Every issue of OUT OF THE GUTTER reaches your mailbox in a plain brown wrapper, but #6 — being “the sexploitation issue” — is the one that certainly deserves it. This one’s absolutely filthy, kids, meaning if you’re a regular reader of the indie-fic rag, you’re going to love it.
In the journal of “pulp fiction and degenerate literature,” the upfront section of flash fiction is my favorite, and that’s no different this go-round. How could it not be, given stories dedicated to a hostage situation on a toilet, purveyors of pornographic jigsaw puzzles, the trouble with lactose intolerance during sex, a woman who gets paid $25K to get beat up, and another woman who cuts off men’s parts so that she can … well, you’ll just have to see for yourself.
In longer pieces, Michael Bracken examines the dangers of sex with plastic bags in “Games,” while the men of Jed Ayres’ raucous, dialogue-only “Viscosity” discuss the use of various foodstuffs and other stuff as masturbation props. Steven L. Barnes’ “Brothers” try to decide what to do with a dead woman’s body, and a man with pedophiliac tendencies worries about what he might do when his favorite hooker, Lollypop, announces her retirement in “Functional,” by John Jasper Owens.
Clair Dickson serves up another adventure of erotically charged P.I. Bo Fexler in “Blow to the Head,” and of course the title is a pun. I still think the Fexler stories would make for a killer anthology someday, and now that it’s my understanding the OOTG editors are branching out into books with their own label, perhaps they’ll consider making my dream a reality.
Nonfiction pieces have dotted each issue of OOTG, but this may be the case where they outshine the fiction. First, an anonymous writer tells of being wrongly arrested for solicitation, and the moral education class he had to attend — and pass — as part of his sentence. Daytona provides an excellent piece on the artists of pulp covers in “Paint It Black,” while Matt Louis interviews porn novelist C.M. Gordon, author of something called WHOREHOUSE OF HORROR! (Exclamation not mine.)
Henry R. Paine paints a not-so-nice picture of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and his, um, eccentricies (two words: urethral insertion), but Mike Sheeter turns in the best of the bunch with a “I was there” piece on his years working for Larry Flynt in the heyday of HUSTLER magazine. It’s both hilarious and sad, in a pathetic sort of way, primarily because of the self-destructive antics of Althea Leasure.
You get all this and a bag of chips — assuming said chips come in the form of a crossword puzzle, fake ads, a comic and a feature called “Elegant Sex Jokes” — making this issue well worth your $12.95, as always. Only this time, you might catch something. —Rod Lott
“Paula bent forward and kissed me hard, her tongue burying itself deep in my mouth. The she trailed the tip of her tongue down my chest, over my abdomen, and into the thick tangle of my pubic hair. I’d already grown half-erect and she took me into her mouth, covering my cock head with saliva and tracing her tongue around the circumference of the glans. When I’d grown hard, she released her oral grip, and then straddled me, wrapping herself down and around the length of my stiff shaft. She pulled the plastic bag over my head and sealed it with silver duct tape, just like always.”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES:
• OUT OF THE GUTTER #1
• OUT OF THE GUTTER #2
• OUT OF THE GUTTER #3
• OUT OF THE GUTTER #4
• OUT OF THE GUTTER #5
Related posts:
- Out of the Gutter #5
- Out of the Gutter #3
- Out of the Gutter #2
- Out of the Gutter #1
- Out of the Gutter #4
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Just bought the last two issues by way of your site, Rod. Love the mag, though I wish I could get my paws on a copy of issue #1. Maybe I have something of my own that fits OOTG in 2010…who knows. Great work on the review.