We're very interested in Australian men's magazines. Today we have a new entry for you—Cavalcade, published by Kenneth G. Murray, the same person that gave the world Adam. This issue from February 1956, has a killer cover—uncredited, which is par for K.G. Murray Publishing. There aren't many art or photo pages inside, but we've posted the ones that were there. You may have noticed the somewhat weird slogan “The Know Yourself Magazine.” We guess the idea being peddled is that Cavalcade helped men become better versions of themselves. It sounds almost zen, almost like the Buddha would say it. But then you open it and see all the raunchy cartoons and bikini beauties and realize—no, it's just a regular men's magazine. And if you bought it, you probably knew yourself quite well already. We may get back to this one a bit later.

From K.G. Murray Publishing Co., the group that would later produce Adam magazine, comes this October 1948 issue of Man Junior, which you may already know was the offspring of Murray’s flagship publication Man. We showed you one of those here. Both magazines featured art, fiction, cartoons, and glamour photography, but Man Junior was of smaller dimensions—in fact pocket sized. It launched in 1937 and was an immediate success. The cover art above, signed Val, is uncredited, but inside you get illustrations from Arthur Nichol, Jack Waugh, and others, plus an adventure from the immensely popular comic character Devil Doone, who was created by R. Carson Gold, first appeared in Man Junior in 1945, and was drawn during this period by Hart Amos. You also get a pretty cool photo of American actress Janet Blair, who we shared a portrait of just a couple of weeks ago, and of special note are two nude studies from famed British photographer John Everard. We’ll have more samples form Kenneth Murray’s publishing empire soon.

From Sydney, Australia’s Kenneth G. Murray, who is the same person who published the great magazine Adam, here’s his earliest mass market imprint—the succinctly named Man. The name leaves no doubt what the magazine is about, and indeed this issue from February 1950 features cover art of an available woman strutting her stuff for some virile sailors, and inside you get pin-ups, pulp style illustrations, fiction, and humor. We found this Man and a few others in an online archive. Below are some scans from today's, including a black and white photo about midway down of American actress Angela Greene. We'll have more coming from the others later.

This issue of Kenneth G. Murray’s Adam from September 1963 has a lovely cover illustration for W. H. Percival’s tale of danger and treasure hunting in Ceylon, “Cult of the Snake God,” as well as plenty of nice treats inside. As for the cover girl’s inappropriate crypt digging garb, well, she’s a slave and as any pulp aficionado knows, they’re usually sexy and very rarely have enough clothing to wear. In the story, the main character (with the unlikely name Rex Scarbe) decides to rescue the girl Mora from her evil master, but it turns out she’s setting a trap to sacrifice him to a giant python. Scarbe kills the python only to have Mora try to stab him in the heart. So the lesson is that the trustworthiness of a woman is directly proportionate to the amount of clothing she wears. Like you didn't already know that. 

Assorted pages of Adam, from Australia, December 1957. Though the cover art here is similar to the 1973 and 1976 issues we posted, at this stage Adam was a pure pulp magazine. It had been launched in 1946 by Kenneth G. Murray as part of a publishing group that included Man and Man Junior. Though it always published a bit of cheesecake, it shifted its emphasis toward more explicit nudity around 1971 or 1972. The magazine folded in 1974. We’ll keep looking for more issues, and we'll post what we find in the coming months. 

We thought we’d start your Monday off right with a brilliant cover and some interior panels from the great men’s magazine Adam. This is not the American nudie mag we posted a while ago, but rather the publication of identical name that was launched in Australia by Kenneth G. Murray. This issue, with its stunning image of a burning locomotive plummeting into a canyon, is from thirty-three years ago this month.