rob4
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 104
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Post by rob4 on Jan 8, 2021 14:52:55 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Jan 9, 2021 20:25:33 GMT
Thanks for letting us know, Rob. Will investigate ASAP. In the meantime. Justin Marrott [ed.] - The Sleazy Reader # 9 (Nov 1990) A Crime Does Pay special from the Marriott Escort Agency. Once Upon A Time in America. Gangster biographies from Monarch Books and their Americana line.
The Godfather Series. Belmont Tower laugh in the face of copyright laws with this cheekily named line of Mafia biographies
Hot Slugs and Cool Dames. A visual guide to sleazy crime digests
The Godfather of Belmont Tower. Wise Guy Sean Nodland on Peter McCurtin, editor and writer at Belmont Tower.
"C-call (gag) the Morgue!". Plundering EC Comics and cocking a snook to good taste, it's Fight Against Crime
Her Kind Die Bloody! Pontiac publishing and their wild line of crime digests.
The Long Life and Quiet Death of True Detective. John Marr of Murder Can Be Fun on the most famous of all true-crime magazines.
Four Colour Justice. 'Mr Crime' Sean Nodland on Crime Does Not Pay comics
Mad Dog of the Digests. Harlan Ellison stories for the sleazy crime digests.
Sleaze-Noir. The early 70's series that added hardcore sex and violence to the crime novel.
New Zealand's Most Wanted. Scott Carlson obsessively scans decades old Kiwi legal documents - so that you don't have to.
The Original Travis. Roy Nugen on the original Travis (clue: it isn't McGee).Am*z*n.ukAm*z*n.com |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 14, 2021 10:25:22 GMT
Justin's introduction lays the cards on the table. "If your definition of a sleaze paperback can be widened to include any publication which is in bad taste or lowbrow, irrespective of genre, then I think you will enjoy the articles in this issue." Made a start on this last night. Highlights; Mr. Sleazy on the Pontiac publications - evidently a crime - shudder pulp hybrid - Sean Nodland on Crime Does Not Pay comic, and personal favourite, Scott Carlson on the findings of New Zealand's Indecent Publication Tribunal. Standard impenetrable "Commentary" to reveal all ASAP.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 14, 2021 20:19:25 GMT
and personal favourite, Scott Carlson on the findings of New Zealand's Indecent Publication Tribunal. I'll have to get it just for this. In Australia we had a similar practice of banning "obscene" books, along the lines of the British model I guess. An academic, Nicole Moore, wrote a book about the practice in Australia, which went right up to the early 1970s. The confiscated books were stored in a basement at the Sydney office of the National Archives (I've worked in the Canberra Office for 20 years) - nobody knew they were there because they were uncatalogued, until Nicole Moore asked about them. There were 800 boxes of books, magazines, comics etc, each item wrapped up in brown paper!  host picture |
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Post by andydecker on Jan 15, 2021 10:20:02 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation, James. I read the preview and thought it fascinating, but also very dense.
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rob4
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 104
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Post by rob4 on Jan 15, 2021 11:35:04 GMT
There were 800 boxes of books, magazines, comics etc, each item wrapped up in brown paper! They must be worth a small fortune... |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 15, 2021 19:33:45 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation, James. I read the preview and thought it fascinating, but also very dense. Happily, the findings of the New Zealand Indecent Publications Tribunal are very easy on the brain. "Unlike many similar bodies, this tribunal operated very openly, with its decisions, and the rationale behind them, published in the weekly New Zealand Gazette, the official vehicle for Government announcements." Dubious paperbacks to come under the censors' scrutiny include Jackboot Girls ("It has no redeeming literary merit and its purpose is plainly pornographic"), Why was he born so beautiful & other Rugby Songs, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Chopper (Ok for over 18's), Agro ("indecent"), Galactic Girl ("We had considerable difficulty in trying to find any coherent story in the mass of explicit sexual descriptions" - eBay prices just went through the roof), Female Sex Perversions (ditto), and something called Ride a Cock-Horse which we are not sure we wish to learn more of. The appraisals quoted suggest the tribunal had a whale of a time. Maybe its old age, but I found myself in agreement with their verdict on more occasions than makes me comfortable. I do hope Mr. Carlson can be persuaded to contribute a second installment. Thanks to Justin for providing the There Was A Fair Maid scan. More to follow ... |
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 15, 2021 21:38:22 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation, James. I read the preview and thought it fascinating, but also very dense. Yep, very much an academic book, but not without humour. Australia Post would open packages arriving from overseas to see if they contained dodgy literature, and bookshops had things seized from their shelves. Sounds like 1984, which also may have been banned, certainly Keep the Aspidistra Flying was! |
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Post by helrunar on Jan 15, 2021 22:15:34 GMT
That looks like Katy Manning on the cover of There was a fair maid. Probably just an accidental resemblance but I did a double-take.
H.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 16, 2021 18:53:51 GMT
Another high point of issue 9 is Mr. Sleazy's beginners guide to such Pontiac crime digests as Off Beat Detective, Two-Fisted Detective Stories, and the shudder pulp revival, Shock Mystery Tales. Covers are predominantly the work of Carl Pfeufer while Bud Ampolsk, serial disreputable mag ed., hacked, out the bulk of the fiction, often as 'Bill Ryder' or Don Unatin.' Ampolsk had a flair for the irresistible come on - Her Shroud Won’t Fit!, Slaughter the Lovelies!, Portrait of the She-Devil of Lust, A Skeleton for Her Bed!, Tease Me and Die, Tickled to Death, She’ll Shriek for Death!, Strippers Are Murder!, The Creep, etc - although, from what we gather from Mr. Marriott's review of the Jan. 1960 Off Beat Detective, inevitably the titles promise more than the stories deliver. With cover art like this - courtesy of pulpcovers - it's doubtful anyone minded much. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jan 16, 2021 19:49:02 GMT
"Sock stories"? That is pretty highly specialized material there.
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