HEIDI SAHA, POP CULTURE CURIOSITY

If you've got an extra grand to spend on one of Warren's weirdest magazines, then hop on over to eBay where you'll find a copy of AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF HEIDI SAHA. The magazine that promises all you could possibly want to know about "fantasy fandom's famous femme" is offered with the "Buy it Now" price of $999.99. The seller is graciously shipping it free to the buyer.

This 1973 one-shot publication is a bit of an oddity, even for a lineup of monster, sci-fi, and other miscellaneous 'zines from Warren. Miss Saha was a teenage fantasy fan who showed up at the 1973 New York Comic Art Convention wearing nothing more than a few strips of cloth called a Vampirella costume and immediately got the attention of Forrest J Ackerman. Smitten by the young miss with the famously oblique rationale that he did it as a favor to her parents -- or, alternately, as a business deal -- FJA dedicated an entire, 36-page (not 30 pages as the eBay seller claims), exclusive, mail-order only edition of the teen's story in fandom.

The cover image shown on the eBay listing.

The 'zine is filled with the Acker-ese language that Forry was ever fond of, and lent a lighthearted -- dare I say -- innocent air to the proceedings. Had Saha been just a few years older, the magazine would have conveyed an entirely different image. As it is, it's exploitative factor cannot be denied, even for those days. Taken at face value, however, and considering the original motives were true, the Heidi Saha magazine is, at the very least, a pop culture curiosity. Whatever the reason for the magazine's existence, the Saha saga continues to be controversial, especially when seen through a contemporary lens.

Heidi with Forrest J Ackerman.

The companion poster is rarer than the magazine.

From FAMOUS MONSTERS #65 (May 1970).

The "infamous" Vampirella costume.

FORREST J ACKERMAN, NUDIST

"If God had meant us to be nudists, we would have been born without clothes." -- Forrest J Ackerman in Continuum

One look at Forrest J Ackerman's resume reveals a varied and multifold list of work. There's his most famous accomplishment, editor of the original FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine,  There's his work as an author's agent. There's his litany of fiction and non-fiction. And . . . there's his entry as a nudist.

Did I say nudist? I most certainly did! FJA unabashedly claimed his stint at a nudist colony back in the 1960s was actually "research" for an article. I guess it really doesn't matter if it was an assignment or a freelance job, does it?

In his autobiographical Forrest J Ackerman, Famous Monster of Filmland, published by Imagine, Inc. in 1986, he casually states: "I, for instance, am not embarrassed to let you know that, years ago, after researching an article called "Brave Nude World", which was originally published in a nudist magazine [unnamed here] and later reprinted in Fantastic, a companion to Amazing at the time, I frequently frequented [sic] a nudist camp on Sundays for about 5 years."

Man, that's a lot of reasearch! In an attempt at a sort of professional validation, Forry went on to say that famous science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon made "no secret" about being a nudist, as well. Oh, okay.

In an earlier, unrestrained (but oh, so entertaining) bio-fest titled Amazing Forries, published in November 1976 by Metropolis Publications, FJA included nudism on the list of "Things I Am For".

It's no secret that Forry had an eye for beauty, especially of the young female kind. For instance, he professed ebullient support for a young fan, Trina Petit, who was later to be known as underground cartoonist Trina Robbins, and was credited by Forry as the designer of the strip of cloth that became Vampirella's costume.



Trina Petit/Robbins' letter in FAMOUS MONSTERS #6.



Then there was the strange promotion of another up and coming female fan by the name of Heidi Sahi. Miss Saha was a regular member of fantasy conventions in the early 1970s, many times appearing in costume as such heroines as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and, most famously, Vampirella.

For a while, Forry was unrelenting in the promotion of his favorite nymphette, even to the point of having James Warren publish the now-notorious, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF HEIDI SAHA, in 1973, which left many a' monster fan scratching his head as to its significance.



A page from AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
OF HEIDI SAHA.




A photo of Heidi in her Vampirella costume (top).
Pictured below is a young scream queen
later to become known as Brinke Stevens.


Another quirk of Forry's was for him to be seen in many photographs clutching a copy of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND in a seemingly neverending shameless plug of his magazine. This being a regular practice, one could be lead to speculate that Ackerman, during the course of his "research" on nudist camps, had only his copy of FM between him and his companions.

WHAT PRICE HEIDI SAHA?

The young, teenage "model" that caught the eye of talent agent, promoter and FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND's first Editor Forrest J. Ackerman, was named Heidi Saha. Legend has it that she came to fame in the early 70's when she arrived at the Sixth Annual New York Comic Convention dressed in a skimpy Vampirella costume. Despite some prevailing negativity surrounding her attempts at grabbing the Vampi spotlight from another model, FJA was introduced to her, and whether smitten by her young beauty or in a deal that was stricly business, the result was her own magazine and 24" x 36" poster for sale in the back pages of Warren Publications.

Now, almost 40 years later, her magazine, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF HEIDI SAHA, commands high prices on a market that's hot for these types of collectibles. HERITAGE AUCTIONS  is currently accepting bids on a "slabbed" copy that is graded 7.0 out of 10. A collector's market watchdog, NOSTOMANIA, has listed on its website the most recent graded pricing as a "blended" value averaged from several markets. One thing is for sure, it is quite certain that this rare (only about 500 copies were ever printed) collector's commodity will close at a price that is well out of the reach of many a-Monsterologist.



The HEIDI SAHA magazine listing on the Heritage Auctions website.





Graded pricing at Nostomania.