Black Mask: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox magazine
'''Black Mask''' is an online [[artist]]-[[author|writer]] specializing in a number of genres including [[M/G]] [[spanking fiction]]. Amassing a considerable body of work between 1999 and 2004, he has published [[story|stories]] and [[illustration]]s in ''[[Janus (magazine)]]'' magazine and numerous online sources under various [[pseudonym]]s. He has also created [[comic strip]]s featuring corporal imagery, recalling the ‘classical’ era of comic book spanking.
| title              = Black Mask
{{Header|v 08/21}}
| image        = BlackMaskFalcon2.jpg|
Black Mask's stories are typically formulaic, divided into clearly defined sections for a length of between 2,000 and 5,000 words. Frequently taking the feminine perspective, his stories deal primarily with the emotions associated with impending spanking; fear, dread, [[anticipation]], [[remorse]] and [[humiliation]]. Female protagonists are almost exclusively [[adolescent]]s aged between 14 and 17, coming from middle-class Anglo-Saxon backgrounds and requiring regular [[OTK]] discipline. [[Punishment]] is generally administered by step-fathers, older boyfriends, male housemates, and similar stock figures of patriarchal authority.
| image_size        =
| image_caption      = Cover of September 1929 issue, featuring part 1 of Black Mask's serialization of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. Illustration of private eye Sam Spade by Henry C. Murphy, Jr.
| publisher          = Popular Publications
| category          = [[Hardboiled]]
| total_circulation  =
| circulation_year  =
| frequency          =  
| language          = English
| editor            = H. L. Mencken,<br>George Jean Nathan,<br>later Joseph Shaw
| editor_title      =
| headquarters      =
| founded            = 1920
| firstdate          = &nbsp;
| country            = {{USA}}
| website            = &nbsp;
| issn              =
}}
'''''Black Mask''''' was a [[pulp magazine]] launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan as one of a number of money-making publishing ventures to support the prestigious literary magazine ''The Smart Set'', which Mencken edited, and which operated at a loss. Under their editorial hand, ''Black Mask'' was not exclusively a publisher of crime fiction, offering, according to the magazine, "the best stories available of adventure, the best mystery and detective stories, the best romances, the best love stories, and the best stories of the occult."


After eight issues, Mencken and Nathan considered their initial $500 investment to have been sufficiently profitable, and they sold the magazine to its publishers, Eltinge Warner and Eugene Crow for $12,500.  Joseph Shaw took over the editorship.
Aside from the scenarios outlined above, Black Mask has also dabbled in the ''Au Pair'' and ''Office Discipline'' genres, and explored [[sadomasochism|sado-masochistic]] literature on at least one occasion. All of his fiction is non-consensual and involves long, intense corporal sequences described in explicit detail (usually well received, but leading, in some cases, to accusations of literary excess). A small number of stories feature female disciplinarians, usually relatives such as [[aunt]]s or elder cousins, though these are in a minority.


Shaw, following up on a promising lead from one of the early issues, promptly turned ''Black Mask'' into an outlet for the growing school of naturalistic crime writers led by Carroll John Daly.  Daly's private detective Race Williams was a rough and ready character with a sharp tongue, and established the model for many later acerbic private eyes.
The majority of his work is free of sexual references, favoring the 'pure' spanking genre in which justice is dispensed for exclusively disciplinary reasons. His style is strongly influenced by the classical spanking fiction of the mid-seventies, especially pictorial articles in popular magazines such as ''Post, Pix'' and ''People.'' His prime objective is to take the reader into the story and allow him/her to experience literally ''everything'' the heroine feels as the spanking is taking place.


''Black Mask'' later published the profoundly influential Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and The Continental Op, and other hardboiled writers who came in his wake, such as Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner. The magazine was hugely successful, and many of the writers, such as Hugh B. Cave, who appeared in its pages went onto greater commercial and critical success.
== Links ==
* [http://www1.asstr.org/~blackmask/black/contents2.htm Maraschino Fiction: Art and Stories by the Black Mask.]


''Black Mask'' reached a sales peak in the early 1930s, but then interest began to wane under increasing pressure from the comic book market, cheap paperback books, radio and the cinema. In 1936, refusing to cut writers' already meager pay, Shaw resigned, and many of the high-profile authors abandoned the magazine with him. From this point onward, ''Black Mask'' was in decline, eventually ceasing publication in 1951.
{{cat|Artists|Authors}}
 
''Black Mask'' magazine was the specific [[pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] magazine that inspired the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film ''Pulp Fiction''. Originally, the title of the film was ''Black Mask'', before being changed.
 
==External links and references==
*[http://www.blackmaskmagazine.com/ BlackMaskMagazine.com]
*[http://www.detnovel.com/Black%20Mask.html History of ''Black Mask'']
 
{{AdventureMags}}
{{pulps}}
[[Category:Pulp magazines]]
{{footer}}

Latest revision as of 16:16, 23 March 2022

Black Mask is an online artist-writer specializing in a number of genres including M/G spanking fiction. Amassing a considerable body of work between 1999 and 2004, he has published stories and illustrations in Janus (magazine) magazine and numerous online sources under various pseudonyms. He has also created comic strips featuring corporal imagery, recalling the ‘classical’ era of comic book spanking.

Black Mask's stories are typically formulaic, divided into clearly defined sections for a length of between 2,000 and 5,000 words. Frequently taking the feminine perspective, his stories deal primarily with the emotions associated with impending spanking; fear, dread, anticipation, remorse and humiliation. Female protagonists are almost exclusively adolescents aged between 14 and 17, coming from middle-class Anglo-Saxon backgrounds and requiring regular OTK discipline. Punishment is generally administered by step-fathers, older boyfriends, male housemates, and similar stock figures of patriarchal authority.

Aside from the scenarios outlined above, Black Mask has also dabbled in the Au Pair and Office Discipline genres, and explored sado-masochistic literature on at least one occasion. All of his fiction is non-consensual and involves long, intense corporal sequences described in explicit detail (usually well received, but leading, in some cases, to accusations of literary excess). A small number of stories feature female disciplinarians, usually relatives such as aunts or elder cousins, though these are in a minority.

The majority of his work is free of sexual references, favoring the 'pure' spanking genre in which justice is dispensed for exclusively disciplinary reasons. His style is strongly influenced by the classical spanking fiction of the mid-seventies, especially pictorial articles in popular magazines such as Post, Pix and People. His prime objective is to take the reader into the story and allow him/her to experience literally everything the heroine feels as the spanking is taking place.

Links

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