Would re-publishing old British w@nk mags be a success?

mikeboob · January 16th, 2015, 03:09 PM

Does anyone else think brand new, pristine reprints of "classic era" Escort, Whitehouse, Fiesta etc would just fly off the shelves (or more likely warehouse pallets) if they were made available for an 'inflation adjusted' price today? Looking online there is clearly a market for buying copies of the original runs with prices sometimes sky high (albeit God loves a chancer!).

arioch404 · January 16th, 2015, 04:32 PM

having just been scouring ebay for volume 5 of Razzle i'd say there might well be. there seems to be a huge trade on ebay for the original mags many of which are selling for £7 to £10 a throw.

**Greenman** · January 16th, 2015, 06:32 PM

Not really not with the Internet now. It is also rather sad that this generation will not know the frisson of excitement we had back then seeing a girl completely naked BUT with pubic hair. Today's teens only know the smooth, shaved look(which back then was for a minority of fans) which for me ruined the magazines and models-I mean would women really like Brad Pitt without hair on his head? I doubt many of us would be waxing so lyrical about old magazines if all the girls were bald below. I concede that some men prefer it, but for me the old sort were the best, especially the chance of finding or seeing a Page 3 girl without her knickers

If I can offer an analogy: Sid James & Tony Hancock in 'The Reunion Party' Tony decides to hold a reunion of his old army pals, whom he tells Sid were "the heaviest drinkers to ever set foot inside a pair of army boots" However, they have changed too much. Not only do they not drink anymore, one is a meek, boring bank clerk with an equally staid wife(where once he was the "James Bond of the East Cheam Light Horse"), a former ladies man now a vicar, a redheaded prankster now older and bald and even Hancock himself known as 'Kippers', because of his flat feet. When someone else turns up who actually remembers things, Scrounger Ellis, he has the door slammed in his face. As Sid says "What's done is done, never try to recapture the past" I feel the same about men's magazines.

zuckerman · January 16th, 2015, 06:38 PM

I'd like to see some data on the potential interest but I doubt it would be feasible.

In the first place, original film transparencies of the images may no longer exist or be unobtainable. The litho plates from which the mags were printed almost certainly don't exist and digital files from the 90s and earlier would be in non-robust formats. Anyone remember magneto-otptical disks? That means you will be printing from scans of existing magazines (with their barely adequate 150dpi quality), with at least a little image degradation introduced.

There may be a whole bunch of rights holders for those magazines, from copy writers, photographers and publishers to advertisers, and getting universal agreement to reprint will be a heroic achievement.

Then it all comes down to the economics of printing. This time it would be done digitally 'on-demand' (i.e. no runs of 50,000 copies all at once and the huge bill that comes with it) but even with a collector's price of £7-£10, finding a profit margin could still be a huge gamble. A key fact is you'd be selling mail order, not through the old chain of newsagents when the mags were mass market - so packing and postage is in there too. Also, remember that a substantial part of the printed mag used to be adverts that paid for the print run, now useless and costly in terms of paper/ink. The likelihood is that your reprint ends up as a very thin collection of model pics only - not quite the pristine replica a collector would cherish.

This isn't like the revival in vinyl, where well-heeled collectors are paying a lot for a premium replica on heavier vinyl and with enhanced quality re-masters. Everything about the mags will be a downgrade or a cut corner.

Very occasionally I find a box of old mags in the gagrage and feel a deep nostalgia for those days -- but I have to admit that a printed mag is a very poor delivery system for smut. Even for vintage, a half decent scan running in a slideshow, with all the incidental pages edited out, is far more enjoyable. And a keydrive is so much easier to hide from her indoors!

Lester Square · January 16th, 2015, 07:01 PM

I guess I wouldn't be the only one - but if they were reprinted, all I'd do is make a mental note of the cover lass when I popped into my local mags and fags emporium to loose another tenner on the Lottery when having a sly scan of the top shelf (old habits never die!) ..

..and do a search on here for that issue and look at it for free.

pub · January 16th, 2015, 08:01 PM

I just don't think there would be a market for republishing individual facsimilies of old magazines, much as the idea appeals. Publishing as a whole is facing huge competition from the net - why else is VEF so popular when you can access early editions of Mayfair that you haven't seen before for free? I think republishing photo sets in fuller form might have some mileage - imagine seeing one of your favourite vintage sets with 5 times as many pictures for the first time? I think you would need a magazine of several hundred pages featuring 10 or 20 models at a time to make it viable. Then again, these could just as easily be released on the web..

My hope is that some of the top photographers get their libraries of negatives scanned so we get to see all the pictures from a shoot, much like modern on line mags where 70 to 100 pictures are released as the norm. This is being done to some extent with VEF where individulas are collecting specific models and collating all the scans they can find of a particular shoot. Also VEF has the complete magazine section for those who like adverts from the past decades and as more people contribute to the forum, so our library grows by the day. We may be getting to the point where a model's section can be subdivided for specific shoots so that all photo's from that day end up in the same place - like some of the great work that's been done in the Adele Stephens thread recently.

Out of interest, has anyone approached the British Library to see if all the old mags are available there - I was under the impresion that they keep a copy of nearly everything that gets published...

mikeboob · January 16th, 2015, 10:31 PM

zuckerman alas speaks much technical and logistical sense! It would probably very hard work seeking out the negatives if they still exist never mind the economics of distribution.

Has anyone ever visited the online archives of Paul Raymond publications? I'd be interested to know if the sets are simply the magazine ones or full shoots. Maybe they don't go that far back and only cover the digital era.

Oh yes the market I had in mind wouldn't be spotty teenagers really, but people like us - starting to creak!

**Greenman** · January 16th, 2015, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pub

Out of interest, has anyone approached the British Library to see if all the old mags are available there - I was under the impresion that they keep a copy of nearly everything that gets published...

You are right they keep a copy of every book and magazine ever published here and abroad. However, you can only study them if you are a legitimate student and can demonstrate a proper use for wanting to see the magazines. Some of them are controversial, hard and deal with subjects very taboo then and now.

essexreem · January 20th, 2015, 02:06 AM

No still image on my screen will beat a glossy magazine ever. Nor beat the thrill of picking up a copy from a late night garage or newstand.

January 16th, 2015, 03:09 PM	#1
mikeboob Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 117 Thanks: 659 Thanked 924 Times in 99 Posts	Would re-publishing old British w@nk mags be a success? Does anyone else think brand new, pristine reprints of "classic era" Escort, Whitehouse, Fiesta etc would just fly off the shelves (or more likely warehouse pallets) if they were made available for an 'inflation adjusted' price today? Looking online there is clearly a market for buying copies of the original runs with prices sometimes sky high (albeit God loves a chancer!).

January 16th, 2015, 06:32 PM	#3
Greenman Live Legend of VEF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Underground lair somewhere in the world Posts: 20,353 Thanks: 30,936 Thanked 383,533 Times in 19,356 Posts	Not really not with the Internet now. It is also rather sad that this generation will not know the frisson of excitement we had back then seeing a girl completely naked BUT with pubic hair. Today's teens only know the smooth, shaved look(which back then was for a minority of fans) which for me ruined the magazines and models-I mean would women really like Brad Pitt without hair on his head? I doubt many of us would be waxing so lyrical about old magazines if all the girls were bald below. I concede that some men prefer it, but for me the old sort were the best, especially the chance of finding or seeing a Page 3 girl without her knickers If I can offer an analogy: Sid James & Tony Hancock in 'The Reunion Party' Tony decides to hold a reunion of his old army pals, whom he tells Sid were "the heaviest drinkers to ever set foot inside a pair of army boots" However, they have changed too much. Not only do they not drink anymore, one is a meek, boring bank clerk with an equally staid wife(where once he was the "James Bond of the East Cheam Light Horse"), a former ladies man now a vicar, a redheaded prankster now older and bald and even Hancock himself known as 'Kippers', because of his flat feet. When someone else turns up who actually remembers things, Scrounger Ellis, he has the door slammed in his face. As Sid says "What's done is done, never try to recapture the past" I feel the same about men's magazines. __________________ There was only ONE Greenman, and you accepted no substitutes! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Rest in peace MaxJoker-you will be sorely missed. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 20,000: Milestone reached!

January 16th, 2015, 04:32 PM	#2
arioch404 Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 41 Thanks: 158,265 Thanked 3,035 Times in 36 Posts	having just been scouring ebay for volume 5 of Razzle i'd say there might well be. there seems to be a huge trade on ebay for the original mags many of which are selling for £7 to £10 a throw.

