Gay Art | Arsenal Pulp Prs

Contents:

• GAY PULP ART
• I DIGIZED SOME GAY PULP FOR YOU
• GAY ART
• GAY PULP FICTN - VTAGE
• GAY PULP BOOKS
• #ARTDEPT: VTAGE GAY PULP BOOK COVERS

GAY PULP ART

But while he was drawg maps and illtratg scen of Louisiana folklife, he was also wrg dozens of semi-tobgraphil gay pulp novels, patg most of their vers himself, and publishg them unr his own name through major pulp pani of the late 1960s. In the 1970s and after, he voted himself to newspaper ic strips about lol history and relig topics, while also wrg and drawg extensive gay-themed science-fictn ics. "The first wave of gay pulp fictn materialized the 1940s and was primarily posed of reprts of earlier mastream, rpected lerary fictn wh gay them.

Though lbian-themed pulp fictn was also beg produced at this time, they nsisted of origal stori wrten by men for a heterosexual male dience whereas the gay pulp fictn books were wrten by gay men for a wi rearship. Relaxatn of censorship laws the 1960s led to a send wave of gay and lbian pulp fictn where was possible to publish work wh more explic sexual ntent and prent unapologetic queer characters. For both gays and lbians the new wrgs, which reached far more people than the earlier lerary fictn, "were both a visceral and visible marker of personal as well as group inty" acrdg to thor Michael Bronski.

Addnally, the back pag of the books, there were advertisements for homophile anizatns and spac for personal ads. ‘Rally Round the Fag’ one of ten vtage gay pulp novels starrg the popular character “Jackie Holm” om ‘The Man om C. Historilly, lbian pulp was much more popular than novels featurg the explos of gay men—and that is, of urse, bee the lbian pulp was wily purchased by straight dus.

I DIGIZED SOME GAY PULP FOR YOU

The populary of the novels ntued to rise durg 1940s though, as noted the book Where Thy Dark Eye Glanc: Queerg Edgar Allan Poe eded by pulp historian Steve Berman, the very first te “gay pulp” novel was published 1952 by thor Gee Viereck. Viereck, a former propaganda tool of the Nazis durg WWII thored the 195 page Men to Beasts that ed homosexual prison culture as a part of s storyle—somethg Viereck had observed first hand while he was locked up.

Senator Joseph McCarthy who addn to his spicns that mi, pkos and reds had managed to weasel their way to ernment posns, was also nvced that was swarmg wh homosexuals, probably mie, pko homosexuals, too. McCarthy sent his right-wg buddi to turn up the heat on the State Department claims which would rult the acknowledgment that 91 employe had been intified as “gay” and were fired unr the guise that they were a huge “secury risk. Senate lnched the ridiculo soundg vtigatn “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts the Government”.

Upon the ncln of what is bt scribed as a gay wch hunt, the mtee was unable to intify any Amerin cizen who might have sold out the good-old U.

GAY ART

This didn’t stop the mtee om publishg a post-operative paper which “nclively” tablished that a gay man or a lbian posssed “weak moral character” and that the cln of only one homosexual n “pollute a ernment office.

Post office uld no longer refe to liver books that featured homosexualy, which, acrdg to rearch nducted by the Universy of Massachetts Prs led to a verable “explosn” of gay pulp novels.

GAY PULP FICTN - VTAGE

Now that I’ve shared a b of the rich history surroundg gay pulp fictn, let’s take a look at some of the more hysteril, tongue--cheek vers that created such a stir back the 50s and 60s, shall we? My subject is Carl Corley, a gay man om Mississippi and Louisiana who wrote several dozen gay pulp novels the Sixti and Seventi unr his own name, which was super rare at the time.

Gay and lbian pulp novels have been nsired trash for a long time, but they were actually some of the first plac queer people ld see themselv, and queer thors took advantage of that. Some of Corley’s pre-Stonewall books are basilly long rants about gay rights, barely veiled enough to get published! So, there’s a lot of tertg and important stuff there about how queer Southerners saw (and see) themselv, about longstandg bat over termology, and about how civil rights and gay liberatn filtered to the ral South.

GAY PULP BOOKS

Silver Wner, ForeWord Magaze Book of the Year Award (Gay/Lbian Non-Fictn)Bronze Wner, Inpennt Publisher Book Award (Bt Eroti)When first published 1972, A Historic Collectn of Gay Art was the first book to document explic exprsns of gay male sexualy the graphic arts, om antiquy to pop culture; s ank and unapologetic survey of the pleasur of the flh was, for gay men, unprecented, and remas the startg-pot for morn-day discsns of erotic gay male artwork and ics.

There is also a preface by Earl Kemp, one of the book's origal edors, on the story of s publitn at a time when the celebratn of gay men's sexualy was still a dangero thg.

#ARTDEPT: VTAGE GAY PULP BOOK COVERS

Gay Art also provis a morn-day discsn about pleasure and permissn: qutns about how we fe erotic imagery, and what we should and should not be allowed to see. Subversive, smart, and sexy, Gay Art tak erotic imag om the past out of the closet and to the light of prent day. Erotic gay male art is a very big tegory but this revised and updated edn of the btsellg Greenleaf book do a good job.

Gay Art: A Historic Collectn is sential readg for anyone terted gay graphics, gay history, the cultural history of the 1960s and 70s, sex the arts, or pla old hot pictur.... Those glancg at this volume will undoubtedly ntemplate not only how much has changed but also how much has not pictg gay male life. The thors and the prs serve a lot of cred and thanks for puttg together this revised edn of the 1972 llectn of erotic gay male art....