The Skinzine Letter

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:25 pm

So as part of my ongoing research while writing my Cthulhu Mythos essay, I attempted (without success) to find a series of stories written by a particular (deceased) author, perhaps under a pseudonym, for a gentleman's magazine starring a janitor as Miskatonic University. Trying to track down obscure stories in non-top-tier porn magazines is a daunting task; the indices are few, far between, and often incomplete. When I did finally manage to locate a dozen thirty-year-old skinzines for a small fortune, I of course did not find anything even remotely resembling what I was hoping for.

However, an off-hand comment by the author led me to believe he had actually received fanmail from the readers of his fiction in the glossy pages, so I waded through the letters section as well. After all, these things were expensive.

It's an interesting step back in time, a chronological safari through a very strange pre-internet porn time, when porn was rare, special, and expensive, and the gentlemen (and ladies) who purchased or subscribed to these magazines formed a very odd but prolific community. The letters page was effectively their only forum to express themselves on this private matter without opening themselves up to the ridicule of their peers (who probably also had a stack of skinmags you could bury a man in, but would never admit it.)

Of course, I didn't find what I was looking for there either. It was a long shot, and it failed. Such is life.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:42 pm

You should do a photoblog about these. Vintage men's mags are awesome. There's a bookstore kind of in my neighborhood that specializes in them, but it's a really awkward place so I've only been in a couple of times.

Who's the author, out of curiosity>

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:50 pm

Brian McNaughton. Pennames were "Mark Bloodstone" and "Sheena Clayton" and I think I found one more he never used again, but that's a bit iffy.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:51 pm

Well, if you were really hot to trot about finding these pieces, PM me a little more info and maybe I can make a visit to the creepy bookstore.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:21 pm

Sadly, I have little more information on this particular subject. I've exhausted the issues I could confirm he has pieces in, the only thing left would be a trawl through entire runs of issues looking for his name or pseudonyms - and there's no guarantee those would even be the right titles. I've tried to get some more information from other sources, but the response has been discouraging - one actually used the phrase "persistive vegetative state" which is never a good sign.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:55 am

I'm presuming you already plumbed his wikipedia article and the 3 short story collections listed there and what not?

I dunno if you could find success by contacting someone at Wildside Press or a family member (perhaps a bit gauche on the latter, but I dunno how committed you are to this).

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:01 am

I did contact Wildside Press and his short story collections - no luck.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:09 pm

I'll shoot Bob Price an email, I have a feeling this might be the kind of juicy tidbit he'd know about. Failing that, I'll try to talk to Joshi, though I haven't had much contact with him, so who knows.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:12 pm

I sent an email the Cryptkeeper a week or two back, but he hasn't gotten back to me.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:29 pm

I found some newsgroup discussion... the MisU janitor is named "Wicked Walter" and it seems like Bob Price may have been the right person to contact, as his name was mentioned in connection. So we'll see what he comes back with.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:44 pm

This just in, courtesy of Cynic (on Facebook). http://www.amazon.com/Miskatonic-Univer ... 0886777224
Have you gotten this far? I think you mentioned you had some shorts collections.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:48 pm

I own a copy, yes. I'm debating how much of Stephen Mark Rainey to cover, but he's next on the list after I finish W. H. Pugmire.

I actually have a very respectable Mythos/Lovecraftiana library now.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:34 pm

D'oh. I totally didn't connect this topic with the facebook post. I have a friend of mine looking at his huge ebook archive to see if he has any of the sheena clayton or mark bloodstone books. he isnt going to be able to get to the hard drive with the stuff until this weekend but I'll keep you informed.

I think one of the two pseudonyms was made to write some seriously bad porn. I'm pretty sure it's the Bloodstone books.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:38 pm

Both Bloodstone and Clayton were used to write porn; it's a toss-up which is worse - although, since I managed to track down and read four of the six Sheena Clayton novels I'm aware of, I can confirm that McNaughton did tend to seed them with some references to Lovecraft and the Mythos, though only one of them is even close to a minor Mythos novel.

For anyone interested, here are the skinzine stories I've tracked down so far:

00 "The Wonder Treatment" (Beaver, April 1977, vol 2, no 1)

01 "All in a Day's Work" (High Society, November 1977, vol 2, no 7) as Mark Bloodstone

02 "Origin of the Species" (High Society, January 1978, vol 2, no 9)

03 "Stocks and Bondage" (Chic, January 1978, vol 2, no 3)

04 "Things That GO Slurp in the Night" (High Society, March 1978, vol 2, no 10) as Mark Bloodstone

05 "She Went Down Swinging" (High Society, May 1978, vol 2, no 12) as Mark Bloodstone

06 "Climax!" (Genesis, October 1978, vol 6, no 3)

07 "Underwear Antics to Make You Cum in Your Pants" (High Society, November 1978, vol 3, no 6) as Sheena Clayton

08 "Demon Lover" (Beaver, October 1979, vol 5, no 16) as Mark Bloodstone

09 "Up Against the Wall" (Best of Chic Vol. 6, 1988)

10 "Firebugs" (Hustler, February 1988, Vol 14, no 8)

11 "Under My Skin" (Chic, December 1990, vol 15, no 2)

A couple have horror or fantasy elements, but most are just straight porn.

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:20 pm

That sounds like an awesome track for a CD.