The Whatsisname Collection

May 9, 2010 10:27 AM

The Whatsisname Collection. A number of years ago there was a place called A&S Magazines on 40th Street behind the Port Authority, which sold used magazines. One week I went in there and they had this particular collection of magazines, boxes and boxes of them, which they were selling quite cheap, because they had all been defaced. A gentleman in Connecticut had been buying magazines - mostly men’s magazines - for several decades, from the forties to the early seventies - and deconstructing them. He would take them apart, and then he would make a new magazine from the remnants of several, arranging the pages to highlight certain stories and downplay others. He would staple the pages back into the cover, and then he would cross out whatever stories weren’t in his version with a wax pencil. Finally he would stamp his name on the cover and number the whole thing, presumably for his "library." Even though vintage, these oddly shaped, crude reassemblages really wouldn’t appeal to many people. Obviously I bought as many as I could. Michael Kupperman's Whatsisname Collection -- Part 1 // Part 2.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates (15 comments total)

Reminds me of Henry Darger and Mingering Mike. Truly some outsider art here.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:33 AM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am not quite sure what to make of a page when the first legible image says "We Battled the Savage Sluts of Hong Kong" followed by "Are You a Latent Homosexual? Find Out Now!" As a bonus, the name of the magazine is Rage for Men, which would go with either headline, depending on whether "rage" is a noun or a verb.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:40 AM on May 9, 2010

I can see Kupperman being inspired by this stuff, so surreal and over the top. This guy's OCD-like methodology is amazing for highlighting the actual imagery, but I wonder what the hell compelled him to do it.

_{Man's Peril: The Savage Sluts of Fidel Castro's Terror Army. And now I have my Halloween costume.}
posted by Juicy Avenger at 11:00 AM on May 9, 2010

I fell for this "You can be a hunchback too!" ad in the fifties and I never got a single genie never mind three.
posted by digsrus at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2010

I don't like how sloppily he crossed things out.

Any fool can see they needed to be perfectly covered with perfect black bars. Perfectly.

ANY FOOL COULD SEE THIS.

Dammit, I'll be up all day worrying about this. I must work on my miniature planet.
posted by codswallop at 11:46 AM on May 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

somehow i feel its a con though--that kupperman assembled these fragments himself and is selling a borges-style version of the discovery for kicks

either way its fantastic
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:04 PM on May 9, 2010

That's an interesting idea, Potomac. If anybody is capable of pulling that off so well, it would certainly be Michael Kupperman.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 12:23 PM on May 9, 2010

This is awesome, but not as awesome as Afroblanco's link letting me know that there's a Mingering Mike 7" available.
posted by jtron at 12:35 PM on May 9, 2010

England's Strange
TATTOO CLUB
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:38 PM on May 9, 2010

Yesterday's porn stash is tomorrow's outsider art:

In the late 1960s, a Virginia college student found a scrapbook in a dumpster. Dumpster diving was nothing new, people have been digging through other people’s trash for centuries. What he found was no ordinary family scrapbook, but the personal collection of someone’s personal stash of scantily-clad women. Cut from vintage men’s magazines of the 1950s, the anonymous collector used scissors and tape to arrange his private soft porn collection taped to the pages of a commercially bought scrapbook. Perhaps the creator’s wife found them and tossed them out, perhaps he passed away or maybe he found Jesus. Whatever the reason, they ended up in that dumpster and today are the subject of a new book called Gals Gams Garters.
posted by verstegan at 1:42 PM on May 9, 2010

Why are so many men being menaced by hordes of weasels in those covers?
posted by Scattercat at 2:02 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I used to work at a newsstand. One night a guy bought a copy of Juggs, a copy of Tail Ends and a copy of Lips. Maybe he was doing something similar. Or, more likely, he was home with an exacto-knife & some scotch tape creating FrankenPorn.
posted by jonmc at 3:49 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

My late grandfather (who was a biology teacher) did this with Scientific American. He had a subscription for three or four decades, and kept them for reference. To save space, he meticulous razored up the back issues, throwing away the ads and connective tissue like letters pages. The meat, the articles, were stapled to the contents page. Everything was indexed. It was an extraordinary archive.
posted by WPW at 4:22 PM on May 9, 2010

It is striking how often sex is bundled with fear:

My Wild Escape From Hitler's Twin Nymphs of Joy!

Ten Sex Blunders That Can Ruin Your Life

The Lion Woman Who Wanted My Body!

Doctors Say: Alcohol Can Make You A Eunuch

A Night Of Lustful Horror

Nympho JD's Hayloft of Terror

Is a Woman Making You Impotent?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:45 PM on May 9, 2010

Hey, on #1551B-- That man in uniform-- it's the Red Baron!
posted by underthehat at 5:56 PM on May 10, 2010