The following is a growing collection of resources for learning more about Victor & the world in which he wrote. They’ve been split up by format for readability and are annotated to give you a quick rundown of what they cover. Links to freely accessible resources are included wherever possible. Happy reading~
Partial Bibliography
On Victor’s personal website.
Earl Kemp & e.I
e.I
Earl’s E-Zine archives. Accessible in both html page and PDF formats.
earlkemp.com
Earl’s personal website. Requires flash player extension to view.
Audio recording of Earl
Speech given at the first San Diego Comic Con in 1970.
Greenleaf & Gay Pulp History
Vintage Greenleaf Classics Books
Site dedicated to archiving the work produced by Greenleaf between 1959 and 1975. Note: the works from Greenleaf’s “Gay Line” imprint are not yet in the archive (includes The Tijuana Bible Reader, The Second Tijuana Bible Reader, and Friar Peck and His Tale from Victor).
Hommi Publishing
Incredible site dedicated to preserving the history of gay male pulps, including a searchable dataset of pulps combining the research of the site’s authors + the bibliography work of Norman and Boyd (see Print Books section). Also have digital copies of a very large volume of gay pulps available at their original mid-century cover prices (~$0.25-$2.00).
Banis, Victor. Spine Intact: Some Creases, 2004.
Victor’s memoir/personal recollections of his time as a paperback writer. Features reworked and expanded versions of his writing for e.I.
Bronski, Michael. Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps, 2003.
You can find Victor’s takes on some of this book’s shortcomings in his “All of Us Virgins” piece, but it is nevertheless a valuable resource in the rather small field of literature dedicated to gay pulp history. Features excerpts from a number of gay male pulps with brief intros, including an excerpt from The Gay Haunt. Bronski reflects on the process of connecting with Victor for this book in his intro to Victor’s 2007 novel Longhorns.
Daley, Brittany A., et al. Sin-a-rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties, 2004.
Volume on the sleaze paperback industry more broadly. Mostly focused on highlighting pulp art, but contains pieces on pulp history by various contributors in the introductory section, a number of which Earl wrote. This book can be tricky to track down, but a lot if not most of the historical material within was reworked from or later published in e.I. Includes a very helpful catalogue inventorying sleaze publishers compiled by Daley.
Gunn, Drewey Wayne, editor. The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, 2009.
Collection of essays on gay pulp history from the 40s to the 70s, including contributions by Earl and Victor.
_____. 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage, 2013.
Academic essay anthology on gay sleaze paperbacks. Unlike The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, this book focuses on outside scholarly perspectives rather than mixing scholarly and industry voices (like Earl’s and Victor’s). Includes Randall Ivey’s chapter on Victor, “Guerilla Literature: The Many Worlds of Victor J. Banis.”
Norman, Tom. American Gay Erotic Paperbacks: A Bibliography, 1994.
The introduction to Norman’s bibliography is available for free online on Hommi Publishing’s blog. They also have a scan of the bibliography available for $2.50.
Stryker, Susan. Queer pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, 2001.
Michael Bronski first reached out to Victor in the late 90s to identify The Gay Haunt’s author for Pulp Friction, published in 2003. In the meantime, Stryker still took a stab at discussing Victor’s novels… even without knowing who he was. Her analysis is colored by assuming the same man was behind some wildly different Victor and non-Victor Don Hollidays, but she still does an impressive job of connecting novels that were his across different bylines, including AC-DC Lover/So Sweet, So Soft, So Queer (Victor Jay), the CAMP books (Don Holliday), and AC-DC Stud (J.X. Williams). An interesting look at scholarship before the public ”Victor J. Banis, pulp author extraordinaire” reveal!
Bergman, David. “The Cultural Work of Sixties Gay Pulp Fiction.” The Queer Sixties, 1999.
Contains a section dedicated to analyzing the CAMP series, so it has some utility for checking out more academic perspectives on Jackie & simply giving insight into early academic work on gay male pulps. However, it contains a number of factual errors (some of which Victor himself directly addresses in Spine Intact). So I would caution against using it as an authority on pulp history!
Johnson, David K. “Physique Pioneers: The Politics of 1960s Gay Consumer Culture.” Journal of Social History, 2010.
Focuses on physique magazines rather than pulps, but does a good job of laying out the way that existing writing on gay consumer culture has largely ignored pre-Stonewall gay markets in the US.
Kick, Russ, editor. Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong:The Disinformation Guide to the Extremes of Human Sexuality (And Everything in Between), 2005.
2005 collection of essays, including pieces by both Earl and Victor. (Victor’s is an edited combination of the first two pieces in his “Virgins” series for e.I)
Chronological Guide to Victor’s Writing in Earl Kemp’s E-Zine, e.I (2003-2011)
Personal Essays & Memoirs
Paperback Virgin, eI6, January 2003 (vol. 2, no. 1)
Victor’s recollections of his start in the paperback industry with Gloria, his experience of the Sioux City trial, and his intro to Earl & Greenleaf (+ a brief reflection on what this has to do with the history of gay liberation).
