yoshiharu
Tsuges twelve-page story, Red Flowers. The
issue also included a long story by R. Crumb,
drawn especially for publication in Raw.
In 1986, Pantheon Books published the first
volume of Spiegelmans Maus, compiling chapters
one through six. The editor of Pantheon at the
time said to Art, right before they published
Maus, I just want you to be prepared, maybe
well only sell 30,000 copies of this. But thats
okay; its a good book, thats all that matters.
Raw #8, September, 1986, The Graphix
Aspirin for War Fever, appeared with a cover by
Kaz, and was the magazines first square bound
issue.The issue also included a newsprint section
printed with green ink.This section included By
the Bombs Early Light, a text about nuclear politics by Paul Boyet; a long, thematically related
Jimbo sequence; and a RAW GAGZ humor
section.There was also a long story that was Kim
Deitchs first major Raw appearance (he had previously drawn a short strip for issue fives Raw
Comic Supplement). The Maus chapter seven
insert was the first appearance of new Maus material since the Pantheon publication.
RAW GAGZ was a section of gag cartoons
cobbled together from disparate sources (often
featuring images, new and old, with captions
written by an individual other than the artist).

162 | Raw
Following the publication of Maus, Spiegelman and Mouly began publishing in association
with Pantheon Books. Read Yourself Raw, 1987,
published by Pantheon, collected nearly all of the
material from the magazines first three issues,
including bound-in reproductions of Beyers
City of Terror bubble gum cards and Spiegelmans Two Fisted Painters.
In 1988, Spiegelman and Mouly began soliciting material for Raw #9, 1989, Open Wounds
from the Cutting Edge of Commix.Volume 2,
number 1, would be a 200-page, 6x 9 paperback, in both 4-color and 2-color. R. Sikoryak
would serve as associate editor for all three issues
of Raws second volume. In addition to collaborations between Muoz and Sampayo, and between
Kim and Simon Deitch, the issue included two
collaborations organized specifically for Raw:
Proxy, by Tom DeHaven and Richard Sala, and
The Bowing Machine, by Alan Moore and
Mark Beyer.
The second issue,Required Reading for the
Post-Literate, would follow in 1990, and the
third,High Culture for Lowbrows, in 1991.
After publishing three issues in the same format for volume two, Mouly and Spiegelman
determined that Raw should stop.Their first contract with Penguin was over. Penguin had started
by printing 40,000 copies, for the second book
they did only 30,000, and for the third book just
20,000 copies. Penguin was planning on printing
fewer than 15,000 copies for any future Raw publications. So after all was said and done, Mouly
and Spiegelman were back where they started, at
a point they were able to do the entire print run
themselves.
In the years following the magazines retirement, the Raw name was applied to The Narrative Corpse, a collaborative chain comic co-edited by Spiegelman and Sikoryak ,originally
intended as a piece of Raw volume 2, number 3.
Mouly and Spiegelmans Little Lit series of
childrens comics anthologies, with three volumes
published by Joanna Cotler Books (an imprint of
HarperCollins) between 2000 and 2003, are

labeled RAW Junior Books. In a December,

2004 interview,Art Spiegelman said that Raw was
basically in deep sleep because its not neededAs soon as other things started happening, it
was a relief not to have to do it any more.
The American comics scene has been broadened by the impact of Maus, and everything
Mouly and Spiegelman did together. Things
would have been different if they had only produced Maus, but there was something more to be
gained by adding in people from different cultures, or with different stylistic approaches. Raw
was great because it was an assemblage, a collage,
of diverse pieces, where every single piece was
perfect. It is not likely that such a polished gem of
creativity will ever be produced again.The American comics scene owes a deep, heartfelt, debt to
Franoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman for their
dynamic burst of artistic brilliance.HW

REAL LIFE GUIDE

see Health Knowledge Magazines
RED CHANNELS
a.k.a. Counterattack
American Business Consultants, Inc., was formed
in 1947 by several former agents of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. This organization established itself as a source of information regarding
allegedly subversive organizations and individuals,
particularly those suspected of affiliation with the
Communist Party.
In May, 1947 A.B.C. began publishing Counterattack, a weekly newsletter of facts to combat
Communism. Its self-declared purpose was to

expose the most important aspects of Communist activity in America each week. A.B.C. was
one of a number of research enterprises that
amassed information regarding Communistrelated organizations, but it was also an entrepreneurial enterprise which sought to turn a profit.
The founders of Counterattack, including former FBI agent John G. Keenan, who became
Counterattacks president, solicited subscriptions
from security officers, personnel directors,
employment managers, and all sorts of people
whose business requires them to know the facts
about the background of organizations and/or
individuals. Headquartered in New York, Counterattacks orientation was primarily, though not
entirely, New York-based, reflecting the geographical concentration of the CPUSA.
By 1950, only three of the founders
remained: John G. Keenan, company president
and the businessman of the trio; Kenneth M.
Bierly, who would later become a consultant to
Columbia Pictures; and, best known, Theodore
C. Kirkpatrick, officially Counterattacks managing
editor and the groups chief spokesman. Francis J.
McNamara, a former Army intelligence major,
was the primary editor of Counterattack.
Counterattack attempted to elucidate examples
of Communist activity within the United States,
failures of the government to protect against
Communists, and to rally troops against Communism. Publications such as Counterattack can be
viewed as products of the domestic ramifications
of the Cold War era. American Business Consultants formed one segment of a larger network,
which included the House Un-American Activities Committee, involved in research into
allegedly Communist-related activities of individuals and organizations. Since its membership was

PG 162, Top to Bot TALES FROM THE CRYPT, #1, 1968 ( Eerie Publications); TOPS, Jan. 1956
( respective copyright holder); PG 163, L to R HOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL ( Dramatic Pub. Com.); EXPOS, Feb.
1960 ( Whitestone Publications). THE LOWDOWN, Nov. 1956 ( Beacon Publications); TOP SECRET, Aug. 1958
( Charlton); Bottom tier: UNCENSORED, Oct. 1954 ( Feature Story Corp.); CONFIDENTIAL, Mar. 1957 ( Condential Inc.); RAVE, Aug. 1955 ( Rave Publishing Corp.);SUPRESSED, July. 1954 ( Suppressed, Inc.).

1950s Scandal magazines |

163

164 | Red Channels

composed of former FBI agents, not only did
A.B.C. possess information obtained by this
agency, but it also had access to the files of the
HUAC.The most significant action of Counterattack was the publication of Red Channels, a report
on purported Communist control in the media.
The connection between HUAC, the FBI,
and Counterattack was made manifest in 1950,
when the booklet Red Channels was published.
The booklet listed possible subversives in the
world of radio and television. Addressing itself to
radio and television company executives already
embattled by recent HUAC investigations, Red
Channels simply listed a series of names of persons
in show business, and the number of times each
person had been cited by the FBI or HUAC,
without making any specific accusations against
any given person.
The potential of guilt by association
involved in this technique resulted in a series of
libel suits filed against Counterattack by various film
and radio personalities. Although Counterattack
eventually defended itself against these libel suits,
settling some out of court while winning others
on appeal in 1956, the financial cost of litigation
proved hazardous to Counterattack.As a result, John
Keenan, in a 1963 memorandum, affirmed a
hands-off policy regarding Communism on the
part of the publication.The organization officially
disbanded in 1968.
Red Channels was published on June 22, 1950,
running just over six pages; it was written by Vincent Hartnett, an employee of the Phillips H.
Lord agency, an independent radio-program production house, or packager. Hartnett would
later assemble and distribute File 13, a more comprehensive sequel to Red Channels, and also found
the anti-Communist organization AWARE, Inc.,
which published a series of bulletins that were
distributed to industry executives. Other private
individuals who tried to influence industry blacklisting decisions included Rabbi Benjamin
Schultz, who directed the American Jewish
League Against Communism, and Laurence A.
Johnson, a Syracuse businessman.

One technique anti-Communist groups used

effectively to ensure that the radio and television
industries would comply with the blacklists was
to threaten boycotts of the sponsoring companies products when a show featured someone
who appeared on one of the lists. Rabbi Schultz
used this technique with considerable success.
Laurence Johnson, who owned a chain of grocery stores, also employed another effective strategy. He would send letters informing sponsors of
the performers alleged Communist affiliations
and then threaten to place a questionnaire next to
the companys products in his grocery stores asking the consumer if they wanted any part of their
purchase price to be used to hire Communist
Front talent. Fearful of this kind of adverse publicity, the sponsors would pressure broadcast companies to fire the performer.
These private individuals and citizen groups,
in turn, relied on various public documents that
identified individuals and alleged Communist and
Communist-front organizations. The most frequently cited government sources used for documenting Communist affiliation were Attorney
General Tom Clarks letters to the Loyalty Review
Board, released in 1947 and 1948, which identified subversive and Communist front organizations; reports from the 1938 Massachusetts House
Committee on Un-American Activities; the 1947
and 1948 reports from the California Committee
on Un-American Activities chaired by Senator
Jack Tenney; and, of course, the United States
House Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC), an on-going Congressional committee
that conducted hearings concerning the Hollywood film industry in 1947 and 1951-54, as well
as additional hearings concerning the entertainment industry throughout the 1950s.
In 1944, J.B. Matthews and Benjamin Mandel
prepared Appendix 9 for the Costello subcommittee of HUAC. It was a seven-volume compilation

of some 2,000 pages listing names of thousands of

people who participated in alleged Communistfront organizations between 1930 and 1944.
When the full committee learned of the report, it
ordered Appendix 9 restricted and all existing
copies destroyed. Consequently, no copies resided,
during the Red Scare, in the Library of Congress
or other public repositories. However, prior to the
committees order, several of the 7,000 copies had
been distributed to private people or organizations, including the editors of Red Channels and
such government agencies as the FBI, the State
Department, and Army and Navy Intelligence.
Thus, in most instances, people cited for inclusion
in Appendix 9 did not have access to it in order
even to verify that they were, in fact, listed in the
document or to review the source behind the
accusation.
Red Channels, released three years after
HUAC began investigating Communist Party
influence in the entertainment field, claims to
expose the spread of that influence, most specifically in the radio and television business. Referring to current television programming, the Red
Channels introduction declares that several commercially sponsored dramatic series are used as
sounding boards, particularly with reference to
current issues in which the Party is critically
interested: academic freedom, civil rights,
peace, the H-bomb, etc.With radios in most
American homes, and with approximately
5,000,000 TV sets in use, the Cominform (the
Information Bureau of the Communist) and
Workers' Parties, and the Communist Party
U.S.A. now rely more on radio and TV than on
the press and motion pictures as belts to transmit pro-Sovietism to the American public.
Red Channels:The Report of Communist Influence
in Radio and Television named 151 actors, writers,
musicians, broadcast journalists, and others in the
context of purported Communist manipulation of

PG 164, Top to Bot MONSTERMANIA, #2, Jan. 1967, art by Frank Frazetta ( respective copyright holder); TRUE
STRANGE STORIES, July 1929 ( Macfadden Publications) PG 165 STARTLING STORIES, ( Standard Magazines).

Red Channels |
the entertainment industry. Some of the 151 were
already being denied employment because of their
political beliefs, history, or mere association with
suspected subversives; Red Channels effectively
placed the rest on the industry blacklist.
Red Channels provides little that may be construed as evidence for its assertions that Communists dominateAmerican television and radio. It
relies on nonspecific declarations from such
sources as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and an
editorial in Broadcasting magazine; provocative
quotes from former Soviet premier V. I. Lenin, at
that point deceased for over 26 years; and blind
items of a style familiar from tabloid gossip
columns: a prominent entertainer has recently
confided that whenever a certain critic
While Red Channels would serve as a vehicle
for the expansion of the entertainment industry
blacklist that, since 1947, had denied employment
in the field to a host of artists deemed to be sympathetic to subversive causes, the pamphlet
argues that a Communist-organized blacklist is
actually in effect in the industry. The party, it
claims, sees to it that articulate anti-Communists
are blacklisted and smeared with that venomous
intensity which is characteristic of Red Fascists
alone.
Without making any blatant, potentially
libelous accusations, Red Channels lists 151 professionals in entertainment and on-air journalism
who it clearly implies are among the Red Fascists and their sympathizers in the broadcasting
field. Each of the names is followed by a raw list
of putatively telling data, with the sources of evidence varying from FBI and HUAC citations to
newspaper articles culled from the mainstream
press, industry trade sheets, and such Communist
publications as the Daily Worker.
Many well-known artists were named, ranging from Hollywood stars such as Burgess Meredith, Edward G. Robinson, and Orson Welles (who
had already left the country), to literary figures
such as Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, to
musicians such as Pete Seeger and Leonard Bernstein. Ex-leftist and HUAC informant J.B.

165

Matthews claimed responsibility for providing the

listings; he would later work for Senator Joseph
McCarthy. By 1951, those identified in Red Channels were blacklisted across much or all of the
movie and broadcast industries unless and until
they cleared their names, the customary requirement being that they testify before HUAC.
Because of HUACs inability to locate Communist influence in Hollywood films in these
hearings, subsequent hearings changed their focus
to the prestige, position, and money that the
Communist Party acquired in Hollywood.
By arousing popular awareness, Counterattack
attempted to influence politics by uniting antiCommunists in letter-writing campaigns, counter-protests against Communists, and supporting
legislation such as the Nixon-Mundt Bill.
Throughout its storied career, Counterattack was
itself constantly on the defensive against accusations of libel after the publication of Red Channels. As former FBI agents, the staff of Counterattack had access to FBI files on potential subversive activity and the files of HUAC. With this
material, they published the names of members
of the media who appeared and the number of
times that they appeared, without accusations.
Through such tactics, the publication gained
attention and notoriety.
As an example of how corrupt and evil the
people who published Counterattack were, Ken
Bierly, a former editor of Counterattack, became a
public relations consultant who cleared people,
thus allowing them to return to work after being
removed from the Red Channels blacklist. First, he
earned money by causing people to be blacklisted and then again by clearing them.Among his
clients was Judy Holliday, who was blacklisted in
Counterattacks Red Channels.
In June, 1992 the Tamiment Library received
36 linear feet of research files compiled by Counterattack, including an important series on Communist-influenced labor unions. The documents
span the years 1932 to 1968, although approximately 80% are from 1946-56, with most of these
from the years 1948-52. From the time of Coun-

166 | Red Channels

terattacks dissolution in 1968 until the transfer of
the files to Liberty University in Lynchburg,Virginia, in 1985, the Counterattack collection was
retained by the Church League of America (193784), an organization that also maintained records
regarding allegedly subversive Communist activities and organizations.
The Counterattack collection contains many
noteworthy research items, some of which were of
an undercover nature, such as an index of 3,500
photographs in the Daily Worker from February 2,
1922 to December, 1942, compiled by Benjamin
Mandel, for the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, extraordinary details about how
unions coped with the attacks on their loyalties.
The files on the American Communication
Association and the American Radio Association
describe how the Marine Division of the ACA
left that Communist-influenced union, moving
first to the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association before setting itself up as the ARA.
Other union files, such as the Transport
Workers Union files, contain information on the
pre-war period, with several testimonials by exmembers, as well as reports from informants
during the post-war period.
The United Electricians, Radio, and Machine
Workers Union files include several right-wing
reports on the Communist leaders of the union.
One report focusing on Minnesota includes an
in-depth description of the Communist Party
apparatus in that region.
The files on the United Office and Professional Workers of America discuss attempts to organize
workers on Wall Street,and include union financial
reports that Counterattack used to trace payments to
Communist front organizations.The most alarming files are on over 200 individuals, including
leading and rank and file Communists, progressives, fellow travelers, and liberals, leading figures in
the arts, sciences, and professions.
The highlight of the secret files kept by Counterattack are four fat folders on the Communist
Party in Illinois, 1948-49, including the correspondence and reports of a highly-placed

PG 166, Top to Bot TALES OF MAGIC AND MYSTERY, Jan. 1927 ( Personal Arts Com.); TALES OF MAGIC AND MYSTERY, Apr. 1927 ( Personal Arts Com.); PG 167, Bot band, L to r POLICE DETECTIVE, June 1953 ( respective copyright holder); DETECTIVE WORLD, Sept. 1950 ( respective copyright holder); HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE, May
1956 ( Headquarters Detective, Inc.); MANHUNT DETECTIVE STORY MONTHLY, May 1954 ( Flying Eagle ).

informant who apparently had access to the state

chairperson, Gil Green.
This horror in the United States and abrogation of individual freedom ended in 1960 when
Kirk Douglas, the movie star and executive producer of Stanley Kubricks Spartacus, credited
blacklist writer Dalton Trumbo, of the famous
Hollywood Ten, as the movies writer, using
Trumbos real name. President-elect John
Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to
view the movie, thereby lending the credibility of
the nations highest office to the effort to end
blacklisting.
In 1970, Trumbo, who had vehemently
attacked HUAC and blacklisting in his
1949 pamphlet Time of the Toad,
received the Screen Writers Guilds highest
honor,The Laurel Award. In his acceptance
speech he addressed those who were not
yet born or who were too young to
remember the Red Scare. To them I
would say only this: that the blacklist was a
time of evil, and that no one on either side
who survived it came through untouched
by evilnone of us right, left, or center emerged from that long nightmare
without sin.RY

ROGUE
William Lawrence Hamling was awarded
The First Fandom Hall of Fame award by
First Fandom at the World Science Fiction
Convention in 2004. It was no wonder,
considering his lifetime contribution to
the field. His innovations expanded the
possible literary fields in which science
fiction writers, editors, and artists could

make a living selling their work.

The whole story of Hamlings various enterprises didnt end in 2004, but had reached their
capstone in the late 1960s and early 1970s when
he litigated his First Amendment rights before the
Supreme Court of the United States, more than
once. He was a true original. His fight for freedom
of speech and freedom of the press paved the way
for todays multi-billion dollar industry in all the
fields of endeavor he touched upon.
As a young science fiction fan, Hamling produced a fine high-class pre-war amateur magazine named Stardust (March-November 1940).
His first professional writing appearance was in

Rogue |
Amazing Stories, collaborating with Mark Reinsberg on War With Jupiter (May 1939). Mark
Reinsberg and Erle Melvin Korshak, both highschool friends of Hamling, would go on to found
Shasta Publishers, the pre-eminent 1950s science
fiction publishing company.
During World War II, Hamling was a lieutenant in the infantry. Upon his return he set up
a writing office in Chicago with his friend Chet
Geier and began his writing and publishing
career in earnest.
An eighteen-year-old Frank Morrison
Robinson would often stop by their office to sell
his WWII cigarette rations to the two men. It was
then that Robinson decided he wanted to be a
science fiction writer like Bill Hamling. Robinson would remain associated with Hamling, and
work with him in different capacities in various
enterprises, for the next 20 years.
In mid-1946, after having some of his stories

published in the various Ziff-Davis magazines,

Hamling joined their staff as an associate editor.
There he worked with fellow editors like
Howard Browne, LeRoy Yerxa, and Raymond A.
Palmer (Frank M. Robinson was the office boy).
Palmer later became publisher of Other Worlds.
Hamling became managing editor of Fantastic
Adventures for three years from November, 1947
until February, 1951. Eventually Hamling would
marry Frances Yerxa, the widow of science fiction
writer and fellow editor LeRoy Yerxa.
In 1949, Ziff-Davis began a slow move from
Chicago to New York. Only a few of the employees would move with the company. Palmer,
knowing he would have to leave Amazing Stories,
Fantastic Adventures, and Ziff-Davis, set up his own
magazine, Other Worlds. Palmer was Other Worlds
only publisher throughout the 1950s. However,
he rode the magazine down into a subscriptionsales-only publication, largely devoted to UFOs

(it became Flying Saucers from Other Worlds) and

the Shaver Mystery.
After leaving Ziff-Davis, Hamling worked for
a time at a small Chicago-based magazine named
Todays Man (with a co-worker named Hugh
Marston Hefner). Early in 1951, Hamling
revealed Imagination (October 1950-October
1958, 63 issues) as his magazine, having persuaded good friend Ray A. Palmer to front the money
for him before actually severing ties with ZiffDavis.The first issue of Imagination was published
by Palmer and looked like a sister to Other Worlds.
The name of Hamlings publishing company
came from the telephone exchange (GReenleaf)
where he was living at the time in Evanston, Illinois. Operating as Greenleaf Publishing Co., he
published Imagination until September, 1958 and
its later companion, Imaginative Tales (September
1954-May 1958, 26 issues), retitled Space Travel
(July-November 1958). Neither survived the

167

decade nor the death of their distribution company,American News.

In October, 1955 Hamling began the nonscience fiction mens magazine Rogue, an imitation of Playboy. In the early 1950s, a young Hugh
Heffner sought out the experienced publisher, his
fellow ex-editor, and offered him a significant
stake (50%) to partner with him on a new idea he
had for a magazine for men, to be called Playboy.
Hamling turned him down and kicked himself for doing so for years thereafter.
Under the watchful eye of managing editor
Frank M. Robinson, Rogue became a close competitor of Playboy and had a long run for a mens
magazine, from December, 1955 until December,
1967. Rogue was well known for its racy cartoons
and was always filled with plenty of provocative
semi-nude photos.What set Rogue apart from all
other competitors were the great authors who
contributed stories.

1950S DETECTIVE MAGAZINES

168 | Rogue
After Rogue became established, Hamling
hired Harlan Ellison as and editor.When Ellison
segued into other areas of the various Hamling
enterprises in 1959, Frank Robinson ended up as
editor of Rogue. In the 1960s, Rogue became a de
facto writers colony for science fiction and fantasy writers. Like Playboy, it published a disproportionate amount of science-fiction-related material, including Fred Pohls award-winning Day
Million (February 1966).
The influence of Rogue has had a powerful
affect on American culture due to the broad editorial, artistic, and writing talent it utilized. The
Oxford English Dictionary has even determined
that Pohls original story, Day Million, is especially worthy of citation for its first-time use of a
new phrase: They met cute, which appears in
the middle of the story.
Editors at Greenleaf Publishing included A.J.
Budrys, Larry Shaw, and Bruce Elliot. Writers,
mainly of science fiction, included Robert Bloch,
Alfred Bester, and Mack Reynolds. Hunter S.
Thompson, Lenny Bruce, Charles Beaumont,
William F. Nolan, Mack Renolds, and Robert
Silverberg also popped up sometimes. Many of
these authors worked for Playboy, and the Rogue
editors got a lot of submissions with Hugh Hefners fingerprints on them. It ran some hard-boiled
crime fiction like Bill McGiverns The Walking
Corpse (Dec 1958) and Paul Fairmans A Grave
for Rachel (March 1959). No other mens magazine had this much editorial talent.
Rogue might have been a Playboy imitator, but
so were 90% of all girlie magazines that started in
the latter half of the 1950s. Rogue had higherthan-average production standards and the early
covers, painted by Lester Bentley, Hans Zoff, and
Lloyd Rognan, with the libidinous Wolf mascot,
were quite eye-catching.
In 1950, Lloyd Rognan returned to the United States from Europe to polish his skills a bit
more at the Chicago Art Institute, which he
attended from 1951 to 1953. From 1953 to early
1955, he worked for the advertising agency of
Jahn Ollier. By late 1955 he was married, living in

Glenview, Illinois, and a full-time freelance artist.

Glenview was near Evanston, the home of Bill
Hamlings Greenleaf Publishing Company. Time
and again, Lloyds work appears on many covers
from Greenleaf including Rogue for Men, Imaginative Tales, and Imagination.
All of Bill Hamlings publications are as noteworthy for the entertaining characters involved in
their publication as they are as magazines. Hamling not only founded Rogue, but also went on to
develop a soft porn publishing empire that eventually ran afoul of President Nixon and the FBI
in the 1970s and landed Hamling in jail along
with Greenleaf s vice-president Earl Kemp, his
long-time friend and editorial director.
In New York City, popular young science fiction writer Robert Silverberg discovered the
world of softcore sex paperbacks when he came
across Bedside Books.At that time (1959), Silverberg was writing prolifically and looking for new
markets to conquer. In short order, he was selling
Bedside Books manuscripts that appeared under
the bylines of David Challon and Mark Ryan.
Silverberg realized the new market direction
could be the answer to many writers wildest
dreams in the very near future.
Harlan Ellison, along with his wife Charlotte,
was preparing to move to Evanston, Illinois, to
work for William Hamling. Silverberg explained
to Ellison the glorious possibilities in softcore
paperback publishing and had him all primed and
ready for William Hamling.
Hamling liked the idea of the proposed book
publishing entity and sent Ellison back to New
York City to get the operation in motion.
Harlan Ellison went straight to Robert Silverberg to report on his success with Hamling but,
it was Silverberg, not Ellison, who took the proposal to the literary agent Scott Meredith. This
eventually opened the door to the clandestine
black box enterprise that virtually flooded the
country with soft-core pornography during the
early 1960s. Thus, Hamling began publishing
Nightstand Books, virtually all of whose book
submissions were fed to it via black boxes (nor-

mal submissions were in gray boxes) sent to a

Grand Central Station post office box.
The books not only fetched an immediate
$1,000 in payment, they earned royalties that
Hamling paid promptly. In 1960 and 1961, Silverberg was writing a book every other week for this
series, many of them published under the Don
Elliott pseudonym. Others writing these books
included Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake.
William Hamling was taking Ellisons proposition literally and setting him up to be the king
of pornography, right down the hall from Rogue
magazine, under Hamlings watchful eye.All Harlan had to do was figure out how to make it all
work, locate the pieces, grease up the machine,
and get it running. It wasnt easy being the king
of pornography.
In the beginning, Nightstand Books were
produced by a corporation named Freedom Publishing Company. Illinois corporate law at the
time required three legal Illinois residents to
become a corporation. Freedom Publishings
three were ex-co-workers William L. Hamling,
Raymond A. Palmer, and Richard S. Shaver, but
as the latter two were Wisconsin residents, Freedom Publishing was closed. Hamling bought a
defunct corporation at a bargain rate to replace it.
That corporation was Blake Pharmaceuticals.
Once re-incorporated, Hamling re-directed
Blake to publish pornography and had Harlan
Ellison run the whole show while seemingly
running Rogue. In those days, in spite of the popular acceptance of soft-core pornography in
movie theaters across the country, an operation
like Blake Pharmaceuticals was still frowned upon
and was kept, as much as possible, under cover.
Producing Nightstand Books turned out to be
more work than Harlan Ellison had originally
expected that in early 1960, he quit. He returned
to New York City where he stayed with Ted
White, a jazz reviewer for Rogue. Harlan continued
to write cover blurbs for the books at $45 apiece.
Back home at Blake Pharmaceuticals, Frank
M.Robinson,under orders from Hamling,filled in
as editor of Nightstand Books. Frank didnt like

Science Fiction Eye |

S
SATANA
see Health Knowledge Magazines
SCIENCE FICTION EYE

being forced to help with the operation and felt he

had his hands full being the real editor of Rogue.
Hamling, Ellison, Robinson, and Kemp tried,
but neither Rogue nor their book business could
really compete with Playboy, and Rogue was eventually sold to Douglas Publishing Company, Inc.,
in Cleveland, Ohio. The last Greenleaf issue was
published in December, 1965 and Hamling
moved all of his remaining enterprises to San
Diego, California, the same year.
Douglas Publishing Company continued to
produce the magazine.; they managed 10 issues
before they folded.The last Rogue was published
in January, 1967, a little over a year after the
sale.ETK

Science Fiction Eye was a small-press magazine of

science fiction criticism and review that ran for
fifteen issues between Winter (January) 1987 and
Fall 1997. At the outset, it rode the coat-tails of
the cyberpunk movement and, as a consequence,
became closely associated with it, but in fact it
was a magazine that explored and analyzed all
areas of non-conformist science fiction, delighting in fiction that rebelled.
The magazine was produced by Stephen
Brown and Dan Steffan out of Washington, D.C.
Although they served as co-editors, Steffans main
interest was in the format and production of the
magazine, seeking to experiment with layout and
design. It replicated the size of Time and similar
slick magazines, measuring 11 x 8.375 inches and
side-stapled, running three columns a page. The
first issue was still set from typed sheets but
became fully typeset thereafter.The first two issues
ran to 68 pages, but later issues grew to 112 pages,
and even 120, causing one reviewer to claim that
SF Eye had too much content for its money in
excess of 100,000 words per issue. It held its price
to $3.50 for the first eleven issues and was never a
money-earner, though once circulation peaked at
around 5,000 copies, this was sufficient to break
even. It never sought paid advertising and did little to promote itself in other magazines. It was
never able to pay contributors, but still attracted
many major names because it was one of the few

PG 168, Top to Bot THE NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, Feb. 1966 ( respective copyright holder); TRUE MYSTERY,
Oct. 1956 ( respective copyright holder); PG 169, L to R, Top to Bot SEXOLOGY, Jan. 1964 ( Gernsback); PIC
( respective copyright holder); TATTLE TALES, Nov. 1936 ( respective copyright holder).

forums for free expression among the science fiction small press in the pre-internet days.The magazine continued to grow in both production value
and content, even after Steffan opted out after
issue #5 (July 1989). The magazine relocated to
Asheville, N,C., with issue #9 (November 1991),
following Browns move.
SF Eye stepped into the shoes left empty with
the folding of Dick Geiss Science Fiction Review in
1986, and though Doug Fratzs Quantum continued to appear, that focused on science fiction in
the round. Brown was dissatisfied with much current science fiction, feeling that it had become
moribund and too self-centered. He wanted to
rattle a few cages, and achieved this resoundingly
with the first issue, which provided a thorough
exploration or autopsy, as the magazine called
it of the cyberpunk movement. Brown was able
to call upon his long-time friends, which included Bruce Sterling and John Shirley, for material.
There were interviews with William Gibson and
Bruce Sterling, plus a transcription of a volatile
panel discussion, Cyberpunk or Cyberjunk?,
held at the Science Fiction Research Association
meeting in June, 1986, with contributions from
Greg Benford, John Shirley, and Norman Spinrad,
among others. The general view was that the
cyberpunk movement, such as it was, had almost
certainly been misunderstood and mislabeled, but
that its main adherents had already broadened
their scope into new visions and ideas. It was a
view that had its polarized camps, and led to a
rousing discussion in the magazines letter column
for several issues to come. It was this initial concentration on cyberpunk that caused SF Eye to be
labelled as the flagship of the cyberpunk movement, which it never was, and which tended to
overshadow its wider purpose.
SF Eye was really a magazine for science fiction radicals, and since these certainly included
Bruce Sterling, John Shirley and John Kessel all
of whom were regular contributors it was all too
easy to label it a cyberpunk magazine. One other
factor that added to this view is that several of the
contributors, especially Sterling in his Catscan

169

170 | Science Fiction Eye

column, and Charles Platt in his occasional contributions,looked at the implications to society of the
rapid changes in technology.This is something that
all sf writers should do, but the changes had been
so vast and far-reaching by the start of the 1980s,
especially with the possibilities of nanotechnology,
that it required a new generation of writers to
appreciate and understand the full potential. SF
Eye became a focus for considering those changes
and thereby created a cauldron of ideas for writers.
It was not SF Eyes intention to publish fiction, but because it received contributions, it
devoted its third issue to publishing a selection.
This included challenging work by Richard A.
Lupoff, John Shirley, Ian Watson, Charles
Sheffield, and Paul Di Filippo, plus the very first
story by Kathe Koja. This issue was exceptional
not only for its content, but for its format. Dan
Steffan decided that the issue should be in large

tabloid size, measuring almost 14 x 11 inches,

meaning it could not stand on the shelves alongside other issues.The experiment was not repeated, and SF Eye ran only one other story, the metafictional Brothers, by Tony Daniels, an introspective and probably autobiographical piece, about
the travails of a science-fiction writer.
Otherwise, the emphasis remained on criticism and review. SF Eye considered many matters
besides cyberpunk. Philip K. Dick was the subject
of a special section in issue #2 (August 1987),
which also featured an extensive interview with
Lucius Shepard.There were features on J. G. Ballard, Ian McEwan, Connie Willis, Samuel Delany,
Richard Calder, David Wingrove, Thomas M.
Disch, Iain Banks, Christopher Priest, and Jack
Womack all authors who might be regarded as
the renegades of the field. Paul Di Filippo provided a regular column looking at the borderlands

PG 170, Bot banc, L to R THE JAYNE MANSFIELD PIN-UP BOOK, 1957 ( Standard Magazines); PIN-UP PHOTOGRAPHY, #1, 1956 ( Charlton Publications); GLAMOROUS MODELS, 1951 ( Models Publishing); GLAMOR PARADE, Feb.
1957 ( Actual Publishing Com.); PG 171, Top to Bot SHOCK, vol. 3#4, 1971 ( Stanley Publishing); THRILLING
WONDER STORIES, June 1948 ( Standard Magazines).

and more obscure avenues of science fiction. Elizabeth Hand became a regular reviewer and
columnist. There were several articles on feminism in sf. A few subjects came in for a vitriolic
assassination, most notably Scientology, Craig
Strete, and Orson Scott Card, the latter primarily
because of his story Lost Boys.
What also showed SF Eyes greater understanding of the ramifications of science fiction
was the space it gave to such subjects as drugs,
music, and other societies, especially the Soviet
Union (as it still was at that time) and Japan. From
the start, SF Eye had incorporated a Japanese per-

spective on science fiction, with contributions by

Takayuki Tatsumi. At least 10% of its print run
was sold in Japan, and from the first issue it
included a Japanese cover price (600 yen).Tatsumi strongly believed that SF Eye was instrumental in both promoting cyberpunk and avant-pop
literature and culture in Japan, and in giving professional editors a greater awareness of works suitable for translation into Japanese.
In both Japan and the western world, SF Eye
helped fuel a debate about the generic boundary
between science fiction and postmodernist literature, and thus aided the growth and expansion

PIN-UP

Search & Destroy |

of science fiction beyond traditional borders.
Although originally planned to appear three
times a year, it was all Brown and Steffan could do
to produce it twice a year, and the burden became
harder when Steffan left. Only four issues
appeared in its last five years, though all were still
of an exceptionally high quality and, if anything,
covered more diverse subjects than before. Gary
Westfahl looked at the problems of teaching science fiction. Bruce Sterling considered the
French romantics. Paul Di Filippo studied the
writings of Ishmael Reed, while Stepan Chapman looked at artist John R. Neills role in creating Oz. Part of this diversity was because from
issue #12 (Summer 1993) on, SF Eye incorporated Quantum, but although Doug Fratz came on
board as contributing editor, the name never featured in the title and little of Quantums character
came through. Nevertheless, SF Eye had become

pre-eminent among the magazines of sf criticism.

