Men's Adventure Magazines

“Beat Girls” smoking peyote! Topless! Yeah, man! I read it in UNTAMED magazine…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:33:08 PDT

Lately, I’ve been posting entries about old issues of Untamed, one of my favorite vintage men’s adventure magazines. Untamed featured painted covers by two great pulp artists who are more widely known for their science fiction magazine covers, Ed “Emsh” Emshwiller and Leo Morey. It also featured some wild stories that I find highly entertaining, though probably for different reasons than originally intended. Consider, for example, the supposedly true story about Beatniks from the...

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“Lustful Bushwhackers,” a “Heroic Orgy” and Lili St. Cyr’s answer to the question “Are Strippers Oversexed?”

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:38:07 PDT

In my last post I featured cover art done for the magazine Untamed by Ed “Emsh” Emshwiller, who is more widely know for his great science fiction cover art. In tonight’s post, we’ll take a look inside an issue of Untamed — Vol. 1, No. 5, dated September 1959. Untamed was a short-lived men’s pulp mag published by Magnum Publications, Inc., a company owned by Irwin Stein, who also published horror and science fiction magazines and was a co-founder of Lancer Books. The cover painting for...

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Ed “Emsh” Emshwiller’s UNTAMED magazine covers

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 06:57:01 PDT

If you’re a fan of vintage science fiction magazines and paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s, you’ve almost certainly seen cover art by Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990), who often signed his illustration art as “Emsh.” “Emsh” cover paintings appeared on the covers of many popular sci-fi mags, such as Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, If and Infinity. He also did dust cover art for science fiction hardbacks and cover paintings for...

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Robert F. Dorr takes us “BEHIND THE SCENES OF BUDAPEST’S SEX REVOLT”

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:40:35 PDT

I’ve written about author Robert F. Dorr in previous entries here and posted reprints of several of his classic men’s adventure magazine stories (most recently, the ripping yarn “I FOUGHT CASTRO’S CUTTHROAT GUERRILLA SQUAD”). Bob is one of our country’s top military and aviation historians. He’s written 70 books and hundreds of non-fiction articles over the past few decades. His latest book, co-written with former U.S. astronaut Thomas D. Jones, is HELL HAWKS! The Untold Story of the...

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A rare LSD story from 1956 – “I WENT INSANE FOR SCIENCE”

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:59:13 PDT

There are several noteworthy things about the August 1956 issue of Man’s Magazine (Vol. 4, No. 7, published by Almat Publishing Corp.) One is the great action cover painting, showing an American GI battling a machete-wielding Filipino bandit. It was done by Tom Ryan, a talented illustrator who went on to become one of America’s most renowned painters of cowboy and Western art. Another notable feature of this issue is a rare early article about LSD, brilliantly titled: “I WENT INSANE...

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Fourth of July reading for fans of men’s adventure magazines…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:59:21 PDT

Ah, yes. Fourth of July weekend. A nice long weekend that most hard-working American men enjoy. And, after the patriotic parades, barbecues and fireworks are over, some men like to relax with a drink and catch up on their reading. If you were a man back in the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s, you might have been reading some of the latest men’s adventure magazines on July 4th weekend. By the early 1950s, the men’s adventure mag genre had taken recognizable taken form and...

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“Hemingway R.I.P. Day” on the Men’s Adventure Magazines blog

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:04:16 PDT

The legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway loomed large in men’s adventure and bachelor magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. In the minds of many men of that era — and perhaps in his own mind — ‘Papa’ Hemingway was the epitome of a manly man. Almost a superman. Except, of course, he wasn’t bulletproof. On this day exactly 49 years ago, July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide with one of his favorite shotguns at age 61. So, I am designating today “Hemingway R.I.P. Day” here on the...

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“Jungle Jane” Dolinger among the Jivaro headhunters and beyond

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:13:17 PDT

The previous post here focused on Marion Michael, star of the 1956 cult film Liane, Jungle Goddess. Marion is one of the two famous “jungle girls” featured in the premiere issue of South Sea Stories, published in July 1960. The other is Jane Dolinger, one of the most interesting woman associated with men’s adventure and bachelor magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. She’s the only woman who was both a pin-up model and a writer of exotic travel and adventure stories for vintage...

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A cult gem from SOUTH SEA STORIES - Marion Michael as “Liane, the Jungle Goddess”

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:01:20 PDT

For fans of the pulpiest vintage men’s adventure magazines, there’s a lot to like about South Sea Stories. And, the premiere issue, dated July 1960, is one of the best. It has a cool cover painting by artist Mark Schneider that tells a visual story of tropical treasure, intrigue and violence. Inside, there are wild “true stories” and fiction yarns about favorite men’s pulp mag topics, such as harems, cannibals, headhunters, war and “white kings” on islands full of sex-starved native...

