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Will Shock Mag Be Too Much Of A Shock For U.S. Audiences?

Stand by for a river of ink to be spilled on the occasion of Shock magazine's debut issue, May 30. The Hachette Filipacchi monthly, described as a category buster by the company's U.S. CEO, will be filled with photos that push the envelope of decency and, on occasion, punch right through it. Its editor, Mike Hammer, says Shock will feature, among other things, an "out-there section of weird cultural practices that people will look at as strange and bizarre and even unsettling at times." For example, he points to a wrestling photo which shows a close-up of a thumb being jabbed into a rival's eye socket in the first issue. Another shows a 5-year-old girl being taken hostage in China with a machete at her throat. One feature documents the slaughter of dolphins in a cove. Only video-game sellers have taken ads in the magazine's debut issue, which does not surprise Hachette. The magazine, patterned after Hachette's hyper-successful magazine of the same name in France, will sell here for $1.99 an issue. Jack Kliger would not predict Shock's future in the States, but told the New York Post's Keith Kelly that he'd reassess the book's chances if, after the company had invested between "$25 million and $50 million," it had not approached break-even.

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