It never won a Hugo Award, arguably because it
defied the various categories, but it did win three
Small Press Awards, given by Readercon, run by
the Small Press Writers and Artists Organization.
Although a sixteenth issue was promised,in the
end Brown found the production of the magazine
all too time-consuming and he stopped.To some
extent, the cause it had been championing had
moved on and, in many ways, been achieved. Science fiction had become more diverse,more aware
of cultural and social issues, and had caught up
with technology. SF Eye could rest happily.MA

SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY

see Health Knowledge
SEARCH & DESTROY
RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is a United
States magazine and book publisher,
based in San Francisco, founded and
edited by V.Vale in 1980, as the successor to his earlier punk rock fanzine,
Search & Destroy (1977-1979).
By the mid-1970s, the punk aesthetic had spread out from England to
the United States.The American punk
scene soon developed an energy and
talent of its own, which was documented in the homegrown, heavily
illustrated magazine, Search & Destroy.
Started in 1977 when Vale received a
$200 donation from Allen Ginsberg
and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he began
publication of Search & Destroy as a
fanzine documenting the then-current punk subculture.
Although it only lasted eleven
issues, Search & Destroy captured the
rage, riots, and revelations of an

extraordinary period. Innovators such as Devo,

Iggy Pop, Dead Kennedys, and the Ramones
were featured alongside William Burroughs, J.G.
Ballard, John Waters, Russ Meyer, and David
Lynch. Search & Destroy was the real thing, written
when punk was first inventing itself.
The eleven issues of Search & Destroy were
filled with incendiary interviews, passionate
photographs, and brutal art. It is best characterized as corrosive minimalist documentation of
the only youth rebellion of the 1970s, punk rock.
Each issue was crammed with information and
inspiration.
Numerous books look back nostalgically at
the late 1970s punk scene. Search & Destroy was a
pioneering fanzine of the time. By discussing
ideas and culture, instead of personal biography, with the Ramones, Buzzcocks, and others,
Vale (and such contributors as Jon Savage) created fresh, thoughtful material. And along the way
they discovered surprising tidbits (whod have
pegged Nico as an Yma Sumac fan?).
Instead of looking back at wild times, compartmentalizing them as history, editor/publisher V. Vale presented unaltered interviews with
famous and infamous punk figures. His work
remains surprisingly vital after nearly 30 years.
The hype surrounding Search & Destroy is
truly deserved.The original eleven issue run has
reached near legendary status among those of us
who still care about overlooked cultural icons like
Frankie Fix or Jennifer Miro, and who are actually interested to learn that the Nuns guitarist
considered Jackson Pollack one of his prime
influences.
By 1980 the hard-core punk scene had faded,
and Vale began publication of RE/Search, originally a tabloid-sized magazine. Vale started his
new publication with financial help from Geoff
Travis of Rough Trade Records, and actress/film
director Betty Thomas.
Betty Thomas, born Betty Thomas Nienhauser, is an American actress and director in television and motion pictures.Thomas joined The
Second City comedy group and appeared in the

171

172 | Search & Destroy

films Tunnel Vision (1975), Chesty Anderson, USN
(1976), Used Cars (1980), and Loose Shoes (1980),
and on the TV series The Fun Factory (1976).
Moving from comedy to dramatic roles, her
breakthrough as an actress came when she was
cast in the dramatic role of police officer Lucille
Bates on the TV series Hill Street Blues (19811987). She was nominated for six Emmy awards
for this role, and won one for Best Supporting
Actress in 1985.
After the series ended,Thomas moved on to
directing, winning an Emmy for her direction of
Dream On in 1990. She went on to Only You in
1992, after which she directed several highly successful films, including 28 Days (2000) and I Spy
(2002).Among her diverse interests is the support
of the leading edge of underground reporting.
Geoff Travis, the other financial contributor
to RE/Search, founded Rough Trade Records in
west London in 1978. It grew out of his Rough
Trade Shop, becoming independent from the
shop in 1982. It folded in 1991, but was relaunched in 2000.
It was only natural for Travis to help Vale.
Rough Trade specialized primarily in European
post-punk and other alternative rock of the late
1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1980s, Rough
Trade branched out by issuing an (eponymous)
album by Lucinda Williams. Other early signings
included Young Marble Giants and Scritti Politti
(the latter re-signed to the label in the mid-2000s).
Geoff Travis later launched Blanco y Negro
Records in partnership with Warner Brothers
Records. Of note, Rough Trade handled the career
of The Smiths, who subsequently inspired a mass
independent movement in the mid-1980s.
RE/Search picked up where Vales punk
fanzine Search & Destroy left off, focusing on various counterculture and underground topics. Following the third issue, issues four and five were
collected as a single volume, a special book issue.
Subsequent issues all retained the book format.
RE/Search has also published books on various underground topics. Titles include Pranks,
Incredibly Strange Films, and Modern Primitives, and

the subject matter includes profiles of William S.

Burroughs and J.G. Ballard, among others.V.Vale
is both the publisher and the primary contributor
to all the books and magazines published by his
company, RE/Search Publications. At the same
time he started his publishing company,Vale also
started his own typesetting business, allowing for
a day job to fund his publishing exploits and
guaranteeing high quality typography and design
for his magazines and books.
The 1980s saw the expansion of RE/Search
from a tabloid format fanzine to a publisher of
books. Vale published and contributed to many
books on the subjects of pranks, obscure music
and films, industrial culture, and other underground topics. Finally solvent, in 1991 Vale sold
his typography business to focus on his publishing efforts full time.
RE/Search is dedicated to the exploration of
marginalized culture. RE/Search Publications
probes modern alienation with a sense of irony,
sophistication, and respect that makes the reader
feel like they are among friends. RE/Searchs serial issues are good reference works, serving as
thorough introductions to their subject matter.
The books are often annotated with reference
sections and ample lists (bibliography, biography,
filmography, discography, relevant/obscure
quotes). They are beautifully designed and illustrated.The RE/Search staff is about as rigorous as
this level of the subculture gets. They also carry
additional books, videos, and T-shirts, which are
just more icing on the cake.
RE/Searchs point of view is clear, but for the
most part editors Andrea Juno and V.Vale allow
their subjects to speak for themselves.The common form of discourse is the interview, with an
emphasis on charismatic leaders. Since the individual voices remain unique, room is left for the
reader to draw their own conclusions about the
subject interviewed.
They concentrate on real alternative systems
a RE/Search issue gives the sense that there is
a set of interlocking subcultures with a cohesive
ideology. No matter how far out, you never feel

Secret Agent X |

PG 172 TRUE STRANGE, Oct.1957 ( Weider Publications); PG 173, Top to Bot TRUE STRANGE, ( Weider Publications ); TRUE CRIME EXPOS, #1, Mar. 1943 ( respective copyright holder).

that anyone is an isolated nut. RE/Search helps

create room for the readers ideas, to expand the
notions of acceptable behavior and acceptable
means of reform (PRANKS! especially seems
necessary, in light of how acceptable typical leftist strategies have become and how unsuccessful they are!).
One gets the impression that the subjects of
these books have found ways out of our mainstream culture, real actions and ideas outside the
bummers and the 9-to-5, outside of any kind of
obligation, and beyond the boundaries of good
taste. For this, RE/Search is truly inspiring. The
books remind one that options exist outside the
acceptable, that all culture has its origins in
dreams which are uncontrollable, subconscious, limitless, and frequently disturbing. In
Incredibly Strange Films, the editors express
their feeling that good taste often functions as a
filter to block outareas of experience.
As our culture insists on ignoring its dark
side, this is the side often utilized as creative fodder by the side-stream art and culture that
RE/Search explores. This dark side spans from
magic and ritual to sadism, body modification,
dreadful movies, subversive humor, and hardboiled crime novels (The Willeford Trilogy).
Throughout their work, the publishers do tend to
emphasize the most graphic and extreme elements of underground culture, but they only
cover activities between consenting adults.
In documenting and disseminating information, RE/Search has actually been integral in the
popularization of industrial/post-industrial culture. Their Modern Primitives issue sold out
quickly and resulted in a lot of new interest in tattooing and body piercing.
RE/Search is a sort of subversive artists directory, profiling an inter-related group of violently
imaginative creators/performers whose works
blend sex, viscera, machines, crimes, and noise.

The unusually slick and professionally produced

publications focus on post-punk industrial performers whose work comprises a biting critique
of contemporary culture. Read them you must,
to be aware, but readers beware!AW

SECRET AGENT X
Aaron A. Wyn (born Aaron Weinstein) began
editing pulp magazines in 1926. Wyn formed
A.A. Wyn Magazine Publishers in the 1930s,
eventually branching out into book publishing in
1945. Of all his publications and efforts, Wyn is
best remembered for founding Ace Books in
1952, which specialized in genre paperbacks.
Wyn magazines included Ace Mystery, Ace Sports,
Sky Birds, Flying Aces, Eerie Mysteries, Gold Seal
Detectives,Ten Detective Aces, and Secret Agent X.
Under the auspices of Periodical House, an
affiliate of Magazine Publishers,Wyn began publishing Secret Agent X in February, 1934. The
dime pulp would remain 128 pages until near the
end of its run in March 1939, when it reduced its
size to 96 pages.
The nameless Secret Agent X was created by
Paul Chadwick, who would write fifteen novels
in the series, beginning with The Torture Trust
(February 1934). In May, 1935, with The Corpse
Cavalcade, G.T. Fleming-Roberts picked up
where Chadwick left off, writing 20 of the 41
Secret Agent X pulps. Chadwick would be
entirely replaced by Fleming-Roberts as the main
writer for the ongoing series.The last Paul Chadwick story,Curse of the Crimson Horde (September 1938), would appear after Chadwicks
absence of over two years from the magazine. His
prior story, The Fear Merchants, appeared in
the March, 1936 issue, just before an editorial
shake-up and change in publication from monthly to bi-monthly.

Emile C.Tepperman wrote four of the early

entries: Hand of Horror (August 1934); Servants of the Skull (November 1934); The
Murder Monsters (December 1934); and
Talons of Terror (April 1935). Wayne Rogers
wrote one, Plague of the Golden Death
(December 1937). However, all of the Secret
Agent X pulps were published under the house
pseudonym of Brant House.
In 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, several competing pulp publishers jumped
into the marketplace. Popular created Operator #5
and Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds. Ranger Publications premiered The Masked Rider. Secret Agent
X would become the only successful heroic
title in Wyns stable of magazines.
Secret Agent X was an operative for the
American government. Assignments were issued
by his handler K-9, located in the heart of Washington,D.C.The real identity of Xwas unknown
to almost everyone, including K-9.As an operative
for the government,X always chose to go under
deep cover for his assignments.X was a master of
disguise, a man of a thousand faces. His disguises
while on the job were always perfect.
X operated entirely on his own. His freedom to act independently came from the funds
he received from a special account in Washington.
The success he had as an operative was not only
due to his expert disguises, but also to the various
languages he knew. There was not a code or
cipher that X, the worlds best cryptographer,
could not crack.X was also an ace pilot, a skill
that saved his life many times, as did his skill using
jujitsu in a fight. A crack shot, he carried automatics as well as his secret weapons designed to
deliver anesthetic gas concealed in pens, guns, and
shoes. He also drove a heavily armed car.
Secret Agent X developed his mastery of
concealment from his experiences in the war.
Only one person knew his true face, his girlfriend, the spunky journalist Betty Dale, who
was also the woman he had to rescue regularly.
His other friend, the brutish Harvey Bates, who
helped him on certain cases, came close to being

173

174 | Secret Agent X

his sidekick. There were other minor assistants,
Jim Hobart and Thomas McCarthy.
Secret Agent X ran into a rough patch, going
from a monthly to a bi-monthly after the April,
1936 issue, which carried the cover story Faceless Fury. In 1937, Wyn replaced the editor, his
wife Rose Wyn, with Harry Widmer, in an
attempt to turn the pulp prospects around.
G.T. Fleming-Roberts is probably the better
known of the Secret Agent X writers. He was
another 1930s pulp writer who specialized in
weird menace tales. His best-known work,Sleep
No More, My Lovely, was sold to Dime Detective
magazine in 1943. It was not in the private eye
mode, but rather was a suspense-oriented mystery.
His writing was distinctly opposite from the urban
underworld scene commonly used in many of the
Dime Detective or Black Mask stories. His story
emphasized the distinct differences in the pulp tra-

ditions of hard-boiled detective and weird menace.

As can be seen in his work in Secret Agent X,
as well as other, later, efforts, personal relationships
were most important to Fleming-Roberts. His
characters needed a social support network, one
that involved both friends and family. Issues of
trust form important elements of his plots, as well
as sympathy for the handicapped and minority
groups. In the use of these plot elements, Fleming-Roberts was clearly ahead of his time.
In 1939, unable to continue in a crowded
marketplace, Operator #5 and Secret Agent X
were both cancelled by their publishers.
Bantam Books had the bright idea to reprint
the Doc Savage pulps in 1964, with updated covers by James Bama, which led to the rediscovery
of the hero pulp genre. In 1966, Corinth
Regency reprinted Operator #5 (eight titles), The
Phantom Detective (22 titles), Dusty Ayres and His

Battle Birds (five titles), Doctor Death (four titles),

and Secret Agent X (seven titles). In 1969,
Berkley Medallion jumped in with Populars G-8
and His Battle Aces, following it two months later
with The Spider.These reprints brought all those
great titles to a new generation of readers.
Wyn was a notorious cheapskate, famous for
paying his authors as little as he could. David
McDaniel, who wrote The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
series during the 1960s, went so far as to encode
a comment in regard to that well-known fact into
the title of The Monster Wheel Affair. The first letters of each chapters title in the books table of
contents, when lined up, spell out A.A.Wyn is a
tightwad. Apparently, the joke went unnoticed
by Wyn and his staff, as the book was published as
is.FJ

SEXOLOGY
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback is best remembered as the
founder of the first all-science-fiction magazine,
Amazing Stories, in 1926, thereby formally creating the science-fiction genre. But he published
far more than science fiction magazines. His publishing empire was founded on his fascination
with radio. Although he stopped publishing science fiction in 1936 (apart from a brief flirtation
in 1953), his involvement with radio and electronics remained, and the number of magazines
he produced continued to grow.
Gernsbacks publishing empire lasted, in one
form or another, from 1908 to 2002, and in that
time published a wide range of magazines.
Besides science-fiction, radio and electronics,

SPICY DETECTIVE PULPS

Sexology |

PG 174, L to R SPICY DETECTIVE, vol. 7, #1 ( Culture Inc.); SPICY DETECTIVE, Feb. 1935 ( Culture Inc.); SPICY
DETECTIVE, Oct. 1934 ( Culture Inc.); PG 175, Top to Bot SCIENCE FICTION EYE, #4, 1988 ( Til You Go Blind
Co-op); NEW REVIEW: SAY, Dec. 23, 1954 ( respective copyright holder).

titles included Sexology, Your Body, Motor Camper

& Tourist, French Humor, and even Pirate Stories. If
there was a niche, Gernsback felt an urge to fill it,
sometimes profitably, sometimes disastrously, but
usually innovatively.
Gernsback had come to the United States
from his native Luxembourg in 1904, aged 19,
hoping to gain backing for his dry-cell battery, an
invention he believed held his fortune. He soon
discovered his battery cost too much to produce
economically, while a cheaper version leaked.
Gernsback persevered, and discovered that it was
not his battery, but radio, where his success lay. He
had built a portable home radio set and when it
was advertised in the January, 1906 Scientific American, some skeptical readers argued it could not be
produced for the listed price of $7.50. A policeman was dispatched to see a demonstration.The
model worked, but the policeman could not
understand why the set was called a wireless
when it was full of wires. It was to counter such
ignorance that Gernsback decided to publish a
magazine to educate the masses, and in April,
1908 he launched Modern Electrics.
Whereas earlier magazines were aimed primarily at the trade, Modern Electrics was targeted to
the individual, the hobbyist or home experimenter. Gernsback wanted to encourage people
to experiment and think for themselves, and
thereby help build the new technological age. He
held Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison in high
regard as examples to inspire all young inventors.
His earliest mission was the development of
amateur radio, and in the issue for January, 1909
he started the Wireless Association of America,
with none other than Lee De Forest as its president. Gernsback stated that its primary aim was
to bring young experimenters together not
in clubs, but in practical work. It was similar to
the notion he would re-use in 1934 with the Sci-

ence Fiction League. Another reason for creating

the Association was to have a position of strength
from which to combat potential problems. Since
within a year the Association had over 22,000
members, it gave Gernsback a viable platform.
The United States Government regarded radio
amateurs as a nuisance, interfering with government and commercial wavelengths, and were
considering either licensing amateurs or banning
them entirely. The Roberts Bill, proposed at the
end of 1909, was designed to curtail the amateur.
Gernsback fought the bill, and its successors, with
Modern Electrics serving as the platform for public
opinion. Eventually, Gernsbacks recommendations were incorporated into the Alexander Bill,
which became law in May, 1912, and which set
limits for the wavelengths amateurs could use.
Modern Electrics also ran many speculative articles, usually by Gernsback himself, including
Harnessing the Oceans (December 1908) and
Television and the Telephot (December 1909).
Gernsback didnt coin the word television, but
he was among the first to popularize it. He
devised his own method of transmitting images
electrically, but believed the technique was so
cumbersome that he did not patent it, even
though his process was more effective than that
proposed by John Logie Baird, the man usually
attributed with inventing television.
It was also in Modern Electrics that Gernsback
serialized Ralph 124C41+, an episodic novel of
the future used as a vehicle for exploring the scope
of marvelous inventions. It is set in the year 2660,
where Ralph is one of ten super-scientists (hence
the +).At the outset,though based in NewYork,
he rescues a girl (Alice) trapped in Switzerland by
a storm and threatened by an avalanche, by sending a beam of super-charged energy to her radio
mast that disperses the snow.Thereafter most of the
story is little more than a catalogue of inventions,

though there is some action when Alice is kidnapped first by an Earthman and then by a Martian.When Ralph finds her she is already dead, but
another of his inventions restores her to life. In the
episode where Ralph pursues the Martians
(December 1911), there is a detailed description of
a device identical to radar, another concept that
Gernsback did not patent.
The serial generated interest from readers and
Gernsback encouraged others to write speculative stories about possible inventions.The first to
respond was Jacque Morgan with a series of lighthearted stories,The Scientific Adventures of Mr.
Fosdick, which began in the October, 1912
issue.These were in the current vogue of inventions where something goes humorously wrong,
though in Fosdicks case he was enterprising
enough to discover another use for his otherwise
failed invention.
By now the circulation of Modern Electrics had
exceeded 52,000 and Gernsback brought on board
a business manager to run the newly established
Modern Publishing Company. The result was a
greatly expanded Modern Electrics with over forty
pages of advertising. Readers complained about
this and Gernsback also felt the magazine had
become too commercial and shifted away from his
hobbyist intent. Its viability allowed Gernsback to
sell it at a substantial profit. His last issue was dated
March, 1913, and the magazine continued as Modern Electrics and Mechanics before merging with Popular Science Monthly in April, 1915.
Gernsback still owned the prosperous Electro-Importing Company, and it was through this
that he started The Electrical Experimenter, first
issue May, 1913.This was in a larger bedsheet format than Modern Electrics, a size more suited to
technical magazines. It was also printed on quality coated stock, allowing the use of photographs.
Gernsback continued to be the primary editor,
but he was assisted by H.Winfield Secor, who had
served as associate editor on Modern Electrics.
Secor was one of Gernsbacks regular reliable
assistants, who stayed with him for many years,
not only editing but also writing many of the fea-

175

176 | Sexology
ture articles. In 1915, Gernsback established the
Experimenter Publishing Company with his
brother, Sidney, as treasurer.
At the outset The Electrical Experimenter concentrated on hobbyist articles and when fiction
did appear, it was under that guise. Gernsback ran
a contest for the most original idea on how to
recycle old equipment and the winner, Thomas
Benson, submitted his suggestion in the form of
a story,Mysterious Night (June 1914), where a
young man reworks equipment to play a trick on
his sisters boyfriend. The man became nicknamed the Wireless Wizard and Benson contributed eight more such stories over the next
three years. None was classifiable as science fiction, but all fitted into Gernsbacks approach to
stimulate thinking among experimenters.
Gernsback contributed another of his own
serials, Baron Munchhausens New Scientific
Adventures, from the August, 1915 issue. In the
same spirit as Raspes original stories, Gernsback
had his tongue firmly in his cheek. His narrator,
I.M.Alier, receives wireless messages, apparently
from the original Baron Munchhausen, now on
the Moon. Each night Munchhausen beams his
messages to the narrator, revealing how he had
been embalmed while still alive and had returned
to life when the embalming fluid had weakened,
how he became involved in the World War, and
how he had perfected an anti-ether machine
which allowed him to travel to the Moon. His
travels continue to Mars, where he describes many
scientific wonders.
As with Ralph 124C41+, the serial was written to demonstrate the potential for experimentation,a subject Gernsback took up in his May,1916,
editorial, What to Invent. Gernsback ran many
speculative articles and every issue was filled with
stimulating ideas, bold illustrations, and continued
exhortations from Gernsback to his readers. His
editorial in the April, 1916 issue was a plea to look
to the future. He concluded by saying:
A world without imagination is a
poor place to live in. No real electrical

experimenter, worthy of the name, will

ever amount to much if he has no
imagination. He must be visionary to a
certain extent, he must be able to look
into the future and if he wants fame he
must anticipate human wants.
It was this crusading zeal that saw the
growth of scientific fiction in The Electrical
Experimenter and ultimately led to the birth of
Amazing Stories. Most of those who contributed
stories were unknown and not seen again outside of Gernsbacks magazines. Very few were
professional writers, and this was evident from
the crudeness of their work, little of which concerned Gernsback, as he was simply harnessing
the enthusiasm. Only the first of his regular contributors, George F. Stratton, had any track
record, and that was primarily as a writer of
boys adventures. Gernsback was a great fan of
boys adventure fiction and the magazines stories were slanted toward a younger readership.
Strattons Omegon (September 1915), shows
how entrepreneur Ned Cawthorne, who has
earned a fortune from investing in new inventions, backs a further plan for submarines
equipped with electromagnets that will disable
ships with no loss of life.
Of the new stories, the best was At War with
the Invisible (March-April 1918), by the otherwise unknown R. and G.Winthrop. It tells of the
Martian invasion of 2011.Their spaceship is invisible and able to destroy major cities undetected.
Through careful observation, the narrator discovers how the cloak of invisibility works and, with
the help of a scientist friend, is able to counteract
the device and reveal the Martians.This was a genuine piece of science-fiction adventure, unlike
anything Gernsback had hitherto published.
Whats more, it was the first story to be illustrated
by Frank R. Paul. Paul had been providing technical illustrations for Gernsback since 1914, but
this was the first time he had illustrated the fiction.
He would soon become the mainstay story artist.
The Electrical Experimenter was moving further

Sexology |
toward being a speculative science magazine and
away from its hobbyist roots. To fill that gap,
Gernsback started two new magazines, Radio
Amateur News (from July 1919, soon retitled Radio
News) and Practical Electrics (from November
1921). Both these magazines ran fiction, though
little of it was speculative. Radio News, which rapidly became Gernsbacks circulation leader, with
sales in excess of 100,000, managed to attract stories from a few well-known names, notably Ellis
Parker Butler, who began a series of humorous
stories with Mr. Murchisons Radio Party (January 1923). Practical Electrics was retitled The
Experimenter in November, 1924, when it serialized Victor MacClures The Ark of the
Covenant. This concerns the Robur-like commander of a super-airship, the eponymous Ark
that holds the world for ransom to seek peace and
harmony; otherwise he will put the human race
into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, The Electrical Experimenter was
retitled Science and Invention in August, 1920, and
the emphasis on scientific fiction increased. In
May, 1921, Clement Fezandi began his series,
Dr. Hackensaws Secrets, which were more like
lectures than stories, where the prolific inventor
spouted forth on each new wonder to his
reporter friend. There was a series of scientific
detective stories by Charles S.Wolfe, and a number of stand-alone stories by individual writers of
more than passable merit. Gernsback was clearly
becoming serious about the potential of his scientific stories. He even reprinted two stories by
H.G. Wells in the February and March, 1923,
issues, The New Accelerator, an almost definitive Gernsback invention story, and The Star.
He included a special scientific fiction section
in the August, 1923, issue, which sported a beautiful cover by Howard Brown illustrating The
Man from the Atom, by G. Peyton Wertenbaker.
It also featured an episode in the serial Around

the Universe, by Ray Cummings, which had

started in the previous issue. Cummings was a big
name to catch, and was becoming the primary
contributor of science fiction to the pulp magazines. Gernsback was intentionally bridging the
gap between his own evolution of scientific fiction and the more adventure-oriented pulp variety. Gernsback had considered starting an all-sf
magazine, Scientifiction, in 1923, but a lack of
response in a subscription drive caused him to
bide his time.When Amazing Stories was launched
in 1926, it was only after years of experimentation and exploration in his technical magazines.
Intriguingly, even after Amazing Stories had
appeared, Gernsback continued to run a sciencefiction serial in Science and Invention, and the
works were by major names. Ray Cummings
appeared with Tarrano the Conqueror (July
1925-August 1926) and Into the Fourth
Dimension (September 1926-May 1927), and
no less than Abraham Merritt with The Metal
Emperor (October 1927-August 1928), a revised
version of his Argosy serial,The Metal Monster.
Gernsback continued to run many speculative
articles in Science and Invention, such as After
Television, What? (June 1927), Inter-Planetary
Communication (June 1928), and Cities of
Tomorrow. However, when Gernsback lost control of the Experimenter Publishing Company in
February, 1929, thanks to bad debts, he lost all his
magazines. They all continued under new management, though in 1931 Science and Invention was
sold to, and then merged with, Popular Mechanics.
During this period when Gernsback was setting the future alight with his scientifiction
publications, he also published several other magazines that seemed far removed from the world of
technological progress. Money Making, edited by
Sidney Gernsback, and launched in October,
1926, might seem appropriate for Gernsback,
since he was establishing his own fortune from his

PG 176 TRUE CRIME MAGAZINE, vol 1, #1, July 1936 ( Red Circle); PG 177 TRUE MYSTIC CONFESSIONS, #1, 1937
( respective copyright holder).

