Vintage Pulp

December 22 2025

DANCES WITH WOLVES

When she says she performs every night for a bunch of animals it's a metaphor—but just barely.

It’s too bad Adam magazine never credited its covers. They were painted mainly by Phil Belbin or Jack Waugh, but we’ve never reached the point where we can tell for sure who painted which. This is an especially nice one, in our opinion, with art that pairs with Roderic J. Fittoc’s tale “The Stripper.” This is the second time we’ve run across Fittoc in an Adam, but he’s left no impression elsewhere in the literary world that we could find. His story is about femme fatale Selena Richards, who shows up in an outback town and wheedles her way into a stripping job at a rough and tumble bar. She’s a sensation who sends the patrons into a lustful frenzy, even triggering a riot one night, but she’s also the vanguard of a crew of outlaws. On a particular night when she dances, and every man is present to see her lascivious act, the crew plan to rob the rest of the town. It’s a decent idea for a short story, adequately executed. When it comes to short fiction Adam was always reliable. Below in thirty scans are more stories, several glamour models, wrestlers Gorgeous George, Mildred Burke, and King Kong Kashey, and art by Waugh and others. What’s not to love about this magazine?

Australia, Adam Magazine, Roderic J. Fittoc, Gorgeous George, Mildred Burke, King Kong Kashey, Abe Kashey, Jack Waugh, Phil Belbin, Cal Cameron, magazine art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 27 2025

HUNTER AND HUNTED

Two roads diverged in a wood, they took the one less traveled by, and really wished they'd taken the other.

Above: some scans from Adam magazine, published this month in 1965. The cover illustrates the tale, “Calamity’s Apprentice,” by Walter S. Bratu, who had a story in the previous issue we featured, as well as ones we posted last year, in 2018, and back in 2012. We looked him up expecting to find a lengthy bibliography, but apparently he published only with Kenmure Press—i.e. Adam and Man. Elsewhere inside this issue is art by Jack Waugh and Cal Cameron, more fiction, stories claimed to be true about cannibalism in New Guinea and Cold War spy Margarete Klosa, and a couple of beautiful models, as usual. We’ve now shared ninety-two issues of Adam, and a glance at the shelves suggests we have about thirty-five more. Yes, we’ve cornered the market on this particular Australian publication. Was doing so expensive? A bit. But it was worth it. More to come.

Australia, New Guinea, Adam Magazine, Jack Waugh, Cal Cameron, Walter S. Bratu, Margarete Klosa, magazine art, literature

Vintage Pulp

July 30 2022

ADAM SMASHERS

If anyone's going to impress her by magnanimously paying an exorbitant restaurant bill it's me!

This issue of Adam magazine hit newsstands in July of 1968, and our header refers not only to the two brawlers on the cover, but to the fact that this issue bore the smashing weight of something heavy for years, a fact made clear by the six rusty pressure dents that go clean through the magazine. Maybe the owner used it to level a work table in his garage, which we can’t approve of as proper usage for the greatest men’s magazine in Australian history, but even so, the scans mostly came out okay. Adam covers, which were usually painted by Jack Waugh or Phil Belbin, are always nice, but of special note in this issue is interior work from an excellent artist who signed only as Cameron. You’ll find two efforts below. The editors didn’t see fit to (and rarely did) credit artists in a masthead, so Cameron’s full identity will remain a mystery. At least for now.

The cover illustrates Roderic J. Fittoc’s “Gentleman’s Agreement,” about rivarly and adultery among the smart set, but the more interesting tale is Victor Blake’s “Dead Girls Can’t Run.” The cool title gets an opening reference in the story, and a callback. First, concerning a tragedy in the main character’s recent past, Blake writes, “But now Zelda is dead and Bertie is blind. He lost his eyes and lost his girl—but don’t go thinking she came running back back to me. Dead girls can’t run.” As the story devlops, the narrator is betrayed into prison by woman named Nikki. Though there’s nothing good about being locked up, he figures at least he can enjoy picturing how graceful and athletic Nikki is, espeically when she runs. That pleasure would be ruined if he were free, because he’d have to kill her, and dead girls can’t run. Double duty for the title phrase. We liked that. Twenty-nine scans below.

Update: Cameron is Cal Cameron, who contributed not only interior illustrations, but painted a couple of Adam covers too.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Cal Cameron, Victor Blake, Roderic J. Fittoc, magazine art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 27 2015

BLOOD SPORT

When in Rome kill as the Romans do.

We’ve shared ~~forty~~ thirty-nine issues of Australia’s Adam magazine, but none since March. That isn’t because we’re running out, but merely because we decided to focus on American men’s magazines for a while. But Adam is the king as far as we’re concerned. For us, it’s the most attractive, most interesting, and—because of its penchant for stories set in the Aussie outback and wilds of South Asia—the most exotic of all the publications from the late mid-century period. Maybe that’s why we have more than 1,200 scans from the magazine tucked inside Pulp Intl.

Today’s issue, number ~~forty-one~~ forty we’ve scanned and uploaded, has a typically lurid cover illustrating James McQueen’s story “Blood on the Sand,” which is one of the better pieces we’ve read in Adam. McQueen spins a yarn about a Roman gladiator named Marcellus who faces his best friend Helvius in the Colossuem. Helvius loses, but is spared by a thumbs-ups from the emperor. But the two friends have to fight again, they know Marcellus will win again, and they know the emperor never spares a life twice. The bulk of the story is set in the few days of contemplation and partying between the two battles. It’s a very effective little tale.

Elsewhere in Adam you get nice spreads from Samson Pollen and Bruce Minney, lots of thrilling fiction, and lots of naked women, including model Carona Faoro in a soap foam bikini that reminds us of when Reiko Ike did the same. On a different subject, moving forward you may notice a break in our magazine scanning activities. Could be days or months. We have to replace our reliable old Mac with a new one and we’ll be losing our Adobe programs—i.e. no more Photoshop for cleaning scans, and we aren’t going to buy it for $1,500 because, as much as we like being one of the sites that uploads new, original content to the web, that price tag is just insane. We can still scan individual pieces of art and not need to use Photoshop on them, but magazines require retouching because the way they’re bound means the scans come out skewed. If you’ve ever scanned one you know what we mean. We’ll see what we can do to work around the problem. In the meantime enjoy this Adam. Twenty-six images below.

Update: Forty issues, thirty-nine, who can keep count? Well, we actually went back through the website and today’s makes forty. Still plenty. Plus we have twenty-one more issues in reserve. Look for those down the line.

Update 2025: For a long time we had no idea there was an artist besides Phil Belbin or Jack Waugh who painted Adam covers. This one was painted by Cal Cameron and it typifies the difficulty of identifying art when a magazine’s design aesthetic is so particular. At a glance this cover is no different from a Belbin or Waugh. We’re certain editorial direction was involved in that, probably in an effort to maintain consistency. Well, good job.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Cal Cameron, James McQueen, Samson Pollen, Bruce Minney, Carona Faoro, magazine art

Vintage Pulp

December 21 2009

BOXING DAZE

To the victor goes the spoiled.

Assorted pages of Adam magazine, with a cover painted by Cal Cameron, December 1963.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Cal Cameron, magazine art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT