Glug by Harlan Ellison

'Glug' by Harlan Ellison
from Adam, July 1967

courtesy of vintage girlie scans

Adam magazine was one of a number of publications that came in the wake of Playboy and, as compared to that magazine, featured somewhat more risque exhibitions of female beauty.

The girls posing in Adam were more down-to-earth, and the advertising a little more louche.....

Adam always had quite a bit of fiction pieces interspersed with its portfolios. Either under a pseudonym, or using their actual name, quite a few high-profile authors were contributors of these pieces.

So it was, that in the July 1967 issue, were have 'Glug', short story from Harlan Ellison. Accompanied by a photograph of a well-endowed young woman !

But....just wait a minute.........

It seems 'Glug' actually is a reprint of a story that Ellison first published in the science fiction digest Imagination in August, 1958 - !

So a story that Adam readers might well consider to be a contemporary tale from one of the hottest writers at work in the US in 1967, was in fact a reprint of a nine year-old story. What a ripoff ! 

But then, no one bought Adam for the stories..........

Sadly, according to the ISFDB, the only way you can access 'Glug' either is from Adam or Imagination. The story didn't make its way into any of the 5 billion Ellison anthologies that have been issued over the decades.

Interestingly, Imagination was published by William Hamling, who during the late 1950s founded an empire of sleaze paperbacks, among the editors / authors of which was none other than Harlan Ellison. Inevitably, Ellison had a confrontation with Hamling, and was expelled from Hamling's enterprise (the whole sordid story is available here; warning, Harlan comes across as a self-centered, nasty little shit). 

Adam went on to be retitled Adam Film World in 1969, and experienced success well into the 1990s.