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178 | Sexology
various enterprises. Television, dated Summer
1927, with a second issue in July, 1928, was also
no surprise, given Gernsbacks interests, and the
fact that he had been running his own radio station since June, 1925. Your Body, an expensive (50
cents) quarterly started in April, 1928, was a sexhealth magazine seeking to penetrate the market
established by Bernarr Macfadden with Physical
Culture, and was a forerunner of the more profitable Sexology.
But French Humor was pure indulgence.
Gernsback had a puckish humor, more French
than German, which he had often used in his stories and articles. French Humor was a natural
extension of this, though he was also tapping into
the lucrative if risky market of the titillating spicy
magazines that modeled themselves on such
French publications as La Vie Parisienne and Le
Sourire. In America, these included The Parisienne,
started by H.L. Mencken in July, 1915, and Paris
Nights, the first of the girlie pulps, started in
April, 1925. These magazines tried to reproduce
the risqu and salacious content of the French
magazines. Gernsback, on the other hand, was
happy to include titillating cartoons, but the
emphasis was on humor, saucy or otherwise.The
cartoons and jokes were selected entirely from
French magazines. French Humor was a slim magazine, issued weekly from July 16, 1927, to September 29, 1928, a total of 63 issues, the last
twelve of which were entitled Tidbits. Its demise
suggests that it was not reaching its intended market. Moreover, by the time of its final issue,
Gernsback was running into the financial problems that would see him lose control of Experimenter Publishing and his magazines.
Gernsback soon bounced back. This time,
though, he based his new publishing company,
Stellar, on science fiction, with a whole raft of
magazines Science Wonder Stories (begun June
1929), Air Wonder Stories (July 1929) (the two
merged after a year as Wonder Stories), Science Wonder Quarterly (Fall 1929,) and Scientific Detective
Monthly (January 1930). He maintained his radio
interests with Radio-Craft (from July 1929) and

Short-Wave Craft (June 1930). Recognizing the

interest in the conquest of the air, he also started
Aviation Mechanics (June 1930) and took over the
Chicago-based magazine, Illustrated Science and
Mechanics, under the new title Everyday Mechanics
(from July 1930). Although some of these titles
ran the occasional speculative article, especially
the latter (which became Everyday Science and
Mechanics in October 1931), they no longer had
the crusader zeal of the earlier magazines, and
thus none of the cult appeal.
Only Wonder Stories had that unique quality. It
was here that the phrase science fiction was first
used as a name for the field.While he was planning the new magazine, Gernsback was advised by
his lawyers that he could not use the word scientifiction, which he had coined at Amazing,
because that word had become a trademark for
the magazine and was the property of his old
company. Gernsback thus coined science fiction, perhaps forgetting that either he or his former editor, T. OConor Sloane, had used the
phrase once before in the letter column in Amazing (January 1927). Science fiction was used
throughout Science Wonder Stories from the first
issue, and it is a sign of the influence and authority of Gernsback how quickly the term caught on.
Wonder Stories had an excellent editor, David
Lasser, who published the first book on the possibility of space travel,The Conquest of Space, in 1931.
He also organized the American Interplanetary
Society and ran many interplanetary stories in
both Wonder Stories and the companion Quarterly.
He did much to improve the quality of science fiction, which had sunk into a form of wild-west-inspace, thanks chiefly to the appearance of Astounding Stories in January, 1930. Wonder Stories instigated a new policy, which demanded a more realistic treatment of science fiction, a drive that was
met by such authors as Nathan Schachner, P.
Schuyler Miller, Laurence Manning, Frank K.
Kelly and, perhaps surprisingly, Clark Ashton
Smith. Wonder Stories published science fiction of
considerable quality and might have equaled the
reborn Astounding Stories in 1933/4 had not

The Shadow Magazine |

Gernsback, frustrated at Lassers growing interest in
trade unionism, fired his editor and employed the
teenaged Charles Hornig. Hornigs one claim to
fame is that he was able to publish the first story by
Stanley G.Weinbaum, A Martian Odyssey (July
1934), though he just as promptly lost Weinbaums
best fiction to Astounding. Gernsbacks growing
tardiness in paying authors drove away most of the
best ones to the better paying Astounding.
Wonders one other significant achievement
was in helping organize science fiction fandom.
In April, 1934, Gernsback announced the formation of the Science Fiction League, similar to the
amateur radio association he had started 25 years
before, which provided a focal point for fans and
helped coalesce their activities.
The Depression had its affect on Gernsbacks
magazines Wonder Stories almost ceased publication in 1931. Even so, he continued to experiment. After a short affair with Technocracy Review,
which saw just two issues (February and March
1933) before Gernsback dropped it, fearful that
the Technocrats were too radical, he launched
what would become one of his most profitable
magazines, Sexology, which first appeared in June,
1933. Gernsback ran it under another imprint,
Science Publications, to keep its finances separate.
It was published in pocketbook format, doubtless
for discreet reasons, but, perhaps uncertain of its
reception, Gernsback chose not to place his name
on the cover.
The magazine was intended to disseminate
information about sexual health and hygiene. If
you expect to find smut in this magazine you had
better not buy it, Gernsback remonstrated in his
editorial. The first issue was edited by Dr
Maxwell Vidaver, but David H. Keller became the
editor with the second issue and remained until
1938. Keller was renowned for his science fiction
in Gernsbacks magazines and had been voted the
fields most popular author.The demand of edit-

ing and writing for Sexology, along with the companion magazines that soon appeared Popular
Medicine (August 1935, retitled Your Body in June
1936) and Facts of Life (January 1937) meant
that Keller had no time to write fiction and no
chance to mature as the field developed. In the
end, Keller felt he was being overworked and
underpaid and resigned in 1938, at which point
Your Body and Facts of Life ceased.
From the start Sexology dealt with such bold
subjects as prostitution, birth control, sexual
dreams, links between sex and mental illness, and
sexual diseases, subjects which hitherto had been
shunned by decent society and only occasionally
covered by magazines like Physical Culture. Gernsbacks determination to treat the subject seriously, and with authoritative medical articles, not
only helped the magazine avoid attack by the
Society for the Suppression of Vice, but also
helped promote sexual education.
Sexology became one of Gernsbacks most
profitable magazines. It allowed him to survive
the Depression and it continued, along with
Radio-Craft and Everyday Science and Mechanics
(soon to lose the Everyday part of the title) after
he sold Wonder Stories in 1936.
In 1959, Sexology came under the auspices of
the Sexology Corporation, of which Gernsback
was president. By then its subject matter and illustrations had become more daring. It came under
fire in 1969 from a fundamentalist religious
group, Sword of the Lord, because the magazines
editor, Isadore Rubin, was also one of the
founders of the Sex Information and Education
Council of the United States (SIECUS), which
developed a program for sex education in
schools. The religious group claimed that school
sex education was being developed by men who
published pornography. Their charges got
nowhere. In fact, Rubin, who edited Sexology
from 1956 until his death in 1970, was a

PG 178 THE SECRET 6, Jan. 1935 ( Popular Publications); PG 179, Top to Bot SATURN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, Mar. 1958 (Candar Publications); SAUCY MOVIE TALES, May 1936 ( Movie Digest).

renowned expert in sexual education, a Fellow of

the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, and
the author of a half-dozen books on the subject.
In its final years, Sexology did run articles that
were erotic and pandered to fetishists and exhibitionists, though this was more through its illustrations than the articles themselves. Sexology stood
apart from Gernsbacks other magazines, though,
and perhaps remained closest to his own original
ideals.While Science and Mechanics and Radio Electronics became trade magazines and moved away
from the hobbyist and experimenter, Sexology
remained a magazine of education.
Science and Mechanics survived until 1975, Sexology until 1978 (retitled Together at the end), and
Radio-Craft (retitled Radio Electronics in 1948 and
Electronics Now in 1992) survived until the demise
of Gernsback Publications at the end of 2002 (last
issue dated January 2003), by which time it had
been retitled Poptronics.
Although Gernsbacks reputation has been
sullied in the science fiction field because of his
slack payments (and he was guilty as charged
although the circumstances have been exaggerated), his name has survived in the Hugo Award
presented to the best science fiction published
each year. He knew his market and was able to
establish a publishing empire that survived his
death, in 1967, by 25 years. He pioneered and
promoted research into all manner of scientific
endeavors and his work will stand the test of time.
Characteristically, when he died Gernsback
donated his body to medical research.MA

THE SHADOW MAGAZINE

The Great Depression was settling in on July 31,
1930, when the shuddery laugh of The Shadow
first rang out over the nations airwaves, electrifying listeners of the still-primitive medium with
his warning,The Shadow knows!
Conceived by scriptwriter Harry Engman
Charlot, The Shadow was merely a narrative
device designed to bring to the life stories he read

179

180 | The Shadow Magazine

verbatim from the weekly issues of Street &

Smiths Detective Story Magazine. As voiced by
James LaCurto, a narrator was all that he
remained. But when actor Frank Readick introduced a sneer into the proceedings,The Shadow
captured the American imagination.
Unfortunately, Readicks portrayal overwhelmed his message. Listeners flocked to newsstands asking for that Shadow magazine instead
of Detective Story, which had started a circulationboosting contest to solve the riddle of the mystery mans true identity.
At Street & Smith, canny general manager
Henry W. Ralston ordered editor-in-chief Frank
Engs Blackwell to put out a one-shot Shadow
Magazine in response. Ralston feared a rival publisher stealing the idea and trademarking the title.
Both men had cut their editorial teeth on S&S

dime novels.
Blackwell could find no writer in his stable
willing to take on the thankless task. Enter Walter
B. Gibson, a former newspaperman and ghostwriter for professional magicians. He was looking
to break into fiction via Detective Story, and was
happy for the opportunity.
I wasnt thinking in terms of fiction when I
talked to Blackwell, Gibson recounted. But he
said,Look, we want somebody to create a character called The Shadow, and do it fast. He said, I
know youre a fast writer.And he said he wanted
it to sound like hes real. Hes a master crime
fighter, but try to build him up any way you can.
The first issue, entitled The Shadow A
Detective Magazine, showcased Gibsons The Living Shadow. A combination of Sherlock
Holmes, Houdini, and Count Dracula (he classic

PG 180 interior pages from TRUE STRANGE ( Weider Publications); PG 181 STRANGE STORIES, June 1939
( respective copyright holder).

Bela Lugosi film was still in theaters), Gibsons

Shadow was an omniscient force of nature who
seemed beyond good or evil as he rescued hapless
Harry Vincent from suicide and made him his
chief agent, crushing criminals while garbed in a
swirling black cloak and old-fashioned slouch
hat. Gibson, too, was draped in mystery. He was
obliged to write under a fictitious name, concocting Maxwell Grant from the names of two
magic dealers who specialized in shadow tricks.
The first issue, dated April, 1931 sold out.
Gibson wrote two sequels, discovering the nebulous character as he went along. In The Eyes of
The Shadow, he revealed the Dark Avenger to
be millionaire Lamont Cranston. Next issue, he
changed his mind.The Shadow Laughs! depicts
the true Cranston surrendering his identity to his
unknown imposter. Readers became as hooked
on the mystery surrounding The Shadow as they
were absorbed into the mysteries he solved
through Sherlockian deduction and Hammetesque violence.
Sales mandated The Shadow go monthly with
the third issue. In the fall of 1932, with Detective
Story faltering in frequency as worried Americans
held onto their increasingly precious dimes, The
Shadow Magazine kicked off an unremitting
decade of twice-a-month publication. Gibson
buckled down to grow stout and prematurely
gray grinding out two and three novels a month.
Over time, The Shadow acquired a network
of agents who operated under cover, a legion of
mystifying alternate identities, and a facility for
two-gun marksmanship.
After practically decimating the underworlds
of NewYork and Chicago in his first year,the master avenger began attracting new challenges. Gibson called them supercrooks. After defeating a
terrorist called The Black Master, he took on the
Red Blot, Gray Fist, and The Black Falcon, who
had the temerity to kidnap the real Lamont
Cranston.These were the forerunners of the comic
book supervillains still a decade in the future.
Early on, editorial responsibilities fell to a
young Notre Dame graduate named John L.

Nanovic. To keep the in-house Hoe presses fed,

Nanovic and Ralston evolved plotting sessions
with Gibson, wherein stories would be worked
out two and three at a time. Soon, Gibson had
stockpiled stories nearly a year in advance.
Seeking maximum story variety, they evolved
several distinct types of Shadow plots. Mysteries set
in Chinatown had become a staple since the first
novel, which was partially inspired by the re-use of
an old pulp cover with a Chinese theme. The
Shadow haunted the tri-state area in the main, but
excursions to London, Paris, Mexico, Canada, and
the Bahamas expanded his scope of operations.
Gibson liked to summer in Maine and winter in
Florida, and there too went The Shadow.
As rivals began to litter the field, Nanovic set
out to build up the back-of-the-book matter. He
wrote a cryptogram column as Henry Lysing, and
inaugurated running heroes to supplement the
lead novel.The first of these was girl sleuth Grace
Culver, written by Jean Francis Webb as Roswell
Brown. A pre-Hollywood Steve Fisher contributed Naval Intelligence investigator Sheridan
Doome and Danny Garrett, the Shoeshine Kid.
Despite an antipathy for the game, Ed Burkholder was dragooned into writing the exploits of
bowling detective Hook McGuire as George
Allan Moffatt.
The success of imitators like The Phantom
Detective and The Spider, as well as inevitable
authorial staleness, triggered a retrenchment in
1935. Gibson was instructed to change his
approach and abandon his moody, atmospheric
style for a fast-action pulp romp called The Salamanders. This led to the return of The Voodoo
Master, and a brief wave of recurring villains.
But shifting styles slowed down the human
writing machine, so Nanovic turned to Black
Mask regular and Shadow radio scripter
Theodore A. Tinsley to supplement the Gibson
prose torrent with four stories a year. Through
him, S&S would experiment with a more hardboiled type of criminal and the occasional femme
fatale. Tinsleys first effort, Partners of Peril,
would be adapted as the initial installment of

The Shadow Magazine |

Batman by scripter Bill Finger.
For over seven years, Gibson tantalized his
readers with hints as to The Shadows actual identity and motives. Behind a Chinese-box array of
other faces, chief among them Cranston and
Henry Arnaud, the true Shadow remained a
mocking enigma. Was he a World War I aviatorspy known as the Dark Eagle? Had his true visage been destroyed in combat? Was he disfigured?
Who was he?
Maxwell Grant revealed all in 1937s The
Shadow Unmasks. When the Cranston cover
identity is compromised, The Shadow reappears
in civilization as his true self, aviator-explorer
Kent Allard, thought to be lost in the wilds of
Guatemala. Accompanied by two faithful Xinca
Indian servants,Allard is treated like a conquering
hero. Forgotten by Commissioner Ralph Weston
is the impossibility of the two Lamont Cranstons.
This abrupt revelation seems to have been
triggered by the approaching return of The Shadow to the radio airwaves. Up to this time, he had
been a narrator. Now, as voiced by Orson Welles,
he became an invisible detective aided by a new
player, Margot Lane. Radio scripters seeking to
translate the character to the still-new medium
decided that The Shadow was Lamont Cranston,
and that was that. Gibson and his editor fumed.
The advertisers would not budge.
For several years, two distinctly different
Shadows co-existed, but in 1941, Gibson was
obliged to drop Margot into his novels. By that
time, the Kent Allard incarnation had been relegated to a seldom-used alternative identity. Public expectation was that The Shadow was really
Cranston, so under that irresistible pressure the
series shifted into a succession of mysteries modeled after Lamont and Margots caf society
encounters with crime, with the magazines
police commissioner Ralph Weston and Shrevvie
the cab driver serving as foils. Radio, with its millions of listeners, had won out.
World War II and its paper shortages forced
The Shadow to drop to monthly frequency in
1943, and then to digest format at years end. John

181

Nanovic moved on, as did cover artist George

Rozen, who had painted all of the covers except
for a three-year hiatus during which Graves Gladney attempted to emulate his poster-style paintings.The new cover artist was a mainstay of Love
Story Magazine, and Modest Steins somber scenes
signaled that pulpy glory days were over.
Gibson continued turning out compact and
glib stories all through the war, never reaching
the imaginative heights of the 1930s. His character had become a multi-media cottage industry,
and when Street & Smith attempted to claim
creative hegemony over the Master of Darkness
in 1946, his creator walked rather than sign a
cooked contract.
A Gibson protge and Orson Welles lookalike named Bruce Elliott took over, de-emphasizing The Shadow for a fast-talking Lamont
Cranston and updating the character to the cynical post-war world. Editor Babette Rosmond,
cultivating the early efforts of John D. MacDonald in the magazines back pages, was delighted.
Readers were not.
Early in 1948, with the magazine shifting
back to pulp size, Walter Gibson made a triumphant return, as did cover artist George
Rozen.The true authentic Shadow was back. He
lasted only a year. Succumbing to internal pressures and distributor demands, Street & Smith
folded their pulps in the spring of 1949. An era
had ended. Soon, radios Shadow would fade into
oblivion, too. Which Shadow had the last laugh
no longer mattered.
Except for one person, the public no longer
cared who knew what evil lurked in the hearts of
men. I thoroughly enjoyed writing these stories,Walter Gibson admitted, after penning nearly 300 of them, and am pleased to have made a
lasting contribution to the evolvement of the
super hero in American literature.WM

SHRIEK, SIN-EMA
see Health Knowledge Magazines

182 | Skeptic
SIR!
see Volitant Publishing
SKEPTIC
The Skeptics Society, started by Dr. Michael Shermer, began publishing Skeptic in 1992 as a forum
for inquiry into extraordinary claims and revolutionary ideas. Themed issues looked into a wide
variety of social, scientific, and paranormal controversies surrounding pseudomedicine, evolutionary
ethics, conspiracy theories, and science in society,
written by leading experts in their fields. There
have been issues covering Race and Intelligence,
Cosmology & God, and Pseudomedicine. A
few sample articles: Insult to Injury The Use &
Abuse of The Bell Curve; Scientology v. the Internet; Velikovsky Still in Collision; Can Science
Prove God?;The Question All Skeptics are Asking:
Can a Cat Be Simultaneously Alive and Dead?;
Does HIV Really Cause AIDS?; and Is Raw Meat
Conscious? Every issues is a fascinating read.LO

SLAPSTICK
see Medical Horrors
SPACE WARS
see Lunatickle
SPICY DETECTIVE STORIES
The notorious Spicy chain of pulp magazines
emerged from the ashes of Super Magazines Inc.s

ill-fated attempt to buck the Great Depression by

introducing a line of new genre-fiction magazines.
Editor Frank Armer launched Super-Detective
Stories early in 1934, with Super-Love, Super-Mystery, and Super-Western Stories promised in the
ensuing months. The Super line sputtered out
almost immediately, a victim of financial woes
then pummeling the pulp magazine industry.
Only Super-Detective continued, and it was soon
eclipsed by a daring idea.
Sex fiction had been a staple of a certain type
of risqu pulp magazine for decades including
Armers own Spicy Stories but it had never
crossed genres. Pulp stories of sex revolved around
romantic escapades, and were typically light and
frothy. The raw side of sex was never alluded to,
much less explored. The traditional genre staples
detective,Western, and fantasy scrupulously
avoided any contact with the earthy passions.
Frank Armer overturned that taboo when he
issued Spicy Detective Stories a month after the
debut of Super-Detective Stories, dated April, 1934.
Combining the hardboiled realism of Black Mask
with a hot injection of raw sex and sadism, Spicy
Detective took college campuses (where they
enjoyed their greatest sales) by storm. Sold under
the counter, it offered up a salacious slice of life
the timid mainstream pulps carefully avoided.
Armer edited under the fictitious name of
Lawrence Cadman.The company, D.M. Magazines, was later dubbed Culture Publications,
although it also operated under subsidiaries such
as Trojan Publications and Arrow.
Norman A. Daniels wrote the first-issue lead
story, but embarrassed by the package, concealed
his true identity under the pseudonyms of Kirk
Rand and Grant Dell in subsequent issues. Robert

PG 182, L to R interior pages from EVE, vol. 1, #3 ( respective copyright holder); SATELLITE SCIENCE FICTION,
Dec. 1957 ( respective copyright holder); PG 183 L to R THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, Apr. 15, 1933 ( Street &
Smith); THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, Mar. 1, 1936 ( Street & Smith); THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, vol. 1, #2, 1931
( Street & Smith); THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, Oct. 1, 1941 ( Street & Smith); Bottom tier: THE SHADOW MAGAZINE,
July 15, 1942 ( Street & Smith); THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, Nov. 1943 ( Street & Smith); THE SHADOW MAGAZINE,
fall 1948 ( Street & Smith); THE SHADOW ANNUAL, 1947 ( Street & Smith).

Leslie Bellem transferred his considerable talent for

the risqu romp into the darker world of urban
violence and sexual sadism, soon creating the perpetually soused Hollywood sleuth Dan Turner, a
comic figure some saw as a parody, and others as
simply a pulp clich magnified beyond all common sense. Under several pen names, Bellem often
had multiple stories in any given issue.
Disgruntled Weird Tales refugee E. Hoffmann
Price quickly joined up, lured by higher word
rates and an insatiable editorial demand. Likewise
Howard Wandrei, who became H.W. Guernsey
and Robert A. Garron. Hugh B. Cave was Justin
Case. Black Mask castoffs Roger Torrey and James
H.S. Moynihan also took to writing under concealed names. Pseudoscience pioneer Victor
Rousseau Emmanuel called himself Clive Trent
or Lew Merrill as the occasion demanded. The
super-prolific Bud Longs many bylines remain
open to further investigation. Many feminine
love-story writers did their Spicy duties masked
by male pen names.
A group of Philadelphia writers, unable to
crack the better pulp markets, settled in to
become prolific under variations of their true
names. C. Samuel Campbell was Charles S.
Campbell. Grant Milton and Milton Grant were
variations on actual author Grant Milton Sassaman. The alternate bylines of Saul W. Paul and
Charles R.Allen remain unknown.
Spicy-Adventure Stories followed in 1935. (The
hyphen was to avoid legal challenges from the
prestigious superpulp, Adventure.) Then came
Spicy Mystery Stories, which mixed the sex-andsadism formula with horror and fantasy already
mined by Terror Tales and the like. It was considered a species of pulp paper sacrilege when Spicy
Western Stories arrived in 1936.The western field
had been held sacrosanct. No longer.
In the beginning, the fiction fare offered up
by Spicy Detective Stories was sordid and seamy,
with frequent scenes of heavy petting and brutality against women. When the situations became
really steamy, however, the action invariably
trailed off into suggestive ellipses, allowing the

The Shadow Magazine |

183

184 | Spicy Detective Stories

readers overheated imagination to fill in the rest.
Our stories border on the risqu, Armer
instructed his writers early on,the situations may
be compromising and passionate, but there must
be no consummation of love.Total nudity was
banned, except in the case of female corpses. Men
had to keep their clothes on.
Sensational story titles like The Burlesk
Murders, Passion Killer, and Love Ghoul
were concocted to promise more than prevailing
mores could ever deliver. Postal service pressure
forced the artists to clothe female anatomies with
undergarments, and the writers to describe the
details of semi-nudity through colorful
euphemisms for breasts and nipples.Adolphe Barreauxs Sally the Sleuth comic strip emphasis on the latter suffered similar constraints.
The longer it ran, the less revealing the undercover detectives wardrobe became.
A cottage industry grew up around filling the
pages of the Spicy quartet. Pulp kings like
Norvell W. Page and Laurence Donovan soon
began moonlighting under tissue-thin aliases like
N. Wooten Poge and Larry Dunn. William G.
Bogart became Russell Hale. Conan creator
Robert E. Howard masked his true identity as
Sam Walser. Other notable contributors remain
unknown to this day.All learned to step up to the
ever-shifting line of indecency without going
over, much as 1930s Hollywood fretted under
Hays Office restrictions.
Covers were the work of Allen Anderson and
H.L. Parkhurst. But the king of the Spicy covers
was Hugh J.Ward, a slick-cover artist trying to stay
solvent in hard times. His portraits of situations
simultaneously gruesome and salacious somehow
managed to shine with an almost spiritual luminance, like an angel forced to paint purgatory.
Frank Armer moved up in the organization as
the editorial team of Wilton E. Matthews and
Kenneth W. Hutchinson jointly edited the growing line, which ultimately included Private Detective Stories and a revived Super-Detective. In reality,
contents and contributors were interchangeable,
with series characters like Bellems Dan Turner

and Hugh B. Caves Runyonesque Eel appearing

in multiple venues. Critics of the day complained
that the stories all read like the work of one
writer. No doubt they were heavily revised by the
editors who also contributed under names
unremembered to ensure the correct proportions of spice.
Of the group, Spicy Detective Stories met with
the greatest acceptance, and attracted the best
writers. Hardboiled crime and frank passion were
a natural mix. It is known that many uptown
pulpsters inserted the required hotcha into their
rejects, and peddled them to Spicy Detective, secure
in the knowledge that their true bylines would
forever remain unmasked. Most were.
The true power behind the Spicy line was
printer and rumored ex-bootlegger Harry
Donenfeld. His Donny Press swallowed up many
depression-bankrupted risqu pulp houses until
he became by default the fields king. It was said
he also printed some of the notorious Tijuana
Bibles, and perhaps the Spicy line all of which
carried comic strips was really a hybrid of the
genre pulps and those artifacts of a sleazier time.
When Donenfeld fell heir to a faltering line of
comic books, he formed DC Comics, and went
on to enjoy multi-media successes with Superman
and Batman.The Spicys were relegated to a sideline, until, in 1943, were replaced overnight by the
new Speed line finally tamed by a dramatic
shift in the national mood and waves of attacks by
censorship groups and local legal pressure, most
significantly by crusading New York City mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia and the Legion of Decency.
Dan Turner continued unphased, both in Speed
Detective and a spin-off title devoted to his adventures, Hollywood Detective.
The company fell into further eclipse when it
was discovered that editors Matthews and
Hutchinson had for years been reselling old stories back to the company as new, and pocketing
the fees. In 1947, both went to prison for five
years on embezzlement and tax evasion charges.
Speed Detective finally folded that year. Under art
director Adolphe Barreaux, a reconstituted line

The Spider |
staggered along until 1950, when it expired, a
shell of its former self, with the title that started it
all, Super-Detective.
The cultural impact of the Spicy group is
hard to quantify, but who can say that the current
acceptance of a sexual dimension in mainstream
popular fiction fostered by Hugh Hefners Playboy
is not the consequence of these off-trail yet trailblazing magazines.WM

THE SPIDER
It did not take long for rival publishers to notice
the success of Street & Smiths The Shadow Magazine. A year after it went twice-monthly, Popular Publications released the first issue of The Spider, dated October, 1933.
As publisher Henry Steeger frankly admitted,
The reason we started the title The Spider was
because of the success of Street & Smiths The
Shadow. At this point in pulp history, individual
titles became very popular, so we decided to try
out a few ourselves.
Even Steeger could not clearly recall, decades
later, the identity of the author of the first Spider
novel, The Spider Strikes! and its sequel The Wheel
of Death. Both were bylined R.T.M. Scott, the
name of a popular mystery writer of the 1920s.
The confusion stemmed from the fact that
there were two writers named R.T.M. Scott,
father Reginald and son Robert.A Popular associate editor, Robert wrote fiction as Maitland
Scott.The character of millionaire Richard Wentworth was modeled after Reginald Scotts celebrated Aurelius Smith of the Secret Service, while
his Hindu servant Ram Singh was a clone of
Smiths Langa Doone.
While it has been posited that Senior wrote
the debut novel and handed the series off to his

son to continue, no one knows the truth. Nor is it

understood why, by issue three, the original byline
had been replaced by the house name of Grant
Stockbridge an obvious homage to The Shadows Maxwell Grant.The new byline concealed an
expatriate Virginian named Norvell Wordsworth
Page. Of Richmond, Page was in New York
working for the News-Telegram and moonlighting
writing pulp detective and horror fiction, while
harboring visions of becoming the next Poe.
The Spider was soon to end Pages former
career. Beginning with Wings of the Black Death,
he pushed Richard Wentworth further and further into a nightmarish maelstrom of emotional
urgency, to use the operative phrase editor
Rogers Terrill insisted all Popular Publications
fiction contain.
Swiftly, The Spider evolved into a twisted version of The Shadow. Page added a false hunchback, fright wig, and vampire fangs to the black
cloak and floppy hat of the standard-issue Shadow imitator. His laugh was similarly debased.
Back-of-the-book crime stories gave way to
several ongoing series characters after the first
year.Arthur Leo Zagats crime fighting inner-city
druggist Doc Turner, and Emile C. Teppermans
Ed Race, the Masked Marksman, were the most
popular, running until the end of the magazines
life. Wayne Rogers contributed the Brother
Henry series in the late 1930s.
Clearly aimed at a more sophisticated audience than read The Shadow,The Spider gave significant attention to the personal travails of Richard
Wentworth, troubled scion of the Wentworth
millions, and his intense relationship with his
fiance Nita van Sloan.Theirs was a true passion,
but as Page continually reminded readers, the
work of the Spider kept them from consummating it. His faithful Hindu servant Ram Singh
sprouted a beard and became a full-blooded Sikh

PG 184 THE SPIDER, Dec. 1939 ( Popular Publications); PG 185, L to R THE SPIDER ( Popular Publications);
THE SPIDER ( Popular Publications); THE SPIDER, 1937 ( Popular Publications); THE SPIDER, Oct. 1941
(Popular Publications).

