Great Classics Of Literature Out Th' Ass Dept. - Oz Magazine

Oz Magazine - or London Oz, as it was known in Australia - was the U.K.'s most notorious underground magazine. Dubbed "the worst magazine in the history of the world" by Richard Ingrams, grumpy and possibly jealous editor of Private Eye, it was an addictive and covert purchase for adolescent sickos and nervous thrill-seekers at the relatively few independent newsstands that risked stocking it.

It was wilfully antagonistic. Expensive. Changed shape and design every issue. Appeared when it appeared, and quickly disappeared. Much of it was nearly illegible because of the retina-wincing experiments in color printing, and that which was legible was often not very good. It was borderline obscene, and sometimes sick. Yet it was the most exciting publication on the newsstands. I.T. (International Times) couldn't compete for shock value, although it carried some actual journalism. You never knew what you were going to see as you turned the page of the latest Oz, and sometimes you wished you hadn't. And it had to be kept hidden from parents, teachers, and other establishment figures, which made you feel pretty revolutionary.

There was journalism going on in there somewhere, but in spite of Richard Neville's claims to the contrary, nobody bought it for the news stories or the polemic. We bought it because it was sensational, funny, pornographic, outrageous, and very occasionally - thanks to the graphic genius of Martin Sharp - beautiful. It showed what magazines (and, I suppose, life) could be like, freed from all constraints.

I had the entire run, which I fenced to a dealer when I offloaded All My Shit. I don't miss it (although I'd like to see Gandalf's Garden again, and those early Zigzags).

Here's the first dozen issues, with all the posters. More to come.

This post made possible by research grants from the Archive Of Depravity And Filth, University Of Wollongong. My thanks are due to Betsy "Busty" Snorkeltrouser for her intra-mural dedication.