Picking an exact number of MAM titles is complicated. Some men’s periodicals changed their titles during part of their runs. Some evolved (or devolved) from the classic MAM format — which primarily featured fictional and fact-based action/adventure stories and relatively mild cheesecake photo features — into PLAYBOY and HUSTLER clones. Several dozen MAM titles were one-offs, specials, or only lasted for 2 or 3 issues.
Depending on the criteria you use to define men’s adventure magazines, there were somewhere between 160 and 200 MAMs published in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
My usual generalization is that there were more than 160 different MAMs. But if you disregard any complications and count UK and Australian MAMS, the number is over 190. (See this list on the great Galactic Central website.)
Very few of those ever had Christmas themed covers. It just would not have been manly enough for most and would have been totally out-of-sync with their usual content. A jolly Santa and kids opening presents under Christmas trees just didn’t fit titles like ACTION FOR MEN, ALL MAN, BATTLE CRY, FOR MEN ONLY, MAN’S CONQUEST, MEN IN DANGER, STAG, RAGE FOR MEN, and REAL MEN.
However, I have often imagined what it would be like if MAMs like those gave a nod to Christmas in their December issues. So, over the years, just for fun, I have created some MAM spoof Christmas covers that I’ve posted on in the Men’s Adventure Magazines & Books Facebook group and the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY BRIGADE Facebook group.
This year, I decided to update an old post I did on this blog eight years ago that shows examples of my MAM Christmas spoof covers, along with some of the few real MAM Christmas covers I know of.
I’ll start with the example shown at the top of this post. It’s a version of the most famous MAM cover of all, the one that inspired this blog and the first book in our Men’s Adventure Library series: the “WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH” issue of MAN’S LIFE, published in September 1956. It turns Santa Claus (as painted by Haddon Sundblom) into the guy bedeviled by weasels. The original weasels story, reprinted in our WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! anthology, is the one that inspired the title of the Frank Zappa album in 1970. The cover painting for that MAN’S LIFE issue and many others was done by Wil Hulsey, using the famed male model Steve Holland as the doomed victim. (For more about Holland, see the series of books about him published by my friend Michael Stradford.)
If you’re a MAM fan, you’ll want to get the new full color, expanded edition of our WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! book. It’s available via Amazon worldwide, BudsArtBooks.com, my online bookstore or my eBay listings. (The original 2013 edition was published in black-and-white and is no longer in print, so don’t get that one unless you’re a completist.)
I also had some fun putting Santa into other MAM cover scenes, like the cover of MAN’S CONQUEST, November 1956. The original painting for that cover, by George Gross, is even cooler than the magazine cover indicates, since the Art Director cropped it.
My Men’s Adventure Library co-editor Wyatt Doyle and I used his crab attack artwork on the cover of another of our illustrated MAM anthologies, I WATCHED THEM EAT ME ALIVE! We’re fans of the type of killer creature stories featured on that book and of artist George Gross. A few years ago, we published the large format art book GEORGE GROSS: COVERED, which showcases over 100 men’s adventure magazine covers feature Gross artwork.
I’ve also used Photoshop to show what it would be like if Santa had been depicted as some of tough-looking characters on the covers of men’s adventure magazines; characters like the bazooka-toting GI on BLUEBOOK, July 1971 (original art by Mel Crair) … the pirate captain on the cover of SAGA, May 1959 (original art by Thomas Beecham) … and the Hairy Ainu snatching a woman on the cover of WILDCAT ADVENTURES, June 1960 (original art by Basil Gogos, who I had the honor of interviewing for a post on this blog before he passed away).
Below is “Marine Sergeant S. Claus” basking in the awe of the islanders on the cover of STAG, April 1958 (original art by James Bama, for a story about “Marine Sgt. Wirkus”).
I’ve also put Santa hats on characters like the badass biker Earl Norem painted for the cover of MEN, October 1969 (one of the covers featured in our book collecting motorcycle gang covers and interiors from men’s adventure mags, BARBARIANS ON BIKES).
And, although the Grinch is certainly not in the same league with Nazis when it comes to being truly evil, I’ve made spoof covers that superimpose the Grinch on Nazi characters in scenes on the covers of magazines in the “sweat mag” subgenre of MAMs. For example, I Grinched the cover of MEN TODAY, July 1964, which features artwork by Norm Eastman. As he often did, Norm used my friend Eva Lynd as the blonde distressed damsel in the foreground.
Eva was a legendary pinup photo and artists’ model from the late 1950s to the 1970s, as well as an actress who appeared in various TV shows and movies. A while back, Wyatt and I worked with Eva to publish a lushly illustrated book about her and her career, titled EVA: MEN’S ADVENTURE SUPERMODEL.
As I’ve noted, you won’t find real Christmas covers on most men’s adventure magazines. The notable exceptions are TRUE and ARGOSY. Some examples of their Christmas holiday season covers are shown below.
December issues of both TRUE and ARGOSY from the late 1940s and 1950s often feature Christmas-themed covers with artwork by top illustration artists. Artists like Tom Lovell and Bob Kuhn…
…and Walter Baumhofer, Fred Ludekens and Jack Dumas.
Two other great artists who did Christmas-themed cover paintings for TRUE and ARGOSY are Stan Galli and Ed Valigursky.
Both of those magazines also featured some December issues with Christmas-themed photographs.
My favorites are those by world-famous photographer Arie deZanger. His photos almost look like paintings and use reflections in a masterful way.
But as a dog lover, I have a special soft spot for the photo by Don Pendleton on the cover of ARGOSY, December 1961, which shows a cute puppy in a red cowboy boot. (Not to be confused with Don Pendleton author of “The Executioner” paperback series, which features cover art by Gil Cohen showcased in ONE MAN ARMY: THE ACTION PAPERBACK ART OF GIL COHEN and discussed in depth in the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #3.)
Of course, thinking about Christmas photos from men’s magazines reminds me of Christmas photos of my two favorite pinup models, Bettie Page and Eva Lynd. The photo below at right was taken by the famed model and photographer Bunny Yeager and first published in the January 1955 issue of PLAYBOY.
The photo of Eva was the centerfold in the February 1958 issue of the men’s bachelor magazine SHE.
Here’s wishing everyone Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
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Comments? Corrections? You can email them to me, or join the Men’s Adventure Magazines & Books Facebook Group or the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY BRIGADE group and post them there.
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