
My previous post was Part 1 of a preview of issue #11 of the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY, the magazine I co-edit with Bill Cunningham of Pulp 2.0 Press, who also does the amazingly cool layouts for the MAQ.
Each MAQ issue has a theme. The theme of MAQ #11 is UFOs. It reprints seven classic stories about flying saucers published in men’s adventure magazines in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, along with scans of the covers of the issues they appeared in and the illustrations and photos used for them and introductions that discuss the magazines, publishers, writers and artists involved.
Like other MAQ issues, MAQ #11 also includes exclusive articles by notable guest contributors. In this case, there’s an article about vintage “Space-Sploitation Paperbacks” written by the legendary paperback, pulp historian, author and podcaster Gary Lovisi.
Our friend in the UK, Jules Burt, host of the popular, wide-ranging “Collections & Unboxings” YouTube channel, contributed an article about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s cool 1970 television series, UFO.
Bill Cunningham added an article about the WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY comics published by William Gaines’ great EC Publishing company in 1954 and 1955.
As usual, he also created this issue’s MAQ “GAL-lery” feature, which showcases vintage glamour girl photos and artwork.
Part 1 of my preview of MAQ #11 discusses three of the MAM stories that are included. The first is ”The Flying Saucers Are Real” by Donald E. Keyhoe, from the January 1950 issue of TRUE. It’s one of the most significant articles ever published in the realm of Ufology.
The others I discussed in Part 1 are “The Saucers Are Spies From Mars,” from the May-June 1953 issue of HIS, “Are They Hiding The Truth About Flying Saucers?” from TRUE STRANGE, August 1957, and “George Adamski: The First Ambassador to Outer Space?” from REAL, August 1966.

TRUE and many other men’s adventure magazines published many more stories about UFOs in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s than mainstream magazines. Most of those stories suggested that the U.S. government was hiding information about UFOs and trying to silence people who reported sightings.
Thus, MAMs played a key role in spreading theories about government cover-ups and “Men in Black”—a term popularized by the writer of one of the fourth story in reprinted in MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #11, John A. Keel.

Men’s adventure magazines published in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s played a significant role in public awareness and views about UFOs, cryptozoological monsters, and the supernatural. Writer John Keel was a top researcher in all three of those realms and MAMs played a significant role in his career.
He spent much of 1966 and 1967 interviewing hundreds of people in states around the country who claimed to have seen UFOs or aliens, including some who claimed to be “abductees” the aliens took on rides in their spaceships.

Starting in 1967, Keel became a regular contributor of articles about UFOs to top MAMs like TRUE, SAGA and MALE. The fourth MAM story in MAQ #11— “UFO ‘AGENTS OF TERROR’”—was written by Keel and is one of the one of the earliest stories about “Men in Black.” In fact, Keel is generally credited with either coining or at least popularizing that term. It became far more famous with the release of the movie MEN IN BLACK in 1997.
In addition to writing hundreds of stories for newspapers and magazines, Keel wrote a number of books. The most famous book is THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, first published in 1975. It grew out of reports of a large, red-eyed, winged creature in the vicinity of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966 and 1967 and was adapted into the 2002 movie THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, starring Richard Gere, Alan Bates and Laura Linney.

Keel’s story in MAQ #11 is followed by Jules Burt’s fascinating and lushly illustrated article about the 1970 television series, UFO. It’s one of the many unique TV shows created by Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia.
Jules is an expert on vintage paperbacks, comics, collectibles and on classic UK cult TV shows like DOCTOR WHO and the Anderson TV shows.

The Anderson shows include “Supermarionation” series produced in the ‘60s that were made using marionettes puppets and miniatures sets and props—shows like FIREBALL XL5, THUNDERBIRDS, STINGRAY, and CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS.
In the ‘70s, the Andersons created several TV shows featuring live actors mixed with their own style of pre-CGI special effects and miniatures. The two that are best known are science cult classics: SPACE: 1999, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse (hot off the American show MISSION IMPOSSIBLE) and UFO.

I have long been a fan of SPACE: 1999. But I didn’t know much about UFO until we recruited Jules to write an article about it.
Then, after he told us that all 26 episodes are available in high quality videos on YouTube, I watched them all—and my mind was blown.

Everything about the show is brilliantly unique, colorful and cool, including the sets, the spaceships, the cars and other vehicles, and even wardrobes of the characters.
Jules article is a deep dive that discusses the show, the Andersons, the actors, novelizations and movies based on the series in various countries, and more. It’s a must read for old or new fans of the UFO.

After Jules article, there’s a reprint of the story “The New Mystery of U.S.O.’s — Unidentified Sea Objects” from MALE, November 1974.
It’s another example of how MAMs were ahead of their time when it came to stories about UFOs in general and way ahead when it comes to discussing mysterious underwater UFO-like objects.

The term U.S.O.s didn’t catch on., but in recent years, videos released by the US military that seem to show UFO-like objects going into or moving under the water led to the new term “UAP.” That term was originally short for “unidentified aerial phenomena.” But more recently the US Department of Defense has said it’s short for “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” since not all of the objects are aerial.
If you’re interested in reading some USO-related UAP research, check out the Sol Foundation white paper written by Timothy Gallaudet titled “Beneath the Surface: We May Learn More about UAP by Looking in the Ocean.” It’s hard to view Gallaudet as a nutcase. Among other things, he has served as a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, as Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and has a PhD from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The “Mystery of U.S.O.’s” story is followed by a special double feature edition of the MAQ GAL-Lery feature created by Bill Cunningham.
He titled the first part “Sexy Sirens and their Flying Saucers.” It showcases photos of sirens who starred in two science fiction films: FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) and the lesser known but fun British flick DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (1954).

