Its creators described Exit as an "outlaw liberal Fascist Sci-Fi Pop Art magazine", and it was part of the broader "apocalypse culture" milieu of the transgressive. The magazine was controversial for its provocative and shocking contents, including pornographic and violent imagery and themes. It was also known for its repeated odes to cult leader Charles Manson and its neo-Nazi content. The magazine shuttered in 1991, with its issues collected in several anthology volumes and later distributed online.
History
The magazine was founded by Adam Parfrey and George Petros in 1984 and the first issue appeared that year.[1][2] The magazine was based in and published out of New York City.[3] Petros and Parfrey had a sometimes contentious, up-and-down relationship, both in publishing the magazine and outside of it.[4] Parfrey said the only similar contemporary was Raw Magazine, but that they had wanted to push it further than in Raw.[5]
The magazine was banned for distribution in American prisons and in some foreign countries; several distributors refused to pick it up.[6] The second issue released in 1985,[7] and the third issue was published in early 1987.[8] After this issue, Parfrey, describing Petros as his "prima donna collaborator", quit the magazine.[9] Through the publisher Tacit, Petros published The Exit Collection in 1988.[10] Issue #4 was released in 1989, and #5 in 1991.[11]
Exit #6 was originally intended for release in 1992, which did not materialize.[10] Petros still planned to release a sixth issue as of April 1994, which he said would include works from and Kim Seltzer and Jim Goad from Answer Me! magazine.[6][12] According to Petros, the magazine's release schedule was hampered by the unreliableness of most of its contributors.[6] This did not materialize and it was never published, as it remained unfinished.[10] The magazine was hard to acquire in its time and even a few years after the end of its publication issues were sold as collector's items.[6] All issues are available on a website.[5][7] The sixth, unfinished issue was collected available on the website, and was collected in the Exit anthology.[10][7]
Format and contents
The magazine was printed on large, 11''x14'' pages.[10] The magazine was graphical and focused on art,[5][13] and included collages, text, and artwork.[1] Petros and Parfrey, both the co-editors,[14] described EXIT as a "outlaw liberal Fascist Sci-Fi Pop Art magazine".[15] Petros said of his own thoughts on the subject matter that he "support[s] all political and sexual extremism, because the extremists are the ones with the passionate spark that keep history going along" and said that "only by facing every cardinal point of an issue can you be absolutely free". Petros declared of negative opinions on the magazine that:[6]
My detractors call it political blasphemy, attacks upon the ruling class, child pornography, sexual abuse, satanism, advocacy of rape as eugenic paydirt, murder, racism, anti-semitism, anti-moslomism, advocacy of slavery, advocacy of violent overthrow of the United States government – I've been accused of showing it all. But fuck them all.
Contents were largely nihilistic and negative, as well as regularly pornographic in nature, and included images of sexual violence and rape, fascist, Nazi, and racist themes with numerous swastikas, or Satanic in nature. The magazine explored serial killers, racism, extremism, eugenics, and sadomasochism.[6][10][1] Parfrey later said hat they had included things in the magazine that "that would cause a fuss just by the type of artists there were and the format, things we would put in that magazine and it was a little unseemly."[5] The magazine functioned as one of the key outlets of the broader milieu its editors wrote in, dubbed "apocalypse culture" by Parfrey, which discussed deviant ideas like fascism, brainwashing, magic, and the end of the world.[4][16] Content was often neo-fascist, neo-Nazi, or white supremacist in nature.[17][6]
