The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 7 : April 27, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

The Rise & Fall of the Spanking Mag
A UK writer's perspective

by Nick Urzdown

Back when I was 20 I worked as a cinema projectionist, a job that I did until I eventually went to university over a decade later. Showing films left me with plenty of free time as the projector was whirring away to do other things and I ended up borrowing a manual typewriter and writing a 5,000 word pornographic short story. What I really needed though was a niche; something that I could write about effortlessly, and without the need to pad out the pages with superfluous text. Spanking seemed like the obvious choice, since it was a theme that I was interested in anyway and could wax lyrical about. I wrote a story and asked a tame merchant to buy it.

Around this time the country had liberalised, and fears of prosecution had eased. Thus it was possible to produce a magazine on an offset-litho machine because a print run of 1,000 copies or so made it economically viable. The legitimate wholesalers were still not willing to carry those titles, but several shops in each provincial city would order up a few dozen copies every month to sell. The second-hand shops, of which there were dozens in every city, would then take the magazines from the customers on a half back deal and sell them on. Those shops also dealt with the local typescript vendors, but as more and more printed works became available the market for the typescripts dried up.

One such professionally printed job was a small magazine called Mentor which only ran under that name for a total of four issues, and then had to change its name in a hurry owing to a legal threat from another magazine that had the same title. Brainstorming ideas for a new name, someone came up with the idea of the Roman god of the home and hearth, a two-headed being who looks backward and forward at the same time. His name is Janus.


In 1971, shortly after the name was changed, the magazine produced a spanking special and from that moment on the world of CP fiction was never going to be the same again. The issue had sold out, leading one of the people involved in the magazine to utter the immortal line, “Every issue has to be a spanking special!"

Unusually, and for reasons that are still unclear to me, Janus was actually run by spanking aficionados rather than the usual collection of drunken hacks who normally oversee a pornographer's output. The owner was a typical Soho hard man, but so long as the magazine was making good money he was happy to leave the staff to their own devices. The money did roll in as by the early 1970s, with no real competition around, Janus had a monthly circulation of about 10,000 copies. It was also cordially loathed by most of the hack writers in Britain. The problem was that Janus had its own circle of writers and breaking into that rarefied group was next to impossible - especially for someone from the provinces.

Following the death of the editor of Janus, Alan Van Okker, an attempt was made at a coup by the magazine's writers. An adult film maker named George Harrison Marks was brought in as a stop-gap editor but he had little interest in spanking publications, or the 'fladge' as it was referred to in the trade. The writers went off to set up a magazine of their own which ran under the name of Phoenix for some years, but it never reached the heights of Janus which seemed to go from strength to strength.

Meanwhile, Harrison Marks brought out about half a dozen issues of what he called New Janus which he filled with his photographs and whatever unpublished stories were hanging around the office. He was famous for his pornographic films and photographs, but once he realised just how profitable the spanking market was he scampered off to start Kane, his own competitor to Janus, which by then had reverted back to its old name.


Even if all this had not happened Janus was going to face competition sooner or later. The advantage that it had over its rivals had been that most of them were poorly produced, small circulation efforts that paid their writers a pittance. Breaking the Janus monopoly meant that lots of new titles began to appear and for the writers the Golden Age of the 1980s was about to dawn.

The latter part of the 1970s saw any number of porn merchants trying to get a slice of the Janus pie. Magazines with titles long forgotten appeared, enjoyed a brief spell on the shelves, and than vanished like the early morning dew. However, two factors came together in the the very early 1980s to ensure that the monopoly was going to collapse. The first was the feud that broke out within the Janus organisation that I've already described, the second involved the willingness of the wholesalers to carry adult titles.

Retailer WH Smith had always refused to stock Janus, but that policy changed in the late 1970s. What that meant was that other publishers could use an already existing distribution system if they could get a title up and running. Until then getting Janus outside London involved a shop buying the magazine each month and waiting for those issues to arrive by parcel post. The change of policy by WH Smith meant that anybody who could guarantee a set number of sales each month could pretty much be sure of their title being carried by Smiths. The London porn merchants hastened to set up their titles.

By the early 1980s Blushes, Kane and Roue were all competing with Janus for the national 'fladge' readership. Many provincial titles also sprang up, most using a more sophisticated version of the old duplicating technology that had produced the original typescripts. They circulated in their region and by post to subscribers outside it.


