The Art Of The Nasty

Nigel Wingrove and Marc Morris

FAB Press

2^nd Edition, 11/15/2009

$39.95

Fab Press’ 2^nd edition of Marc Morris and Nigel Wingrove’s The Art Of The Nasty is a video collector’s dream come true. This lavish, full color 166 page hardcover book compiles hundreds of pieces of cover art from long out of print British issue VHS tapes, many of which came under scrutiny during the ‘Video Nasty Era’ – almost 450 images, to be exact (which is over a hundred more than the 1^st edition of the book contained).

While the book may be of more interest to British cult film fans simply because of the history behind the controversial titles covered, anyone even remotely interested in how films were marketed in the eighties through their often times shocking covers would do well to pick this up. Part coffee table book, part history lesson, this weighty tome starts off with thirteen pages of introductory text that explains what’s happened in regards to censorship issues in the British film industry since the first edition of the book was published ten years ago before giving us a solid overview of the era in which the video nasty was a cause for concern among moral crusaders and their ilk. The mood is set politically, socially and commercially and once we’re all up to speed on how and why this all came to be, we move on to the covers themselves.

The first chapter covers the ‘Official Nasties’ which were written up on  a list comprised of thirty-nine feature films deemed obscene by The Director Of Public Prosecutions.  Seriously disturbing titles such as Cannibal Holocaust, Faces Of Death and I Spit On Your Grave are featured here alongside more questionable selections such as Don’t Go In The Woods… Alone and The Werewolf And The Yeti. The Book doesn’t stop with just the official thirty-nine film, however, as the second chapter, Nasties On Parole, gives us a look at the often times very sensationalist cover art used on the video releases for the thirty-three films that were tried but not convicted. Stand outs here include Cannibal Terror (it’s hard to believe that anyone ever took this picture seriously enough to deem it a social threat!), Death Trap (better known elsewhere as Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive), The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, Prisoner Of The Cannibal God (or, if you prefer, Mountain Of The Cannibal God), and Jess Franco’s Women Behind Bars among others.

The third chapter, ‘Nasties – The Ones That Got Away,’ covers films that somehow managed to evade prosecution attempts despite dubious cover art and questionable morality. Look for sleeves exhibiting the merits of pictures like Schoolgirls In Chains, City Of The Living Dead, Brutes And Savages, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ilsa – Harem Keeper Of The Oil Sheiks (which was released with Arabic subtitles presumably to throw off officials looking to prosecute British companies by making the tape look like an import) to artsier fare such as In The Realm Of Senses and Waters’ Pink Flamingos to more action oriented films like Shogun Assassin, Death Wish, and Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs.

Chapter four, simply titled Nice And Sleazy Does It, is an interesting collection of artwork from the pre-cert days. Those with an interest in early adult video releases should relish cover art from interesting releases like De Renzy’s Babyface and Pretty Peaches, and Bethel Buckalew’s The Dirty Mind Of Young Sally alongside more expected offerings such as some of D’Amato’s Black Emmanuelle films, Fanny Hill, Double Agent 73, Electric Blue and some oddball British sex films such as Girls Come First and Keep It Up, Jack. There’s no shortage of horror movie material in this chapter either, so be on the lookout for plenty of great titles like The House Of Whipcord, Killer’s Moon, Scream Bloody Murder, and Torso as well as plenty of Nazisploitation pictures like SS Girls.

The fifth and final chapter, The Good, The Bad And The Vomit Inducing, is simply a selection of other titles of interest. There’s a lot of really odd cover art in here as well as some fairly strong images promoting titles like Astro Zombies, The Amazing Mr. No Legs (when is this going to get a DVD release?), The Black Gestapo, Bava’s Black Sunday, a garish piece from The Corpse Grinders and a surprisingly gory sleeves from Drive-in Massacre and The Executioner (better known as Massacre Mafia Style) to sexier stuff like Devils In The Convent, Primitive London, Queens Of Evil and Truck Stop Women. While there’s a nice mix in here made up of sex films, kung fu movies and general exploitation the focus is certainly on horror films, which make up roughly eighty percent of the images shown. An appendix listing the video companies and their catalogues closes the book out nicely.

Morris and Wingrove should be commended for the massive collection of images they’ve compiled for this book while FAB Press definitely deserves credit for making it available in such an attractive edition. The paper stock used is thick and it reproduces all of the tacky, garish and crazy covers quite well, while the hardcover binding ensures that you don’t have to worry about the pages ever falling out of the book. It’s a really well put together package in pretty much every regard and it’s hard to imagine any regular reader of this website not finding a whole lot to love here. VHS may be gone as a popular format but its fan base lives on (don’t believe me? Click here!)  and books like this ensure that the often times unique and exclusive artwork used for these releases is preserved. Here’s hoping someday we’ll see similar volumes in the future.

