Outlaw Biker Article, Male Magazine 1969

Just scored about 20 Men’s Adventure Magazines, this article is from one of them. This particular issue has a number of good articles and stories I would like to share. If you see a story listed on the cover you would like to see a scan of let me know in the comments section.
Click the thumbnails for full size images.

New Comics (at least new to me)

Holy Sh*t: The Worlds Weirdest Comic Books

By Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury

Nice collection of bizarre comic book covers, from the 50’s all the way up until recent times. Most of what you’ll find in this book is un-Intentionally humorous, and as the title promises downright weird. Each comic has a two page spread featuring the cover and a little information on the comic itself. My only complaint is that they seem to have cropped all the cover artwork, most of the time the title logo of the comic book is missing. Other than that it’s a nice quick read, and makes for a great little coffee table book.






Dirty Stories vol.3

Various Artists

The book opens with a stand out piece of art by the always entertaining Daniel Clowes, which I would hope would be a sign of good things to come. What you get is a mixed bag of comic’s ranging from the amazingly creative to the bland end of the scale. The art is nice throughout with some of the spot illustrations being vividly shocking. Not all the stories are what I would call “dirty” though, strips by Mike White and H.G. Feekes are sexual in nature but not really dirty and some are more graphic than others. As a whole it’s still a good read and worth the cove price, available here.



Chamber of Mystery: Witchcraft vol.1

I’m a huge fan of pre-code horror and romance comics, over the years I’ve amassed quite a collection. I’m always on the lookout for quality reprints of these classic comics, and am somewhat surprised there are not more to be found. After all most of these comics are now in the public domain. A good quality reprint is exactly what you get with Olympian Publishing’s Witchcraft vol.1. Thirteen pre-code horror stories are reproduced nicely with vivid color and easy to read text. Although tame compared to some other horror comics of the era, the stories chosen are all great entertainment with beautiful golden age artwork. Definitely recommended.

Original Fiction

I sent the call out for original lurid fiction to be posted on this site and very soon collected into a published journal. It’s been less than a week and I have received some really good entries, I’m getting everything ready right now and will hopefully be posting some of these pieces within a week.

The plan is to post a new piece every Friday, with a short prelude on Thursday. I have five shorts right now that fit my lurid criteria very well. Now I’m covered for the next five weeks but I need still need submissions.

If you have thought about sending something in, but haven’t, please do so now. As you’ll see the stories I’ve selected run the full gamut from funny to scary, the one common thread holding them together is what I would like to call the Lurid Factor. “What’s the Lurid Factor” you ask? A dash of sleaze, a pinch of gore, and a nice helping of exploitation.

If you have a story that matches those criteria, then by all means send it my way. I’ll personally answer every submission and I promise not to be a pompous ass about it either.

Before I sign off let me thank everyone who has sent me something. I know it takes guts to send out something for critique that you’ve spent hours perfecting, I applaud you all. Also if you haven’t heard from yet it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not interested. Give me time I’ll answer everyone personally.

Send all submissions here.

Readmagic Web Site Review

Adult paperbacks are a thing of the past now, there were a few still being produced in the early 90’s, but aside from Letters to Penthouse collections they’re gone. There are a few places that sell them online, but at hugely inflated prices. I mainly collect stuff from the mid 70’s going all the way back to the 50’s, mainly for the kitsch covers, and the earlier books contain stories that are unintentionally funny reads.

The adult book reached the pinnacle of hardcore in the 80’s with fetish books about torture, rape, incest, and bestiality. Although these are more common than 60’s sleaze paperbacks they often fetch a higher price.

If you’re into 80’s paperback smut there is an alternative, readmagic.com. This site features adult paperbacks that have been scanned and converted to ebooks. They have a nice selection from companies like Greenleaf, Night Stand, and Triumph Books, each ebook cost $7.95 and they have multiple books specials. Although I’m not really into the 80’s scene I bought a book for review purposes.

As the website promises the transaction was easy, I paid and the download was immediately available. The files don’t appear to be DRM protected and are .lit files so Microsoft Reader is needed to view the file. As you can see from the image below the cover has been cropped and www.readmagic.com is superimposed over it.