Godfather Virgin, eI7, April 2003 (vol. 2, no. 2)
Victor’s overview of the concept of the BG/AG (Before Greenleaf/After Greenleaf) dichotomy of gay American history. He provides his own account of the history of gay lit in the 20th century up to and after the Earl Kemp Divide, ending with chronicling his own relationship with Greenleaf and early friendship with Earl.
All Of Us Virgins: Or, I Lost It at the Book Store, eI8, June 2003 (vol. 2, no. 3)
Victor’s response to/review of Michael Bronski’s Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps. This essay focuses largely on challenging what he describes as the East Coast-centrism of Bronski’s book, providing his own overview of the critical role California played in the history of the mid-20th century gay publishing boom and early gay liberation movement.
Virgins No More, eI9, August 2003 (vol. 2, no. 4)
Final piece in his “Virgins” series, where he addresses gay pulp publishing history specifically through the lens of what it meant for free speech in the US, the legal battles surrounding it, and the role Greenleaf and Earl played in that history.
An Afterthought to “Love in Loon,” eI15, August 2004 (vol. 3, no. 4)
Victor’s perspective on Earl’s extended piece about his rocky editor/author relationship with Richard Amory (Richard Love), the publishing of The Song of the Loon, its sequels/adaptations, and the cultural phenomenon that followed.
To Bea or Not To Bea, eI17, December 2004 (vol. 3, no. 6)
Victor’s fond reflections on his friendship with Bea Luros, wife of Brandon House Books publisher Milton Luros, with whom he first became acquainted during the Sioux City trial regarding The Affairs of Gloria.
A Virgin Anew, eI22, October 2005 (vol. 4, no. 5)
Victor’s reflections on returning to gay pulp in 1970 to write The Gay Haunt and his troubled relationship with editor/publisher Maurice Girodias. Originally written for this issue of e.I, republished as an author’s note in the 00s reprint of The Gay Haunt.
Oh, Gloria, eI39, August 2008 (vol. 7, no. 4)
Short story/memoir hybrid piece about Victor encountering Gloria from The Affairs of Gloria.
O, Pioneers, eI46, October 2009 (vol. 8, no. 5)
Victor returns to the subject of the gay pulp publishing boom in California and criticizing the way it has been erased from histories of queer culture and the broader publishing revolution of the 60s.
Short Stories & Novel Excerpts
Lady in Waiting, eI13, April 2004 (vol. 3, no. 2)
Excerpt from The Why Not.
Matinee, eI14, June 2004 (vol. 3, no. 3)
Excerpt from The Why Not.
…My true love gave to me…., eI17, December 2004 (vol. 3, no. 6)
Excerpt from Holiday Gay.
Adolf’s First Goose, eI25, April 2006 (vol. 5, no. 2)
Original short story.
In Passing, eI26, June 2006 (vol. 5, no. 3)
Original short story. Reprinted in Come This Way (Regal Crest, 2007).
Neighbors, eI30, February 2007 (vol. 6 no. 1)
Original short story.
Frankenpussy, eI32, June 2007 (vol. 6 no. 3)
Excerpt from Drag Thing.
Welcome to Antoinette’s, eI35, December 2007 (vol. 6 no. 6)
Short story, first printed in The Main ARTery, Volume 1, Issue 5, and reprinted in Life And Other Passing Moments (Wildside Press, 2007).
Whatever Lola Wants, eI38, June 2008 (vol. 7, no. 3)
Excerpt from Lola Dances.
Birthday Boy, The, eI41, December 2008 (vol. 7, no. 6)
Original short story.
Angel Land, eI42, February 2009 (vol. 8, no. 1)
Excerpt from Angel Land.
Love Sucks, eI48, February 2010 (vol. 9, no. 1)
Short Jackie Holmes story about a suspected vampire beau…
Home for Christmas, eI53, December 2010 (vol. 9, no. 6)
Original short story.
Belladonna, eI55, April 2011 (vol. 10, no. 2)
Excerpt from Deadly Nightshade.
Under the Counter, eI56, June 2011 (vol. 10, no. 3)
Excerpt from The Astral: Till the Day I Die.
Midnight Special, eI58, October 2011 (vol. 10, no. 5)
Excerpt from Midnight Special.
Additional Victor-Related Readings from e.I
Issue 46 largely focuses on Drewey Wayne Gunn’s (then) newly-released book, The Golden Age of Gay Fiction. In addition to Victor’s own essay, a number of the pieces in this issue discuss the history of gay pulps (including a full review of the book by legendary lesbian pulp author Ann Bannon!)