For more information on The Art Of The Nasty, check out the FAB Press homepage by clicking here!

Hey kids, like sleaze, smut and comics? Odds are pretty good that if you’re reading this you answered yes to all three of those criteria. In that case, get your ass over to the Cinema Sewer website by clicking here! Why? To get your very own copy of Cinema Sewer Volume 2 straight from writer/artist/editor Robin Bougie himself. It’s money well spent and dig that saucy cover art!

Anyone who hasn’t yet had the chance to check out Jennifer Suger and Jill C. Nelson’s fantastic biography, John Holmes: A Life Measured In Inches, now has the chance to win their very own copy courtesy of Bear Manor Media and AV Maniacs!

Win your copy by clicking here! 

Clocking in at a whopping 581 pages an including many photos from throughout Holmes’ life and career, this ridiculously well researched book features interviews with Holmes’ family and friends such as Sharon Holmes and Dawn Schiller as well as co-workers like Bob Chinn, Jamie Gillis, Bill Margold, Annette Haven and many, many, many more. Careful not to choose sides over the various controversial aspects of Holmes’ life, the book starts with a look at Holmes’ early years and follows him throughout the early days of his adult career in the sixties through to his rise to stardom as porndom’s main marquee star in the seventies with the advent of the Johnny Wadd films. From there we learn of his struggles with substance abuse which lead to the controversial ‘Wonderland Murders’ and his subsequent legal troubles. Of course, from there we learn of his comeback and ultimately his battle with HIV.

The book manages to paint a portrait of a man both troubled and proud. At times sincerely nice and kind, and at other times completely full of shit, Holmes makes for a fascinating subject and the care and attention to detail put into this project, the obvious desire to paint an honest portrait of his life rather than to simply focus on the more sensationlist aspects of it, makes this a book very much worth reading.

Says co-author Jill C. Nelson: 

“This project was initiated after Jennifer Sugar (who was 21 at the time) watched Wonderland and wanted to read a bio about Holmes, only to discover that one didn’t exist.  She attended “Fit for a King” - an event that would have recognized John’s 60th birthday on August 8th, 2004, in Hollywood California.  The book was born out of that trip to Southern California and the connections she made.  Without having known Sugar, I rented Wonderland in 2005, and developed a desire to learn more about Holmes, as the film was merely a snapshot of the lowest point of his life.  I began to participate in a message board for the movie and that’s where I met Sugar.  About a year later, she invited me to co-write the book with her and we began our collaboration by emailing our chapters, interview transcriptions and reviews back and forth.  We are both first time authors and neither of us had any connection to the adult entertainment community prior to writing this book.  Sugar and I are a generation apart and reside in different countries (I am 51 and live in Southern Ontario, Canada).  We are both employed.”

“Over the course of 4 years, Jennifer and I interviewed 35 people for our bio and we also incorporated other resources for the book.  Roughly 20-25% of the interviews implemented within our text are from the script material from WADD, The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.  Interestingly, a good portion of the WADD interviews utilized in our book did not appear in the original documentary, or in the Special Edition copy of the film.  We spent a good portion of the spring watching and reviewing over 200 John Holmes’ feature films and loops, and finally constructed the most current filmography of Holmes’ films/loops to date.  We are very proud of the fact that within our three photos sections, we have included some rare nudes of Holmes, as we discovered that many porn bios don’t.”

“The people we encountered through this project championed the biography on by opening up their past lives and sharing with us their personal memories.  Some were happy and some were painful.  It has been an incredible experience.”

Anyone with a passing interest in the adult film industry or who just enjoys a good biography in and of itself owes it to themselves to check out this meticulous and fascinating study of one of the most infamous and recognizeable adult film icons of all time.

-Ian

For more information, check out the book’s official website by clicking here!

Thanks to Wyatt Doyle (of New Texture) for the news which he was kind enough to post in our forum….

Georgina Spelvin’s long awaited autobiograhy is now availabe from her official website.

From her store’s description…

“Georgina Spelvin tells in her own words how she became an erotic film star with the making of “The Devil in Miss Jones” in 1972, and reveals, after thirty years, what happened to her after that.”

The book can be bought in hardcopy for $18.50 or downloaded for $6.25.