Utopian Press was initially set up to publish science fiction pamphlets; the editor and owner was Benson Herbert, already an experienced publisher. It was obvious from the start that he had a taste for the more exotic side of publishing, with many of the covers featuring pin-up style art work.

Eventually, Herbert gave up publishing science fiction and concentrated his efforts on producing saucy magazines. The law at the time would not allow any new periodicals to be published – that is, new titles intended to appear as regular editions on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Herbert got around this hurdle by publishing each new monthly magazine as a one-off, with a different title every time, hence not a periodical. Titles that I am aware of include Carnival Capers, Sporty Stories, Blue Stories, Haywire, Snap, Cuban Capers, Hubba Hubba, and Heebee Jeebee.

Herbert found a niche in the fetish market, with the first Fads and Fancies being published as a supplement in Sporty Stories (January 1950). Fads and Fancies continued as a supplement in his other monthlies until June 1950, when it was published in its own right for the first time, with this issue being numbered as Volume 1 No 6 (labelled as just No 1 on the cover). It would appear that, from October 1950, the volume numbering was dropped.

Fads and Fancies was lavishly illustrated throughout by Reina M. Bull, who also signed her work RMB and, in all Fads and Fancies, as Janine. Janine's artistry illuminates many written descriptions with drawings of voluptuous beauties in stockings, garters, bloomers, corsets, hats, and high heels. Her busty matrons present themselves, celebrating their own fleshy femininity adorned with lace, ruffles, bows and feathers.

The content is pretty much exclusively letters from readers, numbered consecutively for easy future reference. These cover a range of subjects and interests, including much talk about female underwear, heels, skirts, and up skirt views, with writers discussing knickers, panties, nylons, high heels, corsets, anklets, jewellery, cosmetics, hobble skirts, lace, garters, and horses.

These books are now quite rare and very hard to come by.

EDITORIAL

Dear Readers,

Here we are at last with our first complete issue of Fads & Fancies and here's hoping you like it!

You will notice half the magazine is art paper this time. which I'm sure you'll like, as it brings out Janine's illustrations ever so much better. Before Christmas it will be all on art paper.

You will notice there are no stories in this issue - there just wasn't room for them. In fact, there is nothing “professional” in the magazine at all - even “Hot Notes” was written by a reader who is a jazz faddist - so you can really say the magazine is all yours now. Incidentally, we are getting far more letters than we have space for, so we can only print the most interesting ones, I'm afraid.

A word about your letters: please don't be annoyed if your letter doesn’t appear, or if it does appear in an altered form, for no apparent reason. The point is that what may seem absurdly harmless to you may be frowned upon by other people, and we must obey all sorts of odd rules of censorship which to many people would appear quite ridiculous - so don't embarrass us by asking us so to explain! This is something you must leave to us! For the same reason, we have been unable to carry out many of the suggestions you have proposed to us, though they seemed quite good on the surface.

However, this is only a small point, and most letters coming in can be printed without alteration.

In case you wonder why this first issue is called Volume One, Number Six, this is for the convenience of collectors: the first Fads & Fancies supplement appeared in Sporty Stories in January, which is therefore Number One. Volume Two will start next January.

Good Reading!

Benson Herbert