Note: This is a new version of an older and beloved scan. The old post had dead images, and I was getting the issue up at the Internet Archive, so I've taken the opportunity to release a higher resolution scan. I'm happy enough with the editing choices I made back when, so nothing has changed but image quality and resolution. After my original post, I was contacted by an individual that just had to have this magazine in an endearing and sincere manner. Despite my love for this little magazine, I let it go in the name of good will and good karma and am happy to report I later found another copy, not as nice, perhaps, but just as dear.
If anybody wants my new copy, they'll have to get past my switchblade 😎
Get the scan here: Teen-Age Gangsters (1957.Hillman) (Darwin-IA).cbr
or view it online or download in alternate formats at the Internet Archive here.
Just what is the problem with kids these days, anyways? Here's a
classic blonde bad girl - pouting, smoking, and sexy in a cheap and
downtrodden sort of way. I'm surprised I haven't seen the cover on a fridge magnet or whatnot, the whole pub is classic American kitsch.
Up for your enjoyment this morning is an iconic publication on
juvenile delinquency, a pocket-sized magazine from Hillman in 1957,
square between The Wild One and West Side Story. And just who do I
think the readership for was for this publication? Why, teen-agers of
course. Here we are once again riding that fine line that the 50s pulp
media mastered of condemning outlaw and unaccepted behavior while
simultaneously indulging in it. With echoes of Wertham (who gets a
shout-out in the introductory article), the editors give their
motivation. The truth must be known! Sincerity? A guilty disclaimer? or
just a nice hook?
The contents. Every vice covered! A mixture of teen sexual fantasy, true crime, and propaganda, no rock goes unturned...
Samples. Violence, Dope, Sex and Liquor. Wasn't High School great?
What sort of twisted and abnormal kid would ever ever write such a thing? Surely a sociopath...
My favorite pic in the whole mag, the inside back cover. I loved just hanging out on the street with my buds as a teen, a gang just waiting to happen!
Bonus scans. Here's my mediafire folder of pocket magazines. A number of these are from McCoy and other scanners, thanks, guys! I wonder how many collectors there are of pocket magazines. I love em! It seems like sort of offshoot of comics, the small format with more innocent varieties of men's magazine material. When the comics industry started to crumble, perhaps they looked to other products like this. Tucked away easily, I can imagine kids hiding these out of view from their teacher or parents. I guess these only survive today at the checkout as astrology and soap opera publications.
We exit with the back cover as is appropriate.
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