The Sleazy Reader #2

[dem bones]

Justin Marriott (ed.) - The Sleazy Reader #2 (May, 2015)

Taschen Sells Out
Sleazy Musings: Editorial
The Magnetic Artist
The Phallic Symbol Column
The Spinal Column
Novel's Two-Fisted Authors
Tralins Versus Trainer
A Robert Tralins In Paperback Checklist
A Checklist Of Bob Tralins Pseudonyms
Bob Tralins As Russell Trainer
The 'Real' Russell Trainer
Lovecraft On Viagra
Unique!
Unique Books - A Checklist
Midwood Doubles

Just arrived (thank you, Justin). On initial, lingering ogle, this second issue of Paperback Fanatic's risqué sister publication, is, if anything, even raunchier than the promising début. Sex A Go Go, Surf Broad, The Sex Strangler, His Brother's Love - did even one of these titles ever deliver on the promise of their steamy titles and glorious cover art? I guess we are about to find out! Review to follow when my hands stop shaking .....

[Craig Herbertson]

May 18, 2015 17:32:31 GMT dem bones said:

Justin Marriott (ed.) - The Sleazy Reader #2 (May, 2015)

Taschen Sells Out
Sleazy Musings: Editorial
The Magnetic Artist
The Phallic Symbol Column
The Spinal Column
Novel's Two-Fisted Authors
Tralins Versus Trainer
A Robert Tralins In Paperback Checklist
A Checklist Of Bob Tralins Pseudonyms
Bob Tralins As Russell Trainer
The 'Real' Russell Trainer
Lovecraft On Viagra
Unique!
Unique Books - A Checklist
Midwood Doubles

Just arrived (thank you, Justin). On initial, lingering ogle, this second issue of Paperback Fanatic's risqué sister publication, is, if anything, even raunchier than the promising début. Sex A Go Go, Surf Broad, The Sex Strangler, His Brother's Love - did even one of these titles ever deliver on the promise of their steamy titles and glorious cover art? I guess we are about to find out! Review to follow when my hands stop shaking .....

It's an overused word in the USA but I just have to say 'AWESOME!!!'

[dem bones]

Two issues in, The Sleazy Reader is already carving an identity independent of Paperback Fanatic, with regular columns and talk of a letters column (should we readers be brave enough) which can only be to the publication's good.

Novel's Two-Fisted Authors, reproduces the most amazing back cover author biogs of the hard livin', hard lovin' hunks who speed-typed the smut between wrestling 'gator, drilling oil-wells, and single-handedly winning World War II, among other manly pursuits. No effeminate beardie-wierdie beatniks here - even if, according to the sleaze team, the author of Seduction Seminal would reinvent himself as a pedlar of gay fiction the following decade.

The editor cannibalises his 2007 interview with the outrageously prolific and, evidently, highly combustible, Robert Tralins (Paperback Fanatic #5) to good effect, bringing crucial annotation to premier dirty-book detective Lynn Munroe's epic Robert Tralins In Paperback Checklist. It says much about Mr. Tralins' prodigious output that Ghoul Lover (Popular Library, 1972), based on the exploits of cuddly Karl Tanzler von Cosel, might be considered among his least perverted works.

The Lovecraft On Viagra feature - in which the editor wonders aloud if Frank Belknap Long and 'Budd Masters' may have been one and the same entity - includes detailed reviews of, among others, Lydia Hanson's Ring For Service (Wizard, 1967: we really should attempt a survey of the peeping tom in horror fiction), the aforementioned Mr. Masters' Three On A Match (Chevron, 1967), and even an "I Am Curious Gothic" entry, John Daniels' No Escape (Wizard, 1967), suggesting that maybe some of these novels actually have something going for them beyond their supremely lurid packaging.

In truth, any 'review' is superfluous where The Sleazy Reader is concerned. If you wanna know what the magazine is like, study the above sample artwork. Now imagine 68 full colour pages of similarly outlandish creations, offset with enlightened commentary and bibliographical info.

You're getting warm.

Subscription details, further info, etc, email:

thepaperbackfanaticAsky.com (please substitute the A with @ )

[severance]

Of the 100+ covers so vividly displayed within the pages of "The Sleazy Reader #2," I have just one of them in my book collection - namely "The Chic Chick Spy" by Bob Tralins - and that was complete crap!! That doesn't mean that "The Sleazy Reader" wasn't devoured as soon as it landed on my doormat though. Was it Dem describing a "Men of Violence" back issue that said that although he had no desire to read any of the books mentioned in that issue,reading about them was another matter entirely? Because that's the remarkable thing about Justin's latest glorification of Cheap sleaze - it's left me with no great desire to read any of this stuff, but that doesn't mean that I might not buy one or two items in it. When's the next one?

[pulphack]

It was indeed Dem, and he was right! This stuff is like really crap B-movies from the same era - love reading about them but would be hard pushed to sit through more than one, sometimes even one. But someone loved 'em back in the day, and it's damn' fine Justin finds it in the goodness of his heart to enlighten us. It's sociology, as I always tell Dem to tell Chrissie. It's my excuse, anyway...

[dem bones]

May 26, 2015 22:42:38 GMT severance said:

Of the 100+ covers so vividly displayed within the pages of "The Sleazy Reader #2," I have just one of them in my book collection ...

That's one more than me! Actually, think I'd be more inclined to try a sleazy over a violence title, if only for the bizarre subject matter. Robert Tralin's Ghoul Lover, Ed Wood jnr.s Sex, Sex, Shrouds & Caskets and (as V. N. Jensen) The Love Of The Dead, sound right up my street, but even some of the relatively common-or-garden fetish items - John Daniels' No Escape and any number of Unique publications - look as if they might make for an interesting reading experience.

It must be a cover gallery thing, but the titles featured in Sleazy Reader#2 give off an almost innocent vibe compared to some of the launch issue's scarier moments.

[andydecker]

The "sleazy" genre has become more interesting for its covers then its content. Today it is kind of hard to understand that people bought this for its supposed titillating content.

The Reader was great as usual. So many wonderful covers! Justin did it again.

[dem bones]

Ramon Sola

Revisited 2007's Paperback Dungeon (aka Paperback Fanatic #2 recently. 28 pages, b/w, typically eclectic mix of horror (Weird Tales at Panther), violent western (Laurence James' The Crow), Comics (pre-W. H. Smith's ban Action!), Hells Angel fiction (Carl Allesi on 'Bikers & American Pulp Literature), plus nostalgia for the "horrible hippy hovel" in Leeds where Rik Rawling lost his heart to comix. So, the content is there, but, while the production values are certainly more than adequate for the job at hand, I doubt even Justin could anticipate the glossy, full colour extravaganza's which have since become Marriott Enterprises stock in trade. What I find most impressive about the spin-offs is that, while both The Sleazy Reader and Men Of Violence are recognisably in the tradition of Paperback Fanatic, they have fast carved their own identity - and that's before introducing the proposed sleazy letters column. Who would have thought that reading about books almost nobody would ever read if their life depended on it could be so much fun?