In the past few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in “Unidentified Flying Objects,” sparked by sightings that have generated both many news reports and Congressional hearings.
The first big wave of interest in UFOs, first called “flying saucers,” came in the middle of the 20th century when I was a kid.
Nowadays they’re also referred to as “UAPs,” short for “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.”
I was born in 1950 and became fascinated by flying saucers as a kid. So, I especially enjoyed putting together issue #11 of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #11, the “Invasion UFO” issue.
The full color print edition is now available via Amazon in the US and worldwide, or directly from me via the bookstore linked to this blog or my eBay listings.
As we have done with past MAQ issues, we will eventually release a “Digital Replica” Kindle edition and a low cost black-and-white “Noir” edition.
MAQ #11 reprints classic stories about UFOs from men’s adventure magazines published in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
As usual, I wrote introductions for the issue and for each story. As usual, my multi-talented MAQ Co-Editor Bill Cunningham created an outstanding layout for MAQ #11, as well as our regular “MAQ GAL-Lery” feature. He also contributed a special feature on UFO comics published by EC.
As usual, this issue also includes examples of ads and cartoons from vintage MAMs and exclusive articles by some notable guest contributors.
The legendary paperback, pulp historian, author and podcaster Gary Lovisi contributed an article about vintage “Space-Sploitation Paperbacks.” And, UK paperback and retromedia expert Jules Burt, host of the popular, wide-ranging “Collections & Unboxings” YouTube channel, contributed an article about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s incredibly cool 1970 television series, UFO.
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. That’s where “Project Blue Book,” the U.S. government’s best known UFO study project was headquartered.
I wasn’t alive to read news stories or magazine articles about the mysterious “Foo Fighters” American pilots said they saw while flying over Europe during World War II.
Nor was I alive when flying saucers first became a huge cultural phenomenon after pilot Kenneth Arnold generated worldwide headlines in 1947 by reporting that he’d seen a formation of nine, saucer-shaped objects moving at high speed near Mount Rainier, Washington. It was news stories and magazine articles about Arnold’s sighting (including one he wrote himself in 1948 for the first issue of the magazine FATE), that kicked off the first big wave of public interest in UFOs.
However, like most kids who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, I was very aware of flying saucers. They were featured in many of the movies, TV shows and comic books we enjoyed. By the time I was 10, I was also an avid reader of books and science fiction novels that involved UFOs and aliens. From those, I learned about Project Bluebook and thought it was cool that the world’s most famous UFO study project was headquartered in my hometown.
One of the books I read was THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS by U.S. Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, an early Director of Project Bluebook.
He coined the term “Unidentified Flying Objects” to reflect the fact that many sightings did not involve saucer-shaped objects. After he left the Air Force in 1953, he helped pull the curtain back on the government’s UFO research, and men’s adventure magazines were one of the key outlets for what he and other UFO researchers had to say about that subject in seminal articles it published in the 1950s.
An article Ruppelt wrote for the May 1954 article in TRUE was a pre-publication “Book Bonus” version of THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS. (By the way, you can read his entire book online in the archives of the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) the most respected non-governmental UFO research group at the following link: www.nicap.org/rufo/contents.htm.)
Several books about UFOs I read when I was younger were written by Donald E. Keyhoe. One was an expanded version of the first MAM story reprinted in MAQ #11—”The Flying Saucers Are Real.”
That story was first published in the January 1950 issue of TRUE. As I explain in my intro, it is one of the most significant stories ever published about UFOs. It generated news stories nationwide and launched Keyhoe’s long career as one of world’s best known experts on UFOs.
The next story in MAQ #11, “The Saucers Are Spies From Mars,” was not a major milestone in UFO history. But it’s interesting to me for several reasons. One is that it comes from the May-June 1953 issue of HIS, an obscure, short-lived men’s adventure mag.
Another aspect that intrigued me is that the story posits a theory that became common in science fiction magazines, novels, movies and TV shows, especially in the decades after the A-bomb and H-bomb were developed. It’s the idea that aliens from other planets are watching us Earthlings because they fear our warlike nature could someday pose a threat to them.
That trope was recently recycled in the Netflix TV series 3 BODY PROBLEM, but was most famously used in the classic 1951 science fiction film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. As noted in my intro, the movie is loosely based on the story “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates, first published in the October 1940 issue of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION.
The HIS story is followed by Bill’s article about the WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY comics published by William Gaines’ great EC company in 1954 and 1955. As Bill explains, when the EC comics WEIRD SCIENCE and WEIRD FANTASY were cancelled due to lackluster sales, Gaines combined them into WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY.
