Boys' life: the flourish of the independent gay magazines.

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In the fourth issue of Kaiserin ("a magazine for boys with problems") there is a photograph of a piece of French bread that looks like a penis. On the other side of the spread, there is a photograph of a penis with a censored-style black band over its tip. You can still tell it's a penis. For Kaiserin and its brethren of small-run gay magazines, this sort of naked male whimsy is standard. After the popularity of the pink-paper printed Butt and the stylish Fantastic Man, other independent gay magazines have flourished. Butt is well loved by the gay and the straight communities because there's a lightness to its coverage, reporting on the arts seriously while making its subjects pose nude. Unsurprisingly, most of the new gay magazines come from outside the US. Many have a general slant towards the modern, stylish man with combed mustaches and serious eyes. But the quarterly wordless Pinups magazine devotes each inky newsprint issue to snapshots of a single hairy guy (occasionally two) and his body. Some of the pixelated photos are so close up they look like impressionistic landscapes. Then you realize it's just a thick thigh.