January 16th, 2015, 06:38 PM	#4
zuckerman Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 99 Thanks: 2,153 Thanked 1,376 Times in 94 Posts	I'd like to see some data on the potential interest but I doubt it would be feasible. In the first place, original film transparencies of the images may no longer exist or be unobtainable. The litho plates from which the mags were printed almost certainly don't exist and digital files from the 90s and earlier would be in non-robust formats. Anyone remember magneto-otptical disks? That means you will be printing from scans of existing magazines (with their barely adequate 150dpi quality), with at least a little image degradation introduced. There may be a whole bunch of rights holders for those magazines, from copy writers, photographers and publishers to advertisers, and getting universal agreement to reprint will be a heroic achievement. Then it all comes down to the economics of printing. This time it would be done digitally 'on-demand' (i.e. no runs of 50,000 copies all at once and the huge bill that comes with it) but even with a collector's price of £7-£10, finding a profit margin could still be a huge gamble. A key fact is you'd be selling mail order, not through the old chain of newsagents when the mags were mass market - so packing and postage is in there too. Also, remember that a substantial part of the printed mag used to be adverts that paid for the print run, now useless and costly in terms of paper/ink. The likelihood is that your reprint ends up as a very thin collection of model pics only - not quite the pristine replica a collector would cherish. This isn't like the revival in vinyl, where well-heeled collectors are paying a lot for a premium replica on heavier vinyl and with enhanced quality re-masters. Everything about the mags will be a downgrade or a cut corner. Very occasionally I find a box of old mags in the gagrage and feel a deep nostalgia for those days -- but I have to admit that a printed mag is a very poor delivery system for smut. Even for vintage, a half decent scan running in a slideshow, with all the incidental pages edited out, is far more enjoyable. And a keydrive is so much easier to hide from her indoors!

January 16th, 2015, 07:01 PM	#5
Lester Square Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 66 Thanks: 2,638 Thanked 523 Times in 57 Posts	I guess I wouldn't be the only one - but if they were reprinted, all I'd do is make a mental note of the cover lass when I popped into my local mags and fags emporium to loose another tenner on the Lottery when having a sly scan of the top shelf (old habits never die!) .. ..and do a search on here for that issue and look at it for free.

January 16th, 2015, 08:01 PM	#6
pub Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 282 Thanks: 5,297 Thanked 6,390 Times in 262 Posts	I just don't think there would be a market for republishing individual facsimilies of old magazines, much as the idea appeals. Publishing as a whole is facing huge competition from the net - why else is VEF so popular when you can access early editions of Mayfair that you haven't seen before for free? I think republishing photo sets in fuller form might have some mileage - imagine seeing one of your favourite vintage sets with 5 times as many pictures for the first time? I think you would need a magazine of several hundred pages featuring 10 or 20 models at a time to make it viable. Then again, these could just as easily be released on the web.. My hope is that some of the top photographers get their libraries of negatives scanned so we get to see all the pictures from a shoot, much like modern on line mags where 70 to 100 pictures are released as the norm. This is being done to some extent with VEF where individulas are collecting specific models and collating all the scans they can find of a particular shoot. Also VEF has the complete magazine section for those who like adverts from the past decades and as more people contribute to the forum, so our library grows by the day. We may be getting to the point where a model's section can be subdivided for specific shoots so that all photo's from that day end up in the same place - like some of the great work that's been done in the Adele Stephens thread recently. Out of interest, has anyone approached the British Library to see if all the old mags are available there - I was under the impresion that they keep a copy of nearly everything that gets published...

January 16th, 2015, 10:31 PM	#7
mikeboob Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 117 Thanks: 659 Thanked 924 Times in 99 Posts	zuckerman alas speaks much technical and logistical sense! It would probably very hard work seeking out the negatives if they still exist never mind the economics of distribution. Has anyone ever visited the online archives of Paul Raymond publications? I'd be interested to know if the sets are simply the magazine ones or full shoots. Maybe they don't go that far back and only cover the digital era. Oh yes the market I had in mind wouldn't be spotty teenagers really, but people like us - starting to creak!

January 20th, 2015, 02:06 AM	#9
essexreem Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 1 Thanks: 1 Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post	No still image on my screen will beat a glossy magazine ever. Nor beat the thrill of picking up a copy from a late night garage or newstand.