Weird Magazines

Magazine publishing is a dying industry. The internet will probably kill magazines - along with books, newspapers, cd's, dvd's, and your grandparents.

But, in the 1960's and 70's, there seemed to be hundreds of magazines devoted to all sorts of Forteana, particularly UFOs. You could also get your fill of Sea Monsters, as evidenced by the specimen pictured on the left.

Today, the pickings are slimmer.

Here in the States, we have UFO Magazine, which debuted in 1986 and is still going - maybe not going strong, though, as their publishing schedule has been a bit infrequent during the past couple of years.

In the UK, there is the venerable Fortean Times, giving us stellar content in the vein of it's namesake, Charles Fort, early 20th century anomalist and satirist. The only downside is that it's pricey on U.S. newsstands, at around $12.00 a copy. Being such a huge fan of their work, I've shelled out that kind of green quite a few times, however ebay can be helpful in finding discounted prices on the latest issue (as well as back issues, of course).

Also from the UK is the promising newcomer, UFO Matrix, edited by famed Yorskshire ufologist, Philip Mantle. Their website is still under construction, but if they continue to deliver a product like their amazing first issue, I'm sure they'll be around for a while - or at least until the internet kills print publishing and dances on it's grave.

There are, of course, a handful of other magazines on mysterious phenomena still publishing in 2010, but let's get back to those golden years. Pictured to the right is The Flying Saucer Menace from 1967, written by Brad Steiger, author of well over 200 books. It was a one-shot magazine; essentially a short book with a bunch of black & white photos. I think there was actually another similar magazine/book written by Steiger, although it's title is eluding me right now. Maybe someone can refresh my memory in the comments section.

One of my favorite things about the UFO-related magazines from this era is that many of them feature numerous articles from a small group of amazing authors; the afore-mentioned Brad Steiger, as well as Otto Binder, Timothy Green Beckley, Jerome Clark, and the well-known Mothman investigator, John Keel.

Pick up any 1970's issue of UFO Report and you're likely to see articles penned by most, if not all of the these guys.

From hearing him speak in various interviews, I know that Mr. Beckley enjoys these mags as much as I do. He seems to have a special affinity for one called Front Page Disasters. I've yet to find any copies of what I'm sure is a pretty spectacular offering, but I have managed to find a random cover. There doesn't appear to be many other mentions of this thing on the internet. Maybe it wasn't as great as Beckley remembers it.

Incidentally, you might notice that the linked image of Front Page Disasters is from badmags.com. That's also where I found the other images in this post. Be sure to give them a visit.