185

186 | The Spider

warrior. Chauffeur Ronald Jackson had served
with Major Wentworth in the Great War and
gradually grew a personality. Professor Brownlee,
who inspired Wentworth to become the Master
of Men, provided scientific support.
But by far the strangest relationship was the
ever-shifting armed truce Wentworth enjoyed
with Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick,
who had vowed to bring the Spider to justice for
his extra-legal depredations.Yet Kirkpatrick all but
knew that his close friend was secretly the Spider.
Their efforts to remain friends while obedient to
their sworn duties provided the greatest scenes of
white-heat dramatic tension in the series.
For the first three years of the magazine, Page
pushed himself and his crew to the brink of
human endurance. New York was many times
decimated by depraved criminal despots like the
Red Mandarin and the Fly. Blood and bullets
overflowed in Manhattans depression-era gutters.
Innocent civilians died in horrific numbers.
Wentworth and his allies fought, fell out among
themselves, and reconciled numerous times, acting out a violent soap opera of such proportions
that it inflamed the imagination of a ten-year-old
named Stanley Lieber, who, as the adult Stan Lee,
would imbue some of these epic passions into
Marvel Comics Spider-Man.
All through this Wentworth remained driven,
arrogant, and emotionally unstable, gyrating
between the elation of homicidal triumph and
periods of black despair sometimes only
columns apart that led readers to suspect that
both writer and character shared a common
affliction in paranoid manic-depression. Indeed,
Page was infamous for parading around draped in
a black opera cloak and floppy hat, in stark reflection of his alter ego.
Think of me as Richard Wentworth, he
once wrote.The line between us is not very distinct. Pushing the pulp envelope with every
monthly story, Page gratuitously killed off Professor Brownlee and Nitas loyal great dane, Apollo.
He abruptly hit the wall in 1936. In the middle
of the Living Pharaoh multi-novel sequence, he

dropped out, and was replaced by Emile C.Tepperman. Speculation runs from a nervous collapse
to a contract dispute in which a younger, cheaper author supplanted the experienced hand.
But Tepperman did not last. When Page
returned in 1937s The Man who Ruled in Hell, he
very determinedly blows up the reality Tepperman had carefully constructed in his absence. For
a time, Page alternated with Wayne Rogers,
another strange denizen of the pulp jungle. Formerly a pulp editor named Achibald Bittner,
Rogers took his new name after a brush with an
embezzlement charge, and became prolific, filling
the pages of Terror Tales and Horror Stories with
yarns like Satan Stole my Face.
Together, they took the series into weird menace territory. Story titles screamed hysteria: The
City that Dared Not Eat,When Thousands Slept
in Hell, and Scourge of the Black Legions. John
Newton Howetts searing covers more and more
mimicked those nightmarish oils he painted for
Terror Tales and their ilk. (John Fleming-Goulds
interior artwork remained a comforting constant.)
Page began repeating plots, and the situations grew
ever over-the-top, as if Grant Stockbridge was
compelled to recount the great American nightmare over and over ad infinitum.
Instability roiled the series in the autumn of
1939, when the story announced for the November issue,The Spider and the Pain Master, failed
to appear. On doctors orders, Page went on a sea
cruise for his nerves. A returning Emile Tepperman supplemented his work into 1940, after
which Page soldiered on unassisted for the rest of
the series. Raphael De Soto replaced Howett as
the cover artist, shifting to a simplified movieposter look. All of this coincided with Loring
Dusty Dowst becoming the latest in a long line
of short-term Spider editors.
This marked the mystical phase of the series,
with its frequent incidents of telepathy, spirit
communication, and similar otherworldly manifestations. Wentworths marked messianic complex, always lurking in the background, now
surged to the forefront. He began consorting

with a Tibetan adept, and Pages deep Christianity began to assert itself, culminating in the 100th
novel, Death and the Spider possibly the most
violent Christmas story ever committed to paper.
The Spider had become a vehicle for vigilante justice mixed with abiding faith, and only Norvell
Page seemed oblivious to the incongruity of it all.
The sudden death of Pages wife,Audrey, and
punishing wartime paper shortages dealt a fatal
blow to The Spider in 1943. Near the end, editor
Robert Turner had been revising Pages outdated
prose to bring it in line with the prevailing pulp
standards. The magazine had lasted exactly ten
years, closing with When Satan Came to Town.
Nothing like it would be seen again until Mickey Spillane and Don Pendelton re-invented the
idea of a driven anti-hero willing to kill to uphold
civilization for reading generations yet to
come.WM

SPY MAGAZINE
Spy (1986-1998) was edited out of the Puck
Building in downtown Manhattan, only a few
blocks from the original offices of Mad magazine.
It can be rightfully called an offspring of that
magazine, along with The Realist, another neighbor down on Lafayette Street. Spy is still remembered for its Twins Separated at Birth feature,
but much of todays mainstream media in America could benefit from the intense study of Spy as
a sort of remedial college-level course in journalism. Spy magazine went beyond satire to report
un-reportable truths, especially about New Yorks
power elite. It had the New York Times reporter
Judith Miller pegged as early as October, 1989,
with an article titled: Her List of Republican
Power Guys.The same issue included,The Sayings of John Gotti, The New York Review of
Looks: An Analysis of Book Cover Poses (Is the
author draining pool water out of her ear?), and
the Twins Separated at Birth were Drew Barrymore and (Bowery Boy) Leo Gorcey. Other early
issues highlights included Monthly Anagram

I. F. Stone Weekly |
Analysis (Ollie North = O, Rot in Hell and
Clarence Thomas=Lecher Acts? Moan), Buy
This Magazine or Well Burn This Flag, and
Cold War Nostalgia.
There was a special Washington, D.C. issue in
May, 1990, with special reports on the Capitol
Hill Sex Swamp and The DC Who-HatesWho, but national politics were on display in
most issues: Clintons First Hundred Days and
First Hundred Lies;The President who Couldnt Say No: The Unbecoming, Very Lucrative
Afterlife of Gerald R. Ford; and Separated at
Birth: Barbara Bush and Vincent Gardenia. Then
there were the covers with Hillary Clintons Head
superimposed on a different body, attired in
underwear (with a suspicious bulge), or another
one where she is wearing dominatrix gear in the
White House. Corporate America and Wall Street
were also a big targets: Separated at Birth: NY
Daily News owner Robert Maxwell and the

Three Stooges Shemp Howard;Splat! Wall Street

Goes Wacko! Crowds Roar Free Mike Milken.
Celebrities were easy fodder for Spy:Marlon
Brandos Fatherhood Tips; Is David Lynch
David Byrne?;Twins Separated at Birth: Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Randy Travis; and Las
Aventuras de Woody y Mia, which presented the
couples lives as a Spanish soap opera. Every good
spy needs an arch-villain and Donald Trump
became Spys Goldfinger.
There was something wickedly cool about
Spy.The magazine had panache and an inimitable
voice, especially during the early days, no matter
whom it was tearing down. Graydon Carter and
Kurt Andersen, the initiators and editors of Spy,
worked as if they were putting together their own
version of Time magazine, but,fair and balanced
was never Spys credo, and the editors encouraged
really demanded hatchet jobs by their writers.
Some of the Spy ethos of subversive, satirical

187

PG 186, Top to Bot STOP, #7, summer 1983 ( respective copyright holder); TOP SECRET, June 1958 ( Charlton
Publications); PG 186-187, Bot band, L to R MAD MONSTERS, #4, Nov. 1962 ( respective copyright holder); SICK,
#3, 1960 ( Headline); HARPOON, #1 ( Adrian B. Lopez).

journalism continues today on a few progressive

Internet blogs and Comedy Centrals The Daily
Show.LO

I.F. STONES WEEKLY

I.F. Stones Weekly was born in the vacuum left by
the demise of the liberal/leftist New York newspapers P.M./N.Y. Star and the Daily Compass. In
1952, Isidor Feinstein Stone (1907-1989), a newspaperman better known as Izzy, brought the mailing list from the Daily Compass and solicited subscribers for a new radical publication. Stone wrote,
I am, I suppose, an anachronism. In this age of

corporation men, I am an independent capitalist,

the owner of my own enterprise, subject to neither mortgager or broker, factor or patron. In an
age when young men, setting out on a career of
journalism, must find their niche in some huge
newspaper or magazine combine, I am a wholly
independent newspaperman, standing alone, without organizational or party backing, beholden to
no one but my good readers. I am even one up on
Benjamin Franklin I do not accept advertising. I.F. Stones Weekly was in the black from the
beginning, with copies of the first issue going out
in January, 1953, to 5,200 subscribers.
In autobiographical writings, Stone, the son
of Jewish immigrants from Russia, said that he

HUMOR COPY-CAT MAGAZINES

188 | I. F. Stone Weekly

had done every job on a big city newspaper
except run the linotype machine. Stone had published his first homemade, newspaper at the age
of fourteen. In his early twenties, he was the rewrite editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and would
go on to work on the Philadelphia Record and the
New York Post (in the 1930s and 1940s an FDR
New Deal, liberal leaning paper).
As a young man Stone joined the New Jersey
branch of the Socialist Party before he could even
vote, but soon left:I felt that party affiliation was
incompatible with independent journalism, and I
wanted to be free to help the unjustly treated, to
defend everyones civil liberty and to work for
social reform without concern for leftist infighting.When his paper stopped him from covering
the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti, he quit and
hitchhiked to Boston
During the 1940s, Stone wrote for the trio of
liberal New York publications that included The
Nation, P.M./N.Y. Star, and The Daily Compass.
Stone later noted that this was the greatest onthe-job learning experience for the type of
reporting he wanted to do.
In describing the early days of the weekly,
Stone said,There was nothing to the left of me
but the Daily Worker. Stone would always be
grateful for the support given by charter subscribers to a new radical publication at a time
when Joe McCarthy was compiling lists of what
he characterized as subversive Americans. The
Weeklys strident anti-McCarthyism was little seen
in other American publications of the time.
(Although it should be noted that there were a
few non-political magazines out there that were
running pieces against the Red hunter. These
were magazines like Galaxy Science Fiction and the
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which ran
stories by Isaac Asimov, Judy Merril, and Fritz
Leiber that were thinly veiled attacks on

McCarthyism. Of course, no one outside of the sf

readership seemed to notice.)
I.F. Stone and his wife Esther ran the Weekly
together. As a reporter, Stone was fiercely independent. As his own publisher he was also
immune to editorial or political pressures. In
appearance, the weekly was a wolf in sheep skin.
The conservative format, typography, and tame
headlines masked a journal of keenly-written stories digging out truths in official transcripts, government documents, and political dialogues.
Stone exhibited a particular knack for Washington, D.C., political archaeology. He knew from
experience that reporters assigned to the Washington beat easily fell into a doppelganger mindset, where they took on the attitudes and thinking of the people they were covering. Stone was
more likely to dig up information through
research and thorough reading of government
transcripts, rather than making the rounds of the
usual Washington mix-and-mingle scene. He
knew that bureaucracies were good at lying, but
not so good at keeping secrets, and by crosschecking statements made by functionaries, he
could arrive at some sense of the truth.
Serving as the antithesis of I.F. Stones Weekly
during the 1950s was the National Review, run by
William F. Buckley Jr.When not championing Joe
McCarthy, the National Review was questioning
giving voting rights to Negroes. In 1941, Stone
had resigned from the National Press Club in
Washington, D.C., when they did not allow him
to bring a black guest into the club. Stones blend
of moral perspective and humor is evident in the
following except from the piece titled The
Wasteland in the White Mans Heart, from September, 30, 1963:Hire a Negro policeman? That
was a profoundly difficult, almost impossible,
problem. Just why was never explained; perhaps
Negroes do not look good in blue, with brass but-

PG 188, L to R TRUE WEIRD, vol 1, #1, 1955 ( Weider Publications); MR. AMERICA, Aug. 1953
( Weider Publications); MAN'S TRUE DANGER, 1963 (Major Magazines, Inc. ); MR. AMERICA, #1, Jan. 1953 ( Weider Publications); PG 189 TRUE GANG LIFE, Nov. 1934 ( Associated Authors).

Sunshine & Health |

tons. Here Stone was using the friendly image of
the black Pullman Porter, familiar to any white
person who had ever traveled on a train between
1880 and 1960.The railroads may have been one
of the few places in America where blacks and
whites mingled without direct animosity.
The Weekly was also ahead of the conservative
pack-mentality of most newspapers when it came
to Vietnam, the covert illegal actions of the FBI
and the CIA, the communist falling domino theory, the rights of displaced Palestinians, the Irancontra double-dealing of Washington, D.C. politicians, and the class greed of Reaganomics. In
hindsight, I. F. Stone was right more often than
not, which gave his detractors fits.The eight-page
weekly took nothing for granted.
The FBI had a massive file on Izzy (he had
been attacking FBI director J. Edgar Hoover since
the mid-1930s and called him the sacred cow).
Years after Stones death, neo-cons swiftboated
him, making him out as a soviet spy (wisely waiting until he was in the ground to do so).The right
had always castigated Izzy on his opinions; if these
opinions proved to be right later on, never mind.
He has become an icon to internet progressive
journalists and is considered, in columnist Dan
Froomkins words, The best blogger ever. I.F.
Stones Weekly was always questioning government
deceptions and the medias complicity one of
Stones favorite sayings was all governments lie.
Recent history has proven him right.LO

STOP!
see Punk
STRANGE SUICIDES
see Medical Horrors
STRIPARAMA
see Acme News Company

SUNSHINE & HEALTH

In October, 1964 a UPI wire story appeared in
newspapers identifying Milton Luros (1912-1999)
as the Girlie-Book King the newsworthy
core of the story was the indictment of Luros and
his wife, Beatrice, for publishing and distribution
of obscene literature through the United States
mail.Authorities charged that Parliament Publications and London Press Publishing Companys
nudist magazines were not genuine nudist publications, but girlie magazines that used paid models. The purpose, said the Los Angeles D.A.s
office,was not to foster the nudist movement, but
to grind out obscene magazines with an appeal to
the lust of their readers, many of whom are
minors.Also indicted was photographer Elmer A.
Batters, and writers Sam Merwin and Richard F.
Geis. Luros would eventually be sentenced to five
years in prison and fined $99,000 in 1967.A United States Court of Appeals reversed the decision
and Luros continued his rule in the kingdom of
erotic magazines.
The organized nudist movement took off in
America during the early 1930s. For decades,
secrecy and caution cloaked the various associations, made up mostly of German-Americans,
after many enthusiastic raids by police egged on
by reformers.At this time, a few European nudist
magazines like the German Lachendes Leben
(Laughing Life), were imported and sold on a few
American newsstands.
By 1933, nudist movies began appearing at
traveling tent-theaters, and a magazine, The Nudist, later Sunshine and finally Sunshine & Health,
was founded by the controversial Rev. Ilsley
Boone (Uncle Danny), a Christian preacher
who advocated naturalism as a return to the Garden of Eden. The Nudist was an over-sized magazine that was selling 110,000 copies through
newsstands across the country in its first year.The
movement always gave sun and health as their raison dtre and said only dirty minds saw sex as
the motive for people frolicking in the natural
state that God intended. As long as they kept a

189

190 | Sunshine & Health

low profile, and on the outskirts of cities, the
authorities seemed willing to tolerate private
nudist camps, though every once in a while a
law-and-order D.A. would create a stir. But,
things would settle down in short order.
In Germany, Hitler initially banned nudist
camps when he came to power in 1933, but
changed his mind when the National Socialist
Party realized that their ideology of a pure race
could be fostered by the movement and its emphasis on sport and physical culture. (The opening
sequence in Leni Riefenstahls 1938 Nazi-sponsored documentary, Olympiad, is an ode to a
healthy and beautiful nude body.) Publication of
nudist magazines continued, greatly abating
throughout the war years. After the war, with no
laws to hinder them, German publishers were
ready to resume in full force. Many American soldiers, stationed in postwar Germany, became fans
of the magazines. When they returned to the
States, they found pin-up magazines, but they had
been spoiled. In this climate Hefners first issue of
Playboy, in 1953, was inevitable.
In 1947, postal inspectors barred Sunshine and
Health from the mails. Boone responded by publishing two editions of the magazine; the version
sent through the mail show nudes wearing diapers. By this time, Boone had begun distributing
other nudist magazines. He would continue his
court fights, and defended other publications
such as the Naturel Herald before the United
States Post Office Solicitors Office.
In 1953, a New York Supreme Court came to
an impasse on the issue of the obscenity of nudist magazines Sunshine and Health and Sun after
the defense attorney waved the famed nude Marilyn Monroe Calendar before the jury.The calendar was sold all over town.The defense said,the
only difference between this picture and a magazine showing a nudist is that the nudist is sitting
on a rock and Marilyn Monroe is sitting on a red
plush robe. Nudist magazines had been ruled off
New York newsstands on the flimsy premise that
they might excite juveniles to delinquency.
Luros had his first obscenity arrest in 1961,

when a New Jersey court indicted him and

attempted to extradite him from California.
Before becoming a girlie magazine publisher Luros was a pulp artist working mainly for science fiction magazines. His earliest-known published artwork appeared in 1937 for Double Action
Gang.The young Luros already had the pulp style
of over-heated action scenes and garish palette
down cold, but his initial entry into the magazine
world as an artist only lasted a few years. Luros
became an art director in New York City for a
while in the late 1940s before returning to the
magazine field in 1950, including a stint working
for Joe Wieders group of muscle and real mens
magazines.
By 1959, the magazine illustration field, especially science fiction, was running out of stream,
and due to his close association with publishers and
editors like Bill Hamling, Luros already had the
knowledge necessary to become a publisher. On January 13, 1958, the United States
Supreme Court finally agreed that nudist
magazines (even those showing full-frontal
nudity) were a legitimate form of expression and they could be sent via the United
States Post Office. This was a victory for
plaintiff Ilsley Boone, but the eventual winners would be people like Luros and other
opportunistic magazine publishers.
In 1964, a few years after Boone retired
from direct management of Sunshine &
Health, the magazine declared bankruptcy.
By now other magazine publishers had saturated the marketplace with close to fifty
nudist titles, and it was hard to tell which
were put out by legitimate nudist groups
and which were not.Some of the legitimate
ones were Eden,The Naturist, Nudist Leader,
Sun Magazine, Paradise, Sunbathing, and
American Sunbathing. Questionable titles
included Urban Nudist, Sun Era, Modern
Sunbathing, and Nudist Photo Field Trip. Most
of the latter were Luross magazines, and
there was serious doubt about the bonafides
of these as nudist publications.

Luross early publications, like Jaguar (1961),

used the usual mens magazine template: fiction,
cartoons, and photos of bare breasts and buttocks.
The nude photos were as far as commercial publications could go in terms of posed and paid
models. Early Luros mens magazines feature lots
of Elmer Batters pictorials, and Dear Elmer Batters, a column of letters from readers.The courts
were willing to accept the nudist creed and criterion of people engaging in healthy outdoor activities with their clothes off, but some nudist magazines were still playing it safe. As late as 1964,
Modern Sunbathing magazine was printing the following disclaimer on its indicia page: It is the
publishers policy to retouch pubic areas in photographs used in this magazine. This does not
imply approval by the American Sunbathing
Association. The Association prefers the truthful
portrayal of the nude body and will not grant that

Super-8 Filmmaker |
any part of it needs concealment or obliteration.
In deference to the public mores in some localities, however, the Association grants it Seal of
Approval to Modern Sunbathing despite this policy.
In the early 1960s Luros met Stanley L. Sohler,
a former American Sunbathing Association president, who talked him into publishing some of his
photos taken on nudist trips.The field had evolved
to the point where men and women could be
shown in the same photograph, and Sohler pushed
the matter further by showing couples smiling and
enjoying themselves without a volleyball in sight.
Luros at first found it easier, and cheaper, to get
photographs of amateur nudists than to pay professional photographers and models working in a studio. Sun Era Publishing (along with Parliament
News) sprang up solely to produce spurious nudist magazines, and was one of many companies
Luros established under the umbrella company

American Art Agency. All of Luross publishing

businesses were soon integrated,with in-house distribution and printing concerns, something even
Hefner was unable to accomplish. The various
companies were grossing $500,000 a year by the
mid-1960s, and Luros became the largest distributor of erotica on the west coast.
Traditional nudists were not happy to see the
Luros nudist magazines. Some organizations
banned Sun Era and Parliament News photographers from their camps.
It was only a matter of time before Luros got
the idea to stage nudist photo opportunities that
appeared to be the real thing, but were far from
it. This was full, un-airbrushed, frontal nudity
without apologies, and Jaybird, in all its permutations, appeared. (Note: Playboy did not print its
first photo of a womens un-airbrushed pubic
hair until 1971, soon after Penthouse began the

191

PG 190, Top to Bot SENSATION, 1942 ( respective copyright holder); ROD STERLINGS TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE,
Feb. 1986 ( TZ Publications); PG 190-191, Bot band, L to R FANTASTIC NOVELS, Apr. 1941, with Virgil Finlay cover
art ( respective copyright holder); FANTASY MAGAZINE, #1, Feb. 1953, with Hannes Bok cover art ( respective
copyright holder); CREEPY, #17, 1967, with Frank Frazetta cover art ( Warren Publications); MYSTERY ADVENTURE
MAGAZINE, Sept. 1936, with Norman Saunders cover art( Fiction Magazines).

practice.) The many Jaybird publications finally

killed traditional nudist magazines.
A spate of legal troubles convinced Luros to sell
out and retire in 1974. Milton Luross publishing
companies included Parliament News Co., Parliament Publications, Sun Era Publishing, American
Art Agency, Art Agency Magazine, London Press,
and representative soft-core magazines are Touch,
Jaguar, Cocktail, Candlelight, Pagan, Harem Holiday,
Snap, High Time, Nightcap, Tip Top, Nylon Jungle,
French Frills, Sun Era, Urban Nudist, Nudist Photo
Field Trips, Jaybird, Continental Nudist, Rhapsody,

Matinee,Tonight, Mood, Coquette, Showcase, Pussycat,

Champagne, Black Magic,The Body Shop,Affair, Spree,
and Trojan.LO [see Black Silk Stockings, Jaybird]

SUPER-8 FILMMAKER
Home Movies Amateur
Filmmakers Magazines
On August 12, 1923, the Alexander F. Victor
Company introduced their first 16mm movie

CULT ARTISTS 2

192 | Super-8 Filmmaker

camera and projector in full-page newspaper ads
with the headline: Make Your Own Motion
Picture. The Victor camera was the equivalent
of the Kodak best-selling Brownie snapshot
camera: simple and accessible.A few months later
Kodak introduced its own amateur 16mm movie
camera, the Cine-Kodak Model A. This was
another hand-cranked camera directed at the
home market. Before 1923, the French company
Path had introduced a camera using a 9mm
gauge film with a price tag low enough that any
enthusiast could afford to own it, but the main
problem for home use was the highly flammable
nitrate film stock available at the time. This was
the same film used for commercial movies.
Victor understood that film that needed special handling would not work in the home and
by convincing the Eastman Kodak Company to
adopt and manufacture a stable film (using acetate
as its base) which was safe for the home, he can
rightfully be called the father of amateur
films.
In 1928 Eastman Kodak introduced
Kodacolor film, in 1932 the 8mm format, in
1935 Kodachrome. Soon other movie camera
manufacturers appeared: Bell & Howell,
Bolex, Revere. In 1937, one could buy the
8mm Univex camera and projector together
for less than $25. By the early 1930s there was
a vogue for amateur films, and a small but
keen amateur film movement flourished.
Magazines soon appeared to cater to these
enthusiasts.
Amateur Movie Makers (1926-1954) was
the club organ of the Amateur Cinema
League in New York, and one of the first
periodicals out of the gate. In the beginning,
AMM was a showcase for experimental
movie-making and an advocate for leftist
amateur films, but grew more conservative
and Hollywood-oriented by the late 1930s.
By then, their main reporting had turned to
local amateur film clubs. Experimental Cinema
was published between 1931 and 1934 and
was heavily influenced by Soviet Russian

films, and avant-garde art movement.

Home Movies Magazine made its debut in
October 1934 as a hobby organ and soon became
the most popular magazine catering to amateur
moviemakers. They gave readers constructive
articles on the use of equipment, reviewed amateur films, and sponsored contests.Their directory of amateur movie clubs around the country
helped to get like-minded cineastes together in
the same way that science fiction magazines led
to the creation of a sf fandom. In August, 1935
the magazine began the popular Experimental
Cine Workshop column.
While other amateur movie magazines concentrated on capturing family moments and public occasions, Home Movies always presented information in terms of what Hollywood was doing
on the big screen.The goal was not to create family home movies as much as to create little

Super-8 Filmmaker |
entertainments that mimicked the big boys and
could engage and please an audience outside the
immediate family.The home movies HM advocated were expected to have titles, be properly lit
and edited, and even contain a sense of story.Their
motto was,Hollywoods Magazine for the Movie
Amateur. Charles J. Ver Halen published Home
Movies out of Los Angeles along with the companion magazine Hollywood Motion Picture Review.
During WWII Eastman Kodak was giving
priority to the army and navy defense industry,
and Home Movies introduced a new phase for the
home moviemaker with articles on home processing of film. In November, 1941 the winners
of their Annual Amateur Film contest were televised over the experimental television station
W6XAO to the handful of television sets in the
Los Angeles area.
After WWII, a school of American filmmak-

ers began creating short, personal films, using war

surplus 16mm cameras. These films were filled
with new ideas, points-of-view, and avant-garde
concepts, and helped to introduce post-war,
jaded audiences to a new way of movie making.
Filmmakers like Meren Deren, Stan Brakhage,
James Broughton, Kenneth Anger, Ed Emshwiller, and Stan Vanderbeck, using 16mm Bolex
cameras, generated the same irruptive force as
surrealists in Europe, before the war suspended
their work.Their little films, full of experimental
razzle-dazzle, went on to have an out-sized influence on TV, Hollywood, and world cinema. In
many cases, these self-taught filmmakers first
learned the nuts-and-bolts of filmmaking from
moviemaking magazines.
Today, the line between post-World War II
avant-garde and home movies is hard to find.
Filmmakers on both sides, accidentally or pur-

193

PG 192 THRILLING WONDER STORIES ( Standard Magazines); PG 192-193, Bot band, L to R SPICY ADVENTURE
STORIES; V2#4, 1935 ( Culture); HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE, June 1949 ( Hillman Publications); STRANGE
STORIES, #1, Nov. 1929 ( Macfadden Publications); UNCENSORED, #1, June 1953 ( Feature Story Corp.).

posely, embraced non-lineal structures, disjointed

juxtapositions in editing, trial-and-error,
serendipitous mistakes, and low budgets.The only
difference may be that one group was written up
in Film Culture, and the other group in Home
Movies. The early films of artist/filmmaker Ed
Emshwiller are a case in point.These were literally filmed as home movies. In fact, the only difference from a home movie is that Emshwillers
films were exhibited before art cinema audiences.
Hollywood has also come around full circle, with
the deliberately flawed mistakist cinema of
directors like Harmony Korine and Lars von
Trier. By the late 1960s, this amateur ethos had

become mainstream and even began to appear in

documentaries, television commercials, and
shows like Laugh-In, and eventually led to the
visual chaos of music videos.
The introduction of the expanded Super-8
format in 1965 coincided with the surging interest in personal, underground, experimental, and
new cinema, and found an eager new generation
of filmmakers (Spielberg, Spike Lee, and James
Cameron started out using Super-8 movie cameras). Super-8 Filmmaker ran from 1973 until
1982. It contained pieces on cel and stop-motion
animation, special effect modifications to cameras, set designs for filming, getting sound on film,

WHITE SLAVERY

194 | Super-8 Filmmaker

and creating 3-D film effects. Contributors
included Lenny Lipton and Dennis Duggan. In
its last year, it changed its name to Moving Images.
Today, Super-8 Filmmaker has achieved a legendary status among Hollywood tech-heads who
remember searching mailboxes or newsstands for
the latest issue when they were kids.The people
who put out Starlog Magazine published the special effects-oriented CineMagic in the early 1980s
as a guide to fantastic filmmaking. It is hard to
believe that there was an audience big enough for
this sort of publication, but CineMagic lasted many
years.LO [See Film Culture]

T
TALES FROM THE CRYPT
(Eerie Pubs.) see Lunatickle
TALES OF MAGIC
AND MYSTERY
A hybrid entry into the field of supposedly true
occult stories intermixed with weird fiction, Tales
of Magic and Mystery was a bedsheet-sized magazine published by the Personal Arts Company of
Camden, New Jersey, apparently in emulation of
Macfaddens Ghost Stories.
Years away from writing the adventures of
The Shadow,Walter B. Gibson edited the unusual
periodical. His assistant was DArcy Lyndon
Champion, also know as Jack DArcy, then years
away from ghosting the Shadow imitator known
as The Phantom Detective. Gibson outlined his
needs in a contemporary market notice:

We are in the market for short stories of from

1,000 to 3,500 words, touching upon the strange,
bizarre, and the unusual ghost stories, horror stories, etc.We also use articles on magic and miracles
of the past and present, as well as on spirits and
spiritism, etc. One of the regular features is a
department on Strange Personalities, and we
would like to receive brief articles of 200 to 300
words on such people, living or dead. If a photograph or drawing, showing only the head of such
a person can be supplied, so much the better. As
editor, Gibson used the magazine to foster his lifelong interest in stage magic and illusion, and incidentally recycle newspaper syndicate material he
was simultaneously producing on the subject. He
was close to some of the major magical talents of
the 1920s, such as Howard Thurston and Joe
Dunninger, and employed the new periodical as a
platform to promote them to the public.
I ghost-wrote a series for Thurston on some
of his adventures, Gibson recalled.I had a series
of articles on Houdini. I wrote under half a dozen
different names. We had some interesting stories
that we picked up from various sources, including
one by Lovecraft. We also had a section devoted
to simple tricks, magic, and so forth.
Gibson penned most of the latter anonymously. Among his bylines were Alfred Maurice,
Bernard Perry, and Astro. As Howard
Thurston, in each issue Gibson told a fanciful
autobiographical story about the famous magicians adventures in such hotbeds of mysticism as
exotic India or among the headhunters of Java.
Otherwise the fiction was typical supernatural
period fare as titles like The Devils Darling
and The Haunts of Ghosts attest.The Lovecraft
tale was Cool Air. Other contributors included
Miriam Allen De Ford, Frank Owen, and Charlton Lawrence Edholm. Peter Chances eerie The
Black Pagoda ran as a three-part serial. Robert

PG 194, L to R WHISPER, Mar. 1951 ( Whisper, Inc); SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, #1 (Blue Ribbon); Bot WHISPER, May 1950, interior spread ( Whisper. Inc); PG 195, Top to Bot TRUE ADVENTURES, Nov 1955, interior page
( New Pubs); JET, Sept. 25, 1952 ( Johnson Publications).

Terror Tales |
Leslie Bellems The Flowers of Enchantmentwas
another standout story. Bellem recounted composing it while in the thrall of a new minor chord he
discovered while plucking on his banjo one day:
Then I quit and just sat there, letting my
innards quiver in tune to that funny minor chord,
that throbbing, elusive sound.Then I deliberately
put the banjo down, went to the type machine,
loaded it with paper, and banged out as weird and
mysterious a yarn as youll want to read. All the
time I was writing, shivers were chasing up and
down the old pile of vertebrae and you could have
hung your hat on any given one of my goose
pimples. Meanwhile, somewhere in my minds ear
was that damned, elusive chord. Believe it or not,
when I finished The Flowers of Enchantment, it
was letter-perfect in its first draft.
Covers and interior art appear to be the work
of Erle Bergey, aping the pen-and-ink Art Nouveau style of Aubrey Beardsley.
Premiering in December, 1927, Tales of Magic
& Mystery ran only five issues, ending with the
April, 1928 number.The limitations of its editorial vision might be demonstrated by the fact that
the first issue carried a variation of W.W. Jacobs
The Monkeys Paw, titled The Adventure of
the Mummys Hand and the final featured The
Lure of the Shriveled Hand.Yet the magazines
collapse led directly to a new incarnation from
another publisher, True Strange Stories.WM [see
Ghost Stories,True Strange Stories]

TALES OF THE KILLERS

see Myron Fass
TAN CONFESSIONS
Black publications
In 1931 Oriental Stories published a painted cover
showing a typical dark skinned Javanese woman
with her breast exposed. This was not the first
time that mass market, non- spicy or snappy

type, newsstand fiction magazine had done so.

