Best Magazines of All Time

Butt Magazine

I can't believe more Dataloungers don't read Shock Cinema. Reviews of the "baddest," most obscure movies ever made; analysis of after school specials and Seventies variety shows; interviews with loose-lipped, D-List celebrities and character actors who have no more fucks to give... I mean, it's like it was created specifically for us.

Spy magazine was pretty damned good. They loathed Trump, referred to him as "short fingered vulgarian Donald Trump."

I LOOOOOVED Spy Magazine.

“Bosomy dirty book-writer Shirley Lord” was another that stuck in my brain. (Can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, though.)

Black Inches.

The [italic]National Lampoon.[/italic] Nothing else can come remotely close. "Nancy Reagan's Guide to Dating," "My First Blow Job," "Jessica Christ, the Sweetest Story Ever Told," Clampax Menstrual Pontoons—the [italic]Lampoon[/italic] had it all.

Nobody here will know it, but Rollerderby. Small ‘zine from the grunge 1990s. It was a little bit punk rock, but Lisa Crystal Carver and her crew were original and funny as fuck. It was a weird little universe that I loved.

My favorite was when one of the writers found some belongings a neighbor left behind in a storage area of an apartment bounding. This man had a gal named Linda who sent him notes, cards, drawings and photos and some hilariously bad erotica she wrote about an “encounter” with him. Where else would you find such good stuff? Not until Dlisted and Datalounge have I found such a collection of oddball and funny material.

The entire Spy Magazine archive is on Google Books.

Dissent.

The Face

I loved Trouser Press and Creem. Hit Parader was good for a while.

[quote]The National Lampoon. Nothing else can come remotely close. "Nancy Reagan's Guide to Dating," "My First Blow Job," "Jessica Christ, the Sweetest Story Ever Told," Clampax Menstrual Pontoons—the Lampoon had it all.

Don't forget Mrs. Agnew's Diary.

My favorite would have to be the large format, tabloid-sized version of Jim Steranko's Mediascene Prevue (later shortened to simply Prevue). Truly stunning layouts covering new movies with great interviews. The best issues including smaller mini-mags stapled inside the main magazine. Their early 80's animation issue included several small flip-books inside the main magazine. Still impressive when shrunk to regular format later on, but nowhere near so its large format, experimental progenitor...

Movieline - I read that thing cover to cover.

Spy

Life and Look

R14 came here to write Movieline. Such good interviews.

Also before my time but I’ve read many archives of People mag and the first ten years it was a totally different (re better) magazine.

The Tower Records magazine, Pulse!, was a great source of info for new music.

I remember loving Apartment Living, which became Metropolitan Home, when I was in college. Just dreaming about being on my own and creating a hip life for myself. That never really happened, but a boy could dream!

I loved Apartment Living too! Even made a few of their easy projects.

It was a happy day when I discovered After Dark Magazine.

The British magazine Films and Filming had great threads and didn't shy away from explicit images.

Movieline was wonderful because it had snark. All the entertainment magazines written afterwards may as well have been written by press agents.

Spy was great for a while. It has a tone that was very original.

I loved both Movieline and Premiere, two different takes on Hollywood.

The Nose from the early 90's with early works of Greg Proops, Patton Oswalt, and Marc Maron.

Smash Hits aka Star Hits!

This must’ve been a great edition!

It was Poontons, r6....

the original huge Interview mag. I have tons of issues of it. just incredible. artsy, timely, interesting...

..wow. when i see what some of these issues are worth.....wowsers.

Watchtower

Another Lampoon Classic.....

Real Boys' Life

Boys' Real Life was a National Lampoon parody special

[quote]It was Poontons, [R6]....

Jesus, you're right! ALL THIS TIME I'd read it as Clampax menstrual pontoons. However, while the word "poontons" is actually funnier, I still prefer "pontoons,"as it conjures up a more vivid image.

Financial world magazine. Was the oldest, continued published magazine in history. 1904-1998. There was nothing like it, it gave Forbes and Fortune an entrepreneurial a run for the money.

There was a great sci-fi magazine called “epic” that was put out by Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione in the 80s. Sadly it went defunct within a year or so

Sorry, I meant “Omni”magazine, which was put out by Bob Guccione. Epic Illustrated lasted for several years and was published by Marvel and was equally good, though different.

I love a magazine in the late 90s call Grand Royal it was from the Beasty Boys. I adored Vanity Fair and of course Spy.