In his commentary, Bill noted that they are two sides to the same coin. Both feature beautiful women. The woman in FORBIDDEN PLANET, played by Anne Francis, is a naive innocent dressed in flowing dresses.
The female star of DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS, played by Patricia Laffan, is a manipulative, domineering sort dressed in urethane and leather. One is out to learn of the strange visitors who have come to her home planet, and the other has traveled millions of miles to conquer the Earth for her people.

As an MAQ GAL-lery special bonus, Bill added a photo feature on Mara Corday, another sexy sirens of science fiction and monster movies and a frequent subject of glamour girl photos in men’s magazines in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Mara Corday was born in Santa Monica, California in 1930 and as I write this she is still alive at age 95. While still a 15 year old teen she worked as a showgirl at the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard. Over the next few years she advanced from showgirl to sketch actress. In the early 1050s, Mara was signed with Universal-International Pictures as a contract player, where she was given small roles in various B-movies and television series.

In 1954, while on the set of the movie PLAYGIRL, she met actor and future husband, actor Richard Long. They married in 1957. In 1955 she was cast opposite John Agar and Leo G. Carroll in the successful science-fiction film TARANTULA, which also featured Clint Eastwood in a very brief role as a jet fighter pilot.
She had two other co-starring roles in the genre: THE BLACK SCORPION and THE GIANT CLAW (both 1957), as well as in a number of Westerns including MAN WITHOUT A STAR, A DAY OF FURY and RAW EDGE.

The final MAM story reprinted in MAQ #11 was written by man who was, among many other things, one of best and most prolific writers who once worked for that genre, Robert F. Dorr. It’s titled “Are UFO’s Attacking Our Oil Fields?” and it was first published in STAG, May 1975. In that issue it was credited to the “Ronald Drucker” pseudonym Bob used for some of the hundreds of MAM stories he wrote.
Of course, the first thing that grabs your attention about his story is the full color illustration by artist Earl Norem, which we used for the front cover of MAQ #11. If you didn’t know it was a men’s adventure magazine illustration, you might think it was for a comic book. Indeed, many fans of Norem are mostly aware of the outstanding cover art he did for comics from the 1970s until shortly before his death in 2015 at the age of 92.

Among my favorites in that realm are his cover paintings for the SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, PLANET OF THE APES, and TALES OF THE ZOMBIE. I also love his gonzo MARS ATTACKS comics covers and trading cards (descendants of the MARS ATTACKS trading cards done by artist Norman Saunders, who also worked for MAMs).
I will always regret not having sought out and interviewed Earl Norem before he passed away in 2015. But I was lucky enough to have had a warm relationship with writer Bob Dorr during the decade before his untimely death in 2016.

At that point in his life, Bob was renowned as one of America’s top military aviation historians. Between the late 1980s and 2016, he wrote over 70 books about military aircraft and their use in conflicts from World War II to the wars in Iraq. His series recounting harrowing stories about WWII fighter and bomber pilots and crew members—HELL HAWKS, MISSION TO BERLIN, MISSION TO TOKYO and FIGHTING HITLER’S JETS—received especially high praise. (If you like the Apple TV series MASTERS OF THE AIR, based on the book by Donald L. Miller, you definitely want to read those books by Bob.)
Robert F. Dorr was also well known for the weekly column he wrote for AIR FORCE TIMES, his monthly feature for AEROSPACE AMERICA, and the hundreds of magazine articles he wrote for other military and history publications.
That amazing legacy as a writer began with stories he wrote for MAMs in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He submitted the first one in 1962, after being serving in the U.S. Air Force. In 1964, he was recruited by the U.S. Foreign Service and served for 25 years as a Senior Foreign Service Officer. In that role, he traveled to countries around the world and had lots of down time in hotel rooms.

In 2015, I had the honor of co-editing a collection of Bob’s MAM stories with him and my Men’s Adventure Library co-editor Wyatt Doyle, titled A HANDFUL OF HELL: CLASSIC WAR AND ADVENTURE STORIES BY ROBERT F. DORR.
I never discussed the story “Are UFO’s Attacking Our Oil Fields?” with Bob. But we did discuss the fact that many types of MAM stories written by him and other authors that are purported to be “true stories” are actually fiction stories with some occasional facts and historical photos thrown in to make them seem real. Bob wrote his UFO story in STAG in the style of serious Ufologists like Donald Keyhoe and John Keel but I’m pretty sure he made up all of the anecdotes and quotes in it. He later wrote articles for UFO magazines that became popular in the late ’70s and ’80s.
Is it easy to know the difference between UFO stories based on some actual witness testimony and documentation and those that are made up from whole cloth by a good writer like Bob Dorr? Nope. Are all UFO stories total bunk? I don’t think so. I’m in the Fox Mulder camp. I want to believe.
If this preview of the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #11 intrigues you, you can get a copy via Amazon worldwide, BudsArtBooks.com, my MensPulpMags.com bookstore or my eBay listings. In the meantime, watch the skies! And keep an eye out for the MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #12, the Private Eyes Issue, coming soon in 2025.

It will reprint classic detective stories from men’s adventure magazines, including one by the great Michael Avallone and a “Honey West” story (the character Anne Francis portrayed in the TV show by that name).
MAQ #12 will also include articles by four notable guest contributors: NYT bestselling author James Reasoner, movie expert John Harrison, writer David Avallone (son of Michael) and pulp culture maven and author Paul Bishop.
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