Slice me open: supplemental
typed for your pleasure on 11 February 2006, at 1.07 pmSdtrk: ‘Echoes in my mind’ by Barbara Ruskin
Last year, during one of the visits that Mike & Wolfgang (of the Vulne Pro Consortium and Knitting Circle) and I had made to John King books in downtown Detriot, we managed to find several milk crates filled with various mens’ magazines from the late Fifties and Sixties. They are truly the Stuff of Legend. If it were possible to distill these mags into their component ingredients, the largest parts-per-volume amounts yielded would be (in order) Machismo, Bombast, Kitsch, and Rampant Sexism. But they did possess a certain charm, as their kitsch factor was undeniable. Usually the swarthy blokes on the covers were either 1) shirtless, 2) doing something death-defying, like shooting Nazis or punching crocodiles, 3) seducing some lusty, busty lass, or 4) a combination of all three. Y’know, typical Post-WWII White Guy activities. It was impossible for us to stop laughing.
As I was skint at the time, I didn’t obtain any myself — I intend on returning, as in all likelihood, they’re probably still up there — but Wolfgang and Mike grabbed a few, and a couple of days ago, Wolfgang Emailed me a reminder of one of the best covers:
YES, mensur fencing!
Judges, do we have a winner? I think we do
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Circus Minimus: supplemental on November 1st, 2007
What d'ya mean, 'not big enough'? on August 11th, 2005
February 12th, 2006 at 10.11 am
Fuck the Mensur fancing, I wanna hear about Herman Melville’s sex paradise!
I wonder if Queequeg is involved…
February 12th, 2006 at 11.10 pm
What I enjoy the most about this cover is the fellows hoisting steins in the back… and the blonde dame, apparently dropped nito the frame from outer space, who doesn’t look too impressed at all of the testosterone.
My guess is that the artist submitted the piece without the piece o’ cheesecake and it was rejected, as he did not meet the minumum 1.5 breasts per cover requirement. So he threw in the Teutonic bombshell… and there you go.
February 13th, 2006 at 12.04 am
Wolfgang –
Personally, I think she’s quite impressed with Herr Schnicklegrüber there (the one on the attack). She’s mentally sizing him up, as it were, and thinking, ‘if he is as good with his penis as he is with his sword, then he will be a most desirable sparring/mating partner, on the torrid, steamy battlefield commonly known as Lust’. Or something similar. Maybe she really is from space if she thinks like that.
Come to think of it, the gentleman to her immediate left seems to be undressing them with his eyes as well. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
February 14th, 2006 at 2.53 pm
HAVE at THEEE!!! Quiver at my swashing and buckling Nazi killing devil-me-care pirate-ness. Huzaaaah! Indeedy.
February 15th, 2006 at 6.24 am
Yes, yes… but…
Herman Melville’s SEX PARADISE!!!!
Is it a theme park combining prostitution with American literature?