In 2013, when I decided I wanted to publish books reprinting stories from men’s adventure magazines published in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, I reached out to two fellow MAM fans who knew about publishing indie books: Wyatt Doyle and Josh Alan Friedman.
Wyatt is the head of the New Texture publishing company. Josh is a writer and musician whose most recent book at the time, BLACK CRACKER, had been published by New Texture.
Josh also had a special connection with the MAM genre. His father, Bruce Jay Friedman, worked as an editor for the MAMs published by Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management company from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, before he became famous as a novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
In addition, Josh had interviewed some of the editors and writers who worked for the Goodman MAMs in 1987 for an article in SWANK magazine. They included his father, Mario Puzo, who became famous for writing THE GODFATHER, and Mel Shestack, who went on to a prestigious position as editor of the SATURDAY EVENING POST.
Bruce Jay Friedman, Puzo and Shestack had all singled out another writer who worked for the Goodman mags for special praise. His name was Walter Kaylin and he was still alive in 2013. Bruce called him “the great Walter Kaylin” in his fascinating memoir about his time as a men’s mag editor, EVEN THE RHINOS WERE NYMPHOS. Shestack recalled something he’d said to the renowned writer Hannah Arendt, famed for her coverage of the war crimes trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. On his first day at the SATURDAY EVENING POST, Shestack edited a piece Arendt and said to her: “You’re okay Arendt, but you’re no Walter Kaylin.”
Puzo said: “He was great! He was outrageous, he just carried it off…Walter Kaylin, come back!”
That year, Wyatt, Josh and I co-edited the first illustrated MAM story anthology in what Wyatt named the Men’s Adventure Library, WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! We included stories by some of the best known writers who worked for the MAM genre, such as Bruce Jay Friedman, Lawrence Block, Harlan Ellison, and Robert Silverberg and others by lesser known writers, like Walter Kaylin.
When I searched for and read stories by Walter in my magazine collection, I realized the praise heaped on him by his better known colleagues was well deserved and decided we should do a book solely dedicated to his work. With Josh’s help, I tracked Walter down and got his permission to published a collection of some of his best stories. We titled it HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS, a play on some of the story titles it includes.
The original editions of both WEASELS and HE-MEN were limited run, black-and-white paperbacks that are no longer in print. Since then, Wyatt and I have published 18 more books in the Men’s Adventure Library series. Unlike our first two books, they’re all in full color and available worldwide via Amazon, from indie booksellers like BudsArtBooks.com or directly from me via my MensPulpMags.com bookstore.
Last year, Wyatt and I decided we wanted to do new full color versions of the WEASELS anthology and Kaylin collection. Not long ago, we announced the release of the new full color, expanded paperback and deluxe hardcover editions of WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH!
That was followed by the release of new full color, expanded paperback and deluxe hardcover versions of HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS. Walter was alive when the original edition was published in 2014 and he loved it. He passed away in 2017, but if he’s looking down I think he’d love the new full color versions even more. I know I do.
I rescanned and improved all of the cover and interior art scans used in the book. They include artwork by many pf the top men’s adventure artists, such as Mort Künstler, Earl Norem, James Bama, Gil Cohen, Robert E. Schulz and Samson Pollen. Naturally, their artwork looks better—in fact, truly spectacular—in full color. And, Wyatt created a cool new layout for the book, that added many special touches and additional content not included in the 2014 edition.
In addition to collecting some of Walter’s best stories, HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS includes special introductions by Wyatt and me, and by Walter’s daughters, Jennifer Kaylin and Lucy Kaylin, who became successful writers in their own right. It also includes Walter’s own reminiscence about his days as a men’s adventure story writer and an exclusive article about him written by novelist, playwright and screenwriter Bruce Jay Friedman (THE HEARTBREAK KID, STIR CRAZY, THE LONELY GUY, STERN, SCUBA DUBA)
You can see an extensive video preview of HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS by clicking the image below. It’s now available in deluxe hardcover and paperback formats via Amazon, BudsArtBooks.com and the MensPulpMags.com bookstore.
