The pocket-sized format, given what we now know about the readership of these beefcake magazines, is telling. Many of the more risque, homoerotic publications came out in this size, and their smaller size might perhaps indicate more than one form of convenience for a gay closeted reader (like hiding it from the wife?). The publisher is a Chicago-based outfit called Victory Printing and Publishing Company, two of whose employees and later owner, Jack and Nirvana Zuidefeld, were convicted in 1963 for "conspiracy to use the United States mails for the transmission of obscene materials in violation of Title 18 U.S.C.A. 1461." (See this link to the case's appeal: http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/316/316.F2d.873.13771.13772.html).

The magazine's introductory mission statement in this issue makes a claim that it will not sell pills and other health powders and supplements, differentiating itself from Joe Weider's bodybuilding publications, many of which, in addition to covering contests, contained extensive advertisements for Weider's extensive physical culture empire. The copy claims that "VIM has nothing to sell ... except itself." But what is VIM itself? I mentioned above many of the features were, however heavily coded, designed to attract, as the court case argued, "to appeal to the interest of the homosexual male." The mission statement of course is not going to overtly make that appeal, instead, in line with Grecian Guild Pictorial, "codes" it by making lofty appeals to mental discipline, personal growth, and the aesthetic beauty of the male body. In essence, VIM wants to serve the person, not only advertise bodybuilding products, and by doing so aims to present an "objective outlook" on health and bodybuilding. Objective meaning what? Possibly looking at the male body itself as a beautiful object? By objectifying the male body, and dissociating it from the context of gyms and other environments that contained big scary homophobic straight guys, the gay male could read the photos more "safely" as a voyeur. He could also, as described in another feature in this issue, "Weightlifting Without Weights," could develop his body in the safe privacy of his home.