OK, time for my first de novo topic. The thread on fantasy dates started a train of thought for me that ended up on magazines and other periodicals I enjoyed that are no longer around. For instance:
[ul][li]Wig Wag, a general interest monthly mag that was around for a couple of years in the mid-80s. An article on Veronica Lake piqued my interest in her, despite the fact that she was indisputably not my physical ideal (I’m more into brunettes, particularly with short black hair and cute, rather than conventionally beautiful, features – like my wife). Another article (part of a regular series of practical how-to pieces) taught me how to turn a collar, which was invaluable in extending the life of many shirts in my more penurious days.[/li][li]Trouser Press. Though I’d definitely have outgrown it by now (I probably haven’t purchased more than five or six items of contemporary music in the last half-dozen years), TP was indispensible to me in my high school days, since it was about the only way a kid living in deepest Arkansas was going to find out about the kinds of music I was into at the time.[/li][li]The Arkansas Gazette, where I learned everything I needed to know from about six years old on into my college years. The first reguarly published newspaper west of the Mississippi, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis, etc., and far better-written and saner than its cross-town competitor, The Arkansas Democrat, it nevertheless was unable to compete with the deeper pockets of the Democrat’s owners, who offered free classified ads for years in a money-losing but ultimately successful attempt to bury the Gazette, which first endured being sold to Gannett, and finally was sold to the Democrat itself. The merged publication, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is not even a pale shadow of the Gazette; the presence of the Gazette name on the front reminds me of nothing so much as the head of a defeated enemy stuck on a spike and raised above the ramparts of a castle.[/li][li]Finally, Southline, a weekly tabloid published here in Atlanta in the eighties, featuring a mix of local-interest articles and syndicated columns from the alternative press. Typically better written and more ambitious than its competitor, Creative Loafing (which at that time was little better than the average college newspaper), it crumpled in the face of CL’s quantity-over-quality philosophy, which succeeding in drawing the bulk of the then-limited ad revenue. It was in Southline’s pages that I first encounted The Straight Dope some thirteen years ago.[/ul][/li]
So what now-defunct periodicals had an impact on your life? Which ones do you particularly miss?
Quinto Lingo, published originally by J. I. Rodale; after he died around 1970 the language magazine floundered and died an agonizing death. The Saturday Evening Post. True.
There were some scary comic-type magazines that I used to really enjoy when I was a kid, circa late 1970s. For the life of me, can’t remember what they were called, but there were a couple different ones and they were really similar.
They had black-and-white comics, and were magazine style, not comic books. Each magazine had a creepy character who served as a narrator that introduced the stories and gave a conclusion, ala the “Tales From the Crypt” TV show. But it was not Tales from the Crypt. (That was a regular comic, was it not?)
Anyone have any clue to what I am referring? The stories were actually pretty spooky.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
Creem, in the 70s to early 80s, was excellent. Unbelievably irreverent for a “mainstream” music magazine and actually had quite good coverage of what was then called New Wave. I bought it religiously. It was briefly reincarnated in the late 80s but without any of the bite.
Creem was pretty good at times, particularly under Lester Bangs. Little bit too much coverage of headbangers and art rockers to be completely hip, but worth reading.
“Circus” a music magazine back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, much like “Creem”. I used to buy it for the gorgeous color photographs of Marc Bolan (that’s T-Rex) and David Bowie, etc. Yow! There was a really cheap pulp fashion publication called “Rags”, also from the late 60’s, I have one or two copies. Full of How to Be A Hippie articles, fashion layouts of flag-ornamented clothing (T-shirts in finer stores, like $8 - take that, Old Navy), how to put henna on your hair, nails, and aureolas; ads for every San Francisco headshop in business. Priceless stuff! Very Woodstock, very us-against-the=Man.
I read you both, Auntie and Guy. For my part, I think Mad and Cracked have gone way downhill–Mad since the death of William M. Gaines, and Cracked since 1986, when apparently the company that publishes it changed hands.
Milossarian – Tales from the Crypt was in magazine size, IIRC, in the early days. A google search reveals that the original 50’s title was Crypt of Terror.
There were lots of creepy mags around then, and I think one was simply called “Creepy.”
I’ll never forget one story, probably 45 years ago, about a couple of guys searching a tomb for lost treasure. Legend has it the place is guarded by some kind of creature.
Of course, the guys get greedy, one kills the other after finding the treasure and is gleefully leaving with the loot.
The last panel is simple – big teeth and the Crunch word. Gave me nightmares for years.
In the mid-80s, Star Hits was a great magazine (bear in mind, I was about 14 when I read it). It was a teeny-bobber music mag for kids that were into The Cure and Depeche Mode, but they had a lot of mainstream bands, too, like Duran Duran and the Police. It was the one magazine I had to have every month when I outgrew that horrid 16 magazine.
To second a few already mentioned, I also miss New Times and National Lampoon (which technically isn’t quite dead, they publish an issue of reprints every couple of years in order to maintain the trademark). I also miss Spy. And on a totally different plain, there was a short lived magazine called Pure published a few years ago. It was a porno mag published by Larry Flynt but it was unusual in that, while it was aimed at the heterosexual male market, it was completely staffed by women.
