Acquired Tastes XLIII: Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 113: HIS69, Part 42 of 44

Acquired Tastes XLIII

Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 113

HIS69, Part 42 of 44

The HIS69 imprint was active from 1971 thru 1988, delivering an astounding 531 titles. Surrey House, Inc. / Surree Ltd, Inc. of San Diego and Santee, California are responsible for this imprint which was distributed by the same company as Trojan Books, Manhard Books, Gay Books and Gay Way Books; the Zorro Distribution Company, also operating out of San Diego.

It should be noted that many of these titles, with original artwork included, were simultaneously republished under the Gay Books imprint and then, later, minus the artwork, were also republished under the ManPower imprint.

The artwork for the HIS69 books would go through only two minor shifts with all the covers featuring ink drawings by various uncredited illustrators - artwork quite similar to what we saw with the Manhard imprint.

It's the light at the end of the tunnel folks; only two more installments and we will be done with HIS69 books. Another swing and a miss week.... only nine out of twelve! covers found.

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Horny Brother 

Author: Paul J. Simon

HIS69616

Boys will be boys. I suppose close proximity and raging hormones are the perfect ingredients for a bit of man on man incest. When hard up and horny, any port will do? That appears to be the case with this offering. Perhaps, out of convenience, these boys are keeping it all in the family.

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Sophomore Meat 

Author: Mark Emerald

HIS69617

Huh. If this illustration is true to the book, then Mr. Emerald needs a bit of an education when it comes to sports. Pictured, we have a wrestler and a baseball player sharing a locker room. I guess that could happen, although, wrestling is a winter sport and baseball is a spring thing. Maybe it's different in college and they all train year around? In any event, at least one of these athletes appears to be ready to hit the showers. I wonder if the gloved one is contemplating joining him?

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Team Mascot

Author: Phil Harmony

HIS69618

I can't make any sense of this illustration. But, apparently the sight of the brunette in the background is enough to make blondie's panties drop. 

I have never been a team mascot, but I did do a stint as the Easter bunny for a mall once. Once was enough. Those costumes are hot - and not the sexy kind, but the the sort of hot that causes sweat to drip in every crack and crevice you possess. They're also uncomfortable, smelly and the headpieces are a nightmare to wear because they reduce your peripheral vision to almost nothing. Needless to say, that was one gig I did not sign up for the next year. 

But there are those who enjoy such things. Or maybe it has something to do with the opportunity to be up close and personal with the athletes? Mascots have to ride on the team bus to away games, share the same locker room and are considered part of the team, right? So, I assume they are also privy to all the team's 'special events and activities.' All's I'm saying is, sure, the job sucks donkey dick, but it does have its benefits!

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Timmy Travels

Author: Herman Hutznagel

HIS69619

Doesn't that title sound like a modern podcast or a YouTube channel? 

Well, it's easy to see how the titular Timmy gets around! Thanks to that well-sheered pair of button down fly cut-offs, he need never to worry about where his next ride will be coming from. 

Yes, when selling? It's all about the packaging of the merchandise. From this illustration, you can clearly see how entranced the driver in that automobile has instantly become with what our young Tim is selling. 

Well, they do say that nothing sells like youth. Now... ain't that the truth!

Available as an e-book or pdf download for $3.95 at Hommi Publishing.

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Going To Guys 

Author: Ed Kroch

HIS69-620 

Okay. I'll be honest. I have no idea what is sitting on blondie's lap. Is it some sort of early laptop prototype? A television? A singer sewing machine?

I also can't figure out what they're sitting on or what the setting might be. If you have a clue, please leave one for me in the comments section. I love a good mystery... but not one I can't solve.

Going to guys comes easy for some of us. I knew at the age of six who I wanted to butter my buns for life. But, thanks to the times and my cobbled together sexual miseducation, though I knew what to do no matter who or what managed to seduce me, I always felt like I was pretending to be something I was not when it came to women. So, while I definitely played both sides of the fence for most of my 20's, by the time I was 30, I was finally ready to admit that my six year-old self was right all along

You can't fight nature. You can try... but, trust me, you will lose. It's much better to just accept things as they naturally come. 

