Destroyer caused quite a scandal in Sweden with its premier issue in May 2006. I had to defend it in newspapers and magazines, in live radio debates and on TV shows.

You give gay people a bad name, the gays said.

Maybe I did.

This is child porn, the children’s rights organisations said.

It was not.

After someone reported me, I was summoned to a police interrogation. The inspectors just shook their heads at the accusations and wished me good luck with my magazine.

I said thanks and made a total of 10 issues.

Each of them was a personal (some might say silly) mix of essays on contemporary art, criticism against the gay movement, film and book reviews, interviews, a few columnists and a lot of photos of beautiful boys. I did almost everything myself.

In February 2010 I chose to discontinue Destroyer.

Then I set out to write the book about it.

Because there was so much to tell. About why I started and why I discontinued the magazine. About the reactions it caused, among the gays, the children’s rights advocates, the neo-Nazis, the artist community and, not least, among its readers.

The book was released in Sweden in October 2010. It was printed in 500 copies and called Bögarnas värsta vän (Gay Man’s Worst Friend). Three of Sweden’s four major newspapers reviewed it. It’s available at the biggest book shops.

The English translation comes out on 1st March, 2011.

Curious? Buy a copy!

Karl Andersson