The Realist
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The Realist, edited and published by Paul Krassner, was a pioneering magazine in the American countercultural press of the mid-20th Century. Although The Realist is often regarded as a major milestone in the underground press, it was a nationally distributed newsstand publication as early as 1959.
First published in the spring of 1958, The Realist appeared on a fairly regular schedule during the 1960s and then on an irregular schedule after the early 1970s. It was revived as a much smaller newsletter during the mid-1980s when material from the magazine was collected in The Best of the Realist: The 60's Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine (Running Press, 1985). The final issue of The Realist was #146 (Spring 2001).
The Realist provided a format for extreme satire in its articles, cartoons and Krassner's editorials, but it also carried more serious material in articles and interviews. Krassner leaned towards hoaxes, such as his "The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book", an outrageous parody of William Manchester's The Death of a President. Krassner's article confused some readers who accepted it as legitimate.
Among the more controversial products issued by Krassner was a red, white and blue automobile bumper sticker, decorated with stars, which proclaimed "Fuck Communism." In advertising this item, Krassner advised that if anyone displaying the sticker received criticism, the critic should be told, "Go back to Russia, you Commie lover."
His Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, illustrated by Wally Wood, was a highlight of the magazine, so successful that Krassner printed it as a poster that was widely pirated. The poster was recently upgraded by Krassner into a new, digitally colored version.
