Two collections worth knowing about have been sitting in the shop for a while now. We've still got a good number of issues available from both runs, and if either of these titles is on your list, now's a decent time to look.
Mike Arlen's Guys
Mike Arlen was Britain's most prolific gay male physique photographer. He shot for Zipper, Inches, and half a dozen other titles before self-publishing his own magazine series, Mike Arlen's Guys, which ran to fifteen volumes across the 1980s.
The issues we have are in excellent condition. These aren't reading copies that've been passed around. They're the kind of thing you buy once and keep.
Supply is genuinely finite. Arlen died in 2022, which means no reprints, no new stock, and a slowly shrinking pool of copies in decent condition. The 2024 Attitude feature on his life and work brought a new wave of collectors to the title. Prices have moved accordingly.
If you want to know more about the man behind the camera, the full story is in our Mike Arlen guide.
Black Inches
Black Inches was launched in 1993 by Mavety Media Group, the New Jersey publisher behind Mandate, Honcho, and Inches. It ran as a monthly until 2009 and was one of very few mainstream-distributed American gay titles to centre Black men on their own terms.
The issues we have span 1997 to 2000. That's a significant window. It covers the late 90s peak of US gay print, overlaps with Bobby Blake's regular column years, and ends just before founder George Mavety's death in August 2000, after which the Mavety titles began their slow wind-down.
Black Inches never had proper UK distribution. Issues that made it across the Atlantic ended up in private collections and rarely surface again. A consecutive run from this period in good condition is genuinely unusual to find.
20% off both collections
Use code LOYAL20 at checkout for 20% off. No minimum spend, no time pressure but stock on both titles is limited and we won't be getting more.