As regards remuneration Janus always paid the best, giving its writers about £25 per thousand words. The other titles paid £20 and the provincials about £15. Any half decent hack who could stay sober long enough to string a sentence together could be virtually guaranteed a regular income.

After they had overcome their little local difficulties Janus were once again hard to break into as a writer, but the other titles took whatever we chose to give them. Hiring a model, studio and photographer cost a lot of money but paying £100 to fill three or four pages worked out a lot cheaper - and could be used with stock photos taken from the archives - and that padded out the story to another page at least. The situation became so ridiculous that I can remember writing a tale for Roue and being paid £100 for the five thousand word epic. I then sold the same story to a Sheffield publisher who gave me £75 for it. Finally the story was sold yet again for £25 to a man who ran a spanking newsletter which included a story every month. Of course, I had to agree to change the story slightly and then break it down into five chapters, that then ran one a month in the newsletter, but it was still the same tale at the end of the day.

The introduction of personal computers only made the work easier. The writers discovered that a word processor package meant that a story could have names, locations and descriptions added to a manuscript to personalise it. So began the short-lived but highly lucrative trade of personalised manuscripts. The punter would supply the names that he wanted, along with some other details. Half an hour later all that had been added to the mix and a story was printed up to be posted to the punter next morning.

What could possibly happen to bring an end to this halcyon world? The internet, that's what happened. The trade in magazines just dried up as more and more people joined the computer age in the 1990s. I can remember speaking to a publisher in about 1995 with a view to writing some stories for him and he candidly admitted that the most that he could pay was £10 per thousand words and he was only offering that for old time's sake and because he knew that I could write. He pulled all his material off the web, an activity that involved hours of plodding through the turgid prose that enthusiastic amateurs had written - but when he eventually found something decent then it would be nicked for free. The porn trade - don't you just love it?

As writers, we had a good run down the years and that Golden Age had to come to an end at some time. Funnily enough, I have now started blogging, an activity which combines both publishing and writing, so perhaps a new Golden Age is on the horizon?


Nick Urzdown is the author of A Spanking Good Life

 
24 comments:
bendover said...
The web was a great thing, but unfortunately it brought down a lot of various businesses dealing with the above article. My favorite mag when I was younger was Nu West and Leda. They eventually become one.

This was a good read. Thanks Nick.

27 April 2012 22:36
cayenne said...
I enjoyed this article too. As a young office boy, I remember the mags as being really expensive. But worth every penny!
28 April 2012 22:53
Seegee said...
I always loved Janus, it had something about it that it's competitors lacked. One of my favourite things about it was the OBB (Order of the Burning Bot), some of the suggestions by readers were wonderful flights of fancy and we had Paula Meadows awesome drawings in there. There was also a great femdom magazine in the '90's called Ma'am, that along with others was put out by Leda. They too struggled with the advent of the internet, but they've managed to make a place for themselves on the web. I think one advantage the 'net has brought spanking afficionadoes is that interested parties can now create sites like the KLSF or even start up their own blog.
29 April 2012 02:05
cayenne said...
Swish! was the first one I bought. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it there on the top shelf.

There was Janus, London Life, Kane, Blushes and Roué. The bound versions with several issues in were always a great buy. I always felt the Janus shop was a little disappointing compared to the mag.
29 April 2012 22:56
Februs said...
I think for many of us of a certain age the spanking mag was about the only major source of spanky material, there being no internet at the time. Not only that, I remember their discovery as being the moment I realised I couldn't be the only one on the planet with this kink. If I remember correctly I think Justice was the first mag I acquired although it could have been Swish! In retrospect both were pretty poor but as cayenne suggests they were a real eye-opener at the time. Later, like many of us, I discovered Janus and Roué and later still my namesake, Februs. Happy days!
29 April 2012 23:45
ordalie said...
Back in the early 70s I spent two years in England as an assistant coach (I'm not sure this is the right word so if someone knows it...): my job was to take small groups of five and six formers at a grammar school in Huntingdon and make them speak French with me.
I used to go to London during half-term holidays and that's where I came upon spanking magazines and CP fiction. I was utterly flabbergasted... and overjoyed to see they could be sold so openly.
Many thanks to Nick for such a learned article! Would you care to give us your blog's name?
30 April 2012 06:33
mobile_carrot said...
But now we can access literally thousands of top-rate spanking stories for free, not to mention cartoons, still images and some film clips (though this is usually a lead-in for subscribing to a site). And you don't need to wear a dirty mac and creep into dodgy backstreet bookstores to do so. And I reckon the respectable and safe environment of sites such as this has brought a lot of spaking-oriented women into the open.
1 May 2012 16:35
islandcarol said...
I enjoyed your piece, it is clear you knew the genre and the purveyers of the stories. I am astonished to learn one could pay the rent writing spanking stories. I grew up in the wrong part of the city to have access to these publications. There was a racy neighborhood with strip clubs and adult bookstores I found when I was in college. Alas, you needed to be 21 to enter, I was 17.
Well done!
IC
1 May 2012 20:21
Redskinluver said...
Another magazine was Corporal, not sure where it was published. Lots of color pictures and stories, etc,
There is something I read once, that the models in these magazines were not really spanked, that they had rouge or other make-up applied to their bottoms to make them look red. Believe also that was said to be done in spankiong movies of the past. Anyone know anything about that?
2 May 2012 15:07
barretthunter said...
French assistante, ordalie. Yes, I liked Janus. A high point for me was the contents page artwork: first Hardcastle and then Anton produced some wonderful drawings. The magazine had periods of brilliance and periods of uninspiration, though - routine stories and massive unbelievable letters, and before it died externally it had died internally a few issues back. The website was always uninspired, so basically it failed to adapt.

