More Devil's Kisses, Corgi Books, the National Lampoon, and Scotland Yard

More Devil's Kisses, Corgi Books, the National Lampoon, and Scotland Yard

This is one of those multi-thread pop culture sagas that could only have happened in the 1970s.

In 1976, Corgi books released a paperback anthology of 'erotic' horror stories titled 'The Devil's Kisses'. Edited by Michael Parry, under the pseudonym 'Linda Lovecraft', the book was popular enough to prompt Corgi to published a sequel, titled 'More Devil's Kisses', in 1977.

The publication of 'More Devil's Kisses' caused controversy. According to a comprehensive account at the 'Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein' blog by Bobbie Derie, and an article in the 2006 zine 'Pulpmania' by Justin Marriott, an entry in 'More Devil's Kisses' by Chris Miller, titled 'Magic Show', caused Scotland Yard to warn Corgi that they could be prosecuted, apparently for obscenity. So almost immediately after the book was distributed to retail outlets, it was withdrawn and destroyed. 

Needless to say, existing copies of either 'Devil's Kisses' title that come up for sale are very rare and quite expensive.

Intrigued by this tale, I went and spent quite a bit of money to get the July, 1975 issue of National Lampoon, where Miller's story first appeared.

In the mid-70s the Lampoon was one of the most successful 'slick' magazines in the U.S., with yearly circulation approaching, if not topping, one million. The magazine's readership of men age 20 - 55, a highly coveted demographic, meant that it was filled with advertisements for high-end stereo receivers, speakers, turntables, and headphones. So for all its stoner humor and T & A, it was no grubby counterculture tabloid......

L-R: Doug Kenney, John Belushi, and Chris Miller on the set of Animal House, Eugene, Oregon, 1977. From If You Don't Buy this Book, We'll Kill this Dog by Matty Simmons, Barricade Books, 1994

As for 'Chris Miller's Magic Show', well, Miller, who was a staff writer for the Lampoon, really does deliver a transgressive story. I laughed until I cried while reading it. 

And I can't present it here in its entirety, either. 

The premise of 'Magic Show' is that Ira Levine, a nice Jewish boy, is hosting his seventh birthday party at his house in suburbia. While the adults are out on the patio getting sloshed on martinis, Ira and the other 19 kids are enjoying the magic show put on by Dr. Fun and Mr. Frog.

Here's one of the more presentable passages from 'Magic Show':

Things just go downhill...rapidly downhill......... from there.......

If you do decide to purchase the July, 1975 issue in order to read 'Magic Show' to completion, you may want to pick up a pair of cheap red-and-blue '3-D' eyeglasses from amazon for just $10 (photo below). 

Many of the graphics in the magazine were printed in 3-D, and are unintelligible without glasses (the cheap cardboard pair originally included in the magazine are not all that great). 

[ The glasses also will come in handy if you happen to own a copy of 'The Illustrated Harlan Ellison' (1978). ]

So there you have it......a controversial 1975 story from the National Lampoon that is so transgressive it can't be publicly distributed, and a paperback horror anthology issued in the UK in 1977. Odd bedfellows, indeed.