In a letter to James Mason in 1986, Parfrey described Exit as a periodical that "repudiates the kind of liberal humanism which is infecting this country like a plague" and as a "propaganda tool" to " legitimize a certain type of thought among race-mixing and otherwise polluted people".[1] Issues later included flyers and works from Mason.[18] The first issue ran a section on Jim Jones's final sermon prior to the Jonestown mass suicide and pictures of Adolf Hitler with a child; the second issue was far more Nazi focused, with several sections espousing fascist themes and symbolism.[1] Issue #3 was even more Nazi focused, and featured as its cover a picture of a universe with Adolf Hitler as its center, created by Petros and Parfrey.[19] That issue they ran a celebration of cult leader Charles Manson written by Parfrey entitled "The Book of Charlie", which also included photos of Hitler photoshopped with the heads of the Beatles; Parfrey declares the Beatles to be "vulgar simpletons" who were, despite this "messengers of the Gods [...] harbingers of Helter-Skelter".[13] That issue also included a spread from Boyd Rice which included quotes from Manson and Richard Wagner.[20]
The sixth issue contained a special section on Charles Mason, with transcriptions of aphorisms from many of his interviews, illustrated by, among others, H. R. Giger, Genesis P-Orridge, James Mason, assassin James Earl Ray, serial killers Richard Ramirez, Henry Lee Lucas, and Ottis Toole. The section concludes with a framed paragraph from Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, where LaVey wrote a sarcastic ode to Mason that declared "the American people owe Charles Manson a debt of gratitude. [...] He is omnipresent and has been very generous with his time in helping others to cope with the pain of their own insignificance."[10][8]
The magazine was known and very controversial for its provocative contents.[6][10] Art historian Carlo McCormick called it "outragous, irreverent and infamous", while writer Scott Cunningham criticized what he described as its "neo-fascist winks and nods".[6] Marcus Greil called it a "sort of pagan-fascist version of RAW".[13] A review in Small Press Review found its oversized pages "only make its on-the-edge contents that much more offesnsive, like mini-billboards in your face".[6] Petros claimed that Charles Manson wrote him to say he enjoyed the book.[6] Neo-Nazi Tom Metzger said it was full of "very interesting material".[22]
One analysis described it as a "a visual grab-bag of questionable intent giving an indication of what lay ahead."[2] Writer Doug Brod called its illustrations "primitive and often sublime",[10] and Glenn Slater praised it as "provocative and thought-provoking [...] A document of the gradual decline of the 20th century", which in its contents examined the dark aspects of many facets of man.[6]
Legacy
After leaving Exit, Parfrey went on to found several publishing companies, including Feral House, and edited the 1988 anthology of the transgressive, Apocalypse Culture, which has similar themes and contents to Exit.[16][23] He immediately succeeded the magazine with another, Blood and Flame.[9] Parfrey later said in 2015 of Exit that with the contents of the magazine, "we had fun with that, but then that could only go so far, so I wanted to do other things."[5] When the magazine shuttered, Petros went on to edit another, more mainstream magazine on music and cultural topics, called Seconds.[10][11] He also created a collection of his own works, including his works for the magazine, entitled Exploding Hearts, Exploding Stars: The Serial Art and Propagandart of George Petros. It was published by Norman Gosney Publications.[12]
Speaking retrospectively on the magazine, Petros claimed that despite the provocative contents, the magazine was not hateful, saying that: "it wasn’t hateful, scolding, finger-pointing stuff. It was using the currents of dissent and problems in society as materials to create works of art. Of course [it was] for shock value, because we were beyond aesthetics."[10] He also said than in addition to the shocking content, the editors of Exit had tried to "put beauty in there. We didn't hate anybody. We left that to others and respected other people’s hate."[10]
Brod, Doug (2024). Born with a Tail: The Devilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church of Satan. Hachette Books. ISBN978-0-306-83333-5.
Caldwell, Tim; Wiloch, Thomas (April 1994). "Exit's George Petros". Small Press Review. Vol.26, no.4. Paradise. pp.15, 18. ISSN0037-7228.
Harrison, Mark (2015). "Apocalypse Culture". In Misiroglu, Gina (ed.). American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History. Florence: Sharpe Reference. ISBN978-0-7656-8060-0.
Jackson, Neil; Kimber, Shaun; Walker, Johnny; Watson, Thomas Joseph, eds. (2016). Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN978-1-62892-112-0.
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