In its glory, though, I remember going up Old Compton Street when a young Black guy came the other way, his eyes shining and face smiling with intense joy and excitement, and clutched in his fist...well, you've guessed. I suspect he'd just jumped on the spanko boat.
2 May 2012 17:41
CrimsonKidCK said...
I remember buying the digest-sized copies of JANUS and a few of its American counterparts--STING, CRACK and COMMAND--back in the mid-1970s at 'adult' bookstores in the city fairly close to my home town, and also ordering a few more, notably the "special spanking issue" of JANUS (IIRC) through the mail.

The first spanking magazine that I purchased, at the age of 21, was an issue of CORPORAL--I was in another city, waiting at the bus station to catch transport back to my college, and I stumbled across the 'adult' shop while walking around the area. Advertisements in that issue allowed me to send for other spanking magazines later on.

I stumbled across Nu-West in the early '80s, and I still have some of its publications--including most issues of MA'AM, the femdom spanking magazine.

Unfortunately in a way, the internet made most of those publications unprofitable, at least the ones centered on drawings and photographs, since their visual materials would end up being scanned and posted to the 'net. Why buy a magazine when its pictures will eventually end up online for free viewing?

I do still enjoy the few digest-sized '70s magazines I've managed to keep over the decades, and JANUS was arguably the best of them... --C.K.
4 May 2012 00:42
Alef said...
I remember discovering the world of spanking magazines by accident just by stepping down a staircase in a small London bookstore. Somebody should have taken a picture of my face when I discovered that one wall was totally covered by pictures of women being spanked or about to get spanked, and that these pictures were not ordinary pictures, but front covers of magazine with hundreds of other pictures of the same kind. It was a life-expanding discovery, something like Harry Potter's discovery of Track 9 3/4 at King's Cross. On later visits to London, I never failed to come back.

My favorite spanking magazine was Februs, by the way (hope this earns me a few free points...)

4 May 2012 15:05
Seegee said...
The magazines were never on sale in the general racks here, you used to have to go into a backroom to find them and of course they were amongst all the other really overtly pornographic stuff. I couldn't believe it on a trip to London when I went into a newsagent to buy a magazine and there was Janus and various others just out on full display with all the other girly magazines like Playboy and Penthouse. My personal favourites were Janus, especially Paula Meadows drawings and Roue. Later on in the femdomme scene I really enjoyed Ma'am, and it's gorgeous editors Rosemary Webster (I think she was the first one) and then Julia Jameson.
5 May 2012 02:04
canadianspankee said...
Living in western Canada, magazines like Janus were not found anywhere near the front door of a decent book store. If one went into the sleazy bookstores too often one stood a chance of losing their job etc. It was very purtinical around here as far as porn went. One could buy it but it had to be hidden well and never discussed with the opposite sex. I would sneak the mags I bought out of a second hand store after nine at night in the dark and hope no one saw me. The internet of course change things a lot, and now people can enjoy their own kinks in the privacy of their homes, which I think is a great idea.
5 May 2012 06:03
frankfane said...
Terrific article. All very new to me, and a fascinating insight into the world of pornographic publication. The mid sixties was a very authoritarian time, before the dam broke and your article reminded me of those days, and also informed me of the heyday of spanking publications which I sadly missed by being abroad.

