![ZEST INTENTIONS](/images/headline/5405.png) It was a different flavor of men's magazine. ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_01.jpg)
Zest magazine, with its bold graphics and cover portraits, looks like a classic mid-century tabloid, but its banner tells you it's really a men's magazine. It lives up to its billing in this issue from January 1956—issue number one, actually—with short stories from Michael Avallone and H.P. Lovecraft, real life adventure tales, scare stories (“Is Your Daughter a Sex-Film Star?), glamour photography, and humor. The Lovecraft tale, “Rats in the Walls,” is called “the greatest horror story ever written.” We wouldn't go that far, but it's freaktacular, like everything Lovecraft wrote. It had originally been published in Weird Tales in 1924, and we imagine that its bizarro mutant/cannibalism themes were pretty shocking back then. The Avallone story, “The Glass Eye,” is novella length. He had already published three novels and was building a reputation as a reliable author of thrillers, which makes his inclusion a nice coup for a new magazine. The photography in Zest is just as impressive as the fiction. Readers get to see rare shots of major celebs such as Sophia Loren, Sabrina, and Delores del Rio. All in all Zest was a high budget effort, but it lasted only two issues. Why did it fold? No idea on that. Competition in the market was plenty stiff at the time. On the other hand, maybe two issues are all that were planned. We're thrilled to show you one of them, comprising thirty-plus scans below for your Thursday enjoyment. ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_02.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_03.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_04.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_05.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_06.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_07.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_08.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_09.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_10.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_11.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_12.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_13.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_14.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_15.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_16.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_17.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_18.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_19.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_20.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_21.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_22.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_23.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_24.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_25.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_26.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_27.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_28.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_29.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_30.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_31.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_32.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_33.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/zest_intentions_34.jpg)
![SALON KITTY](/images/headline/1136.png) You were all out of milk, so I made us a couple of dry martinis. ![](/images/postimg/salon_kitty.jpg)
Cats play with their prey before killing it. The cover of Michael Avallone’s 1962 thriller Sex Kittten, with its turquoise-eyed femme fatale painted by Paul Rader, conveys that threat nicely. We’ve seen this paperback going for as much as fifty dollars. While we wouldn’t pay that for the book, we’d meet virtually any price for a print of Rader’s original art. But we’ll never have to prove that, because we looked and it isn’t out there. You can learn more about Avallone here, and see more Rader art here.
![PROFESSIONAL TOUCH](/images/headline/686.png) Accurate shooting starts with the diaphragm, baby. Let me show you what I mean. ![](/images/postimg/professional_touch_01.jpg)
We posted a couple of Michael Avallone covers a while back and decided to return to him today for a more detailed treatment. Avallone called himself the fastest typewriter in the east, cranking out nearly two hundred books between 1953 and 1989, including entries in the Hawaii Five-O, Planet of the Apes, and Man from U.N.C.L.E. series. But speed exacted a heavy toll in quality, which may be why Avallone is considered by some to be one of the worst writers of all time. We can’t possibly dispute that—after all, he wrote the novelization of Friday the 13th in 3D—not exactly a résumé highlight. But even if he was undiscriminating, he was also bold. His output eventually shifted from detective fiction to pure flights of fancy. In the surreal Shoot It Again, Sam a group of Chinese brainwashers disguised as old Hollywood stars make lead character Ed Noon believe he’s Sam Spade. The series grew even weirder, and by the last few books Noon was trying to thwart an alien invasion. Quality of the prose aside, Avallone was a unique—if occasionally obnoxious—member of the pantheon of post-pulp athors. Check him out yourself and you’ll see what we mean.
![GUNS OF AVALLONE](/images/headline/250.png) ![](/images/postimg/guns_of_avallone_01.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/guns_of_avallone_02.jpg)
Dutch covers for two of Michael Avallone’s Ed Noon thrillers. These are The February Doll Murders, from 1966, and The Bedroom Bolero, from 1963. Avallone died this month in 1999.
|
![](/images/piart02v3.jpg) |
The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
2003—Hope Dies
Film legend Bob Hope dies of pneumonia two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. 1945—Churchill Given the Sack
In spite of admiring Winston Churchill as a great wartime leader, Britons elect
Clement Attlee the nation's new prime minister in a sweeping victory for the Labour Party over the Conservatives. 1952—Evita Peron Dies
Eva Duarte de Peron, aka Evita, wife of the president of the Argentine Republic, dies from cancer at age 33. Evita had brought the working classes into a position of political power never witnessed before, but was hated by the nation's powerful military class. She is lain to rest in Milan, Italy in a secret grave under a nun's name, but is eventually returned to Argentina for reburial beside her husband in 1974. 1943—Mussolini Calls It Quits
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini steps down as head of the armed forces and the government. It soon becomes clear that Il Duce did not relinquish power voluntarily, but was forced to resign after former Fascist colleagues turned against him. He is later installed by Germany as leader of the Italian Social Republic in the north of the country, but is killed by partisans in 1945.
|
![](/images/suki.png)
|
|
It's easy. We have an uploader that makes it a snap. Use it to submit your art, text, header, and subhead. Your post can be funny, serious, or anything in between, as long as it's vintage pulp. You'll get a byline and experience the fleeting pride of free authorship. We'll edit your post for typos, but the rest is up to you. Click here to give us your best shot.
|
|