The Sleazy Reader

The Sleazy Reader
issues 5 - 7 (October 2017 - February 2018)

The advent of amazon's Createspace self-publishing imprint has revolutionized the publishing of zines. There now are quite a few titles devoted to vintage paperbacks available at amazon. These include the long-established The Paperback Fanatic, to more recent entries like Men of Violence, Pulp Horror, and the newest, Hot Lead, which is devoted to Western paperbacks.

These zines usually offer anywhere from 50 - 100 pages, and are priced from $7 to $15 each. They are published more or less regularly, and they feature higher-res reproductions of art, have coated paper covers, and inside, a non-transparent white-paper stock.

I recently decided to pick up three issues of The Sleazy Reader, which is priced at $8.99 for 58 pages. As the name implies, this zine is devoted to sleaze titles published in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s. 

While most articles deal with 'traditional' sleaze and cover swingin' stewardessess, illicit lesbian lovers, and concentration camp dominatrices, editor Justin Marriott is willing to broaden the scope of the zine, and thus features coverage of the 'drug abuser' and 'biker' genres appearing in vintage paperbacks and men's magazines.

The Sleazy Reader primarily is geared towards the 'serious' collector who is willing to pay quite a bit of money to pick up the rarer titles showcased in its pages. However, if you're like me, and you're more interested in seeing just what sort of crazy and worthwhile material remains to be discovered, then the zine can be just as rewarding. 

There are some obscure gems revealed in the pages of The Sleazy Reader that can be had for affordable prices, and I'm keeping an eye out for them. 

I mean, I had no idea Dick Schaap, the sportswriter and broadcaster well known to audiences in the 60s and 70s, wrote a 1967 true crime book called Turned On about an heiress who Loses her Way in the drug culture.......?! 

Summing up, if you're a fan of vintage paperbacks, The Sleazy Reader and its fellow zines provide good coverage of several genres and are sure to direct you towards some titles that are necessary to complete your collections.