AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF HEIDI SAHA/WARREN MAGAZINES/RAPIDSHARE LINK
In this post I try to briefly explore the fallacious near urban legend surrounding one of the most obscure of all Warren Magazines, An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha. Heidi was the daughter of science fiction editor Art Saha who was also pals with Forrest J. Ackerman. She accompanied Forry to the 6th annual Comic Art Convention in 1973 dressed in Vampirella garb and took home a couple prizes for her attire. Later a one run magazine tribute to the 14 year old Heidi was published and a bit of a stir was caused. I remember Heidi Saha when I was a kid and collecting Warren magazines and to this day I cannot believe some of the wild speculations about Forry’s intentions in publishing the magazine. I will only believe he was a good man and the magazine was put out in more innocent times. There are no nude pictures of Heidi in the magazine unless you count the one where she is a baby. The picture caption on page two that says “Looking at Heidi can be Hobbit forming” is pretty bizarre by modern standards and may be a bit in bad taste as are some of the images of her in jungle garb. But the idea that Forrest J. Ackerman was some sort of pedophile grooming his victim is something I have a hard time accepting.
The book was only printed in one run of 500 copies and has even become something of a legend among Warren collectors. I managed to find jpeg copies of the entire magazine online and saved them. together into a folder. I do not really want to upload all 36 images here and so I made a PDF file of the magazine. As far as I know this may be the only full PDF version online but I am not sure I have read blog posts that refers to a digital copy, but I can not find a full copy in PDF or CBR format and so made this one up myself. The quality is off and on but you are not going to find this in better shape I think and if you do please send me the link.
I uploaded the PDF and CBR (which ever you prefer) to my Rapidshare account here:
January 19, 2012 at 7:10 pm
i don't have papidshare but i have drop box….could you send it to me that way?
January 24, 2012 at 3:03 pm
awesome, simply awesome. It brings back a lot of memories. Fandom was so wild back then.
January 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Sorry you had to bring this one up again, Bill. I commented the first time about the experience I have had with pedophiles stalking my two step daughters and what we had to do to 'deter' their attentions. I am very disappointed that you still feel a 500 copy run with no hope of profit was done as a 'gimme' to parents who may have promoted Warren products. Warren was a fairly tight man with a dollar, according to most reports. There is nothing 'fallacious' about printing photos of a 14 year old girl with a bottom that ends an inch above her ladyhood. I don't believe even Playboy had gone 'pink' at this time. Forry may have been a good man, but he was not a perfect one. By his own account, his wife Wendayne (Rocket to the Rue Morgue) died asking for an ex-husband (that is in an article from his Cult Movie days I still have some where, written by Forry). Forry was admittedly bitter about this, but naturally makes no comment as to why his wife's final words would be about an ex from over 20 years before. Forry was Forry and there is no reason to canonize the man. Once again, I must note the many pictures where Heidi is obviously experiencing 'old man smell' and the fact that she almost never smiles in costume. I guess my main problem is that you claim the 70's were a 'more innocent time'. You and I may have been more innocent, but the photos available since the Betty Page bondage of the Fifties have played to 'interests and concerns' younger people may not have been able to percieve. Since so much of those times were about repression of natural urges, I believe the bottled up emotions were more corrosive for that reason and especially so amongst men of 'a certain age'(looking at you, Forry). It's kind of obvious we will never agree on Heidi, but you did find a post that should produce many comments. Here's a quote from 'competitor' Angelique Trouvere: I think what upsets me about the whole Heidi thing was that she was going through terrible emotional turmoil at that time but felt helpless to do anything about it. Her mother once forced her to dance in front of a gathering of comic professionals at a private party like some trained animal. Friends who witnessed that said that her discomfort was obvious to everyone except Taimi who was too busy playing the cassette recorder she brought with her and shushing the audience.Heidi had alot of potential but her parents desire for her stardom really messed with her head–and let’s just say that we’re lucky that she didn’t die on us.
January 29, 2012 at 6:14 am
RobertI cannot upload the files to every sort of file sharing service in the world, sorry. You should have no problem downloading the file from RS in your download manager. you do not need an account with RS to just download files people want to share. Go ahead and give it a shot, you should have no trouble.JohnI think the thing this brings back is the memory of those damn cool ass ads in the back of the Warren mags. I used to just drool looking at them all and remember ordering back issues of FMF at about a dollar each. DavidI can respect your opinion and do not really want to turn the post in a debate forum on something as heinous as pedophilia. There is certainly evil in the world and predators. There was most likely elements of exploitation going on here, as is usually the case with magazine publishing I suppose, but I just do not see it all as descending into the dark depths many people online claim it does. I think the effort was a bit goofy and with some pictures in bad taste, but I have never read of anything illegal going on. If there had been arrests and the book banned by a court I would never have put it up here. I am just making it available for people to decide for themselves, and probably you will not be alone in your opinion. I do not remember your comments from my old site. Did you know the people involved with this? You speak as if you do or did?