In the "History of Men's Magazines" series, a former men's magazine editor - Dian Hanson - traces the development of sexy, titillating periodicals from 1900 to 1980.
Why two volumes on the 1960s? Because when men's magazines were finally accepted on the newsstands something had to fill their old niche under the counter. On the cusp of the sixties a new breed of men's magazine emerged in Southern California. Made in smaller print-runs, aimed at more specific markets, these new magazines, called "slicks" for the thick glossy paper they were printed on, first embraced bad girls and big hair, beatniks, booze, and fetish photographers like Elmer Batters. As the decade progressed these were the first men's magazines to showcase hippy culture, and to expose all that hippy hair, years before it made its appearance on the newsstand.
Volume 4 concentrates on the emergence of California's specialty magazine industry and how it spawned the state's multi-billion dollar sex industry of today, but also includes fetish master Irving Klaw, the specialty magazines of England, and concludes with Sweden and Denmark's emergence as the new powers in European publishing.
Together with Volume 3, Volume 4 gives a complete picture of this fascinating decade of rapid social change, but also stands on its own, covering a distinctly different, more risqué side of 1960s men's magazine publishing.
Volume 4 contains over 400 full color pages of magazine covers and interiors with well-researched text profiling important publishers and artists, individual magazines, and specialty magazine categories. This hardcover volume is an instant collectable and is vital to completion of Dian Hanson's: The History of Men's Magazines six-volume set.