Over all it seems like a good alternative if you’re more interested in the story over the empheria. Just a warning though, they seem to have taken some classic covers cropped them and re-titled them. I haven’t read any of them but it’s possible the stories are different as well.

www.readmagic.com

Hino Horror

Born to Japanese immigrant parents living in China young Hideshi Hino fled the country to Japan at an early age. Hino grew up in post war Japan and has said that time has influenced him as an artist. If this is true things must have been tough for the poor kid. Children are the main focus of this manga artist; the protagonist usually faces lowliness and abuse and almost certainly some kind of mutation or death.

Killing off the main character who happens to be a child is pretty damn taboo here in the states, and add to that the fact that these comics were aimed towards young girls makes this series even more interesting.

Hino has a style all his own, somewhat reminiscent of so many other manga artist, but very different in detail and execution. For instance almost all his stories feature an obese child, drawn so exaggerated it’s almost a caricature. He’s also very detailed with the gore, skin infections, knife wounds, and intestines are all carefully drawn to perfection.

Cocoro Books have released fourteen volumes of Hideshi Hino’s work, titled the Hino Horror Collection. All are good reads but I would recommend The Bug Boy, The Collection, and Skin and Bone. You can find all fourteen volumes on Amazon marketplace for about two dollars a piece.

Looking for Lurid Writers

Submissions are now closed until further notice.

From the beginning of this blog I’ve had hopes of featuring original fiction, so please consider this an open call for submissions. Submission guidelines pay scale, and general info are below so if interested keep reading.

What we want: As the name of this website implies, we are looking for lurid literature. This doesn’t mean hardcore pornography, although a scene or two isn’t a necessarily bad thing.

Subjects that will be consider: Sleaze, Hardcore Horror, Bikers, Women in Prison, Juvenile Delinquency, Drugs, Blaxploitation, and Grind House Lit.
Subjects like Crime and Comedy are fine as long as they contain exploitative elements.
Also looking for original Non Fiction on subjects like pulp fiction, sleazy paperbacks, horror comics, ect.

What we don’t want: Anything involving sex and minors, or animals for that matter!

Length and pay:
Flash Fiction, 300 to 1,000 words $5
Short Story, 1,000 to 4,000 words $20
Non Fiction, 1,000 to 4,000 words $20
All payments will be made through Paypal.

General info:
No Reprints please. No multiple submissions, if we turn one down then you can send in a new one for us to view. Please submit work in a 97-2000 word doc, do not copy and paste story in the body of the email. Not knowing sucks, that’s why I’ll personally respond to everyone’s submissions. Please allow up to six weeks to be notified yes or no. By submitting a piece to us you agree to let us display your story on this website, and release it in our new lit journal. Send all submissions to chris [at] luridlit.com

Update

Here are some questions and answers to better clarify the submission process.

1) In this statement: "By submitting a piece to us you agree to let us display your story on this website, and release it in our new lit journal." Does you mean by submitting a work, authors are giving you permission to use their work on the blog and in the journal? In other words, you have the right to use the work in two separate venues before contract and payment. Is that correct?
Answer: We will not post or publish anything unless a contract is signed first and payment is delivered. We reserve the right to use it for the webzine and/or the print journal (see #3).

2) Is your "new lit journal" a website or a print journal?
Answer: We will post smaller pieces on the website and collect longer pieces for a new printed literary journal. Again nothing will be posted or printed until a contract has been signed and money has been transferred.

3) Are fees stated for the blog, or for the journal, or for both? In other words, one fee for double use of the work?
Answer: All writers will be paid once for their work to be posted digitally and/or if chosen once for their work to be printed.

4) What rights do you require? i.e., digital rights for two years, or other rights.
Answer: We hold non exclusive digital rights to post/display/archive pieces for as long as we choose, the writer has the choice to publish or sale the piece to anyone they choose after the initial posting. We hold the non exclusive right to print publish the writing one time, if we want to publish the piece again a new contract will be drawn. The writer has the choice to publish or sale the piece to anyone they choose after the initial publishing.

Mexican Pulp Art Gallery

Open publication - Free publishing - More pulp fiction