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An interview with Luis Ortiz, co-editor of CULT MAGAZINES: A to Z

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:46:52 PDT

A while ago, I posted a brief review of the recently-published book CULT MAGAZINES: A to Z. Simply put, I love this wide-ranging, lavishly-illustrated book. In fact, I consider it a must-have for anyone who is a fan of (or curious about) non-mainstream magazines, such as horror and science fiction pulp mags, vintage men’s adventure and girlie magazines, Confidential-style scandal rags or “true crime” and detective mags. CULT MAGAZINES: A to Z was co-edited by Luis Oritz and the...

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SOUTH SEA STORIES, the 1960s men’s adventure mag about sexy (but dangerous) tropical isles…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:29:12 PDT

During the golden era of the classic pulp fiction magazines, from the 1920s to the 1940s, some pulps focused on stories set in particular places in the world. One of those was a short-lived title called South Sea Stories. That digest-size pulp, published bimonthly by Ziff-Davis from December 1939 to October 1940, featured action and adventure stories set on the sultry islands and beautiful waters of the South Pacific. Many men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...

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GUSTO magazine was killed to protect you! Here’s what you missed…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:18:33 PDT

In 1957, Everett M. “Busy” Arnold’s company Arnold Magazines, Inc. applied to the United States Postal Service for a second class mail permit for its new men’s adventure magazine, GUSTO. The low-cost postage rate allowed by such a permit, now called the Periodicals rate, makes it financially feasible for publishers to mail magazines to subscribers. (A standard rate based on weight would be too expensive.) During the heyday of men’s adventure magazines, in the 1950s and 1960s, the USPS...

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GUSTO Magazine – featuring “HE-MAN ADVENTURES” and “The Big Bamboo”

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:15:21 PDT

GUSTO— subtitled “HE-MAN ADVENTURES” — is a hard-to-find men’s adventure magazine published briefly in 1957 by Arnold Magazines, Inc. Arnold Magazines was one of several comics and magazine publishing companies founded by Everett M. “Busy” Arnold (1899-1974). Starting in the 1930s, Arnold was a pioneer in the realm of newspaper comics and comic books. In the 1940s and early 1950s, his Quality Comics company published many notable comics titles. Among the most famous were Will Eisner’s...

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CULT MAGAZINES: A to Z – a highly recommended new book…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:15:49 PDT

Although I focus on men’s adventure magazines on this blog, I also enjoy reading — and reading about — vintage magazines from many other genres. I have been a huge fan of science fiction magazines and books since I was a kid in the 1950s. I somehow overlooked the men’s adventure magazine genre in the ‘50s and ‘60s and didn’t discover them until later. But, as a teenager and young adult, I did enjoy Playboy and other girlie or “bachelor” mags. I also also became a lifelong fan of campy...

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Inside Exotic Adventures: “Tight Pants,” Harlan Ellison, savage women wrestlers, and more…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:15:35 PDT

As noted in a previous post, Exotic Adventures magazine isn’t a typical 1950s men’s adventure mag. It does have war stories, wild exotic adventure stories, exposé “shockers,” noir-like fiction and cheesecake photos. It also has the usual ads for stag films, sex books, correspondence courses, trusses, lingerie and body-building courses. But, unlike most men’s adventure magazines of that decade, Exotic Adventures was printed entirely on slick paper. And, the cheesecake photo spreads in...

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A good man’s Exotic Adventures magazine is hard to find…

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:21:19 PDT

Depending on how you categorize certain vintage magazines, roughly 150 different men’s adventure magazines were published during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Categorization can be difficult for various reasons. One is that certain vintage men’s magazines — such as Exotic Adventures — had aspects of both the pulpy adventure-style genre and the men’s girlie “slicks”, or bachelor magazines. Exotic Adventures was a short-lived magazine published on slick paper, rather than on the...

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Inside MAN’S EXPLOITS: Vampire Vamps, Bill Ward “Good Girl Art” cartoons, and more...

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:49:37 PDT

Man’s Exploits was one of the men’s adventure magazines that earned the genre the nickname “men’s sweats.” The “sweats” subset of men’s adventure mags tended to be very cheaply produced, badly edited and full of raunchy stories. Some were sleazy enough to be “under the counter” magazines. Most of their stories and the illustrations and photos that went with them have sex-related angles, often with a hefty dose of S&M. I’m not into that kind of stuff in the real world. But I...

