Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire

Not long ago, I stumbled across a post about men’s adventure magazines on another blog that is now among my favorites. It’s the blog Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire,…

Rugged Men and Rugged Weasels

  As I mentioned in a previous post, finding out Frank Zappa got the name for his 1970 Weasels Ripped My Flesh album from a headline on a vintage men’s…

The war you couldn’t give away.

The cover and cover story for the November 1967 issue of Man’s Epic magazine is unusual for the men’s adventure magazine genre. Its cover painting, by artist Basil Gogos, features…

Love Slave of a Red-Hot Blonde Sorceress

Back in the 1950s, most hunters read mainstream fare like OUTDOOR LIFE and SPORTS AFIELD. But for brief period, men who liked hunting magazines that were a bit spicier could…

Dudes, here’s your electric car – Sixties style!

The pulptastic cover art on the July 1960 issue of Men magazine is by of the most talented and popular pulp artists ever, James Bama. It’s a teaser for an…

“GIRLS GIVE IN TO MEN WHO GO IN”

During our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even the anti-war protesters have been saying they “support the troops.” It was different during the Vietnam War. And, men’s adventure magazines…

“Baseball doesn’t deserve support!”

Decades before the controversies over players on steroids and taxpayer-funded stadiums, some baseball fans were already mad as hell about the trends in “America’s national pastime.” In 1955, one of…

What’s up with that bondage and torture cover art?

The men’s postwar adventure magazines didn’t invent bondage and torture cover art. It was already common in the pre-WWII pulp magazines. During 1930s and early ‘40s, there was an entire…

“Shotgun Husband of the Long-Pig Amazons”

Before we get to today’s “true” story from Ken for Men magazine, here’s a little pulp history… Ken for Men was one of many postwar men’s magazines published by pulp…

Robots want your job! Resistance is futile!

As the 1950s came to an end, the long, slow decline of manufacturing jobs in post-WWII America was starting to kick into higher gear. There were more and more automated…

Harlots, Nazis and killer fish!

Men Today was one of the spicier men’s adventure magazines. It is probably most famous – and infamous – for its gonzo Nazi bondage and torture covers, many of which…

The REAL scoop on Reefer Madness

A common article topic in the men’s postwar pulp magazines was illegal drugs. Men’s pulp mag editors especially loved such articles when they combined drugs and sex. Many were sensationalistic…