It featured work by terrific artists, including Al Feldstein, Wally Wood, Williamson, Frank Frazetta, Joe Orlando, Bernard Krigstein, and Jack Kamen and stories by writers that included Harlan Ellison and Ufology experts like Otto Binder and Major Donald Keyhoe.
Issue No. 26 stands out for its presentation of stories based on historic UFO sightings and a page with a series of questions the publishers posed to the United States Air Force, ending with “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TELL US THE TRUTH ABOUT FLYING SAUCERS?”
Sadly, WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY only lasted for seven issues and in 1956, after Gaines’ was made a prime target of U.S. Senate hearings that painted comic books as a cause of juvenile delinquency, EC went out of business.
The third MAM story in MAQ #11 is “Are They Hiding The Truth About Flying Saucers?” from TRUE STRANGE, August 1957. TRUE STRANGE was an odd men’s adventure magazine published by Joe Weider and his brother Ben Weider, the “Brothers of Iron.” Joe and Ben are best known for the bodybuilding empire they created. In the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, most MAMs, many other men’s magazines, and even comic books carried ads for Weider bodybuilding equipment and books.
In the ‘50s, Joe and Ben began sponsoring major bodybuilding contests, like the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests. They also launched the Weider publishing empire with bodybuilding magazines YOUR PHYSIQUE and MUSCLE POWER.
When Joe and Ben noticed the growth of the men’s adventure mag genre, they launched their own versions. Two are unique in the realm of MAMs due to their focus on supposedly true stories about strange and supernatural topics. The first, TRUE WEIRD, was like a MAM crossed with the occult digest mag FATE and the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS supermarket tabloid. It lasted for three issues starting in November 1955.
The first issue includes “Fish With Human Hands Attacked Me!”— one of the wild stories reprinted in the collection of MAM monster yarns and artwork, the CRYPTOZOOLOGY ANTHOLOGY, which I co-edited with Wyatt Doyle, my partner in the Men’s Adventure Library book series, and David Coleman, author of THE BIGFOOT FILMOGRAPHY, a must-have for cryptid fans.
TRUE STRANGE was a continuation of TRUE WEIRD under a different name. It ran for seven issues, from October 1956 to February 1958. One of the coolest aspects of TRUE STRANGE is that every issue has an amazing montage style cover painting by the great illustration artist Thomas Beecham (1926-2000). They include covers that feature Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Anita Eckberg, Bill Haley, and Sophia Loren. Check them out and be amazed!
The TRUE STRANGE story is followed by Gary Lovisi’s excellent article about what he has dubbed “Space-Sploitation Paperbacks”—referring to the fact that they were published to catch the wave of public interest in flying saucers that began in the early 1950s.
As Gary notes, the first UFO paperback is generally acknowledged to be BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS by Frank Scully, published by Popular Library in 1950. It is the first book-length story about the “Roswell Incident,” involving reports that a flying saucer crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, and alien bodies and technology recovered from it were taken to a secret government base in Area 51.
Another book Gary mentions is THE FLYING SAUCERS ARE REAL by Donald Keyhoe, the expanded version of Keyhoe’s seminal article in TRUE published by Gold Medal in 1950.
Gary also notes that early books about UFOs phenomenon were also published in the UK and other countries. One of the earliest is a British edition of the book FLYING SAUCERS HAVE LANDED, written by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski.
Adamski is among the most fascinating, most famous and most controversial figures in Ufology history. MAQ #11 includes an in-depth article about him from the August 1966 issue of the men’s adventure mag REAL. It’s titled “George Adamski: The First Ambassador to Outer Space?” That title refers to the fact that Adamski not only claimed to have seen flying saucers, he also claimed to have met aliens and acted as their liaison to humans.
The version of one of the flying saucers Adamski claimed to have photographed, and depicted in cover paintings for the US and UK editions of FLYING SAUCERS HAVE LANDED, has had especially lasting fame. It has been shown in thousands of articles, books, and internet posts.
It was the inspiration for the flying saucer featured in the opening of the 1967-68 TV series THE INVADERS. Several model kits have also been based on the Adamski flying saucer. Ironically, skeptical observers have since noted that the Adamski’s supposed UFO was probably an old chicken brooder with light bulbs on the bottom to keep chicks warm.
Nonetheless, Adamski was and still is one of the best known celebrities in the realm of Ufology.
My next post on this blog with be Part Two of my preview of the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #11. In the meantime, you can see a cool video preview posted by Jules Burt on his YouTube channel by clicking this link or the image below.
And, keep watching the skies!
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