NEW! A full color paperback edition of the classic HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS collection

Description

“Walter Kaylin, come back!”
     – Mario Puzo, author of THE GODFATHER

“Outrageous and wonderful.”
     – Bruce Jay Friedman (STERN, LUCKY BRUCE, SHAMPOO), Kaylin’s editor at MEN and MALE

HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS collects some of the best men’s adventure magazine stories written by Walter Kaylin (1921-2017), one of the greatest writers who worked for the MAM genre in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In 2014, men’s pulp culture historian Robert Deis and indie publisher Wyatt Doyle worked with Walter to publish a limited run of a black-and-white paperback edition of his classic stories. Now Deis and Doyle have published a new full-color, expanded edition of the Kaylin anthology in paperback and deluxe hardcover editions. This listing is for the paperback edition.

Under his own name and the pseudonyms Roland Empey and David Mars, Walter Kaylin wrote everything from war stories, exotic adventure yarns, and Westerns to Cold War spy stories, science fiction and sexed-up noir. Most of his stories appeared in the MAMs published by Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management company (birthplace of Marvel Comics), such as ACTION FOR MEN, FOR MEN ONLY, MEN, MALE, MAN’S WORLD and STAG.

In addition to collecting some of Walter’s best stories, HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS includes special introductions by Deis, Doyle, and 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 (1939-2020). Friedman was an editor for Magazine Management before becoming famous. He hired Walter and another then unknown writer, Mario Puzo, to pen action/adventure yarns for the magazines he edited. Both Friedman and Puzo, who later became famous for his novel THE GODFATHER, considered Kaylin to be one of the best of the many writers who wrote stories for MAMs.

In 1987, when writer/musician Josh Alan Friedman (Bruce Jay’s son) interviewed Puzo about his days working for the Goodman MAMs, Puzo singled out Kaylin for praise. “He was great! He was outrageous, he just carried it off,” Puzo exclaimed. “Walter Kaylin, come back!”

Now, Walter is back in a way that’s bigger and better than ever, in the new, expanded full color edition of HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS. It’s available in both a high quality 6″ x 9″ paperback and a special 330-page, 6 ½” x 9½” deluxe hardcover with a wraparound dust jacket.

Both editions have additional content not included in the now out-of-print 2014 paperback. Both feature full color reproductions of the covers and interior illustrations from the magazines Walter’s stories first appeared in—painted by top pulp adventure artists like Mort Künstler, Earl Norem, James Bama, Gil Cohen, Robert E. Schulz and Samson Pollen.

You can see an extensive flip-page preview of E-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS by clicking this link.

Here’s a look at the contents…

FRONTMATTER:
● “About Men’s Adventure Magazines,” a brief overview of the genre written by Wyatt Doyle and Robert Deis
● Foreword for the new edition by Wyatt Doyle
● Introduction by Robert Deis
● “A Teacher, a Dreamer, a Charmer and a Schemer” – A remembrance of Walter by Jennifer and Lucy Kaylin
● “Seamless, Outrageous and Wonderful” – An homage to Walter by Bruce Jay Friedman
● “The Typewriter Is as Far as I Went” – Walter’s reminiscence about writing for men’s adventure magazines

STORIES BY WALTER KAYIN:
● “Snow-Job From a Redhead” from MEN, June 1956
● “The Cruel Gun Brothers” from TRUE ACTION, July 1959
● “The Terrible Reward of ‘Far East Harry’ Wax” from MALE, September 1959
● “Emperor Blaine of ‘Sweet Woman’ Reef” from MALE, September 1959
● “The Helicopter Hero and the 100 Ladies of ‘Undress’ Atoll” from MEN, September 1959
● “The Nymph Who Leads an African Death Army” from MEN, October 1960
● “The Army’s Terrifying Death Bugs and Loony Gas” from MEN, November 1960
● “The Yank Who Survived the 300-Mile Death Trek From Stalingrad” from MALE, April 1962
● “108-Hour Mid-Ocean Ordeal…500 Dead…300 Still Afloat” from STAG, May 1963
● “Meet Our Terms or We Destroy 500 Million People” from MEN, October 1964
● “Detective William Clive: Is He the Real James Bond?” from MALE, January 1966
● “The Black Lace Blonde, the Yank Jungle Fighter and the Chicom Plot to Grab the Mid-Pacific” from MEN, July 1966
● “Surf Pack Assassins” from MALE, August 1967
● “My Bloody Life as a Mafia Bag Man” from FOR MEN ONLY, August 1974
● “They Call Him Father Italy” from FOR MEN ONLY, March 1975
● “Cry of the Killer Cat” from MALE, March 1970

This listing is for the softcover edition of the new HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS collection. The deluxe hardcover is available in a separate listing in this bookstore.

A NOTE ABOUT THE 2014 EDITION: We still have a few leftover copies of the original, black-and-white 2014 edition of HE-MEN, BAG MEN, & NYMPHOS listed for sale in this bookstore. The scans of the covers and interior illustrations in the new edition are much better and in full color, and the new edition has additional content. You should only buy the 2014 edition if you’re a Men’s Adventure Library completist. Since it will never be reprinted, it may someday be a collector’s item. Used copies are already being sold for inflated prices on eBay and elsewhere, usually for more than we’re charging for our remaining copies—or for the new edition.