Tranz

It would appear that Tranz was first published in May 1977 and evolved from Accord and Bizarre Review. Accord ceased publication in January or February 1977, by which time Bizarre Review was reasonably well-established, having been in circulation since May 1976; it took over The World of Transvestism from Accord for a few issues, until Tranz was launched as a separate and independent title whose first issue was published by Enterprise Magazines (EM Publications).

The history around this time is somewhat murky, but it would seem that EM publications took over some of the SRA titles, closed others, launched new ones and moved into the SRA premises. EM Publications had already gained a firm foothold on the market in 1974 with its popular title Madame. In turn, EM Publications ceased to exist about the summer of 1977, after which all current titles were published by Swish. So the spring and summer of 1977 saw a massive upheaval and new, and very specialist fetish, titles appearing on the market.

But back to Tranz – in the words of its own editorial:

“Tranz will be the very first British journal to be completely orientated to readers practicing, or interested in, transvestism. It is intended initially to be a quarterly publication, but if it receives your support in sufficient numbers it will be bi-monthly − and then who knows; it may even progress to be a regular monthly magazine. It all depends on you who have been calling for your own magazine for so long. Tranz will contain your letters, your photos, a fantasy section, a personal classified column, fashion and make up hints and advice, and the entire journal will be edited and overlorded by your own Brian Douglas, who has proved to be an outstanding editor of The World Of Transvestism, first in Accord and now in Bizarre Review, with his understanding, sympathetic appraisal and, above all, his utter personal participation in his subject.”

It would appear that, from day one, Tranz was published every other month and was numbered consecutively. Then, from about February or March 1978, Swish launched The World of Transvestism to fill in the alternative months until Tranz ceased publication altogether and was incorporated into The World of Transvestism from Volume 4. I am not quite sure at this time as to when exactly that was, but I would hazard a guess at the early 1980s.

Tranz was always A5 format but The World of Transvestism was launched as an A4 magazine and stayed that way.