During the Great Depression, when it came to
women of color there appeared to be no restrictions on the amount of nudity allowable and Liberty, Ballyhoo, Cosmopolitan, and many other frontof-the-newsstand publications were wont to show
dark skinned women in all sorts of undressed
states without any real compunction.Yet no masscirculation, openly displayed American magazine
would dare to show a white womans breast completely bare on its cover. It was as if there was a different physiognomy involved between a white
and a dark breast.
All of the mass-market publications mentioned previously were mostly marketed and
bought by white readers. It is hard to imagine
American blacks buying fiction magazines that
generally excluded them, but surely some did purchase copies of Oriental Stories, or Liberty, or Ballyhoo. But it was not until 1945 that the first real
exploitative magazine directed at African Americans appeared, published by 27-year-old John H.
Johnson out of Chicago. This was Ebony, and it
flourished at first on a spicy blend of sex and sensationalism. Ebony was the first black magazine to
use a full color cover.The March 1946 issue featured Lena Horne.
In the early 1950s Johnson added the digests
Jet, Tan Confessions, and Hue to his magazine stable.
By the mid 1950s Johnsons magazines began taking serious note of the civil right struggles going
on around them.The September 8, 1955 issue of
Jet ran a picture of the battered body of Emmett
Till, the black teenager who was lynched in Mississippi for supposedly whistling at a white
woman. The open-casket photo allowed the
nation to see the brutality and injustice happening
in the Deep South and helped to galvanize the
civil rights movement.
Ebonys main competitor was Bronze Thrills,
from Good Publishing Company in Fort Worth,
Texas, which started as a tabloid the same year as
Ebony. George Levitan, who would go on to publish Hep, Jive, and Sepia, owned Good Publishing.
Hep and Sepia were the most sensational of this

bunch, and featured stories ran the gamut from

serious issues facing negros to typical exploitation:I Hate You by Archie Moore,Harry Belafonte:Why Does He Excite White Women.
By 1957 some of the best magazines imitating
Playboy included Nugget, Rogue,Adam, Cabaret, and
Caper. In that year Duke join the pack. Duke was
aimed at African American men and got off to a
fast start with stories by Chester Hines, Ray Bradbury, and James Baldwin. The magazine used a
strange bronze colored male manikin as a cover
mascot. It appears that advertisers did not feel that
African American men were affluent enough and
without major advertising support the magazine
only lasted six issues.LO

TERROR TALES
Weird-Menace Pulps
Dime Mystery, Terror Tales, and Horror Stories were
collectively, at the heart or more appropriately,
bowels of the fad for weird-menace stories that
flourished in a number of pulps in the mid-tolate-1930s.The stories all followed a similar pattern: The lead characters are menaced by some
strange agency and are inevitably captured, tortured, or threatened in some other sadistic way,
and may survive, but not always.The menace may
seem to be supernatural, but invariably the solution is discovered to be by human hand. Sadism
was central to the plot and was the image projected on the magazine covers.
The stories may claim a direct descent from
the original gothic novels, especially the more
grotesque ones by Matthew Gregory, Monk
Lewis, or Lorenz Flammenberg, and their natural
offspring, the penny dreadful. Thomas Peckett
Prests The String of Pearls (1846), which introduced the demon barber, Sweeney Todd, would
have been well at home in the weird-menace
pulps.Their more direct inspiration, though, was
the Grand Guignol Theater in Paris where there
were scenes of simulated torture and murder.

195

196 | Terror Tales

Henry Steeger, who had just established his own
publishing house, Popular Publications, in 1930,
believed this was an area to explore, maybe even
exploit.
Among Steegers early pulps were Detective
Action (begun in October 1930) and Dime Detective (begun in November 1931).The latter would
become one of the companys most profitable
titles as one of the major purveyors of hard-boiled
fiction, rivaling Black Mask at its best.To complement Dime Detective, Steeger launched Dime Mystery in December, 1932, but its initial format of a
long lead mystery novel presented as a $2
book for a dime and a handful of short stories failed to find a market, since it offered nothing new. So Steeger and his right-hand-man, editor Rogers Terrill, looked to the Grand Guignol
Theatre and decided to change the content from
traditional mystery to the story of terror. Terrill
defined terror as that bowel-clenching feeling
you have when you are sure something awful is
about to happen to you, as distinct from horror,
which is the feeling you have when you witness
something awful happening to a third party.
Steeger and Terrill wanted the readers to feel both
the horror of what they were witnessing and the
terror of experiencing it, plus, of course, the mystery of trying to understand what was happening.
This change took effect with the October,
1933 issue. The cover illustration, by Walter
Baumhofer, set the trend for what would follow.
A man is strung up over a pit of liquid in which
are already decomposed human skeletons, and a
cloaked and masked figure is about to cut the
rope while a woman struggles to stop him. It
illustrated Dance of the Skeletons by Norvell
Page, and tells of people who are mysteriously
disappearing only to appear as skeletons, disposed
of on the streets within a few hours.Also present
in that issue were John H. Knox, Hugh B. Cave,
and Robert C. Blackmon, all of whom would

become regulars in the weird-menace pulps, to

be joined by Wayne Rogers in the November
issue and Wyatt Blassingame in December. The
titles of their stories give a good idea of what
Steeger wanted their readers to anticipate: The
Graveless Dead, The Death Beast, and They
Feed at Midnight. Here are stories that suggest a
non-human evil maybe vampires or zombies
and the stories lure the reader along such paths
until the rather more mundane denouement.
The turnabout in Dime Mysterys sales was
almost instant. The prospect of vile horrors and
sadistic killers clearly attracted a significant readership. Sales were so promising that Steeger put out
two companion magazines, Terror Tales, dated September, 1934, and Horror Stories ,dated January,
1935.These were priced at fifteen cents compared
to Dime Mysterys ten cents, but all three magazines
offered 128 standard pulp pages with little difference in the fiction. The magazines were initially
monthly, though Horror Stories went bi-monthly
from the start of 1936, as did Terror Tales that summer, the two magazines thereafter alternating,
operating to all intents as one monthly periodical.
With three magazines to fill, the number of
regular contributors increased.Arthur Leo Zagat,
Arthur J. Burks, Bruno Fischer (writing as Russell Gray), and Henry Treat Sperry all became part
of the line-up.All of the regulars churned out formula fiction as required and there is not much
distinction between them. Hugh Caves work was
perhaps the most sinister with a strong atmosphere of doom. Burks was known for spinning
stories from almost any simple idea, so his stories
can be the most inventive. Zagat embellished the
atmosphere to almost Lovecraftian proportions
and liked to heighten the terror by telling stories
from the heroines perspective.Wyatt Blassingame
enjoyed the unusual. He was one of the few to
appear with a genuine supernatural story, The
Horror at His Heels (Horror Stories,August/Sep-

PG 196 ORIENTAL STORIES ( Popular Fiction Com.); PG 197, Top to Bot YOUNGS REALISTIC
STORIES, May 1941 ( Realistic Stories); DUKE, Nov. 1957 ( respective copyright holder).

Terror Tales |
tember 1936). John H. Knox and Wayne Rogers
were the ones who used more sadistic scenes,
emphasizing the gore over the mystery. All could
concoct an effective title which occasionally rose
above the formulaic to such poetry as Master of
the Purple Plague, The Art That is Learned in
Hell,The Hunger Without a Name, or Kiss of
the Flame Blossom, by Donald Dale. But most
titles followed a set formula such as Brides for
the Damned,Death is my Servant,Satans Virgin, or Blood for the Cavern Dwellers.
From its second issue, Terror Tales introduced
the cover art of John Newton Howitt. He had
been an illustrator for the leading slicks, including
Saturday Evening Post and The Delineator, and the
pulps were a step down for him, occasioned by
the pressure of the Depression. Nevertheless he
applied himself as meticulously to the pulps as to
any of his other work, even though he held them
in disdain.The irony today is that the rest of his
work, including his landscape paintings, are mostly forgotten, but his pulp art makes those magazines highly collectable.
Howitts early terror covers emphasized the
supernatural.The October, 1934 Terror Tales depicts
a giant cloaked skeleton clutching a woman in
obvious distress. The December, 1934 issue has a
satanic figure appearing from flames to douse its
female victim in some molten liquid.The January,
1935 cover has a woman struggling across what
appears to be a lake of blood from which hands are
trying to pull her down, whilst another cloaked
skeleton follows her in a boat. These scenes had
nothing to do with the stories. Perhaps concerned
that they might mislead readers expecting a more
violent form of Weird Tales, the covers soon
changed to depict heroines facing more mortal
and somehow more frightening foes.
Howett and his fellow artists which included
Rudolph Zirn,John Drew,Tom Lovell,and Jerome
Rozen depicted mad scientists, crazed doctors,
drooling imbeciles, ape-men, hunchbacks, and any
number of cloaked sadists. Increasingly, as the covers grew bolder, women were branded, thrown
into vats of acid or burning cauldrons, trapped in

glass domes, electrocuted or chopped by rotating

blades.Women were seldom depicted totally nude
there was usually some discreet clothing or wisp
of hair to hide their modesty though on a few
occasions the publisher pushed the limits. Howitts
cover for the August,1937 Horror Stories shows several totally nude women encased in blocks of ice,
one in stark close-up.
There were some surprise contributors to the
weird-menace pulps. Dime Mystery published the
first professional short story by John Dickson Carr
(or Dixon as they insisted on calling him),The
Man Who Was Dead (May 1935). Carr already
had a reputation for his novels, so his name was a
selling factor for the magazines. Unusually the
story had a supernatural element. A man, who
reads of his death in a newspaper, believes he may
have become detached from reality, but though his
situation is resolved, he still feels he is being pursued by something unreal.The Door to Doom
(Horror Stories, June 1935) was more in the style of
the Grand Guignol, which fascinated Carr. However, after these two stories a contractual problem
arose that soured relationships between Carr and
Popular and apart from a story in Detective Tales, he
sold nothing more to them.
Cornell Woolrich, who had found a welcome
market in Dime Detective, sold two stories to Dime
Mystery, both of which are considered classics.
Dark Melody of Madness (July 1935), better
known as Papa Benjamin, and Graves for the
Living (June 1937) are powerful suspense stories
where the protagonist has fallen foul of a religious
cult and fears death at any moment. Dime Mystery
was an ideal market for Woolrichs noir stories
but, alas, he was selling readily elsewhere and
when he returned to the weird-menace market
for a third time it was with a dismal flop, Vampires Honeymoon (Horror Stories, August/September 1939), the title of which tells you all you
need to know.
Belgian writer Raymond de Kremer, better
known under his alias Jean Ray, appeared in
translation, with three stories under the name
John Flanders, starting with the mundanely enti-

tled A Night in Camberwell (Terror Tales, September 1934). His most intriguing story was If
Thy Right Hand Offend Thee (Terror Tales,
November 1934) where a jeweler, who traps a
thief in his shuttering but severs the hand, finds
himself in a bizarre cycle of events.
Dime Mystery also ran a translation of a story by
the Austrian fantasist Karl Hans Strobl, Dead
Womans Lodger (December 1935). From 1919
to 1921, Strobl had edited one of the worlds first
magazines of fantasy and surreal fiction, Der
Orchideengarten,and published several collections of
strange tales. Strobl allied himself with the Nazi
cause and his work fell out of favor.Very little was
translated, so his appearance here is unusual.
These, and a few other one-off contributions
by Frank Gruber, William G. Bogart, John
Hawkins,Thorp McClusky, and the like, though
they were the exception rather than the rule, did
at least show that the weird-menace pulps were
open to submissions from beyond their small circle of contributors. Unfortunately, the diversity
was not sufficient.There are only so many variations on a restrictive formula that even the most
enterprising of writers can manipulate, and after
six years of reasonable success it became evident
that the gimmick was tiring, along with the
authors and the readers. Terror Tales ceased in
March, 1941 after 51 issues and Horror Stories in
April, 1941 after 41 issues, and already for the last
year or two the stories had dumbed down. Dime
Mystery, which had also been moving away from
the weird-menace story, became bi-monthly
from May, 1941 on, and the menace covers ceased
by September, 1941. It continued for another
nine years as a fairly traditional mystery magazine,
folding in October, 1950, the last six issues retitled
15 Mystery Stories.
The brief but meteoric popularity of Dime
Mystery and its companions had inevitably seen
rival publications such as Thrilling Mystery from
Standard Magazines and Uncanny Tales from Marvels publisher, Martin Goodman, but none of
these delivered the goods or packaged them as
well as Steegers outfit. Dime Mystery, Horror Sto-

197

198 | Terror Tales

ries, and especially Terror Tales provided, to adopt
the title of one of Zagats stories, the true Revels for the Lusting Dead.MA

TIGER BEAT
Originated in 1965 by Hollywood deejay Lloyd
Thaxton, Tiger Beat quickly became a flashy, pop
teenage magazine hit in imitation of 16 magazine.
Thaxtons image appeared on early issues. The
magazine gave the new The Monkees tv series continuous coverage after signing an excusive merchandising deal with the shows producers, and
also produced various one-shot of the manufactured rock group.The magazine was positioned to
take advantage of tv teen acts, like The Partidge
Family and The Osmonds, just down the road.
Tiger Beat was generally filled with fluff material
about popular music and teen idols, written for a
young audience. JH

TITTER
see Confidential, Whisper
TRUE CONFESSIONS
see Captain Billys Whiz Bang
TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES,
TRUE EXPERIENCES,
TRUE LOVE STORIES
see Physical Culture
TRUE STRANGE STORIES
Bernarr Macfaddens True Strange Stories came
about as a direct consequence of the collapse of
its predecessor, Tales of Magic and Mystery, which
had been edited by Walter B. Gibson, later to create The Shadow.
So when [Tales of Magic and Mystery] folded,

he recounted, I went up to [Editor in Chief]

Fulton Oursler and said,Why doesnt Macfadden
start a magazine like this? And he said it didnt
seem the right title for them. But I said,Yes, but
look at our subtitle Strange Stories. So we
started a magazine called Strange Stories. That was
the inspiration.
Ourlser thought that the new venture should
not present itself as a fiction magazine, as had Tales
of Magic and Mystery. Thus it became True Strange
Stories, a companion title to their popular supernatural confession magazine, Ghost Stories. Like
Macfaddens other titles, True Strange was a
rotogravure magazine illustrated by file photographs and dramatized scenes, created in a photographic studio using actors posing as the participants in the alleged events.
Commuting from Philadelphia, Gibson
helped Oursler assemble the first issue. That
accomplished, editorial responsibilities were
turned over to Ray Wilson, freeing Gibson up to
write for the new venture.
Prompted by a witchcraft scare in Pennsylvania Dutch country,Wilson asked Gibson to write
a story reflecting the headlines.Why I am Called
a Witch was set in type as the May, 1929 cover
story the same day Gibson submitted it. It was the
soon-to-be-prolific novelists first fiction sale.The
byline ran by Madeline Grover as told to Walter
B. Gibson. He followed it with Three Times in
the Shadow of the Gallows, by Major Robert
Brannon and At the Foot of the Gallows under
his solo byline.
Macfaddens True Stories were supposedly
true, Gibson admitted.You could develop them
as you saw fitand many of them were true only
in the sense that they could have happened and
probably had happened.
True Stranges contents were broadly defined.
Gibson penned Death Valley Scottys Dash to
Fame, covering the life and times of Walter Scott,

a promoter who lived in a palatial castle in Death

Valley, supposedly supported by the proceeds of a
gold mine guarded by Shoshone Indians. H.G.
Wellss account of a clairvoyant,The Remarkable
Case of Davidsons Eyes,is reprinted as The Man
who Saw Half-Way Around the World.The Boy
Who Dropped out of the Sky recounted the ofttold saga of the enigmatic Kaspar Hauser.
There were revelations of contemporary
silent film and stage stars, and other notables of
that era. The Mad Mystic and the American
Beauty (as told by Alice Gregory Stafford to
Franklin Holt) was a semi-fictionalized serial of
Rasputins final days.Another serial,Love Defies
the Grave (by Edmund Earl Wilson, M.D., as
told to C.C. Waddell), told of a medical student
becoming smitten with the lovely corpse he was
assigned to dissect.A fantasy entitled The Bleeding Mummy was the work of F.M. Pettee. (Not
every story adhered to the standard confessionstyle X as told to Y dual byline.)
Other contributors included Leslie MacFarlane, George Witherspoon, Howard Booth, Mildred Morris, and Stuart Palmer. Regular features
included The Story that Saved my Life,Strange
Facts from Life, and a monthly astrology column
by Stella. Editorials carried the signature Webster Scoville. Painted covers were the work of
Hubert Rogers, N.F. Soare, and numerous others.
With articles like He Thought He Killed
Lincoln,The Man who Fooled Barnum,The
Machine that Rocked the World, and Was it a
Man or Only a Head? True Strange Stories was a
clear forerunner of The National Enquirer by way
of The Police Gazette.
True Strange Stories ran only nine issues, from
March to November, 1929, under the True
Strange Stories Publishing Co. imprint of Macfadden.The stock market crash of October, 1929,
led to its abrupt demise.WM [see also Ghost
Stories,Tales of Magic and Mystery]

PG 198, Top to Bot WILDCAT ADVENTURES, 1962 ( Candar); SIR!, Nov. 1954 ( Volitant Publishing); PG 199
SEA MONSTERS, vol. 2, #1, 1978 ( Countrywide).

Unknown |

U, V
UNCANNY TALES
see Humorama
UNCENSORED DETECTIVE,
Hillman Periodicals
In 1938, Alex L. Hillman (1900-1968) started
Hillman Periodicals in response to Macfadden
and Fawcetts success in the true confessions
and true crime field. Hillman was soon competing, magazine-for-magazine, against the dominant players in the business with titles such as Real
Story, Real Confessions, Real Romances, and Crime
Confessions (1938).The latter was the first of many
lowbrow Hillman detective titles: Crime Detective,
Headquarters Detective (1940), Uncensored Detective,
and Real Detective.
At the end of 1944, Hillman Periodicals killed
some of their marginal magazines mostly
comic books and use their wartime paper
allotment to start Pageant, a new 25-cent slickpaper, pocket-sized magazine. Hillman hoped to
capture some of Readers Digest audience and
prestige with his new offering. Pageant did not
quite reach the sales level of Readers Digest, losing
nearly half a million dollars in its first three year,
yet it survived until 1977 (being sold to Macfadden in 1961).
Fawcett was moving in the opposite direction
from Hillman with their expanded comic book
line and realized immense profits from various
Captain Marvel titles during the 1940s. Hillmans
comic books, in contrast, always fell short with
character like Skyboy and the Heap. Both publishers left the comic book field in the mid1950s: Fawcett after a long court battle with the

199

publisher of Superman over character infringement, and Hillman over poor sales.
Hillman magazines matched their comic
books with rather lackluster interiors wrapped in
eye-catching covers. Headquarters Detective and
Crime Confessions were among their sleaziest and
longest-running titles. As a magazine publisher,
Hillman always followed trends; when science
fiction became hot in the early 1950s, they
brought out Worlds Beyond, edited by Damon
Knight. Carnival, Exclusive, and People Today
(1954) were primarily photo magazines that carried many pin-ups and somewhat interchangeable articles, i.e., Earnings of Five prostitutes.
They also put out a few oddball items such as
Who Goofed? (1956), which was a humor magazine mostly made up of photos of famous people
manipulated to look ridiculous. A lame concept,
but the pictures showed talent by the (pre-Photoshop) photo manipulators.LO

UNKNOWN
Unknown (retitled Unknown Worlds in October
1941) was the pulp companion to Astounding Science Fiction, and was also edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. Although it ran for only 39 issues, from
March, 1939 to October, 1943, it is still regarded
as the premiere all-fantasy magazine.
Since Campbell had taken over as editor of
Astounding at the end of 1937, he had worked
hard to rid that magazine of any remaining spaceopera excesses that had given science fiction such
a bad image over the previous decade, and to
introduce a more mature form of the genre,
which he did with remarkable success. Astounding
had occasionally published fantasies of the more
imaginative kind and though Campbell could
find no place for them in his new approach to a
science fiction magazine, he did not want to
reject them out of hand. Stories such as L. Ron
Hubbards The Dangerous Dimension, which
had appeared in the July, 1938, Astounding, had
proven popular with readers and Campbell

200 | Unknown
PG 200 UNCANNY TALES, 193 ( Red Circle); PG 201, Bot band, L to R SPACE SCIENCE FICTION,
Aug. 1953 ( respective copyright holder); FLYING SAUCERS FROM OTHER WORLDS, June 1957 ( Palmer Publications); SIR!, Feb. 1955 ( respective copyright holder).

believed there was scope for a companion fantasy magazine. This belief was apparently boosted,
according to legend, when he received Eric
Frank Russells novel,Sinister Barrier. Based on
Charles Forts idea that humans were cattle, protected by aliens, the story has a science fiction setting, but is not bolstered by a scientific rationale.
Campbells plans for the magazine had certainly become firm by late October, 1938, when
he wrote to Robert Swisher, informing him that
he was starting a new fantasy magazine. He
added: The material is to be fantasy plus a little
weird, supernatural, and horror of the psychology
type. NO sex, NO sadism, and NO elementals of
a malignant nature with penchants for vivisection, no beauteous and necessarily nude maidens
sacrificed to obscene gods.
Campbells restrictions were clearly aimed at
the weird-menace pulps, such as Terror Tales and
Horror Stories, but also at Weird Tales. Campbell did
not want the antiquated form of weird tale that
had grown out of the tradition of Edgar Allan
Poe, or the gothic tale. Nor did he simply want
further re-treads of the work of H.P. Lovecraft.
He was immensely liked by the small clique
that read Weird regularly, he wrote to Jack
Williamson on January 6, 1939, but added,It still
wasnt good writing.
Campbell had contacted many writers whom
he believed could write for Unknown or Strange
Worlds, as he was originally going to call it
including L. Ron Hubbard, L. Sprague de Camp,
Edmond Hamilton, Clark Ashton Smith, C.L.
Moore, Seabury Quinn, and Lester del Rey,
though his guidelines at this stage were unhelpful, since he tended to emphasize what he did not
want to publish rather than what he did. It was
going to be a case of suck it and see. Inevitably,
this led to problems, because in putting the first
issue together, Campbell primarily had material

that was more science fiction-oriented, but not

sufficient for Astounding. So when Unknown
appeared in February, 1939 (first issue dated
March), readers were not entirely clear where the
magazine was going. Sinister Barrier was a
wonderful novel, but it was close enough to the
material that had appeared in Astounding to make
Unknown look more like a bolt-hole for rejects.
The very best story in the first issue was
Trouble with Water, by H.L. Gold, where a man
inadvertently annoys a water gnome and is cursed
so that all water avoids him, which begins to ruin
his life.The magazines letter column shows that
readers were uncertain about this story at first,
even though today it is regarded as the definitive
Unknown-style yarn. It had all the ingredients that
Campbell was looking for: a light humorous
touch, but with a serious consideration of the
fantastic problem that had arisen, but at the time
it looked out of place against the other contents.
For Astounding, Campbell had encouraged his
writers to pursue a scientific premise to a logical
conclusion, and he wanted them to do the same
with fantasy. He did not want his authors to
explain how magic worked, but simply to accept it
and explore the consequences. In effect, he wanted fairy tales for adults, but without the moralistic
or didactic undertones. He wanted stories where
the writer could let loose and the reader could
have fun with an idea even if it was sinister. A
good example of the latter was Strange Gateway,
by E. Hoffmann Price in the second issue (April
1939), where a man witnesses a murder but later
discovers that the victim was dead long before.
To some extent fantasies like this were already
appearing in the slick magazines, such as Saturday
Evening Post and Esquire, especially the works of
John Collier,Thorne Smith, and Stephen Vincent
Benet, but the slick market would not support a
magazine of total fantasy and these writers were

Unknown |
unlikely to contribute to a pulp market. So
Campbell had to find his own writers, just as he
had when he revamped Astounding. Thankfully, a
number of contributors quickly realized what
Campbell wanted and he soon had a stable of regular writers. Not surprisingly, many were Astounding authors, including L. Sprague de Camp, L. Ron
Hubbard, Cleve Cartmill, Lester del Rey, Malcolm
Jameson, Henry Kuttner, and Theodore Sturgeon.
It may be the freedom that the magazine
allowed, compared to the scientific regimen of
Astounding, but for many of these writers Unknown
published some of their best work.This is especially true of L. Ron Hubbard. Elsewhere the majority of Hubbards work was little above hack level,
but in Unknown his ability to create an enjoyable
fantasy adventure shone through. He cornered the
market for light tales set in the world of the Arabian Nights with his first contribution,The Ulti-

mate Adventure (April 1939), followed by Slaves

of Sleep (July 1939), and The Case of the
Friendly Corpse (August 1941).The latter might
also be of interest to fans of Terry Pratchetts Discworld and J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter books, as it
is set in the College of Unholy Names where
wizards learn their craft. Hubbards masterpiece is
generally considered to be Fear (July 1940), a
nightmarish psychological novel about a man
who seems to have lost four hours from his life
and, as he tries to piece them together, finds himself beset by personal demons. Its a wonderful
evocation of guilt and terror. But an almost equal
masterpiece is Typewriter in the Sky (November-December 1940), one of Unknowns occasional serials, which flips the central idea of Fear on its
head. Horace, a hack writer, is trying to write a
novel into which his roommate, Mike, is projected. Mike finds himself at Horaces mercy, because

Horace is such a hack writer that Mike is constantly propelled into stock dangerous situations
and he has to devise a way to outwit the author.
All of these stories were novels or serials and
Unknowns main selling point was its emphasis on
longer works.The other main contributor of these
was L. Sprague de Camp. In collaboration with
Fletcher Pratt, he created the character of Harold
Shea, who finds he can access alternate worlds
based on mythology by imagining the logic of
that world. In the first, The Roaring Trumpet
(May 1940), he travels to the world of the Norse
myths; in The Mathematics of Magic (August
1940), its the world of Spensers Faerie Queen;
while in The Castle of Iron (April 1941), its
Coleridges Kubla Khan. There was also a nonShea novel, The Land of Unreason (October
1941), set in the world of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream. The fun of these stories isnt

201

simply the recreation of a literary world, but in

seeing how the authors explore the basis of that
world, making it as real as our own.The authors
were effectively applying Campbells science fiction principles to fantasy, and the result was compelling. De Camp wrote several other lead novels
and stories, a few of which, such as Lest Darkness
Fall (December 1939), and The Wheels of If
(October 1940), are equally enjoyable, but are too
emphatic of their science, and thus less representative of Unknown-style fantasy. In contrast, the
Harold Shea stories remained popular, and are still
remembered as among the authors best work.
One author not usually associated with fantasy, despite a few sales to Weird Tales and Strange
Tales, was Jack Williamson, yet he was to appear in
Unknown with one of its most powerful novels,
Darker Than You Think (December 1940).
Williamson had arguably produced the ideal syn-

FLYING SAUCERS

202 | Unknown
thesis of fantasy and science fiction, creating a scientific premise for the basis of lycanthropy, allowing him to explore the darker side of the human
psyche. Others may argue that the ideal synthesis
was Robert A. Heinleins novel The Devil
Makes the Law! (September 1940), also known
by its book title, Magic, Inc., where he created a
world in which magic works as if it were a science, with its own laws and bureaucracy. Heinlein
was, to many, a less likely fantasist than
Williamson, but to prove it was no flash in the
pan, he struck gold twice more, with the short
story They (April 1941), which questions
whether our world is real or an illusion, and the
short novel The Unpleasant Profession of
Jonathan Hoag (October 1942), which also
looks at our world from the outside.
Although the powerful lead novels were the
backbone of Unknown, the short stories acted like
the senses, allowing the reader a wide and diverse
experience of the worlds of fantasy. It was here
that several writers shone, none brighter than
Theodore Sturgeon. He had sixteen stories in
Unknown, starting with A God in a Garden
(October 1939), where a chronic liar discovers a
god who grants that everything the liar says will
be true, causing him to watch his words very
carefully.Although his classic is usually regarded as
the slime-monster story It (August 1940), it
should not overshadow the delights of Shottle
Bop (February 1941), about a shop that sells
magic in bottles where the instructions must be
followed precisely and Yesterday Was Monday
(June 1941), where the protagonist somehow slips
out of reality and witnesses the scene-shifters
who create each new day.
Henry Kuttner, who previously had shown
himself as either a Lovecraft-clone in Weird Tales
or a sleaze hack in Marvel Science Stories, suddenly
revealed his abilities as fantasys jester Unknowns
Thorne Smith. His nine stories take simple ideas
and twist them into pantomime. Perhaps the best
was A Gnome There Was (October 1941),
where an attempt to organize a gnome trade
union goes horribly wrong, but other favorites

include The Misguided Halo (August 1939),

where sainthood proves a problem, and Design
for Dreaming (February 1942), where we are
transported to the land where dreams are created.
Of the authors who debuted in Unknown, the
greatest was Fritz Leiber. Campbell had vowed he
would not publish any Conan-like heroic fantasy,
but he could not resist the unlikely companions
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, one a barbarian and
the other a quick-fingered, nimble rogue. These
were not at all Conanesque, but were vulnerable,
human, and above all, believable. Two Sought
Adventure (August 1939), introduced the pair,
who would appear in four more stories in
Unknown, and continue to entertain for the next
50 years, being the longest running and most popular series that the magazine generated. Leiber was
to prove he could do more than outshine Robert
E. Howard. In Smoke Ghost (October 1941), he
created a new form of city ghost, updating M.R.
James, while in the novel Conjure Wife (April
1943), he updated Abraham Merritt and codified
witchcraft as a natural branch of science.
The sheer volume of good to excellent stories
in Unknown is overwhelming. Campbell had
clearly created a market authors loved and which
unlocked their creative powers. Almost every
author who contributed more than just one or
two stories produced at least one of their best
works. With Take My Drum to England
(August 1941), Nelson Bond sought to do for the
Second World War what Arthur Machen had with
The Bowmen in the First World War, and has
Sir Francis Drakes warship assist in the evacuation
of Dunkirk. In Snulbug (October 1941),Anthony Boucher spoofs the whole wish-granting
demon genre and then takes it a step further in
Sriberdegibit (June 1943), where the protagonist actually outwits the demon. In Etaoin Shrdlu (February 1942), Fredric Brown has a printing
machine develop intelligence from the books it

prints. Cleve Cartmills short novel Hell Hath

Fury (August 1943), prefigures The Omen with
the offspring of a human and demon created to
bring misery to the Earth, but Cartmill has the
child develop a conscience so that it strives to correct all the problems it has created. In Hereafter,
Inc. (December 1941), Lester del Rey shows how
heaven would be hell for a true ascetic. In Doubled and Redoubled (February 1941), Malcolm
Jameson established the idea (now known as
groundhog day after the 1993 movie) of a man
constantly reliving the same day over and over
again and trying to change it. Freed from the
expectations of his Weird Tales readers, Frank Belknap Long came out from under the shadow of
H.P. Lovecraft to produce some of his best work,
including The Elemental (July 1939), a tale of
two forms of possession, and the genuinely frightening Grab Bags are Dangerous (June 1942).
The Idol of the Flies (June 1942), which shows
how an evil child receives his due punishment, is
generally regarded as the best of ten superior stories that Jane Rice contributed. A.E. van Vogt
wrote one of his most complex novels in The
Book of Ptath (October 1943), which deals with
a god-like ruler of the distant future gradually
rediscovering his identity and trying to regain his
power. In When it was Moonlight (February
1940), Manly Wade Wellman revisits the life of
Edgar Allan Poe, with an experience that might
have inspired one of his best-known stories.
For a magazine that published less than 250
stories, it is an impressive hit rate and, not surprisingly, it has been constantly mined for anthologies.There are at least five anthologies composed
entirely of stories from Unknown: Hell Hath Fury
(1963), edited by George Hay; The Unknown
(1963) and The Unknown Five (1964), both edited by D.R. Bensen; Unknown (1988), edited by
Stanley Schmidt; and Unknown Worlds (1988); by
Schmidt with Martin H. Greenberg.

