mass culture, and the emerging homosexual underground combined in the accessible pulp paperback with its striking, interpretive packaging. For many readers - including young, isolated gay men - an eye-catching, pocket-sized paperback cover on a drugstore rack provided their first intriguing look into a previously concealed gay world. What were the messages behind the emblematic images and flashy graphics? For whom were they intended? What was their impact on a rapidly changing North American society? Ian Young, author of The Stonewall Experiment: A Gay Psychohistory and an authority on gay publishing, probes beneath the surface of gay pulp covers to reveal their underlying, sometimes surprising, messages. Ian Young is one of the founders of the Canadian gay movement. His books include Sex Magick, The Male Muse, The AIDS Cult (with John Lauritsen), and The Stonewall Experiment. His essays, poems and short stories have been published in over fifty anthologies including What Love Is and The Golden Age of Gay Fiction. He lives in Toronto with his partner Wulf. This is a re-issued manuscript.