One of the leading magazines of the Underground Press.
[NEVILLE, Richard, Editor]. Oz Magazine. Issue 8, January 1968. London: Oz Publications Ink Ltd., [1968].
4to., colourful printed wraps; pp. 1-20, 37-56, the central portion, which formed the large folded Che Guevera poster lacking; despite its faults, an exceptionally clean copy, barely read, with some very light creasing and marks but otherwise fine, the subscription ads clean.
Issue 8, printed in a smaller format. Contents include ‘Russia, You Have Bread, But No Roses’, an Angelo Quattrocchi on the Russian Revolution, an ‘In Memorium Homo Sapiens Extinct’ back cover graphic, and the usual Martin Sharp illustrations.
‘Oz’ was a revolutionary, anti-establishment underground magazine which ran to 48 issues in the UK from 1967 until 1973. A parallel version was published in Australia from 1963. Edited by in both countries by Richard Neville, and co-edited in London by Jim Anderson, Felix Dennis and Roger Hutchinson, the magazine was initially produced in a basement in Notting Hill gate, and became infamous when it was subject to the longest obsecenity trial in British Legal history in 1971. The three editors endured numerous police raids, and pleaded guilty to the charges raised against them. They were sentenced to harsh jail terms, although were eventually aquitted on appeal.
The magazine’s use of striking psychedellic artworks and printing techniques such as fold-out posters, metallic foils and new fluorescent inks were innovative at the time. Printing was only carried out in black and white when the funds could not be raised for the more-expensive colour. The magazine was also popular for its biting satire on controversial subjects such as sex, drugs, homosexuality, politics and war. Covers were produced predominantly by Martin Sharp, cartoons by Robert Crumb, and included radical feminist manifestos by Germaine Greer. As one of the former Art Directors Jim Anderson wrote: “Everything the establishment hated was in Oz”.
The magazine ceased publication in November 1973 due to a £20,000 debt.
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