(Self)Destroyer
Ladies, it’s time for some news! Good news and bad news if you will: First of all, this is the brand new issue of Destroyer. The 10th issue! It’s so fresh the paint hasn’t dried yet. In fact, it hasn’t even been applied – as I write this the printing plant’s metal plates are still being engraved. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black plates are filled with the usual Destroyer ingredients: Photos, essays, reviews, interviews – and a couple of surprises! […] So what’s the bad news? Well, as you have probably figured out from the title of this post, or the words on the cover, this is the last issue of Destroyer. – Read about the reasons & surprises here
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So, this is the glorious end of Destroyer. I will spare you the heroically delivered speech about how it was not just a magazine but a statement, a glossy & wild battlecry in a fight against a society that wants to put the teenage boy into a Victorian cage of decency & prudery. I won’t rant on about the double standards of people who drool over seminude 14 year old girls on fashion mag covers but see the end of the Western world coming when you do the same thing with a boy. You know all this. Instead I will just speak for myself. I found out about Destroyer in the very moment I was starting this blog and it became the most important inspiration for me to keep milkboys going because it helped me to understand where I want to go with the blog, what I want to tell the world about this mystical creatures boys are and which kind of people I want to reach. And after The Pirate Bay, Johan Palm & Snickers Cake it was another great product from Sweden that enriched my life on many levels ;) Go, get your copy of the last issue of Destroyer before it’s sold out. This would also be the perfect opportunity to complete your collection of older issues, it might be your last chance to get them. |
about 7 months ago
Huh, I’d actually really like this but I have no Master Card or Visa so I can’t order :/
about 2 months ago
Kahran,
You might be able to use a gift card – for example, American Express Gift Card, which can be bought at many stores, including Walgreens, Safeway, CALA, etc. I think the minimum amount is $25, with about a $4-$5 charge. But they don’t work with everything. Better make sure the publisher will accept it first. Most stores accept them, and I have paid my bills online with them. Good luck. Oops–I forgot, you’re not in the U.S. But maybe they have something like this in the Netherlands.
about 7 months ago
Josh wrote:
“it helped me to understand where I want to go with the blog, what I want to tell the world about this mystical creatures boys are”
Neither this blog nor, I suspect Destroyer magazine do anything to illuminate on the mystical creatures that boys are.
What happens here is a reinforcement of a fantasy about boys. There is absolutely no interest here in developing an understanding about boys or indeed any other part of the human species.
The pictures are of boys who fit an extraordinarily limited idea of “good looking” and even then they are photoshopped to remove any imperfections.
There are no pictures of overweight boys, boys with bad skin, disabled boys or any of the very many ways that boys exist in this world.
The boys in the pictures in this blog are simply props for this fantasy. There is no real interest in them as people unless what they have to say or do reinforces the fantasy.
There are very many overweight boys in this world, trust me, I see them every day, but there is no interest in them here. No YouTube videos presented to give some insight into the mystical creatures that they are.
about 7 months ago
i think you can find the answer to your own propositions there…
about 7 months ago
You are good and you are a crack up. Dam I love this site.
about 7 months ago
Andrew, You are absolutely correct in your perceptions. It is a shame the the “average” boys, like me for one,are not properly represented either on the internet,magazines or even on the television. Maybe starting a website dedicated to the “average” boy is needed. Then maybe perceptions will change.
about 7 months ago
Same here – wonder if they accept a Banktransfer….
What is destroyer like as a mag ?
about 7 months ago
I loved every issue. But at the same time I thought: such a magazine in times of the internet?
about 7 months ago
I just purchased my copy!!!!!! yeah, i know. An actual paper mag in the age of the internet. Still it is the last of it’s kind really and the last issue! will try to share pic scans if anyone is interested!
about 7 months ago
Good riddance to Karl and his magazine. I lost all respect for him when he put a link on his web site to that notorious gang of sexual fascists, ECPAT. After that, I don’t care if Karl and his magazine drop dead.
about 7 months ago
All the best to Karl and his endeavors to keep Destroyer on for as long as he did!
about 7 months ago
Thanks Josh for your kind words! I think Milkboys is excellent even without Destroyer inspiration. Milkboys too is unique – I love the mix of beauty and politics, which I haven’t found anywhere else. And I love that there is such a thing as a milkboy – just like me, you let your own subjective taste dictate where you go.
Kahran and Froggy, sorry for the lack of payment alternatives. If you really want the mag, e-mail me at destroyermag at gmail.com and I’ll advice about bank transfer and cash options.
Tropfkerze & boibuff, you’re spot on. I love paper mags but I admit this was something of paper’s last scream.