PG 202 SPICY-ADVENTURE STORIES, Feb. 1937 ( respective copyright holder); WORLD WAR 3, #19, 1993 ( World
War 3); PG 203 SUSPENSE, spring 1951 ( Farell Publishing.

Weider Magazines |
What the anthologies lack, though, is
Unknowns artwork. For its first sixteen issues,
Unknown bore cover art by H.W. Scott, Graves
Gladney, Manuel Isip, and other pulp artists, but
from July 1940 on, cover art was discontinued
and replaced by only a list of contents. This has
perhaps marred part of Unknowns value, but it
was more than compensated for by the contributions of one particular artist whose work was tailor-made for the magazine, namely Edd Cartier.
His ability to create mischievous imps and sinister
ghouls in his simple but effective line drawings
helped create the atmosphere of enjoyment and
escapism that Campbell wanted, but even more
so, brought the stories and characters alive. It is
impossible to separate the memory of Unknown
from the imagery of Cartier.
In addition to losing its cover art, the magazine went through several changes. The title was
changed to Unknown Fantasy Fiction in February,
1940, to avoid any misapprehension that the magazine dealt with psychic and occult matters. It
changed again to Unknown Worlds in October,
1941, partly returning to Campbells original proposed title of Strange Worlds. These changes also
sought to boost sales that were not on a par with
Astounding. Signs that all was not well continued
when Unknown dropped to a bi-monthly schedule in January, 1941 (cover date February). From
October, 1941, along with the title change, the
magazine format changed from standard pulp to
large flat pulp, sometimes called erroneously bedsheet size.This was not a cost-cutting move, but
rather intended to capture a wider market. The
leading slick magazines were all now in the large
flat format, and Street and Smith had entered that
market with Mademoiselle in 1935, which, by
1940, was the firms top-selling magazine. The
publisher wanted to switch all its magazines to the
larger format, a trend that was also being explored
by the leading mens adventure magazines Argosy
(in January 1941) and Blue Book (in September
1941). Astounding would follow suit in January,
1942. Although it worked for the major pulps, it
didnt work for Astounding or Unknown. Paper and

other forms of rationing arising from Americas

entry into the second world war cut deep into
Street and Smiths production. Unknown reverted
to standard pulp size in June, 1943, and there were
plans to drop it to the smaller digest format in
November, 1943, when Astounding changed. At
the last minute it was agreed to sacrifice Unknown
in order to sustain Astounding as a monthly.
Unknowns final issue was dated October, 1943.
Ironically, the British edition of Unknown, which
only reprinted partial issues, was able to string out
its reprints throughout the War and right up until
the end of 1949, a total of 47 issues.
A few stories bought for Unknown were used
in Astounding, such as Anthony Bouchers The
Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull (June 1946), but
most were returned to the author, a few surfacing
years later, as with Cleve Cartmills Age Cannot
Wither in the final issue of Beyond (1955).
The legacy left by Unknown is immense. It
gave the pulp market a sophisticated form of
fantasy and weird fiction that it had not previously seen and in that process allowed many
writers to mature. It also set a benchmark for
quality and in so doing gave fantasy a reputation
and status that it had lacked.MA [see
Astounding Science Fiction]

VOLITANT PUBLISHING
Most vintage mens magazine fans remember
Robert Harrisons group of pre-Confidential magazines, Beauty Parade, Eyeful, Whisper, Titter, and
Wink, but few recall the publications put out by
competitor Adrian Lopez (1906-2004). Lopezs
publishing company was called Volitant (named
after a race horse that paid off big for him) and in
some ways his publications, especially Sir, were
the equal or better of Harrisons mens magazines.
Lopez was born in Southampton, England, of
an Irish mother and a Spanish father. He took a
degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, but during the Great
Depression turned to writing. He was soon selling

pieces to Black Mask, Dime Detective, Greater Gangsters Stories, and Argosy, and working as a freelance
reporter for William Randolph Hearsts The New
York American. Lopez got together with a couple of
college friends in 1935 and with the backing of the
American News Company, started Satire.This was
a hybrid humorous/spoof magazine, similar to the
Harvard Lampoon. Satire ran theme issues lampooning movies and crime magazines. At some point
around 1939, Lopez got together with Harry
Donenfeld, the publisher of National Comics
(their best known comic book was Superman),who
matched the $3000 that Lopez made on the racehorse, and the two became partners on a host of
magazines including Laff, Sensational Detective
Cases,True Life Detective,Vital Detective (1944), Hit!
(1943), and Sensational True-Crime Detective Cases.
Laff (1939) was a humorous copycat of Life
and early forerunner to Sir (1943). A pin-up picture magazine Peek appeared in 1940. By the mid1950s Lopez had put together a wide range of
magazines that included: Laff, Real Crime, Man to
Man,Action (1953), Stock Car Racing, Strange Medical Facts (1953), Famous Models (1950) which
became Famous Paris Models in 1951. Sir!:A Magazine for Males, was especially popular and ran for
over three decades, from the mid-1940s until the
early 1980s (outlasting all of Harrisons publications). During the 1950s Sir! ran many articles on
UFOs. The magazine managed to keep up with
trends in the mens magazine field, and got
raunchier with each new decade.
During the early 1970s Lopez published a
couple of comic humor magazines, Harpoon and
Apple Pie. The latter featured lots of nudity and
artwork by people working for National Lampoon
such as Neal Adams and Russ Heath. Underground comix artists Kim Deitch, Justin Green,
and S. Clay Wilson also contributed to Apple
Pie.LO [see Spicey Detective Stories]

203

W
WEIDER MAGAZINES
Joe Weider was born in 1923 in Montreal, Canada. As a skinny teenager he became interested in
bodybuilding and nutrition, which led to the
publishing of a newsletter called Your Physique.
Weider moved to America during the 1940s,
where he began organizing bodybuilding contests, started the International Federation of
Bodybuilders, and began selling bodybuilding
nutritional supplements and mail-order pamphlets through his new magazine, Muscle Builder.
The pamphlets included:Sex Education For The
Bodybuilder,Special Strongman Stunt Course,
How To Build Courage And Confidence,
Secrets Of A Healthy Sex Life, and Joe Weiders

204 | Weider Magazines

PG 204 TRUE STRANGE STORIES, Oct. 1929 ( Macfadden Publications); PG 205, Bot band, L to R DIME DETECTIVE, July 1949 ( Popular Publications); DETECTIVE BOOK, spring 1945 ( respective copyright holder); MASTER
DETECTIVE, Jan. 1940 ( Macfadden Publications).

Mr.America Bodybuilding Course.

During the 1950s muscle magazine carried
the millstone of public sentiment that bodybuilding led to homosexuality and narcissism. Tomorrows Man and The Male Figure, magazines that did
not try to minimize the bulge in a bodybuilders
brief, helped fueled some of this attitude. By the
mid-1950s,Weider, in partnership with his brother Ben, was publishing a host of masculine titles
with the backing of the American News Company, these including American Manhood,True Adventure, Mr. America, Mr. Universe, True Weird, True
Strange, Muscle Builder, and Fury.
American Manhood used painted covers and
carried the tagline Adventure + Sports + Bodybuilding + Expos + Crime.A typical issue might
have A Personal Interview With Rocky Marciano, along with Add Inches Of Muscles To
Your Arms, and I Hunt Elephants. Early 1950s
issues of American Manhood carried photos of the
Miss Muscle Beach contest, held in California,
but these appeared more as eye candy than a sincere look at womens bodybuilding.The collapse
of American News Company in 1957 forced
Weider to kill or sell most of his titles, and he
concentrated on his last remaining magazine,
Muscle Builder, and his bodybuilding products,
through most of the 1960s.
Weider moved his base of operations from
Jersey City, New Jersey, to Los Angeles in the late
1960s. In 1971, the Weider brothers established
the Mr. Olympia contest and a year later introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to America.
Schwarzenegger appeared many times on the
covers of Weiders magazines, and this brought
him to the attention of Hollywood producers.
Weider also began emphasizing women bodybuilders in his glossy Muscle & Fitness, and this led
him to launch Shape, in 1981.
Weider was a latecomer to female physical

culture. Day & Night magazine held a popular

Muscle Queen contest in the mid-1950s that led
to admirers of women bodybuilders discovering
each other. That magazines letter pages were
taken over by these fans throughout the run of
the contest. One of the people sending pictures to
Day & Night was O. J. Heller, a longtime photographer of circus women and female athletes, and
contributor during the 1960s to Womens Physical
Culture, which was a precursor to Shape.LO
[see Health Knowledge, Dell vs. American
News Company, and The Male Figure]

WEIRD MYSTERIES
Jim Warren published Creepy #1 in 1965, which
presented black and white horror comics in a
magazine format that could safely bypass comic
book censors, and it soon begat many imitators:
Shock from Stanley Publishing, Terror Tales from
Eerie Publications, and Psycho from Skyward
Publications. But some years before there had
been an attempt at a similar concept titled Weird
Mysteries (1959). The contents of the one and
only issue of the monster size Weird Mysteries
was aimed at a more adult audience, even though
it is likely that there were a lot of kids picking it
up off of newsstands. Some of them might even
have been interested in the pin-up photos, or ads
for books like An Unhurried View of Erotica, or the
Brigitte Bardot stag-movie photos for sale. Like
the E.C. Comics that it and the later Creepy were
imitating, Weird Mysteries also had a wisecracking
horror host, Morguen the Morgue Keeper.The
magazine contained scripts by Carl Wessler, a
one-time E.C. writer, and art by E.C. Comics
alumni Joe Orlando and Angelo Torres. (To complete the closed loop of imitation, both artists
would later create new art for Creepy.)

Weird Tales |
The March 1959 Weird Mysteries was the only
issue, but some months later Eerie Tales appeared
on newsstands from another publisher. Weird
Mysteries had been published by Hastings Associates, Eerie Tales by Pastime Publications, but the
contents of Eerie Tales were unmistakably from
the same outfit that put together the earlier magazine.The only real difference this time were the
ads geared to kids.This second issue had art by
more E.C. people, including Al Williamson. As
with Weird Mysteries, there was only the one issue
of Eerie Tales. The time was not yet right for a
black-and-white-illustrated horror magazine,
Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales were merely placeholders.LO [see Famous Monsters of Filmland, Lunatickle, and Castle of Frankenstein]

WEIRD TALES
The Unique Magazine
Long before Stephen King became a household
name, long before Clive Barker, long before Dean
Koontz and Anne Rice, there was Weird Tales. Subtitled The Unique Magazine, it was in its pages
that modern horror and fantasy were born. Originally published from 1923 through 1954, Weird
Tales was one of the most influential fiction magazines ever printed in the United States. For 279
issues, it helped shaped the face of fear for decades
to follow. It truly was a unique publication.
Founded in March, 1923 Weird Tales was the
creation of Jacob Clark Henneberger, the publisher of College Humor magazine. Living in
Chicago at the time, Henneberger was close
friends with many of the top literary names of the

time, including such writers as Hamlin Garland

and Ben Hecht, all of whom complained that
there was no market for outr, supernatural, oddball fiction. A lifelong fan of Edgar Allan Poe,
Henneberger decided to publish a magazine that
would print stories too controversial, too unusual, too bizarre for any conventional publication.
Thus was born Weird Tales, The Unique Magazine. Unfortunately, with his magazine paying
less than a penny a word for rights, Henneberger
was never able to attract the big-name authors he
wanted to his new magazine. Instead, he discovered a whole new generation of writers who
became legends in their own time.
Without question, Hennebergers greatest discovery was H.P. Lovecraft. Up until that time,
Lovecraft had been writing for amateur magazines
that had little distribution and paid nothing for his
fiction. It was in Weird Tales that Lovecraft became

205

famous.The magazine published a vast majority of

his work, including his story,The Call of Cthulhu, the foundation of his acclaimed Cthulhu
Mythos. Weird Tales also published unusual verse,
and it was in its pages that Lovecrafts famous
poetry cycle,Fungi from Yuggoth first appeared.
Another major Weird Tales find who made his
mark on the world of letters was Robert E.
Howard. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, sold his first story to Weird Tales in 1925,
and it was in the pages of that magazine that the
Conan series was first published. King Kull, Bran
Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane were three other
Howard creations who also flourished in the
magazine.
Its doubtful that any other magazine of the
period would have published either Howard or
Lovecrafts work. Their writings were unique
and could not be easily defined by any one genre.

CROOKED DAMES

206 | Weird Tales

Weird Tales was never about defining genres, but
instead about destroying their boundaries.
Defying tradition was another hallmark of
Weird Tales. In May, 1924, the magazine published
The Loved Dead, by C.M. Eddy, a friend of
H.P. Lovecraft.The lurid story, written in the first
person, told the grisly tale of a man obsessed with
the dead, a ghoul. One particular passage
described him being discovered one morning in
a mortuary, sleeping with his arms wrapped
around a female corpse.A shocked reader in Indiana accused Weird Tales of promoting necrophilia,
and the cause was taken up by the local branch of
the KKK.The furor passed in a few months, but
Farnsworth Wright, editor of the magazine, credited the commotion with helping Weird Tales
through a difficult financial period.
Wright, who headed the magazine from 1924
until the end of 1939, was a top-notch editor who
often bought stories he personally didnt like, but
felt sure would appeal to his readers. It was his editorial vision that made Weird Tales one of the few
pulp magazines that was regularly read by the editors of the Years Best Short Stories and earned a
number of stories an honorable mention in that
series. After Wrights departure (he died June
1940) the magazine was edited until its end in
1954 by Dorothy McIlwraith, a fine editor, who
published much of Ray Bradburys earliest fiction.
Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, was another
Weird Tales discovery, as were Edmond Hamilton,
Frank Belknap Long, C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, Donald Wandrei, August Derleth, and many
other famous supernatural writers. A number of
other authors published their first story elsewhere, but made their reputations in the pages of
Weird Tales.These writers included Clark Ashton
Smith, Ray Bradbury, Carl Jacobi, Manly Wade

Wellman, Hugh B. Cave, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Seabury Quinn, and Fritz Leiber. Famed
movie director Val Lewton appeared in print in
Weird Tales with a short story in 1930, and Tennessee Williamss first short story was published in
Weird Tales in 1928.
Under Farnsworth Wrights guidance, no subject was taboo or too unusual for the pages of
Weird Tales. In 1934, Seabury Quinn, the author of
a long series of psychic detective adventures featuring a sleuth named Jules de Grandin, penned a
tale where a ghost tries without success to break
up the marriage of two orphans. De Grandin,
always an opportunist, used a vacuum cleaner to
suck up the ghosts ectoplasm. However, it wasnt
until the end of the story that the whole truth
about the haunting came out. The two orphans,
who had been raised by a villainous old man as
distant cousins, were actually brother and sister. By
marrying, they had committed incest. The ghost
of the old man had returned to reveal the secret,
but had been stopped by de Grandin. When the
ghost-buster was asked by his friend if he planned
to tell the couple the truth, de Grandin said no.
He saw no reason to make the happy couple miserable, and that in such an unusual situation, incest
was not really a crime. It was an enlightened attitude, not only for the 1930s, but also for today, yet
not one reader raised a voice in protest.
Not only did Weird Tales publish some of the
most unusual and provocative fiction of the period, it also featured some of the most unusual and
imaginative artwork ever printed in a magazine.
Virgil Finlay and Hannes Bok, two of the greatest
names in the fantasy art field, both sold their first
work to The Unique Magazine. J.Allen St. John
did a number of other-worldly cover paintings,and
Margaret Brundages pastel nudes were among the

PG 208 WEIRD TALES ( respective copyright holder); PG 209, L to R WEIRD TALES , #1, Mar. 1923 ( respective
copyright holder); WEIRD TALES , #1, Mar. 1923 ( respective copyright holder); WEIRD TALES , Nov. 1935
( respective copyright holder); Bottom tier: WEIRD TALES ( respective copyright holder); WEIRD TALES , Oct.
1936 ( respective copyright holder); WEIRD TALES , June 1939 ( respective copyright holder); WEIRD TALES ,
June 1934 ( respective copyright holder).

Weird Tales |

207

208 | Weird Tales

most famous covers ever to be published in the
history of pulp magazines. And in the late 1940s,
the grotesque art of Lee Brown Coye set the standard for macabre illustration for years to come.
During its 31 years of publication, Weird Tales
printed hundreds of classic stories of horror and
the supernatural that have since been reprinted in
dozens of anthologies throughout the world.Many
of the stories published in the magazine were
adapted for television and the movies.Among the
more notable are Robert Blochs Yours Truly, Jack
the Ripper, as well as H.P. Lovecrafts Herbert
West: Reanimator and From Beyond.
Lovecraft and Howard and Smith; Bloch,
Bradbury, and Leiber took horror fiction out of
the nineteenth century and firmly placed it in the
modern era.With their fellow Weird Tales contributors, they turned dark fantasy away from English
manor houses and traditional haunts and aimed it
at the much more frightening horrors of the
twentieth century, from the blackness of outer
space to the eerie recesses of the inner mind. In
doing so, these writers brought horror fiction
kicking and screaming out of the past into the
present and revitalized the entire genre.
The original Weird Tales magazine died in
1954, the victim of changing tastes, the growth of
modern science fiction, and cold-war paranoia.
Nothing in print could match the horror of the
Cold War and the atomic bomb. A few of the
magazines most popular writers, Bradbury,
Bloch, and Leiber, made the jump to the science
fiction field or mainstream magazines. Horror,
except for stray appearances in mens magazines,
took a long vacation.
But horror never dies. Much more an emotion than a mere genre, horror returned stronger
than ever in the late 1970s and early 1980s with
the incredible popularity of King, Koontz, Straub,
Barker, and Rice. And, rising out of its unquiet
grave, came Weird Tales.
In 1973, under the editorial guidance of Sam
Moskowitz, Weird Tales was revived for four magazine issues. The publication primarily featured
reprints of rare stories from obscure horror books

and magazines. The magazine was most notable

for serializing Moskowitzs biography of William
Hope Hodgson, a famous horror author who had
died in World War I. Despite a valiant effort, the
publication ceased in 1974.
In 1979, under the editorial guidance of Lin
Carter, Weird Tales returned as a series of four
paperbacks published by Zebra Books. The
paperbacks were fairly successful, and published
work by some of the brightest new writers in the
fantasy genre. Unfortunately, due to personal
problems, Carter was unable to edit more than
four volumes, and Weird Tales folded again.
A fourth incarnation of the magazine was
published by Brian Forbes, a California fan in the
mid-1980s.The first issue of the revived magazine
featured new work by Stephen King and Harlan
Ellison, however, the publication was underfinanced and a second issue saw only limited distribution. Weird Tales perished yet again.
The magazine returned to life in 1988 on the
65th anniversary of its first issue. Now under the
banner of the Terminus Publishing Company, it
was edited by George Scithers, Darrell
Schweitzer, and John Betancourt. The revived
magazine featured all new stories by authors such
as Stephen King, Brian Lumley, Robert Bloch,
Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee, and many others. New
artwork was provided by the top artists in the fantasy and horror fields. Nearly 20 years after its latest resurrection, this new version of Weird Tales
continues to haunt the newsstands and magazine
shops of America, proving that there will always
be a place for The Unique Magazine.RW

WEIRD TERROR TALES

see Health Knowledge Magazines
WEB DETECTIVE
WEB TERROR STORIES
Web Detective/Web Terror Stories/Web Terror earned
its cult status as much by being one of the most

Web Detective/Web Terror |

confusing titles to collect as it was one of the last
weird-menace magazines. It was owned and published by Robert C. Sproul, best known as the
publisher of the humor magazine Cracked or
Cracked Magazine, as it liked to call itself.That had
started in 1958 as a rival to Mad, and came out
under Sprouls Major Magazines imprint, to
which he later switched a number of his mens
magazines. But his first imprint was Candar Publishing, which survived well into the 1960s.
Robert C. Sproul had been one of the road
salesmen for the Ace News Corporation, the
holding company for the Ace Fiction Group of
magazines and paperbacks, where his father,
Joseph Sproul, was general manager. Bob Sproul,
as he was always known, was then in his mid-20s
and keen to run his own set of magazines.With
his fathers help, he launched two humor magazines, College Laughs and French Cartoons, in

October, 1956 and would later publish several

mens magazines, including Mans Action in September, 1957, and Mans Daring in June, 1959. But
at the outset, he wanted to publish a science fiction magazine, as the boom in such magazines,
though fading away, still appeared lucrative.With
the help of Donald A.Wollheim, the editor at Ace
Books, he published Saturn, the Magazine of Science
Fiction, with the first issue dated March, 1957.
It was a standard digest-sized magazine, running to 128 pages selling for 35 cents, and boasted on the cover a new find: the first English
translation of Eternal Adam by Jules Verne.This
has subsequently proven to be a work by his son,
Michel. A story over 50 years old was not exactly at the cutting edge of science fiction, and neither were the other stories, which were bottomdrawer material by Noel Loomis, Robert Silverberg, and John Brunner, acquired primarily

209

PG 206 WONDER STORIES ( respective copyright holder); PG 207, Bot band, L to R SAUCY MOVIE TALES, Jan.
1936 ( Movie Digest ); TERROR TALES, May 1940 ( Popular Publications); CARTOON HUMOR, spring 1949
( respective copyright holder).

because the first issue was compiled in a hurry.

The second issue, with rather more time, dated
May, 1957,was more promising, with some reasonable material by James H. Schmitz, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., and Damon Knight, plus an unusual item
by Cordwainer Smith and one of August Derleths stories (based on an idea by H.P. Lovecraft),
The Murky Glass.To allow for the trespass into
weird fiction, the magazine was now called Saturn
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
The third issue (July 1957), now called Saturn
Science Fiction and Fantasy, had another forgotten
story by Jules Verne (and this time it was his
work), The Ordeal of Doctor Trifulgas, but it

was minor material, as were most of the other

contents except for Gordon R. Dicksons story of
artificial intelligence,Mx Knows Best.
The fourth issue (October 1957) held a major
surprise: a new story by Robert A. Heinlein.The
Elephant Circuit had been written in 1948, but,
as an allegorical fantasy, had failed to find a market, and its appearance here was Wollheims
biggest coup.The issue also ran some good material by Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison, and John
Christopher, plus a scare article, California Will
Fall Into the Sea, by William F. Drummond,
Ph.D., which was more in tune with what Sproul
would run in his mens magazines. Overall, it was

MERMAIDS

210 | Web Detective/Web Terror

PG 210, Top to Bot interior illustation from PEPPER, vol. 1, #4 ( respective copyright holder); ZEST, Apr. 1960
( Bannister Pubs.); PG 211, L to T A-OK FOR MEN, Apr. 1963 ( respective copyright holder); TERROR TALES, #7, Mar.
1969 ( Eerie Pubs.); TRUE DETECTIVE, Aug. 1963 ( respective copyright holder).

the best issue so far.

The fifth issue, delayed until March, 1958 had
little to offer, despite the names Lloyd Biggle,
Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Silverberg.
It did feature a new story by Clark Ashton Smith,
The Powder of Hyperborea, which makes the
issue collectible, and it also ran the very last story
by Ray Cummings, Requiem for a Small Planet.As with the previous issue, it ran another scare
article, Red Flag Over the Moon, by Romney
Boyd, looking at the coming space race.
In all, Saturn was a minor magazine, worthy of
little attention, and one that could not compete
against the major magazines or the blossoming
paperback market. Sproul realized sales would not
improve at least not without substantial funding
and he decided to switch to the detective magazine market that he believed was more promising. However, rather than kill off Saturn and start
a new magazine with all the attendant bureaucracy in re-applying for a new mailing permit, he
simply amended the title of the next issue
(August 1958) to the rather clumsy Saturn Magazine of Web Detective Stories, though the cover
design made it clear the title was really Web Detective Stories.Wollheim helped acquire a few of the
stories, but from here on the magazine was essentially edited by Sproul alone.
The change in content was significant. Having discovered the delights of the mens magazine
field, where he could publish such articles as
Satans Pigs Ate Us Alive and Sex on Wheels
(both Mans Action, March 1958) Sproul believed
he could run the same material in a cheap digest
magazine. So he rounded up a team of writers
known for their contributions to crime, action,
and mens magazine fiction, including Art Crockett,Al James, and Bill Ryder, and soon they were
churning out stories under such titles as Blood
Bath for the General, Short Cut to Hell, and

Lust Without Pity.The stories were in imitation

of those appearing in Manhunt and other hardboiled magazines like Trapped and Sure-Fire Detective. Sproul was all for imitation and never had an
original idea for a magazine.
The magazine occasionally attracted some
contributors of interest. Lawrence Block had brief
stories in both the April and June, 1959 issues;
Robert Silverberg had a tale of revenge in the September, 1959, issue; and Edward D. Hoch had two
tales of suspense in the May and August, 1960
issues, and a third in September, 1961. Perhaps the
best individual story is The Triple Cross, by
Richard Deming (October 1960), one of his stories featuring the one-legged PI, Manville Moon.
There was also a Chester Drumm, PI, story by
Stephen Marlowe in the January, 1961 issue, and
Harlan Ellison had a strong crime story,A Corpse
Can Hate, in September, 1961. The May, 1961
issue may have the best all-around contents, with
some solid work by James Holding, Ed Lacy, Frank
Kane, and Hal Ellson, the equal of anything in
Manhunt and its imitators at that time.
These, though, are the exceptions to the usual
diet of sex, depravity, and violence. As the magazine progressed,the violence and sadism increased.
One such example is Lust Claims a Bride, by
Bill Ryder (January 1961), in which a frigid wife
pleads to her ex-marine husband to give her time
to be a true wife. While the husband is gone, a
sadistic sex fiend who is on the loose breaks in,
trusses up the wife, strips her naked, and is whipping her prior to rape when the husband returns
and saves her. However, the husband has decided
that to bring her around to his way of thinking,
his wife needs a good thrashing.The reader would
have to decide if that made him no better than the
sex fiend or a true he-man.
The magazines title was steadily metamorphosing. The original clumsy title had become

Saturn Web Detective Stories with the October,

1958 issue (dated December on the cover), and
though that title remained on the contents page
and indicia, it became simply Web Detective Stories
on the cover from the June/July, 1959 issue. Sales,
though, continued to be sporadic.The late 1950s
and early 1960s was a difficult time for magazines. The fields biggest distributor, ANC, had
ceased operating and though Web was distributed
through Ace, dealers were becoming more selective, preferring to display paperbacks rather than
digest magazines. Many of the digests were folding and few dealers discriminated between titles.
Web Detective almost went the same way. September, 1961, saw its last issue under that title and, for
some months, nothing else appeared.
Then, in August, 1962, after some corporate
reshuffling, and with his Major Magazines line
prospering with Cracked and Mans True Danger,
Sproul decided to give Web one more chance. It
re-emerged as Web Terror Stories. Now there was no
disguising its purpose.With lurid covers of torture
and satanic cults, it was a direct throwback to the
weird-menace pulps of the thirties, such as Terror
Tales and Horror Stories. That first issue carried at
least two recognizable names: John Jakes with My
Love, the Monster, about a dead woman resurrected as a monster, which may well have been
written for the defunct Super Science Fiction, and
Marion Zimmer Bradley with Treason of the
Blood, depicting a sympathetic, tortured vampire.
Otherwise the names were unique to Web Terror
and many were doubtless unidentified pseudonyms. Not everyone could remember their pen
names properly. Jason Lamont in the August, 1964,
Web Terror became Justin Lamont in the next issue.
Freed of the limitations of the detective story
such as it was Web Terror now sought fear and
misery in all situations. Orbit of the Pain Masters, by Arthur P. Gordon, involves sadistic aliens,
while Chains of the Conqueror, by Gary
Roberts, features torture in ancient Rome.
Nightmare Hall, by Cameron Pye, has a woman
tortured in her dreams.
Such was the diversity of Web Terror. In later

Whisper |
issues stories, were set among the Aztecs, ancient
(and modern) Egypt, the Arab Caliphate, Sicily
and, rather mundanely, the Scottish moors. The
last,Evil is the Night (August 1964), credited to
Clarence OConnor, reads like a story by someone who has never been to Scotland, and includes
people called MacTaggart and Dougal who say
things like a bloomin buxom lass and tis no
place for a woman.Authors threw in everything
they could to create atmosphere, but it did not
stop most stories being none-too-subtle variations on the same basic plot: a woman, usually
alone, finds herself in trouble, either of a sadistic
nature, or of inexplicable horror. Sometimes she
is rescued; as often she is not.
As the last of its kind the terror digest magazine Web Terror had a special following, but
Sproul published the issues erratically and distribution was poor.There were only eight issues in

total: two in 1963, three in 1964 and two in 1965.