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HIS69-621

HIS69-622

HIS69-623

(Covers and titles not found.)

Wow, three in a row. 

So, here's the thing with HIS69 books... at some point, things went very wrong for this imprint. Why? Well, that history would seem to be lost to the ages. Remember when we skipped from number 282 to 401? Well, that is not the end of their numbering issues. Not only were there duplicate titles, there were even some, as we will see in a moment, issued with the wrong number on the cover.

So, even though I have a few queries out regarding these missing titles, I am not all that sure that books for these numbers even exist - as in, never published. I'm betting that this is just one of those hiccups the publisher experienced and moved past as quickly as possible. Hey, they're smut books sold to homos in dirty books stores... so who cares?

Well, we do now. This is gay history, folks, and, given that this happened in 1987, I'm thinking there very well might be someone out there who has the answer. 

If I hear of anything, I'll let you know. If you know anything? Leave it in the comments section. I'll be sure to pass it on. 

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Hard Courses 

Author: Tony Moore

HIS69-624 HIS69-224

So here is another example of HIS69's occasional lapse when it comes to numerical order. The cover clearly brands this as HIS-244, when, in fact, it should read HIS-624. This was uncovered by our friend over at Hommi Publishing. The man has sources! I find it too coincidental that the preceding  three books have untraceable covers and titles - as in, no one has a copy - and then the next one in the series has a goof as big as this. This little snafu only reinforces my belief that those three missing catalog numbers were never published as anything.

As for Hard Courses... are we talking school work, or courses as in eating crappy cafeteria food? While the central figures are drawn really... really well, the rest of the picture seems pretty fuzzy. My guess? They're in line at the cafeteria counter and the stud holding the bottle of soda is asking his curly blonde companion if he'd like some 'pudding' for dessert. 

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Private Parts

Author: Tony Moore

HIS69625

Ooo... military men. My, I do love that cut of that young private's uniform. 

Sadly, this is one fantasy that does not live up to reality.  In real life, the rank and file of this nation's military is filled with young people who weren't only not cut out for college, but not ready for real life. No... they had a lot of growing up to do. 

And, while there are indeed some brilliant minds at work in our military, most of the kids that sign up are simply still in the process of figuring out how life works and what their place in the world might look like. High school sort of failed most of these kids and that's where the army comes in, to scoop them up and brainwash their tiny, empty heads.

Big gay romance? Oh, it probably does happen from time to time, but something tells me the scenery pictured is little more than wishful thinking. 

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Freshman Fantasies

Author: Paul J. Simon

HIS69626

Why does it look like that one kid is doing a louse check on the dude wearing nothing but a pair of tighty whities? And what happened to that kid's right arm? It looks like it becomes the dude on the left's leg? This is a very odd illustration. As for the topic? Well... the title says it all. Whatever college these studs attend is the one I wish I'd gone to straight out of high school. 

 

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Getting It Straight

Author: Andrew Martin

HIS69627

Is this a conversion therapy session gone horribly... right?

I'm so glad I was born gay. Because then I can truly enjoy things like these books. The are a tiny bit of culture that has never really been on mainstream's radar. These books represent a part of our history... our heritage. Our hopes, our dreams, our desires... they are all blatantly on display here. I think that's what made the golden age of gay porn so special. It wasn't just about hot dudes having sex. It wasn't about big dicks going into holes. It was about who we, as a community, were/are - our thoughts and wishes - by expressing those thoughts in such a flagrant matter we were finding a means of defining who and what we were.

That's why the preservation and cataloging of all this material is so very important. These books, these illustrations are snapshots of a different era - a time when gay folk were just waking up - sort of like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where Glinda, The Good Witch beckons forth the munchkins.

That's why I keep sharing this stuff; I want us all to remember or at least be aware of how dewy-eyed and sweet all our collective gay fantasies once were... and how far we have come as a people, making some of those dreams reality.

 

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And that's all for now.

Until next time...

Thanks for reading!

School Days - The Runaways