Boner Boy, where’s your sense of humor?
Prolificphoto, thanks. Again. :)
about 7 months ago
I am new to the Milkboys site and I was not aware that Destroyer existed. That is a shame. It sounds like you had a great following. I also love the mix of beauty and politics that Milkboys has to offer. I consider you and Josh to be brave pioneers in an area that is so controversial if not dangerous and liablious. I wish you well.
about 7 months ago
Karl i would guess you would expect me to find a link to the KKK funny too? Maybe there are Jews too who find Auschwitz a nice joke also?
I suspect you are in cahoots with ECPAT, or maybe you cut some deal with them to link from your site so they could gather the IPs of people visiting a BL site for investigation.
I further suspect that the reason you are ending publication is that you have been exposed. I first read of your sleazy side on Sidney Smith’s site.
Karl, I repeat what I said earlier… good riddance. You can drop dead for all I care you scum.
about 7 months ago
Karl, Wholeheartedly agree with you regarding Josh’s site for I have enjoyed viewing and reading many of his and others excellent comments that span thought provoking issues such as hate crimes, youth identify, gender and family issues.
about 7 months ago
Destroyer is an awesome magazine. I should have every issue (apart from 9 and 10 that I just ordered).
I still remember hearing about it a few years ago on a gay tv show on Swedish TV, it really was a home run and I enjoyed it a lot. There was some really big controversy about the first issue in Sweden, which is by no means the paradise Josh tries to make it, just ask Karl :)
about 7 months ago
And boys starting the discussion, how do you live without a Mastercard or Visa? Is it really possible to be a customer to a modern bank and *not* have one? To me they are constantly trying to give even more of cards.
about 7 months ago
I read about destroyer a few years back, but I thought it was already discontinued then (that’s what I get for trusting the internet I guess). Now I know it is DEFINITELY done, which is really unfortunate.
Well, hopefully I can get some funding together and purchase the (mostly) complete run. Here’s hoping!
about 7 months ago
nice cover http://sorindanut.deviantart.com/art/heart-143793036 :) liebe josh
about 7 months ago
As i said a shame Karl. There is always a place for Paper Mags in my opinion as no matter what you say paper lasts for posterity whereas electonic media (much as i love it) is at the mercy of technical obsolescence. I came to the magazine late in the day and I thought the beautiful photos from Southern Italy together with the blissful writing of Michael Davidson was a masterstroke. I wsh you well in your future endeavours though Karl.
about 7 months ago
Brite kids like you really light up this site. I agree, paper lasts for posterity.
about 7 months ago
I just ordered all of them. wanted to do that eralier. figured now would be the time. Anybody want to get rid of their No2?
No? Darn!!! None on ebay either.
cu twinny
about 7 months ago
Feathers at dawn. I. looking for No.2 as well. Oh well. never to be. Dont thint I wiww ever see one.
Bye Destroyer.Any body know why it closed? Could we open it again?
about 7 months ago
How sad …
And I even don’t have an issue….
(As I check the second issue is sold out??)
about 7 months ago
Guys, you can win a copy of issue 2 if you solve the crossword in this issue ;)
about 7 months ago
stop teasing Josh!!!
Or could it be true. Can’t wait to find out.
about 7 months ago
This really makes me want to cry. In May of 2008 I saw my first magazine laying under a lot of other mags in the barber shop where I live. I was 12 then. I only knew that I was different. I thought I was evil, sick, warped, a poofer of the worse kind, watching my mates in the boy’s showers wanting desperately to hold them.
Through your magazine and Milkboys.org, I learned that God made me different and not evil. I can’t tell you how much I wanked over your photographs. The stories were cool too.
It was seeing one of my Destroyers that Mum knew that she and I needed to talk. She held it in her hand as though she held my heart and soul. When I began to silently cry she gave it back to me and told me she had known I was gay for a long time. We told my Dad that night. I fell asleep on glossy page 12.
I want to say thank you. Thank you for helping me come out to myself and everyone else in the world. Thank you for giving me the information that I wasn’t alone and how to protect myself. Thank you for telling me that there are thousands of guys like me. I still sleep with copies of XY and Destroyer under my mattress, even though Mom and Dad knowz I have them. That their place, just like your place is in my heart forever.
Liam P.
Paris
about 7 months ago
I’m happy for you. Would you be the same Liam that responded to my post on sport sunday and offered a poem. If so, thank you once again.
about 7 months ago
that was real sweet Liam
hughs
about 7 months ago
http://sorindanut.deviantart.com/art/destroyer-cover-issue-10-150842315 that.s better :) fell free to use it Josh.