"The Man" by G. Akechi, scanned from "Black Magazine" (Japan, 1971)
Three years ago I bought 19 issues of "Black Magazine," a bizarre and rather disturbing—but also funny—Japanese magazine from the early 70s. (Thank you Christophe.) This thing makes Plexus look like LIFE.
It's so unsettling that I hid the set (I think it's a complete set) on a high shelf and didn't look at it for years. Each issue is about 150 pages (6" x 8.25"), mostly black-and-white (and mostly text) but always with some 2-color and 4-color pages. Toshio Saeki appears in many issues, alongside collage paeans to Mishima, stunning comics by Genpei Akasegawa, and what appear to be stills from Shuji Terayama religious snuff films. If you think Rory Hayes and Holy Mountain are a little too tame you should sell some more acid and buy a set. Every "centerfold" — there's a ton of nudity — features either a mannequin or a transvestite or both (holding scissors). The fact that something so self-consciously "transgressive" still feels transgressive is surprising, and might have to do with projection from the fact that I can't read the text, though I have the feeling the text is even more insane.
I started to make some scans — follow my progress @50WattsDotCom — and hope to do a series of posts by theme/artist (though maybe starting with a big overview).
I don't know anything about G. Akechi, though it is probably a pseudonym.
Previously: Puss Magazine
This post first appeared on May 6, 2014 on 50 Watts
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