Nowadays Janus and Roue back-issues are becoming collectibles. I hope they will one day be posted free on the Internet, to keep them alive.
6 May 2012 19:44
KJM said...
I started to visit London regularly from beginning of 1970 just after I graduated. I discovered Old Compton Street 40 and the high quality of Janus Magazine. First in tabloid form then a glossy magazine with beautiful pictures, hot stories, incredible art and letters. Later others joined but without Janus quality. Roue, Martinet, Derriere, London Life and many others. Janus quality in my opinion was only reached by Blushes, Februs and Fessee. Kane quality varied and its models couldn’t match their competition. Good, bad or more or less, I purchased them all. With severe censorship in my country I had no other access to my kink, but my periodic trips to London. I purchased so much that I had almost 50% discount from the pleasant guy who run the shop. I think it was Mr. Gordon Sergeant.

Internet put end to it, but not immediately. It took several years before we were able to access high quality spanking photos and movies on line.

Thanks for very informative and memorable article.
7 May 2012 07:30
bripuk said...
What a wonderful article which brought back happy memories. I still have a copy of Mentor and have been unable to bring myself to dispose of many of the earlier Janus magazines. I can remember in an early Janus (Number 11 I think) a photograph of a naughty young lady with a cane weal across her bare bottom which at the time gave me an indescribable thrill. Does anyone remember the Victor Bruno books which were subsequently banned?
It just makes you appreciate how spoilt we are now with access to videos etc where naughty young ladies have their bottoms soundly walloped.
7 May 2012 21:46
yenz said...
These magazines were too expensive for me, but I bought then second hand and sold them back, when I had read them. This was actually just like renting them. I remember that the stories were better than the pictures. I still feel that way. This makes TSL my favorite.
8 May 2012 14:40
drkeate said...
I read Janus throughout the seventies & looked at Roue and Blushes through the eighties. Janus had the best stories without a doubt. Someone has mentioned Sting, the first American spanking mag I saw, and I'm glad, because that too had excellent stories & even better readers' letters.
I can remember every single page, I think, of the first Janus Spanking Special from 1972, from the bent over schoolgirl in stockings AND white socks on the cover to the schoolgirl in stockings being caned at the back. There was a girl being spanked in the office in the colour centrefold who had an expression of sheer blushing embarrassment that I have never seen bettered.
There was another short-lived one in the seventies that was good pictorially--Palm and Paddle I think it was called.
18 May 2012 16:02
sixofthebest said...
In the good old days of spanking yore, my favorite spanking magazine was JANUS, Every time I would visit London, that was my first stop for Sexual Spanking Pleasure, That fabulous store, Now days, the internet, and all its varieties of Spanking Blogs, have made the Spanking Magazine, an heirloom. Uncle Nick love you blog.
24 November 2013 20:16
TomHobbes said...
Very interesting and a big thanks for sharing the information, especially for those of us on the west side of the pond. The seventies breakthrough here was in Penthouse, letters section. British imports which were not all that easy to obtain outside of major metro areas. We envied your progress but began to catch up in the eighties as all printed materials became far more easily --and less expensively-- available here.
17 December 2013 15:58
galt54 said...
I would have been delighted and counted myself blessed if only I had run across any of those legendary spanking mags back in the 1980s, or even better, the 1970s, I was young then. My days as a young adult would have been more filled with happiness.

Well, I discovered the vast universe of spanking-fetish related websites on the net back in the year 2006, when I was already a ripe 52 years old. Better late than never!
19 July 2018 14:51
TheEnglishMaster said...
I remember the almost-electric shock I got when I caught a glimpse of a spanking mag for the first time - in a small newsagent near Baker Street. As others have said, it showed me my fantasies were not unique. I can't remember what it was, but it was maybe A5-sized and didn't have any explicit photo on the cover; in fact it took me a few seconds to register the meaning of its title.

Thanks for this fascinating history of the spanking mag. I envy you those halcyon days on the other side of the publishing coin.
30 July 2018 18:46
lesliejones said...
I enjoyed Janus especially when I lived in London way back when. The store in Old Compton St was of interest too--it's where I picked up my first cane. England seemed so in love with spanking and caning, all the different mags of those days. Those of us into female-female spanking were also happy with Janus; I remember one wonderful story about a mother realizing that she had set herself up to be taken across her daughter's lap for the first time.
21 September 2018 02:49

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