Stereophile, when it was in digest format.

[quote]Financial world magazine. Was the oldest, continued published magazine in history. 1904-1998.

Scientific American has been continually published since 1845, Harper's since 1850, The Atlantic since 1857, The Nation since 1865, Vogue since 1892, Natural History since 1901 . . .

Mad Magazine in the 1960's and early 70s.

THE ECONOMIST, published continuously since 1843.

r34,my CEO and Chairman came from omni to FinancialWorld. The most amazing 18 years there,I loved it.

FinancialWorld owned Scientific America in the eighties/nineties. Nice people. That being said, my actual favorite was SPY Magazine. So amazing. The cryptic puzzles alone. Remember "Ivana-Rama?" How great was that?

I like Threads.....

Highlights for Children

I’m with you R10, the Face held all my British New Wave fantasies of running off to live in London during the 80s.

THE THEATRE

Nest Magazine (1997-2004) out of NYC was the COOLEST, weirdest, most inventive interiors mag ever produced.

Sadly, I only bought probably four issues during it's lifespan. They weren't always easy to find. I think the issues are worth quite a bit now, but I would never sell then unless really strapped for cash, because they are so unique and gorgeous. Like little treasures.

Interview. Also loved the cool cover designs on FLAUNT.

Can anyone PLEASE help me find the National Lampoon jean ad parody -- Lillian Hellman Jeans? "Raise a little Hell in Lillian Hellman jeans!" I need to find it desperately. Thanks!

MAD Magazine

Smart Set Magazine

Black Mask

Police Gazette

Confidential

51 replies and nobody has mentioned Playgirl.

Dowager Quarterly

No love for LOOK?

I acquired a bunch of Confidential magazines from an estate sale. They are so much fun to flip through today. They weren't in the best shape when I bought them and have been meaning to do a decoupage project with the headlines and copy.

The problem with ephemera, r55, is that it's ephemeral.

Stroke was the best porn magazine ever.

Another vote for Movieline. Also miss Rona Barrett's Gossip and Rona Barrett's Hollywood.

I loved The Twilight Zone magazine, which ran during the 80s. It featured good articles and fantasy/horror stories with effectively creepy illustrations. It was one of my few fond memories of the 80s.

[quote]Nobody here will know it, but Rollerderby. Small ‘zine from the grunge 1990s. It was a little bit punk rock, but Lisa Crystal Carver and her crew were original and funny as fuck. It was a weird little universe that I loved.

Holy fuck, I loved Rollerderby! Ben is Dead was great, too.

I have a Ben Is Dead t-shirt, one of my prize possessions.

Films in Review

Does anyone remember "Eye" magazine from the late 60s? Your ticket to cool. But if you're really an Eldergay, there was "Flair" by Fleur Cowles from the 50s.

Disc and Music Echo

Fate Magazine. Creepy articles for the late 60s.

SPY

After Dark

Dynamite

National Lampoon

Details (the old Details with Cookie Mueller's column)

'70s Playgirl.

But who ever read the articles?

'Word' out of the UK, for some of the best music writing. I found that US music journalists for publications like SPIN and ROLLING STONE always tried to copy the style of British music magazines like Select and NME, but could never quite get it right. 'Word' magazine had music writers like David Hepworth and John Harris, who both continue to write about many other topics as well.

More votes for Spy and After Dark

The British satirical magazine Spy was based on, Private Eye, has been hilarious for decades. There are tons of in-jokes, and you have to be pretty well versed in British politics and British media often to know what's going on.

New Musical Express from the UK was the best at chronicling the UK punk scene. As a twenty-something, I had a mail order sub that cost over $100 per year and I read it cover to cover.

[quote]New Musical Express from the UK was the best at chronicling the UK punk scene. As a twenty-something, I had a mail order sub that cost over $100 per year and I read it cover to cover.

I used to get it too. But not for the punk. I think I still have a few copies.

I like reading old music papers. You can sometimes pick them up at street markets and such. I keep them by the loo.

Blueboy magazine which was kind of like the Playboy magazine for gay men. It's founding publisher was Donald N. Embinder, who used to work at After Dark, another fave already mentioned by R19.

Studio used to have beautiful pictures of the stars.

Movieline was the most fun, until someone ruined it.

I used to llikeVanity Fair. Entertainment weekly was Ok except for a couple of their movie critics.