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Man’s Exploits magazine gives us an imaginary look at, um, extreme bullfighting...

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 29 May 2010 08:26:26 PDT

Last week, vintage men’s magazine expert Dr. David M. Earle posted a series of classic bullfight covers and interior illustrations on his men’s mag Facebook site. Dr. Earle teaches courses in modernist literature at the University of West Florida and is the author of All Man! Hemingway, 1950s Men's Magazines, and the Masculine Persona. All Man! recently won the Independent Book Publisher Association’s Grand Prize in the Literary Criticism category. It’s also among the books I...

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Real War magazine launches men’s pulp mags into space

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:53:09 PDT

Occasionally, some of the men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s and 1960s would put out special issues that had a theme. For example, a while ago, I posted an entry about the premiere issue of Mr. America magazine, published in January 1953, which focused on the coming “Atomic Future.” Another cool issue with a theme is the October 1958 issue of Real War magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2. Real War was one of many classic men’s pulp mags published by Stanley Publications, a New York-based company...

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How publisher Stanley Morse and I got even with anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:15:43 PDT

In the 1950s, America was gripped by two different cultural witch hunts that were serendipitous boons to men’s adventure magazines. One was the Communist witch hunting spree dubbed “McCarthyism” by the great political cartoonist Herblock (Herbert Block). That was started by Senator Joseph “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy. Along with the Korean War and the Cold War, McCarthyism made it patriotic to hate Commies and portray them as evil, sadistic villains. This became something the men’s pulp...

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“I FOUGHT CASTRO’S CUTTHROAT GUERRILLA SQUAD” – Evil Cuban Commies, Part 3

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:28:00 PDT

Since I started this blog last year, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing three notable authors who once wrote stories for men’s adventure magazines: Harlan Ellison, Walter Kaylin and Robert F. Dorr. The legendary science fiction author Harlan Ellison has written hundreds of magazine stories, but only a few were for men’s pulp mags. (He has graciously allowed me to offer digital reprints of two of his “lost” men’s adventure stories.) Walter Kaylin and Robert F. Dorr each wrote hundreds of...

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“SQUIRM IN HELL, MY LOVELY MUCHACHA!” – Evil Cuban Commies, Part Two

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:33:28 PDT

The post-WWII men’s adventure magazines had a love-turned-to-hate relationship with Cuba. In the 1950s, when Cuba was run by dictator Fulgencio Batista, with a little help from his friends in the American Mob and American government, the men’s pulp mags published goggle-eyed travel pieces and sexposé style articles touting Havana’s glitzy casinos, sex shows, brothels and women. There was even an occasional sympathetic news item or story about the Cuban rebels up in the mountains. ...

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Men’s pulp magazines take on Fidel Castro and his evil Cuban Commie comrades

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:08:12 PDT

Recently, I finally got around to watching director Steven Soderbergh’s controversial movie Che, starring Benicio del Toro. I think it’s an interesting movie that’s worth seeing, though I can understand why it sparked protests by Cuban-Americans in Miami. It takes a relatively sympathetic view of Fidel Castro, his right hand man Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, and the Cuban Revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year’s Day in 1959 — and eventually led to Cuba’s continuing...

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Uncovering the Real James Bond – and the Real Roland Empey

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:16:36 PDT

The January 1966 issue of Male magazine features a very cool, Sixties-flavored cover painting by Mort Kunstler that looks like a James Bond scene. Quite a few of Ian Fleming’s stories about James Bond did appear in men’s bachelor and adventure magazines in the 1960s. But this classic Kunstler cover is not for a 007 story by Fleming. It’s for a story by Roland Empey titled “DETECTIVE WILLIAM CLIVE — IS HE THE REAL JAMES BOND?” Empey reveals that Clive is a former British adventurer,...

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The legendary Walter Kaylin, “Jaws” and the USS Indianapolis

SubtropicBob@QuoteCounterquote.com (SubtropicBob) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:40:34 PDT

Earlier this month, I posted an entry on this blog about Walter Kaylin, the legendary men’s adventure story writer who was also editor of the short-lived, pocket-size men’s pulp magazine Brave. I am a big fan of Kaylin’s work. Dozens of his stories appear in vintage men’s adventure magazines, some under his real name and some under the pen name Roland Empey. Most of Kaylin’s men’s adventure stories are in magazines published by Magazine Management. Mag Management, founded by Martin...

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