The last three had an increase from 112 to 160
pages, to offset the price rise from 35 to 50 cents.
But as with all erratic magazines, if readers do not
know when or where issues might appear, sales
will always diminish. Exact sales figures are not
known, as Web Terror did not appear frequently
enough to require the compulsory statement of
ownership and circulation needed for all magazines appearing quarterly or more regularly.Sproul
encouraged subscriptions, but few people subscribed, and opportunist sales were insufficient to
sustain the magazine. It folded with the June, 1965
issue, the eighth as Web Terror, but the 27th since
Saturn had appeared eight years before. Sproul
returned to his real money-maker, Cracked, which
would support him for the next 40 years.MA

WHISPER
In the early 1940s, Robert Harrison was making
quite a name for himself as a publisher (Beauty
Parade, Eyeful, Flirt, Titter, and Wink), though not
nearly as much as he would shortly, due to his
scandal magazine Confidential.
In April, 1946 Harrison launched one of his
more successful titles, Whisper. It was an oversized magazine for the first issue, and displayed
style and attention unseen in the other Harrison
sleaze magazines. Much of the success of the
magazine was due to the stunning Peter Driben
cover paintings. Driben was the perfect choice to
portray Harrisons theme for Whisper, a tendency
toward the sordid, the violent, and the blatantly
sexual exactly what the marketplace of the day
was looking for. In addition, Whisper featured a
huge amount of fetish material, high heels and

211

nylons, and bondage and implied S&M, liberally

interspersed between photos of pin-up girls and
models in kinky lingerie.
By the June, 1955 issue, Whisper (with a peak
circulation of 600,000) joined its sister title, Confidential, as a straight-out scandal magazine, and
Harrison folded all his other girlie magazines.
Harrison sold all his titles in 1958, and Whisper
continued until 1971 under other ownership and
direction.JH [see also Confidential]

WINK
see Confidential, Whisper
WONDER STORIES
see Sexology

OVER-THE-TOP COVERS

212 | World War 3 Illustrated

WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED
Since 1979, Seth Tobocman, along with graphic
artists such as Peter Kuper, Sabrina Jones, and Jordan Worley, has edited 37 issues of a relentlessly
realistic comic book called World War 3 Illustrated.
A semi-annual political comix magazine, World
War 3 Illustrated is dedicated by its founders,
Tobocman and Kuper, to shine a little reality on
the fantasy world of the American kleptocracy.
World War 3 Illustrated is a labor of love, run by
a collective of artists working with the unified
goal of creating a home for political comics,
graphics, and stories. Addressing urban and political issues, it seeks to combine unique perspectives with distinct visual images, often influenced
by the work of the WPA artists of the 1930s.
Over the years, the rotating editorial board,
with a clear left-wing political focus, has included Seth and Kuper, Isabella Bannerman, Sue Coe,
Sandy Jimenez, Mac McGill, James Romberger,
Sabrina Jones, Scott Cunningham, Kevin Pyle,
Nicole Schulman, Eric Drooker, Susan Wilmarth,
Christopher Cardinale, Ryan Inzana, Paula
Hewitt, and Chuck Sperry, among many others.
The magazine could never have survived
without the collective effort, and the contribution of so many other artists and writers, all who
have donated their talents. In the hierarchy of the
magazine, editors and contributors receive the
same pay a magazine that they have helped to
create. Only the printers and distributors are paid,
all the profits go into producing the next issue.
Contributors act as subjective documentarians, mixing art and activism while describing
scenes they have often participated in: the eviction of a Lower East Side squat, police brutality in
the Bronx, or human-rights violations in Bogot.
World War 3 Illustrated has published special issues
to chronicle national news stories like the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 and the disruption
of the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings
in Seattle.
After the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001,Tobocman, Kuper, and

PG 212, to Bot WEB TERROR STORIES, Nov. 1964 ( respective copyright holder); SHOCK MYSTERY TALES
( respective copyright holder); typical small ads in mens magazine c. early 1960s.

Worley published a special issue addressing United States foreign policy in the Middle East and
their connection to the attack on the towers.
Christopher Cardinale, who was riding his bicycle
by the World Trade Center when it crumbled, was
able to describe the attack in detail from the perspective of someone on the street. Frank Morales,
an Episcopal minister, performed last rites over the
bodies found at ground zero.
World War 3 Illustrated is not about a war that
may happen; it is about the ongoing wars our socalled leaders have been waging all our lives,
around the world and on our very own
doorsteps. World War 3 Illustrated illuminates the
war we wage on each other and sometimes the
one taking place in our own brains.
The unwritten manifesto for World War 3
Illustrated appears to be: If you are going to talk
about changing society, a magazines not a bad
place to start. World War 3 Illustrated has functioned as a microcosm of the kind of society that
its creators would like to see.They value content
over style, and ideas are not regarded for their
popularity, but for their substance. Artists are
given a forum to reach an audience with their
work, and the opportunity to interact and examine their concepts in a group setting.
Co-founder Seth Tobocman is a radical
comic artist who has been a fixture of Manhattans Lower East Side since 1978. He has also
been an influential propagandist for the squatting,
anti-globalist, and anti-war movements in the

United States.
Seth and Peter Kuper started World War 3
Illustrated because they felt that the United States
had been at war for nearly 50 years. At the time,
more than a million people in El Salvador had
been killed by death squads trained by the United States, but the country still acted as if it was at
peace.After September 11, 2001, the entire country knew it was at war because it began to affect
the average person in the United States.
In 1979, the Shah of Iran had been overthrown and a new regime came in and seized the
American embassy and held a number of
hostages. Tobocman sees the current situation as
the Iran hostage situation times a thousand: its
not a question of 52 people being held in an
embassy, its a question of upwards of 3,000 people being murdered on September 11.
Long before the Iran hostage crisis, the United States had overthrown the democratically
elected government and installed the dictatorship
of the Shah. Since then, the people of the Middle
East have seen the United States as an aggressor
and as the dominant imperialistic power there
since World War II.
World War 3 Illustrated was started at a time
when there were very few adult comics, and
fewer places where comic book artists who wanted to deal with serious issues could do so.
Contributors to the magazine range from
first-timers to veteran activists, and it has
launched the careers of many artists whose first

The Yellow Peril |

published pieces appeared in its pages. Numerous

contributors return to the magazine to find one
of the few uncensored venues for their art.
Co-founder Peter Kuper is best known for
taking over Spy vs. Spy for MAD Magazine after
its creator Antonio Prohias retired. Frequent contributor Sue Coe is an English artist and illustrator
noted for her highly political illustrated books and
comics, often directed against capitalism and cruelty to animals. Contributor Scott Douglas Cunningham, while alive, made his name synonymous
with natural magic and the magical community
by writing dozens of popular books on Wicca.
American painter and graphic novelist, Eric
Drooker, who shared the same political beliefs as
Tobocman and Kuper, became one of the magazines co-editors and frequent contributors. Eventually he began to sell illustrations to more mainstream publications, and became more widely
known as a cartoonist when his short story, L,
appeared in Heavy Metal. L, along with two
other stories, made up his first graphic novel,
Flood!, a wordless, dream-like narrative of power-

less citizens struggles with authority in a rapidly

deteriorating New York City. Flood! won an
American Book Award.
Scouted by artist Eric Drooker, Sandy
Jimenezs work first saw publication in January,
1991, under the editorship of Seth Tobocman and
Sabrina Jones. In 2004, his comic book story
titled Skips was published in issue #31, and was
later adapted into a short film that was part of the
official competition at the Tribeca Film Festival.
World War 3 Illustrated has served as a document of United States history, specializing in
those aspects ignored by the mainstream press
from the shadow cast by Ronald Reagan to IranContra the Gulf War, genocide in Bosnia, the
invasion of Iraq, and the ongoing corruption of
the George W. Bush administration. The magazine has illustrated personal subjects from race to
religion to sexual relations, and drawn on the
dreams and nightmares, both real and imagined,
of its various contributors.
Essentially, the contributors to World War 3
Illustrated want to create a dialogue about where

society should go, while inspiring younger people

to start thinking about the issues around them, all
without trying to convert people to their way of
thinking.Their collective stance is that the best art
has an active role in society it isnt intellectual, its a part of life.They want to encourage people who look at the magazine to be not just
observers, but participants, too.
World War 3 Illustrated has been a collectivelyrun, self-funded publication since 1979, and has
succeeded in producing the best hard-hitting,
independent comics in the United States.WU

213

X, Y
THE YELLOW PERIL
Fu Manchu
Sax Rohmer will forever be remembered as the
creator of that insidious Yellow Peril, Fu
Manchu. Arthur Henry Ward (Rohmers real
name), was born in Birmingham, England, of
Irish parents. William Ward, his father, was
employed as an office manager. Rohmers mother, Margaret Mary Furey, was an alcoholic. As a
child, Rohmer received no formal schooling
until he was nine or ten years old. At the age of
18 he adopted the name Sarsfield, impressed by

MINI & DIGEST PIN-UP MAGS: PG 213, L to R EYE, vol. 4, #4, Apr. 1954 ( Atlas/Magazine Management); THAT
GIRL MARILYN!, 1953 ( Afliated Magazines, Inc.); DARE, June 1953 ( respective copyright holder); EXCLUSIVE,
Apr. 1954 (Hillman Publications).

214 |The Yellow Peril

his alcoholic mothers claims of being descended
from the famous 17th century Irish general,
Patrick Sarsfield.The pseudonym he adopted and
made famous came from sax which was Saxon
for blade and rohmer which meant roamer.
Before settling on his writing career, Rohmer
worked briefly as a bank clerk in Threadneedle
Street, then as a clerk in a gas company, and a
reporter on the weekly Commercial Intelligence. In
1903, at the age of 20, Rohmer had his first short
story, The Mysterious Mummy, published in
Pearsons Weekly.Thus he began in the major print
markets of his day.
By 1909, Rohmer had married Rose Elizabeth Knox, daughter of a well-known comedian.
She was an actress and a juggler who also
claimed some psychic ability. Rohmer, still trying
to settle on a profitable career, consulted with his
wife, using an Ouija board, as to how he could
best make a living. The answer was C-H-I-NA-M-A-N.
During this time, Rohmer continued to
write comedy sketches for entertainers, and to
produce stories and serials for the newspaper and
magazine markets. Rohmers first book, Pause!
appeared in 1910. It was followed by the first
appearance of Dr. Fu Manchu in The Zayat
Kiss, in the October, 1912 issue of the British
magazine The Story-Teller. This was followed by
nine more stories that would appear in every
issue through July, 1913, and were eventually
combined into the novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu
Manchu, which was published in 1913.
So great was the acclaim for the character, and
an indication of how far the concept of the Yellow Peril had gotten into the public consciousness, that it was released three months later in the
United States, between February 15 and June 28,
1913, in Colliers, and published as a novel under
the title, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.
It was an immediate success. From there Dr.
Fu Manchu continued on through thirteen novels, a novelette and some short stories. In the
character of the seemingly deathless Dr. Fu
Manchu, Rohmer had captured the essence of

the racist fears of his time, the imminent Yellow

Peril. Fu Manchu was an emanation of Hell.
For more than a quarter-century, the diabolically
ingenious villain was opposed by Commissioner
Sir Denis Nayland Smith, spymaster, Burmese
commissioner, and a controller of the British
Secret Service and the CID. Fu Manchu was also
opposed by Dr. Petrie, named after the Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, who was haunted by the
beautiful but evil Kramanh, the source of
Petries daydreams, whose eyes held a challenge
wholly Oriental in its appeal.
Smith and Petrie were written in the Holmes
and Watson tradition, with Dr. Petrie narrating
the stories while Smith carried the fight, combating Dr. Fu Manchu more often by doggedness
and determination, rather than any intellectual
brilliance. Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith developed a grudging respect for each other, as each
was from the old school where a man kept his
word, even to an enemy.Time and again over several decades they clashed, with Smiths ingenuity
always inevitably thwarting the Devil Doctors
plans at the last possible moment.
Together, Sir Denis Smith and Dr. Petrie
faced the worldwide conspiracy of the Yellow
Peril as represented in the person of Dr. Fu
Manchu.According to the racist prejudices of the
time, the Chinese were all either mandarin warlords or opium den-keepers in Limehouse, even
though the ethnic Chinese population of Londons East End was estimated to be only in the
hundreds in the period of 1900 through the end
of the Second World War.
The majority of Englands Chinese population worked in such professions as cooking and
the laundering of clothes. Most of the drugs, such
as cocaine, came from Germany, where it was sold
almost without restriction. However, Rohmer
capitalized on the fears of his time, and his books

were underpinned by three theories: the notion

of conspiracy which was based upon a corporate,
international secret society acting out of Limehouse, the notion of a parallel supernatural plane
of existence, and the notion of eternal recurrence.
The first notable Yellow Peril character
appeared in 1896, when Robert Chambers published a series of stories in The Maker of Moons,
about Yue-Laou, the undisputed ruler of an
empire in the middle of China as well as a sorcerer of the blackest magic.Yue-Laou was the first
Yellow Peril sorcerer, a character type that
would appear again, as in Robert E. Howards
Skull-Face serial in Weird Tales in 1929.
The next significant Yellow Peril character
was a military leader, reflecting the Western fear
of the limitless hordes of Chinese overrunning
white countries. In 1898, M.P. Shiel wrote The
Yellow Danger, which featured the character Dr.
Yen How, a half-Japanese, half-Chinese warlord,
who connives his way to power in China, unites
China and Japan, manipulates the European Great
Powers into warring with each other, and then
unleashes the armies of the united Japan and
China on the West. Naturally, Dr. Yen How is
eventually defeated, but through the course of the
novel he is presented as a very worthy opponent
for the doughty White hero.
However, neither Yue-Laou nor Dr.Yen How
started the craze of Yellow Peril characters. It
was Sax Rohmer, via Dr. Fu Manchu himself,
who did that.Yue-Laou and Dr.Yen How must be
seen as forerunners of the enthusiasm for the
Yellow Peril stereotype, rather than influences
on its use. But it was Dr. Fu Manchu who was
immediately popular and spawned numerous
imitators, such as The Mysterious Wu Fang and
Dr.Yen Sin, characters who did not exist before
the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu came along.
In biographical writings, Rohmer claimed

PG 214, Top to Bot WEIRD MYSTERIES. #1, 1959 (Pastime Publications); EERIE, #1, 1959 (Hastings Associates);
PG 215 STRIPARAMA, #1, 1960 ( Selbee); PLAYGIRL, #6, 1957 1953 ( Playgirl Publishing);CAVALCADE OF BURLESQUE, Sept. 1954 ( Burlesque Historical Com.).

The Yellow Peril |

that the source of the character of Fu Manchu,
the Yellow Peril archetype, was born in the
years before the Boxer Rebellion. A member of
the imperial family who had backed the losing
side, he moved his operation to London during
the time Rohmer was working as a reporter.
Rohmer had a fascination with Londons Chinatown and spent a great deal of time there.
Through his contacts, he heard of a mysterious
Mr. King, who, allegedly, controlled all gambling games, drug traffic, and secret societies in
Chinatown.The area police had never seen him
and the local Chinese reacted in fear when his
name was mentioned. One informant did let it
slip, however, that Mr. King had a house on a certain street and that he was in London at the time.
Rohmer went to the address one night, a car
pulled up and he saw a tall and very dignified
man alight, Chinese, but unlike any Chinese I had
ever met. Whether this was the mysterious Mr.
King was never determined, but this viewing

moved Rohmers fertile imagination to create,

over the course of many months, Dr. Fu Manchu.
Dr. Fu Manchu was a master criminal, an
Oriental mastermind who worked for the overthrow of all Western civilization and the White
race, in order to remake it in the glorious image
of the East, with him as the absolute ruler. His
murderous plots were marked by the extensive
use of apparently Oriental methods. He eschewed
guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, Thuggees,
and members of other secret societies as his
agents, all armed with knives, or using pythons
and hamadryadsfungi and my tiny allies, the
bacillimy black spiders and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons. The most
prominent of his special agents was the seductively lovely Kramanh. Dr. Fu Manchu was
not the only mastermind. He was opposed by his
deadly daughter, Fah Lo Suee, a devious criminal
mastermind in her own right, always plotting to
take control of the fanatical and loyal Si-Fan, a

Chinese cult, from her father.

In the earliest stories, Dr. Fu Manchu is an
assassin sent on missions by the Si-Fan, but he
quickly rises to become head of that dreaded
secret society.At first, the Si-Fans goal is to throw
the Europeans out of Asia;later,the group attempts
to intervene more generally in world politics,
while funding itself by more ordinary types of
crime. Dr. Fu Manchu is a master of both ancient
mystical abilities and modern scientific advances.
Utilizing a magic drug called the Elixir Vitae, Fu
Manchu has retained his youth and strength
despite his advanced age. He is a super-villain who
can hypnotize almost anyone he looks in the eyes.
In 1915, Rohmer invented the detective
character, Gaston Max, who first appeared in The
Yellow Claw. The Fu Manchu stories, together
with those featuring Gaston Max, made Rohmer
one of the most successful, widely read, and wellpaid magazine writers of the 1920s and 1930s.
During this time Rohmers interest in mysticism

215

and the occult increased, and he claimed to havejoined the occult organization of the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn, thought his name
does not appear on any of that memberships rosters. Its other members included Aleister Crowley
and William Butler Yeats.
Success brought Rohmer financial security
for a short time. He traveled with his wife in the
Near East, Jamaica, and in Egypt, but the money
went as fast as it had come Rohmers business
instincts were not good and he also gambled away
much of his earnings at Monte Carlo. In 1955,
Rohmer was said to have sold the film, television,
and radio rights to his books for more than four
million dollars.
The second novel in the series was released in
1916 in the United Kingdom as The Devil Doctor
and as The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu in the United States.The United States release predated the
U.K. release by one month. It was originally serialized in ten chapters between November, 1914

BURLESQUE

216 | The Yellow Peril

and December, 1915 in Colliers.
The ten stories that make up The Return of
Dr. Fu Manchu are:The Wire Jacket (November
21, 1914);The Cry of the Nighthawk (December 26, 1914); The Avenue Mystery (February
6, 1915);The White Peacock (March 6, 1915);
The Coughing Horror (April 3, 1915); The
Silver Buddha (May 15, 1915); Cragmire
Tower (July 17, 1915); The Fiery Hand (September 25, 1915); The Six Gates (October 23,
1915); and The Mummy (December 4, 1915).
Between 1913 and 1949, Colliers Weekly published many of Sax Rohmers Fu Manchu serials,
illustrated by Joseph Clement Coll and others,
and they were hugely popular. The last issue of
Colliers was dated January 4, 1957.
During the following years the stories were
published in collections, but at the end of the third
book, The Si-Fan Mysteries (1917), Fu Manchu is
dead, and another villain has taken his place.
The third novel in the series was released in
May, 1917 in the U.K. as The Si-Fan Mysteries and
as The Hand of Fu Manchu in the United States The
U.K.release predated the American release by days.
It was originally serialized in nine chapters
between September, 1916 and December, 1917 in
The Story-Teller in the U.K. and between April,
1916 and June, 1917 in Colliers.
The nine stories that make up The Hand of
Fu Manchu are:The Flower of Silence (April 8,
1916);Zarmi of the Joy Shop (May 13, 1916);
The Golden Pomegranates (June 24, 1916);
Queen of Hearts (November 25, 1916); The
Zagazig Cryptogram (January 6, 1917); The
House of Hashish (February 17, 1917); KiMing (March 3, 1917); Shrine of Seven
Lamps (April 21, 1917); and The Black
Chapel (June 2, 1917).
After years of silence, Rohmer restarted the
series in 1930 with Daughter of Fu Manchu, which
was originally titled Fu Manchus Daughter, and
appeared in Colliers.This was closely followed by
The Mask of Fu Manchu, which was serialized in
Colliers throughout the summer of1932.
The Mask of Fu Manchu was adapted into a

1932 film and a 1951 Wally Wood comic book,

Avons one issue, The Mask of Dr. Fu Manchu.The
May 7, 1932, issue displayed a memorable cover
illustration by famed maskmaker Wladyslaw T.
Benda, and his mask design for that cover was
repeated by many other illustrators in subsequent
adaptations and reprints.
The Bride of Fu Manchu appeared in 1933 and
was titled Fu Manchus Bride in the U.K. It was
serialized in ten chapters in Colliers beginning
with the May 6, 1933 issue, and included the May
13, May 20, May 27, June 3, June 10, June 17,
June 24, July 1, and July 8, 1933 issues.
The Trail of Fu Manchu (1934), also appeared in
twelve chapters in the April 28, May 5, May 12,
May 19, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23,
June 30, July 7, and July 14, 1934 issues of Colliers.
President Fu Manchu (1936), which appeared
as The Invisible President in twelve chapters beginning in the February 29, 1936, issue, included the
March 7, March 14, March 21, March 28,April 4,
April 11, April 18, April 25, May 2, May 9, and
May 16, 1936 issues of Colliers.
The Drums of Fu Manchu (1939), appeared in
ten chapters beginning in the April 1, 1939 issue,
and included the April 8, April 15, April 22, April
29, May 6, May 13, May 20, May 27, and June 3,
1939 issues of Colliers.And The Island of Fu Manchu
(1941) appeared as Fu Manchu and the Panama
Canal in the November 16, 1940, January 11 and
January 25, 1941, issues of Liberty Magazine.
In The Island of Fu Manchu, Sir Lionel Barton,
the greatest Orientalist in Europe, says that Fu
Manchu is an enemy whose insects, bacteria,
stranglers, strange poisons, could do more harm
in a week than Hitlers army could do in a year.
After World War II, the Rohmer family moved to
New York City.
In 1948, during the Korean War period, The
Shadow of Fu Manchu appeared in six chapters
beginning in the May 8, 1948, issue, and included the May 15, May 22, May 29, June 5, and June
12, 1948 issues of Colliers.
Rohmer declared that Dr. Fu Manchu was
still an enemy to be reckoned with, and as men-

acing as ever, but he has changed with the times.

Now he is against the Chinese Communists and,
indeed, Communists everywhere, and a friend of
the American people. In 1957, Re-Enter Fu
Manchu appeared as The Eyes of Fu Manchu in This
Week in the October 6, 1957, issue. It was retitled
Re-Enter Dr. Fu Manchu in the United States
Sax Rohmer died from a combination of
pneumonia and a stroke on June 1, 1959. His last
work of fiction appeared that year, Emperor Fu
Manchu.A final novel in the series, The Wrath of Fu
Manchu, attributed to Sax Rohmer, was published
posthumously in 1973, bringing the total to fourteen novels in the official Fu Manchu canon.
The golden age of the Fu Manchu stories
and also the peak of Sax Rohmers career was
in the 1930s, although the Chinese super-villain
was revived again in 1957.After Rohmers death,
a hoard of sequels were written, as well as radio
adaptations, and a Marvel comic (Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu). The thirteen-episode TV series,
The Adventures of Fu Manchu (1955-56), starred
Glenn Gordon as Fu Manchu and Lester
Matthews as Nayland Smith.
Rohmers villain has inspired several
movies, starring, among others, Warner Oland,
Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, and Peter Sellers (The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu in 1980).
John Carradine and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
played Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith in a television pilot directed by William Cameron
Menzies, The Zayat Kiss.
Sinister Oriental Fu Manchu stereotypes
were feared since the turn of the century, appearing in great numbers in popular fiction. Among
the best-known doppelgangers is Dr. No from
Ian Flemings James Bond novel Dr. No (1958).
In the 1920s, Sax Rohmers work received
mixed reviews.Today, the most fascinating character in Rohmers work, the enduring figure of the
insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, has achieved literary
immortality.ETK [see Mysterious Wu Fang]

Zane Greys Western Magazine |

YOUR BODY
see Hugo Gernsback

Z
ZANE GREYS
WESTERN MAGAZINE
Pearl Zane Gray was born in Zanesville, Ohio.
He would become known as Zane Grey,Americas best-remembered writer of the idealized
image of the rugged old west in popular adventure novels and pulp fiction.
Trained as a dentist at the University of Pennsylvania, he would only sporadically practice the
trade before turning his efforts to writing. Supported by his wife, Lina Dolly Roth, he borrowed $600 from her to self-publish his first complete novel, Betty Zane.
Now writing as Zane Grey, he had become
especially interested in the West in 1907, after
joining a friend on an expedition to trap mountain lions in Arizona. Grey wrote steadily, but it
was only in 1910, and after considerable efforts by
his wife, that his first western, Heritage of the
Desert, became a bestseller.
Still experiencing difficulties with having his
work published, he accused publisher Harper of
not even reading his 1912 submission, Riders of the
Purple Sage. After making an effort to read his
novel, Harper snapped it up. It would become his
best-known work. From then on it was one success after another, and Zane Grey would become
one of the first millionaire American authors.
Zane Grey would go on to become famous as
one of the Americas pre-eminent writers by

churning out popular novels about manifest destiny and the conquest of the wild west.Wealthy by
any standard, in 1919 he formed his own motion
picture company, Zane Grey Productions.
Two years later, disinterested in the work,
which was taking him away from writing, fishing,
and adventure, he sold the motion picture company to Jess Lasky. Lasky had a partner, Adolph
Zukor, and they would form Paramount Pictures
out of the bones of Zane Grey Productions.
Eventually, Paramount would make a fortune on
a number of movies based on his writings.A total
of 46 full-length movies and 31 short subjects
were made from Zane Greys writings.Already, in
1921, companies were getting rich trademarking
his name.
As one of the first millionaire authors, Grey
would spend part of the year traveling and living
an adventurous life, and the rest of it using his
adventures as the basis for his writing. Some of
that time was spent on the Rogue River in Oregon, where he maintained a cabin he had built on
an old mining claim he bought. He also had a
cabin on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona that
burned down during the Dude Fire of 1991.
From 1918 until 1932, he was a regular contributor to Outdoor Life magazine, becoming one
of the publications first celebrity writers. In the
pages of the magazine, he began to popularize his
passion, big-game fishing.
In his lifetime, Zane Grey would write over
99 formal books, some published posthumously
and/or based on 59 of his stories published in the
then-popular serial form, and 196 short stories
originally published in magazines. One of them,
Tales of the Anglers El Dorado, New Zealand
helped establish the Bay of Islands in New
Zealand as a premiere game fishing area.
Zane Greys Western Magazine was founded
by Dell Magazines in 1946.They hoped to con-

PG 216, Top to Bot WHOS WHO IN HOLLYWOOD, 1953 ( Dell);ZING, Sept. 1949 ( respective copyright
holder);PG 217, Top to Bot SUPPRESSED. Jan. 1956 ( Suppressed, Inc.); TIP TOP, #3, 1963 ( Parliament
Magazines).

tinue the trend and make a fortune on Greys

name recognition by reprinting his work for
another generation. Grey, who died of a heart
attack on October 23, 1939, had nothing to do
with the magazine that used his name and writing to get rich.
The first series of Zane Greys Western Magazine would begin with the appearance of its
November/December, 1946 premiere issue, edited by Don Ward.The pulp western would have a
long run of 82 issues, lasting until January, 1954.
The first issue reprinted both Zane Greys
Sunset Pass, from The American Magazine,
March, 1928, issue, and Bret Hartes Tennessees
Partner, from Overland Monthly (October 1869).
Editor Don Ward would continue this pattern of
featuring reprinted stories in nearly every issue
throughout the magazines entire run. A Zane
Grey story would be reprinted in the first 44
issues (except for the January, 1950, issue), nearly
half the entire run, before a shift in editorial policy occurred in November, 1950.
For the next three years, until the magazine
folded,Ward would begin showcasing new writers. One of the most famous of these was Elmore
Leonard. Leonard. A prolific writer, he is best
known, , for a handful of fast-paced crime novels
made into films, including Get Shorty, its sequel
Be Cool, Rum Punch (turned into the Pam Grier
vehicle Jackie Brown), and Out of Sight.Yet his association with Hollywood goes back a long way.
Classic western movies such as 3:10 to Yuma,
Hombre, and Valdez is Coming were based on his
early stories and novels.
Leonard embarked on his writing career
inspired by the cowboys-and-Indians movies of
the 1930s and 1940s.I looked for a genre where
I could learn how to write and be selling at the
same time, he remembers in the introduction to
The Complete Western Stories. I chose westerns
because I liked western movies.
Leonard began by submitting stories to pulp
periodicals such as Zane Greys Western Magazine
and Western Story Magazine. The going rate was
two cents per word. His first published story,

217

218 | Zane Greys Western Magazine

Trail of the Apache, appeared in Argosy magazine in 1951, and would become a template for
the pieces he would write throughout the 1950s.
Elmore Leonard was off to a fast start. The
Colonels Lady would be his first sale to Zane
Greys Western Magazine (November 1952), followed by Cavalry Boots in the December,
1952 issue.The Rustlers followed in February,
1953, Long Night in May, 1953, and The
Hard Way in August, 1953. Reading these stories, one is struck not only by the young
Leonards talent for recreating the southwest
frontiers scorching atmosphere, but also by his
skill for constructing plot and conveying character with unusual economy.
Leonards prototypical hero is neither the idealistic officer straight out of West Point nor the
wronged and hostile Indian, but the grizzled
scout, a white man who knows not only the Indians language, but also their wily ways and cunning survival techniques.With some tweaking to
allow for different settings and time periods, it is
a formula that continues to serve Leonard well
half a century later.
The great science fiction writer Theodore
Sturgeon also found a market for his prolific short
story writing in Zane Greys Western Magazine
with his first sale to them, Well Spiced, which
appeared in the February, 1948 issue, followed by
Scars, in the May, 1949 issue.
Zane Greys Western Magazine was also graced
by the fabulous cover artwork of such artists as
Earl Sherwin, who painted most of the early
issues, and Bob Stanley, who did the majority of
the later ones. Over the years, the works of Dan
Muller,Alden S. McWilliams, Nicholas S. Firfires,
George Prout, and Malcolm Smith would appear
on the cover.
The Zane Grey story does not end here. Ned
Pines published the thrilling group of pulps
during the 1940s and 1950s. After World War II,

many pulps were on the way out, though some

would stick around through the early to mid1950s.America was growing up after the war, and
the pulps just could not keep pace as much as
they tried.
Long-time editor Leo Margulies left in 1952
and Ned Pines brought in newer and younger
talent, hoping to give the readers what they wanted. But it was too late. Ned shut his pulp empire
down in 1955, and the thrilling was over.
Leo Margulies had spent his life in the production of pulps.After college, he had been hired
by Robert Davis, an editor at Argosy, and eventually became head editor for Ned Pines. He ruled
the thrilling group editorial staff, directing the
path that led to success for the magazines he controlled. Margulies was not ready to retire after he
left Ned Pines. Although the pulps were dead,
their descendants, the digest magazines, were alive.
Leo started his own chain of fiction digests: The
Saint Detective Magazine (1953), Fantastic Universe
(1953), Satellite SF (1956), Mike Shayne Mystery
Magazine (1956), Zane Grey Western Magazine,The
Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1966), The Girl From
U.N.C.L.E. (1966), Shell Scott Mystery Magazine
(1966),and Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine (1973).
The second series trading on Zane Greys
name and fame, Zane Grey Western Magazine, was
started by Leo Margulies under his Renown
Publications imprint, edited by his wife Cylvia
Kleinman. The first issue appeared in October,
1969, the last in September, 1974. No matter how
hard Leo fought, the pulps were gone.The glory
days of Thrilling Mystery and Thrilling Detective had
died, and the second series soon failed, the western genre had run its course.FJ

PG 218 MEN TODAY, vol. 2, #6 ( respective copyright holder); TRUE MEN STORIES, Apr. 1969, interior spread
( Feature Pubs); PG 219 TALES OF VOODOO, Oct. 1973 ( Eerie Pubs.).

