The post-WWII men’s adventure magazines had a love-turned-to-hate relationship with Cuba. In the 1950s, when Cuba was run by dictator Fulgencio Batista, with a little help from his friends in…
Year: 2010
Men’s pulp magazines take on Fidel Castro and his evil Cuban Commie comrades
Recently, I finally got around to watching director Steven Soderbergh’s controversial movie Che, starring Benicio del Toro. I think it’s an interesting movie that’s worth seeing, though I can understand…
Uncovering the Real James Bond – and the Real Roland Empey
The January 1966 issue of Male magazine features a very cool, Sixties-flavored cover painting by Mort Kunstler that looks like a James Bond scene. Quite a few of Ian Fleming’s…
The legendary Walter Kaylin, “Jaws” and the USS Indianapolis
Earlier this month, I posted an entry on this blog about Walter Kaylin, the legendary men’s adventure story writer who was also editor of the short-lived, pocket-size men’s pulp magazine…
Men’s Pulp Mag Piranhas vs. SyFy’s “Mega Piranhas”
Recently, the SyFy channel aired a made-for-TV movie titled Mega Piranha, which featured giant CGI killer fish. It was just cheesy enough to be enjoyable, if you enjoy cheesy Grade-B…
Bloodthirsty baboons, a transgendered damsel in distress, vicious anteaters — and a killer Komodo dragon…
A while ago, in a post featuring monkey and baboon attack covers, I included the cover of the May 1955 issue of Men magazine. The cover painting on that issue…
“Tattoos are for Sissies” – according to a 1958 men’s pulp magazine
This past weekend, I got an email from Nick Colella, a tattoo artist at Chicago Tattoo, Illinois’ oldest tattooing studio. Nick was looking for an issue of Escape to Adventure…
BRAVE: the pocket-sized men’s pulp magazine full of “Rugged Adventure”
In Volume 2 of her excellent 6-Volume History of Men’s Magazines, Dian Hanson notes: “A curiosity of the 1950s was a number of American men’s lifestyle digests that…combined all the…
Talking with the “Black Cracker” about the black artist Al Hollingsworth
The publication of Josh Alan Friedman’s new memoir Black Cracker this week reminded me of some things he recently told me about the pioneering black artist Alvin C. Hollingsworth. In…
Daring to compare Norman Rockwell, Norman Saunders and Norm Eastman
Men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s have a special place in the history of illustration art. The artwork they used was a more modern incarnation and…
When cocaine grew on trees (in men’s pulp magazines)…
By the early ‘70s, the men’s adventure magazine genre was dying out, largely due to competition from more sexually explicit men’s magazines. “The market slid ever crotchward,” as Josh Alan…
Norm Eastman cover art: from sadistic Nazis to Harlequin Romance
Men’s adventure art collector Rich Oberg recently told me about a trip he made in 2004 to visit artist Norm Eastman at his home in Lompoc, California, a few…