Finding a Playgirl out of the blue was a treat for this teenager of the 70s. Being able to stare at a naked man as long as you wanted without worrying if anyone catches you in the locker room was heavenly. And the models were all so good looking, too.

I read Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair religiously while I attended college. I was able to state an informed opinion about pop culture when needed.

The originals of Wallpaper, Details, Wired, and the New Yorker. Conde Nast eventually fucked them all up (although I actually liked Tina Brown's Vanity Fair - Carter/Jones both suck).

Those not fucked up by CN: The Face, Arena, Q, Movieline, Sassy (and Dirt !), early Vice (if you can get past the fascist founder), Might, Butt (the only good gay magazine), The Economist, Granta, some periods/international editions of Esquire.

Queen, later Harpers & Queen, is a collectors item. A great mag in its time.

Tatler in the 1980s under Tina Brown, and a couple of subsequent editors, was terrific.

Let's not forget Steam, financed by trustafarian porn performer Scott O'Hara.

The Rev. Boyd McDonald's immortal periodical Straight To Hell, under its earlier guise.

Outweek

-Spy Magazine, natch. Still have the occasional section come to mind, such as "Logrolling in our time." (Authors exchange glowing reviews of each others' work)

-Omni magazine. Fascinating articles and great stories.

-Does anyone else remember Ramparts, a leftist magazine from the early 70's? I learned a lot of hard truths about the Vietnam War from Ramparts and its fearless reporting.

Film Threat was a good read until the late 90's when it jumped the shark in a big way.

Some really great ones here, and OP sounds fun to kick back with on a sentimental Saturday night. For the shelter rags, The World Of Interiors is simply the best.

I'm with R47, Nest was great, I still have a few copies. My favourite was the edition with John Waters where he displayed all the Polaroid pictures that he took of anyone who visited his home.

Yay for r6!

I highly recommend A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE for r6 and all National Lampoon fans. It tells the story of the tragically doomed but massively influential founder Doug Kinney.

DIsco Steppin' Out from 1979

Much of what I learned about cinema I learned from subscribing to this magazine in the second half of the 1970s when I was in college

R9 didn't Dissent merge with Commentary to become Dissentary? Is it still running?

Straight to Hell.

i-D magazine in its earliest 80's incarnation was dazzling. About 1980-1988. It documented the then very vibrant London fashion/music/club scene locally and globally. When all those UK designers, rock stars and club celebs were hot as shit. The graphic design was daring and out of control, and clearly done by people with an "eye." (art director Terry Jones) The "look" of the magazine, and its approach to its subjects, ended up being copied everywhere. It changed around 1990 and is still being published but is no way like the early days.

I bought some as a gay kid in the 80's (in the US) when they came out and still have them. But over they years have been trying to complete my collection of their 80's issues, especially the really early ones. On eBy and stuff. Not cheap!

I once read a great review in the 80's, comparing The Face (which was amazing in other ways) to i-D. It said something like, "Some fashion magazines have bite. i-D swallows."

Vanity Fair was fun in the 1980s.

Spin and Premiere were both good in their early years (late 80s).

Loved Star Hits/Smash Hits as a teenager. I even sent in my address to the RSVP pen pal column and got an unbelievable amount of mail, from all over the world, for at least a year. I felt guilty that I only responded to a small fraction of it.

Never read Trouser Press the magazine but the record guides were my bible.

We always have time for magazines that put boys in a power kilt on the cover.

Does anyone remember Hero magazine? It was the first magazine for Gay guys who wear Dockers. Seriously, the tag line was "The magazine for the rest of us." It had a policy of no sex or tobacco ads. I think it originally had a policy of no AIDS or HIV ads either but dropped that. It was very much geared towards Gay men who shopped at IKEA and Home Depot, and traveled, but not to circuit parties.

Another big fan of Smash HIts and early Details magazine. Then Details changed format almost overnight and started putting people like Pamela Anderson on the cover. Needless to say, I let my subscription lapse at that point.

The decline in Vanity Fair is breathtaking. It's now exactly how it was when it was dying, before Tina Brown arrived -- very earnest with no champagne or fun. At this stage I think the only thing that would save it is another English editor with experience on Tatler who knows how to pump up the fun and eccentricity.

R96 So iconic.

I loved the Tina Brown years of Vanity Fair as well, great fun, good writing, iconic photography.

R101 Tina Brown ruined the New Yorker.