Zest |

ZEST
Mini pin-up magazines
Zest (a continuation of Picture Scope) is representative of the category of digest- and miniaturesized mens pin-up magazines cheaply produced
by various publishers during the 1950s.They covered the usual cheesecake and glamour shots, plus
numerous p.r. photos from the entertainment
world, including burlesque, as well as sensationalist news reports.The concept sold to readers was
that these little publications (7x5 for digest and
5.5x4 for mini) could fit in a pocket.Whether
the idea was really to make them easier to carry
around or hide is anyones guess, but they were
popular throughout most of the decade. Every
publisher, from Hillman (Picture Life, Carnival), to
Fawcett, to Atlas/Magazine Management (Focus,
Eye, Brief), tried their luck on these diminutive
publications. The usual format was a four-color,
glossy cover with newsprint interior pages.
Favorite subjects included Marilyn Monroe,

Anita Ekberg, and Jayne Mansfield (all typically in

bathing suit shots), burlesque strippers, and sexy
cartoons. The short articles qualified more as
manufactured fluff than actual print-worthy
copy: What Is The Ripe Age For A Beautiful
Girl,Inside Russias Love Spy School,Homosexuals Form New Organization for Baseball
Stars, or Hex a Witch with Voodoo.
A few of the better titles: She,Tempo, Celebrity,
Focus, Bold, Slick, People Today, Picture Life, Chicks
And Chuckles, Quick, Stare, Pose, He, Eye, Pic, Picture Scope,The Male Point of View, Mans Way, and
Zing!.LO

219

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

My thanks to Earl Kemp for getting the ball

rolling and juggling the whole thing until I was
ready to jump in. My thanks also to all the contributors named in the next few columns. I
would be remiss if I did not mention Alan
Betrock and his pioneering research on cult magazines. He was insufficiently recognized before his
untimely death. I would also like to express my
deepest appreciation to Mike Ashley for reading
and commenting on a pre-publication proof of
Cult Magazines: From A to Z. He was unstinting in
applying his knowledge and expertise to the task.
Any errors that fell through the cracks are strictly my fault. Finally, my thanks and love to Karan
for filling in when needed.LO

Riley Adams (RA) is an astrologer by night and

a freelance writer by day, and spends his spare
time researching the UFO phenomenon.Taking
a skeptical but tongue-in-cheek look at the range
of common, and uncommon, events and beliefs,
led him to collecting and reading those long-lost
articles, fan letters, and editorials held in the pages
of the golden age of pulps. It is in from pages that
he culls the material for his research and his forthcoming book, Tales of the Lost. In this novel,
Adams documents his own journey, through the
written word to the world at large, in his quest to
find proof of the unknown.
Mike Ashley (MA) is a freelance writer and
researcher, primarily in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and crime fiction, but generally
exploring all avenues of literary and ancient history. His books include Starlight Man, the biography of Algernon Blackwood, The Age of the Storytellers, about British popular fiction magazines,
and The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime
Fiction, which won the MWA's Edgar Award. He
has also written books on the British Monarchy
and the Seven Wonders of the World.
Richard Coad (RC) is a multi-national man of
mystery.
Jay A Gertzman (JAG) is writing a book on
the maverick publisher Samuel Roth, who spent
a total of nine years in federal prisons between
1929 and 1961 for various convictions involving
publishing and marketing obscene books; he was
the first (unauthorized) American publisher of
Ulysses and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Gertzman is
interested in First Amendment issues and publishing history. In 1999, Gertzman published Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 19201940. He is prof. emeritus at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania.

220 | contributors
Jon Hanlon (JH) was raised in a peculiarly
restricted household. By the time he entered his
teens, he lived in an unassailable fantasy world of
his own creation, populated only by his favorite
pulp magazine characters. He was eventually
released from his strange world to roam among
writers, artists, editors, and publishers who all
wanted to do his bidding.The shock of being in
charge, from nowhere, of everything, was almost
too much for him to endure. Most of the time he
considers himself to be a figment of his own
imagination. Hanlon is divorced and has five children, not one of whom believes he ever existed.
Arthur D. Hlavaty (ADH) comes from the science fiction fanzine subculture. Since 1977, he
has published over 100 issues of a zine now
known as Nice Distinctions. He is a multiple
finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.
He also blogs on livejournal as supergee.
Frazier Johnson (FJ) As a child, Forry Ackerman gave him a signed copy of the first-ever issue

of Famous Monsters, and Johnson was hooked.

Over the passing years, Johnson has collected
pulps, with an emphasis on mint condition. He
knows that is not really possible, but it gives him
an excuse to keep collecting, and reading, them.
Always pleased to find various paperback publishers reprinting the better known titles, he looks
forward to the day when complete pulp runs will
be available online. Until then, he is content to
collect, read, and contribute critical articles to,
various magazines about his life-long passion.
Earl Kemp (EK), a national nuisance, has been
known by many guises: adventurer, explorer,
lover, beloved, rebel, First Amendment convict
savant, and numerous others, almost all bad. Also
a Hugo Award-winning editor and SF Worldcon
Chair, Kemp is best known as the notorious producer, during the Golden Age of Sleaze Paperbacks, of more than 5,000 novels and half again
that many girly magazines for Greenleaf Classics, Inc. For the past nine years of his dotage, he
has been dribbling salacious memories at
efanzines.com/EK/index.html and has become the
chronicler of the entire sleaze book and magazine
genre.
Earl Terry Kemp (ETK) Born into a science
fiction publishing family, Advent: Publishers,
raised on the pulps, and nursed by Rogue and subsequent Greenleaf publications, it was only natural to write about the era. From ghost-writing, to
science fiction fanzine contributions, one of his
current on-going projects includes an in-depth
look at the works of the original science fiction
and fantasy specialty publishers who began it all.
The Anthem Series takes a comprehensive look
at the famous, well-known titles of Arkham
House, Gnome Press, Fantasy Press, Prime Press,
FPCI, and Shasta, as well as the lesser-known
titles. It is complete with illustrations, cover art,
synopses of all the works, including all the short
stories, and contains never-before-seen anecdotes
and biographical material relating to each
imprint, with a critical review of each title.

PG 220 MAN'S LIFE, Nov1954 ( respective copyright holder); PG 223 REAL DETECTIVE, Aug. 1942 (Sensation
Magazine, Inc).

Jim Linwood (JL) was born in 1940 in Nottingham, England. He left school at the age of 15
and worked as a miner in a local colliery. As a
teenager, Linwood discovered Science Fiction
Fandom, heard about the Beat Generation in
American fanzines, and quickly devoured anything he could find by Kerouac, Burroughs and
Ginsberg. In a small, arty bookshop in Leicester,
Linwood found imported editions of Evergreen
Review and became a regular reader. Kerouac
became a major influence on his early life, and
Linwood hitch-hiked around Britain and
Europe, meeting fellow souls.
Will Murray (WM) was born about the time
the pulp magazine industry fell into collapse, and
so came to them far after the fact. Despite his late
start, he has become one of the most knowledable
pulp archeologists ever to squander his brain and
eyesight on this formerly-disreputable subject.The
author of over 50 books and novels (including
eight Doc Savage adventures), he currently coedits Nostalgia Ventures formidable series of Doc
and Shadow reprints. He is the literary agent for
the estate of cult pulpsmith Lester Dent, and, with
cult artist Steve Ditko, is the proud creator of the
cult Marvel Comics character, Squirrel Girl. Murray expects to become a cult figure himself, once
he has gone the way of all pulp.
Edward von Neumann (EVN) admits to
being an oddball, and is proud of it. He denies
rumors of his revolutionary anti-war underground activity during the late sixties, but also
refuses to be pinned down about any details.
Instead, he points to his various contributions to
many of the lesser-known cult publications over
the subsequent decades, and insists that the reader be the judge. But we are quick to point out to
him that since he insists on using a pseudonym at

all times, it will be very hard for the reader to do

that. Edward just shrugs his shoulders, smiles
knowingly, tells us not to worry, and with his
sharp wit retorts that the keen reader will easily
identify him and his work.
Luis Ortiz (LO) is the author of Emshwiller:Infinity x 2, a Hugo Award nominee. At present he is
preparing a biography of the artist Jack Gaughan.
Howard Pearlstein (HP) is the editor, with
Richard A. Lupoff and Fender Tucker, of The
Organ Reader, which contains almost every article,
cartoon and diatribe published in the original
nine issues of The Organ.
William Underwood (WU) A life-long reader
of pulps, Underwood began his obsession when
he inherited his fathers extensive collection.
Haunting used book stores, searching for illusive,
long-lost and -forgotten volumes, he has built up
this collection to a nearly complete run of the
very best. Spending his time still looking for the
few rare copies missing from his collection, he has
also found time to read these aging gems from
the past. Based on his extensive reading, he has
become an authority on the subject, and has
often been called upon to do research for various
writers and fans, as well as generously lend fabulous copies of the beautiful pulp artwork to
enhance that research.
Henry Watson (HW) works as a graphic illustrator. His work has appeared in several major magazines, and he is currently working on his first exhibition. Photography and computer illustration are
his strong points.Watson agrees that his work has
been strongly influenced by the contemporary
publications of his youth.With any luck, he hopes
that his own work will also be looked upon favorably by the next generation.This hope has led him

|
to a critical appreciation of the media.
Bob Weinberg (BW) is the author of sixteen
novels, two short story collections, and more than
a dozen non-fiction books. Hes one of only a
handful of active writers who have written a million words each of fiction and non-fiction. Bob
has also scripted comic books for Marvel, DC, and
Moonstone comics. His fiction and non-fiction
has been published in fourteen languages and hes
had bestsellers in five different countries. As an
editor, Bob has compiled more than 150 anthologies. He is perhaps the only horror writer ever to
serve as the Grand Marshall of a rodeo parade.
Al Wilson (AW) is a mechanical engineer, and
graduate of a top ten university. He has tried to
keep abreast of the latest in politic, and culture, as
well as maintaining a historical perspective on the
evolution of both, and the impact they have on
technology. Over the years, he has lent his keen
eye and observations to his various essays on a
range of contemporary topics.
Richard Yanke (RY) traces his interest in
obscure political tracts and magazines to his early
childhood. As a young child, his parents fled
NAZI Germany with him in tow, just ahead of
arrest, and this left a deep impression that has
stayed with him throughout his life. Recently
retired from his career in the CIA, Yanke has
obtained an insight into the workings of fledgling
political groups, terrorists and anarchists, finding
some of their roots in the cult literature of the
past and the present.

INDEX
A
Ackerman, Forrest J. 47, 48, 76, 77, 78, 79, 220
ACLU 25, 72
Adam Bedside Reader 8, 15
Adam Film Quarterly 8
After Hours 47, 77
Amateur Movie Makers 192
Amazing Detective 9, 12, 18
American Art Agency 113, 119, 191
American Autopsy,The 126
American Manhood 16, 204
American News Company 54, 95, 113, 203, 204
Ancient Astronauts 16, 118
Anger, Kenneth 81, 136, 193
Anomalist,The 87
Anthony, Norman Hume 29
Apple Pie 203
Armer , Frank 182, 184
Arno, Peter 30
Asimov , Isaac 22, 79, 93, 117, 120, 121, 149, 157, 188

B
Baen, Jim 93
Baker, Josephine 67
Barbarella 65, 78
Barton, Ralph 29
Batters, Elmer A. 32, 37, 38, 189, 190
Baumhofer 12, 57, 196
Beach Culture 158
Beatles,The 8, 32, 35, 53, 62, 72, 73, 117
Beauty Parade 42, 50, 106, 203, 211
Beck, Calvin T. 48, 49, 127, 128
Bedford-Jones, H. 11, 19, 40, 41
Bellas, Bruce 121
Binder, Eando 75, 86
Black Ice 44
Black Silk Stockings 8, 37, 38, 39, 191
Blackstones Magic 32, 38, 116
Blackwood, Algernon 86, 219
Blackwoods Magazine 32
Blaine, Mahlon 16
Bloch, Robert 42, 49, 97, 98, 108, 120, 124, 157, 168, 206,
208
Block, Lawrence 108, 109, 121, 124, 168, 210
Bod,Vaughn 93
Bok, Hannes 50, 148, 191, 206

Boone, Ilsley 113, 189, 190

Boucher, Anthony 92, 119, 123, 154, 155, 202, 203
Boulware, Jack 132
Bova, Ben 23
Bowen, Robert Sidney 30, 32
Bradbury, Ray 104
Bradbury, Ray 108, 120, 148, 195, 206
Brain Power 45, 61, 146
Brand, Max 19, 41, 56, 75, 117
Bronze Thrills 195
Browne, Howard 15, 60, 122, 167
Buckley Jr.,William F. 188
Buckley, Jim 127
Burana, Lily 89
Burroughs ,William 64, 138, 171
Burroughs, Edgar Rice 13, 18, 40, 75, 116, 127
Burtman, Leonard 7, 98

C
Campbell, John W., Jr. 74, 199
Catholic Church 67, 70, 71
Cele Goldsmith 15, 62
Chandler, Raymond 33, 35, 36, 122, 124
Charteris, Leslie 20, 122
Cinma 57 47
Clarke, Arthur C. 12, 20, 73, 104
Clayton Magazines 21, 24, 96, 115
Clues-Detective 28
Cohen, Sol 15
Cohn, Roy 55
Comic Cuties 98
Comstock, Anthony 144, 145
Cooper, Alice 53
Cracked 51, 52, 79, 103, 209, 210, 211
Crumb, R. 53, 104, 105, 160, 161
Curtis Circulation 55

D
Dahl, Roald 26
Dannay, Frederic 153
Daredevil Aces 32
Daring Dolls 98
Davidson, Avram 120, 124,155, 157
Davis, Bernard 61, 156
Davis, Bob 17, 18, 19
Day & Night 204
de Soto, Rafael 12
Deitch, Gene 44
del Rey, Lester 22, 200, 201, 202

221

Deren, Maya 81, 82, 83

Di Filippo, Paul 44, 170, 171
Dick, Philip K. 93, 148, 170
Dime Detective 36, 37, 55, 89, 121, 123, 132, 153, 174, 196,
197, 203, 204
Dime Mystery 32, 52, 130, 195197, 198
Doubt 22, 32, 42, 88, 99, 110, 184, 190
Dreiser,Theodore 85, 88, 139
Dyalhis, Nictzin 94
Dynamic Detective 46

E
Eastman, Kevin 102
Ebony 195
Ecco 144, 151
Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine 117
Edwin Bower Hessers Arts Monthly 21
Eerie Publications 72, 118, 162, 204
Electrical Experimenter,The 158, 175 177
Ellison, Harlan 15, 51, 61, 62, 101, 121, 124, 168, 208, 209,
210
Elson, Louis 96
Elvis Presley vs.The Beatles 8
Emshwiller, Ed 50, 92, 120, 144, 193
England, George Allan 39, 75, 76, 86
Ernst, Paul 19, 27, 94, 99
Esquire 24, 45, 104, 200
Everybodys Magazine 8, 85
Experimental Cinema 192
Exploring the Unknown 7, 66, 80, 87, 96, 97, 100

F
Fairman, Paul W. 15, 60, 156
Famous Paris Models 203
Famous Westerns of Filmland 77
Fangoria 150
Fantastic Adventures 14, 15, 18, 79, 102, 122, 130, 167
Fass, Myron 8, 100, 73, 117, 118, 119, 195
Feds 84, 127
Felker, Clay 25
Female Form 21, 61
Female Mimics 7, 98
Ferman, Edward 120, 121
Ferman, Joseph 120, 156
Film Fun 29, 30, 42, 57, 83
Film Threat Video 83
Filmfax 50
Fine Print Distributors 44
Finlay,Virgil 21, 50, 61, 75, 80, 96, 110, 148, 191, 206,

222 |
Flagg, James Montgomery 29
Fleming, Ian 12, 20, 42, 97, 104, 216
For Men Only 112, 124
Fort, Charles 17, 21, 84, 86, 87, 88, 200
Fortean Society Magazine,The 88
Fortean Times 84, 85, 86, 87, 88
Frank Touseys Mystery Magazine 33
Frazetta, Frank 51, 127, 164, 191
French Humor 88, 175, 178
French Models 21, 132
Fuller, Curtis 79, 80

G
Gallo, Crazy Joey 127
Gals & Gags 8
Gardner, Erle Stanley 12, 19, 20, 33, 34, 56
Garfinkle, Henry 55
Gasm 89, 94, 118, 119
Gee-Whiz! 110
Gein, Ed 49
Geis, Richard E. 94, 169, 189
Gernsback 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 74, 75, 86, 92, 95, 113, 156,
158, 159, 169, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 217
Ghost Stories 33, 94, 95, 98, 107, 138, 146, 194, 195, 198
Gibson, Charles Dana 29
Gibson,Walter B. 94, 116, 180, 194, 198
Ginsberg, Allen 25, 64, 136, 171
Ginzburg, Ralph 23, 24, 26, 62
Girlie Fun 8, 9, 98
Girls in Orbit 98
Gnaedinger, Mary 74
Gold, H.L. 92, 93, 200
Golden Argosy,The 16, 17
Goldstein, Al 118, 119, 127, 128
Goldwater, Barry 25, 63
Goldwater, John L. 112
Good Times: A Review of the World of Pleasure 16
Goodman, Jeff 118
Goodman, Martin 55, 110, 112, 197
Grey, Zane 19, 40, 117, 147, 217, 218, 220
Groupie Rock 118
Gruber, Frank 27, 33, 36, 197

Happy Sun-In 7
Harpoon 187, 203
Harris, Frank 63, 141, 142
Harris,William 118
Harrison, Robert 48, 50, 106, 203, 211
Harvard Lampoon 203
Headquarters Detective 166, 193, 199
Hearst, Patty 74
Hearst,William Randolph 40, 70, 203
Hecht, Ben 86, 88, 205
Hefner, Hugh 16, 103, 105, 112, 113, 168, 185
Heinlein, Robert A. 20, 22, 23, 42, 209, 202
Hellzapoppin 30
Hersey, Harold Brainerd 30, 94, 126
Hersey, Merle Williams 127
Hillman, Alex L. 199
Hoch, Edward 98
Hodgson,William Hope 9, 39, 76, 208
Hoffman, Arthur Sullivant 10
Hollywood Motion Picture Review 193
Holmstrom, John 151, 152
Homicide Detective 119
Hoover, J. Edgar 127, 165, 189
Hopalong Cassidy 19, 48, 140
Houdini 20, 194, 180
Howard, Robert E. 20, 51, 94, 99, 96, 184, 205, 202, 214
Hubbard, L. Ron 12, 20, 23, 92, 137, 199, 200, 201
Humbug 102, 103, 104, 110
Hush-Hush 104, 106, 118
Hustler 83, 107

I
I Confess 30
INFO Journal 88
Inside Detective 30
Ivie, Larry 49, 50, 127, 128
J
Jack Dempseys Fight Magazine 75, 116, 120
Jakobsson, Ejler 93
Jones, Russ 50
Journal of Frankenstein,The 7, 48
Joyce, James 16, 63

H
H.P. Lovecrafts Magazine 117
Haggard, H. Rider 11, 40, 76
Hamilton, Edmond 13, 86, 200, 206
Hamling,William Lawrence 16, 79, 166, 167, 168, 190
Hammett, Dashiell 19, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 57, 153, 155

K
Kadrey, Richard 44, 89
Karloff, Boris 78, 94, 97, 117, 216
Keller, David H. 13, 99, 179
Kerouac, Jack 64

King, Stephen 38, 78, 81, 97, 99, 113, 116, 205, 208
Kline, Otis Adelbert 19
Krassner, Paul 63, 67, 68
Kurtzman, Harvey 102, 103, 105
Kuttner, Henry 76, 143, 201, 202, 206
L
La Vie Parisienne 30, 178
Laff 116, 117, 203
Latimer, David 132
Lee, Stan 102, 112, 113, 186
Lennon, John 25, 26, 53, 137
Lens & Life Study 21
Leonard, Elmore 20, 217, 218
Leroux, Gaston 40
Leslies Weekly 29
Lofting, Hugh 11
Lopez, Adrian 203
Lovecraft, H.P. 13, 19, 86, 96, 98, 99, 117, 194, 200, 202,
205, 206, 208, 209
Lowndes, Robert A.W. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100
Lubalin, Herb 24, 62, 63
Luros, Milton 38, 113, 114, 189, 191
M
Macdonald , John D. 12, 20, 37, 42, 46, 47, 123, 181
Macdonald, Ross 12, 20, 122
Macfadden Circulation 55
Macfadden, Bernarr 14, 20, 60, 94, 113, 127, 144, 178, 198
Macfaddens Fiction Lovers Magazine 146
Mad Magazine 7, 65, 103, 117, 127, 186, 213
Mad Monsters 106, 187
Magazine Management 55, 112, 113, 213, 219
Magazine of Horror 7, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 110, 116, 117,
121
Mailer, Norman 12, 26, 65, 68
Malzberg, Barry 15, 109, 157
Mans Daring 209
Mans Favorite Pastime 37
Manson, Charles 73
Marvel Science Stories 74, 112, 202
Maupassant, Guy de 62
McBain, Ed 12, 20, 117, 122, 124
McCarthy, Joseph 64, 70, 165
McCarthyism 67, 70, 188
McCoy, Horace 35
McCulley, Johnston 18, 155
McNeil, Legs 151, 152
Meade, Marjorie 50

Medical Horror 126

Mekas, Jonas 81
Mencken, H. L 33, 119, 178
Merritt, Abraham 19, 74, 75, 76, 116, 117, 144, 177, 202
Millar, Pete 50
Miller, Henry 16, 64
Mills, Robert P. 120, 156
Modern Life Illustrated 7, 98
Modern Sunbathing 112, 115, 190, 191
Mogel, Leonard 100, 101
Mondo 2000 44, 45
Monroe, Marilyn 25, 63, 141, 190, 219
Monster Parade 46, 49
Monsters and Things 49
Moorcock, Michael 20
Moore, C. L. 76
Morris, Bentley 8
Mr. Fluxus 83
Muhammad Ali 24
Mundy,Talbot 9, 19
Munsey, Frank A. 16, 32, 54, 132, 141
Muscle Builder 55, 203, 204
N
Nader, Ralph 25, 63
Nanovic, John L. 27, 28, 55, 56, 57, 130, 143, 180, 181
Nathan, George Jean 33, 119
National Lampoon 100, 104, 127, 203
Naturel Herald 190
Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine 117
New Republic,The 55
New Yorker,The 29, 30, 32, 46, 55
Newhouse, Sam 55
Nin, Anas 16, 63, 83
Norton, Alden H. 12
Nudist Leader 190
Nudist Photo Field Trip 190
Nugget 107, 195
Nylon Jungle 38, 191
O
Other Worlds 14, 77, 79, 81, 105, 118, 132, 148, 167, 200
Oursler, Fulton 42, 146, 198
P
Page, Bettie 21, 49, 92, 112
Paizo Publishing 15
Palac, Lisa 88
Palmer, Raymond A. 7, 14, 79, 80, 81, 87, 167, 168

|
Paris Nights 30, 82, 178
Parliament News 114, 191
Parliament-Funkadelic 53
Paul, Frank R. 13, 22, 75 143, 148, 176
Peek-a-Boo 98, 142
Peep Show 106
Pepper 98
Phoebe Zeit-Geist 65
Picasso 16, 25, 26
Picture Detective 106
Picture Scope 219
Pierce, John J. 93
Pin-up Fun 7, 98
Playboy 16, 26, 45, 77, 103, 104, 105, 107, 112, 114, 127,
137, 143, 150, 160, 167, 168, 169, 185, 190, 191, 195
Poe, Edgar Allan 13, 32, 200, 202, 205
Pohl, Frederik 92, 93
Police Gazette 127, 149, 169, 198
Poorboy 119
Pop, Iggy 53, 171
Prather, Richard S. 122
Q-R
Real Art Studies 12, 21
Real Life Guide 7, 95, 96, 97, 98, 162
Realist,The 104, 186
Reed, Lou 53, 151
Rex Stouts Mystery Monthly 117
Rod Serlings The Twilight Zone 117
Rogue 9, 16, 79, 113, 138, 139, 156, 166, 167, 168, 169,
195, 202, 217, 220
Rolling Stone 53, 135, 158
Ross, Harold 29, 30
Rosset, Barney 64, 65
Roster, Bill 8
Roth, Ed Big Daddy 50
Roth, Samuel 15, 20, 63, 220
Rowling, J. K. 116
Rundell, Cathy 83
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn 120, 121
Russell, Eric Frank 22, 87, 200
S
Sacher-Masoch 16
Saint Mystery Magazine,The 117
Santangelo, John 105
Sarris, Andrew 82
Satana 7, 9, 98, 169
Saunders, Norman 12, 18, 46, 65, 125, 148, 191

Scary Monsters 50
Schmidt, Stanley 23, 202
Science and Invention 75, 86, 158, 177
Science Fiction Quarterly 48, 96, 171, 194
Science Wonder Stories 14, 178
Screen Chills 49
Screen Thrills Illustrated 77
Screw:The Sex Review 118, 127
Selbee Associates 7, 98
Seldes, George 67, 68, 70, 72
Sensational True-Crime Detective Cases 203
Serling, Rod 104, 117, 149
Sexology 12, 88, 95, 113, 158, 169, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178,
179, 211
Shaver Mystery 14, 15, 78, 79, 80, 87, 105, 119, 167
Shaver, Richard S. 87, 105, 168
Shaw, Joseph 34, 37
Sheckley, Robert 42, 92, 93
Sheer Delight 32, 37
Shirley, John 44, 89, 169, 170
Shock Cinema 50, 151
Shriek 7, 9, 97, 181
Silberkleit, Louis 112
Silverberg, Robert 61, 93, 101, 121, 168, 209, 210
Simenon, Georges 42, 155
Sin-ema 98, 181
Siodmak, Curt 37
Sir! 182, 203
Slapstick 28, 30, 127, 182
Sloane,T. OConnor 14
Smart Set,The 33, 37
Smith, Clark Ashton 86, 96, 178, 200, 206, 210
Smith, E.E. 13
Smokehouse Monthly 45, 46
Snappy Stories 29
Sohler, Stanley L. 191
Spiegelman, Art 159, 162
Sproul, Robert C. 209
St. Cyr, Lili 92, 112
St. John Publishing 122, 123
St. John, Michael 106, 124
Startling Mystery Stories 7, 94, 98, 99, 100, 110
Steeger, Henry 20, 32, 76, 89, 130, 132, 185, 196, 198
Stein, Modest 19, 57, 181
Stevens, Francis 19, 75
Stevens, Lawrence 75
Stewart, Bhob 49, 50, 101
Stone, I.F. 25, 63, 67, 69, 72, 187, 188, 189
Strange Suicides 126, 127, 141, 189

Striparama 7, 9, 98, 189, 214

Stuart, Lyle 67, 68, 69, 70, 72
Sturgeon,Theodore 22, 93, 120, 201, 202, 218
Sullivan, Ed 68
Swank 113
T
Tales from the Crypt (Eerie Publs.)118, 162, 194
Tarzan 18, 40, 41, 56, 75, 112, 115, 116, 148, 149
Thompson, Jim 84, 107
Tickle-Me-Too 30
Tip-Top 38
Tobocman, Seth 212, 213
Tomorrows Man 7, 95, 204
Top-Notch 56, 206
Traven, B. 123
Tremaine, F. Orlin 21, 22, 23, 74, 86
True Confessions 45, 46, 47, 127, 198, 199
True Detective Mysteries 127, 146, 198
Trumbo, Dalton 67, 166
Two Worlds Monthly 16
U
Uncanny Tales 112, 197, 199, 200
Union News Company 55
V
Valigursky, Ed 61
Vampirella 77, 78, 118
Van Gelder, Gordon 120
Variety 18
Vogel, Amos 81
Vue Americas Photo Digest 47
W
Wallace, Edgar 11, 19, 40, 117, 147, 155
Warhol, Andy 65, 73, 82, 83, 136
Warren, James 47, 49, 77, 78, 127, 104, 118, 204
Weirdbook 100
Wells, H. G. 76
Werewoves & Vampires 106
Wertham, Dr Fredric 122
Whitestone Publications 47, 69, 162
Wild Cartoon Kingdom 83
Wild Women 98
Wilson, F. Paul 99
Wilson, Robert Anton 25, 44, 63, 88, 138
Winchell,Walter 67, 71
Wired 44, 89

223

Witchcraft And Sorcery 51

Wizards of the Coast 15
Wodehouse 20, 42, 61, 140, 155
Womans Physical Development 144
Wonder Stories 14, 22, 86, 97, 130, 156, 170, 178, 179, 193,
209, 211
Wood, Ed 78
Wood,Wally 50, 103, 113, 118, 127, 151, 216
Woolrich, Cornell 19, 36, 122, 154, 157, 197
World Famous Creatures 46, 49
Worlds Beyond 199
Wylie, Philip 41, 42
X-Y
Your Physique 203
Z
Zelazny, Roger 15, 99, 121
Zilch, Elmer 30

ALSO FROM NONSTOP PRESS

OTHER SPACES, OTHER TIMES

A life spent in the future
By Robert Silverberg
For all SF devotees and novelists in training who relished Stephen Kings similarly autobiographical On Writing.
Libraryjournal.com
Robert Silverberg is one of the most important American science fiction writers of the 20th century. He rose to prominence during the 1950s at the end the pulp era and
the dawning of a more sophisticated kind of science fiction. One of the most prolific of writers, early on he would routinely crank out a story a day. By the late 1960s he
was one of the small group of writers using science fiction as an art form and turning out award-winning stories and novels. In 2004 he was named a Grand Master by
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ISBN-13 978-1-933065-12-0

Price: $29.95

Fully illustrated.

Paint or Pixel:
The Digital Divide in Illustration Art
Edited by Jane Frank

PAINT OR PIXEL is a collection of art and essays by the best of todays science fiction and fantasy artists. It presents candid dialogs behind the revolution now taking
place in the SF and fantasy field. Are computers creating a seismic shift in the creation of sf&f art, or are they just another tool in the artists paint box? Fully Illustrated.
INCLUDES ART & ESSAYS BY: JOHN BERKEY JAEL JOE DEVITO DON MAITZ RICHARD BOBER JOHN HOWE TOM KIDD JANNY WURTS CHRIS MOORE BOB EGGLETON
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JERRY WEIST ALBERT LORENZ LES EDWARDS JOHN HARRIS ROMAS KUKALIS ARNIE FENNER JILL BAUMAN JASON VON HOLLANDER FRED GAMBINO TODD LOCKWOOD STEVE BURG ALAN M CLARK BEN BALDWIN GEORGE HAGENAUR SUSAN SHWARTZ ALAN LYNCH JACOB McMURRAY DOUG ELLIS DAVID LEUCHT JOE MANNARINO JANE FRANK

ISBN-13: 978-1-933065-10-6

Price: $29.95

160 pages, Trade paper, 9 x 12

Illus: 120 color illustrations

Hugo Award Nominee

EMSHWILLER INFINITY x TWO

The Life & Art of Ed & Carol Emshwiller
by Luis Ortiz
[Ortiz] writes with the grace and skill that makes you want to go out and track down Emshwillers films and the art that isnt reproduced in the book.
Charles de Lint, Magazine of FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION

This is volume two of the Library of American Artists, from Nonstop Press. Fully illustrated.
Price: $39.95
ISBN: 9781933065083
176 pages, hardcover Over 200 Illustrations

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THE SECRET LIFE of America in the 20th century is displayed in the thousands of specialized magazines produced between 1925 and
1990.This period can be seen as a precursor to the cyberspace age where every fad, taste, obsession, and hush-hush desire is gratified.The
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Ballyhoo, Doctor Death, Dream World, Eyeful, Expos, Fate, Flying Saucers From Other Worlds, Magazine of Horror, Monster Times, Phantom Detective,
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ISBN-13: 978-1-933065-14-4

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