If you have not encountered Pulp before, here is what you need to know: this is not a glossy mainstream magazine hedging its bets. It is a handcrafted limited edition zine, capped at just 100 copies per issue and never reprinted, that pairs the experimental homoerotic photography of Mark Alan with the written work of queer writers and poets. Every issue is its own distinct world. Every copy is a collector's object by definition.
Issue 9 is the one to start with, or to add to your collection if you already know the series.
What Is in Issue 9?
The ninth issue of Pulp gathers five distinct photographic spreads, each with its own mood and visual logic.
"Feliz Polla" began with a piece of graffiti Alan photographed from a wall in Barcelona. He took that color palette and energy into his hotel bathroom to photograph adult film stars Tom Storm and Santiago Santamaria, a spread that feels both spontaneous and precisely composed.
"Pervy Narcissus" features a tattooed fetish model reveling in his own image, leather shorts and all. There is something knowing and playful in the title, and the images deliver on both counts.
"Flora and Fauna" is part of Alan's ongoing series pairing male nude models with plants, producing work that is formally beautiful and quietly strange in the best possible way.
"Sauna Boyz" takes us inside what happens after hours at a Madrid sauna, capturing a group of young men getting to know each other with the kind of frank, good-humored sexuality that is central to Pulp's appeal.
And "Kiffeur" celebrates muscle jocks in gym shorts and sneakers, a tribute to the kind of low-key masculine fetish that rarely gets this level of aesthetic attention.
Together the spreads cover a wide tonal range: tender, playful, explicit, artistic, communal and solitary. That breadth is the point. Pulp is not interested in a single version of queer male desire. It wants all of it.
This Issues Queer Poet Is Brane Mozetic.
The literary counterpart to Alan's photography in Issue 9 is Brane Mozetic, one of the most significant queer writers to emerge from Slovenia, and far more internationally recognized than his relatively low profile in the English-speaking world might suggest.
To encounter Mozetic's writing alongside Mark Alan's photography is to experience two artists who share a similar commitment: that queer desire deserves to be rendered with honesty, craft and zero apology.
Get Your Copy Before It Is Gone
Pulp Issue 9 is and available now from our store. Once the 100 copies are gone, they are gone. No reprints, no second chances.
For US customers, copies must be purchased through The Male Muse Blurb Store due to changes with the US printer.
This is the kind of publication that rewards the people who find it. If you are new to Pulp, Issue 9 is a more than worthy introduction. If you have been following the series, you already know what to do.
