Sunday 1 January 2012

Saucy



I cannot understand how I got through my entire, brief adolescence without becoming aware of this excellent publication from the other side of the pond. Maybe it never made it over until the invention of the web?

I found the last image whilst looking for something else (don't ask, I hate lying) and it wasn't until I enlarged the picture a little to get a closer look, that I saw the 'NRA' logo on the cover, discreetly (or as discreetly as the gun-slinging maniacs are capable of being) tucked over on the right.

*Yes, that is the National Rifle Association as championed by the Republican Party's hero, Charlton Heston. Having never seen the inside of any of these comics, I don't know the relevance of contents to the NRA, other than Guns and Porn both seem to go together like Apples and Pie.* In my youth, we didn't have Manga comics or anything other than Health and Efficiency, and the few copies of that I laid my grubby hands on were either salvaged from hedgerows (thrown away in a fit of remorse by a poor, tormented and spent soul, I dare say), or surreptitiously snitched from the fathers of some of my more liberally minded friends. Let's face it, the dad was not going to say, "Anyone seen my latest copy of Health and Efficiency?" over the dinner table, is he?

In a way, the above illustrations are almost charming, though I cannot see the NRA financing the Rupert Annual in the 1940s and 50s. Someone ought to tell the middle girl that UV sun lamps are bad for you too. I do remember averts in the back of imported Mad magazines (which I loved) for real guns and Confederate money, though. You could buy a real Derringer .22 lady's or gambler's pistol by mail order back then, but I don't know if they would have sent one to a 13 year old boy in England.

Saucy. (Jack the Ripper's favorite exclamation...)

* OLIVE has just pointed out that this NRA is not the rifle lot - see comments below.

9 comments:

  1. Number three was on the cover of Film Fun sans clothes. Are you completely sure that symbol stands for the now NRA (rifle people) as I do not think so?

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  2. No, I'm not sure Olive - do you know what it does stand for? I'll have another look at some websites.

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  3. You're right - NRA stands for National Recovery Administration (help with low wages, etc.) Phew!

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  4. OMG - what is your blog coming to Tom? I will stick with my good old Rupert annuals thank you!

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  5. I take it that you are not of the Saphic persuasion then, Weaver?

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  6. I thought so Tom. Never dull here and frequently saucy.

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  7. What did the National Recovery Administration "recover"? Fallen girls? My, my, the third one is very athletic!

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  8. I would have thought it was the 'Naughty, Rude, and Adventurous' club magazine.

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  9. Yes, the third one is my favorite too, Iris.

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