Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

A WAR OF CHOICE

They say it's for noble reasons but the truth is they're fighting over her because she's rich in natural resources.

Today’s issue of the Australian men’s adventure magazine Adam hit newsstands this month in 1966, and bears interesting cover art meant to illustrate the story “Lust for Power,” which was written by Roderic J. Fiddoc. Again, Fiddoc? You don’t see the guy for years, then he pops up twice in consecutive issues. Well, what’s Rod got for us this time? In his story a spy named Berget infiltrates a revolutionary movement in an unnamed French colony with the aim of foiling the efforts of its leader Carbonera. The art depicts the moment Berget and Carbonera turn on each other, with a woman named Gretta who had been used as bait in a betrayal scheme caught in the middle. It’s an okay story but it’s clear Fiddoc was undone by editorial constraints, as the tale ends prematurely and poorly.

This Adam represents a landmark for Pulp Intl. It’s the one hundredth issue we’ve shared. Someone emailed us that it felt like we were teasing people, showing scans but not making the magazines available for download. Time has shown that to be a good decision. We upload more original scans than any pulp related website we’re aware of, and they’re sometimes taken en masse by others without a thought of acknowledgment (which is why we appreciate the credit we get from good Tumblrs like Mudwerks). Everyone borrows art—a panel, or two. But several sites have systematically scoured innumerable scans from us (usually the nudes) without giving a single credit. So while we could share images 2000 pixels wide, keeping them small indicates to those in the know that the bloggers and Tumblrs with lousy ethics aren’t uploading original scans—much as they try to pretend. Twenty-eight panels below.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Jack Waugh, Cam Cameron, Roderic J. Fiddoc, magazine art, literature

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

BIG ENOUGH TO PLEASE

Man Junior was small in size but large in satisfaction.

Above: scans from an issue of Australia’s Man Junior published this month in 1961. Launched in 1937, it’s smaller than its parent publication Man, but has the same number of pages and the same type of enjoyable content. The size is convenient, because while every page we share of Man has to be scanned in two halves and joined digitally, Man Junior is just the right size for each page to scan in one easy swipe. We’d probably even pay extra for that level of saved time. Man Junior was bad about artist credits, but there’s a cartoon signed by the notable Bill Wenzel. Some of the interior art is probably by Jack Waugh and Phil Belbin, but we’ll never know for sure. Man Junior will return.

Australia, Man Junior, Bill Wenzel, magazine art, literature

STAG PARTY

Hunting, battle, gambling, and prostitution make for pure male enjoyment.

Stag magazine launched in 1949 and lasted until 1978, by which time it had transformed from a pure adventure magazine into a Playboy style publication. After that point, sold to a new publisher, it continued as an explicit porn mag with no literary content at all. Such was the fate of several important adventure brands. This issue is very old, from this month in 1952, and is the earliest we’ve ever shared. It hadn’t yet taken on a few of the characteristics we enjoy, particularly the pages overflowing with story art from top flight illustrators. You do get a cover by George Mayers and interiors from Mel Bolden and Victor Prezio, but it’s a minimal amount, none credited in the masthead. To make up for the lack of visual zest, we made more scans than usual, and uploaded a story about vice in New Orleans in such a way that it’s readable in its entirety. We doubt we’ll ever reach this far back for an adventure magazine again, but you never know. We have about forty panels below.

New Orleans, Stag Magazine, George Mayers, Mel Bolden, Victor Prezio, magazine art, literature

BEHIND THE MASKA

It's pretty much all Greek to us.

We found this cool cover featuring a femme fatale pulling a pistol from her bag on the website Βικιπαίδεια, or Greek Wikipedia, and it’s from the very first issue of the Greek pulp magazine Maska, a publication that dates back to 1935. Notice the sneaky hand behind her? She’ll be needing the gun. Maska featured translated versions of detective stories from U.S. pulps, but over time also published fiction that was Greek in origin.

As far as this issue is concerned, here’s what we go through sometimes to operate this site. We wanted to know what the text at bottom was describing, so we plugged the image into a text-from-image program and came out with the Greek letters. We plugged those into a translator and they came out as “Dan Fohler – The Sign of Betrayal.” Then we searched high and low for Dan Fohler, and found típota. That means “nothing.” It’s a word we learned when we visited the Greek isles.

So we wrote a whole thing about needing a legit pulp expert to lend a hand here, then we had an idea. We used another translator. Opinions vary, yes? That translator came up with “Dan Foochler.” We were pretty sure there were no Foochlers out there but we looked anyway. Nada (we’re multi-lingual when it comes to that word). Well, fine. We did more searching on Fohler, got all Boolean with it, and still came up with a blank.

By this time we needed a glass of white wine. So we did that, maybe actually had a couple of glasses, and started fresh on this Foochler thing. How many translation interfaces are out there? Several, at least. So we tried again with a different one. This time we came up with Dan Fuchs. Bingo! Lotaría! This is the guy. He turned out pulp fiction and wrote a few novels during the ’30s, but also wrote or co-wrote screenplays for Criss Cross, Storm Warning, The Human Jungle, and Panic in the Streets.

So the first issue of Maska had a story by Dan Fuchs, and he’s pretty important within our areas of interest (and yours too, if you’ve read this far). So next—and pay attention to the intricate details of how our editorial process here works—we realized we had a bottle of white wine that needed to be finished fooching urgently. Since the hour we wrestled with this Maska matter is more time than we usually spend on posts (as if the regular typos aren’t a clue), for today we’re done as of this moment.

Greece, Maska, Criss Cross, Storm Warning, The Human Jungle, Panic in the Streets, Dan Fuchs, magazine art, literature

BLAZE OF GLORY

Daring men can be fun, but sometimes she wonders if she should have stayed with that accountant from Wichita.

The cover of Adam magazine from this month in 1962 is simpler than normal but very effective too. Instead of the usual three figures, you get the lone woman with an explosion in the background. It pairs with Jay Edmond’s short story “The Deadly Angel,” about a test pilot’s wife whose husband dies in the fictional X-20 jet (modeled after jets like the Bell X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager). After her husband goes down in flames Lorrie Chambers takes up with another pilot, who also dies during a test flight. Then she takes up with another who dies, and another. Protagonist Len Jacobs meets her in a bar the night before his own X-20 test flight. Is Lorrie a jinx, or is she suffering a run of otherworldly bad luck? He’s advised not to go near her, but he can’t stay away because she’s beautiful—of course—and he can’t back out of the test. So the story concludes with his flight into the stratosphere. Does he survive? The cover tells you. We’ll just say the story was an interesting change from the tiger hunts and treacherous fatales you usually get in Adam.

In terms of art and photography there’s less than in later issues, especially those from the mid-seventies and onward. You get a mere five model pages. The inside back cover features one with slicked back hair in a pool. Whoever photographed her may have been in love with Grace Kelly. He posed his blonde exactly the way Howell Conant famously posed Kelly in Jamaica in 1955 for a cover of Collier’s magazine. We’ve added an inset of that shot.

Australia, Adam Magazine, Collier's, Jack Waugh, Jay Edmond, Grace Kelly, Howell Conant, magazine art, cinema

SOUL CUSTODY

Why are you people always so pushy? No! I don't accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior!

Straight outta Sydney we have an October 1969 issue of Adam for you today. The cover illustrates Lester Way’s story “Day of Reckoning,” in which a man learns that his wife is a liar and cheater, but only after the cops tear apart her story of a rapist home invader. It’s a good little tale, but you can’t help noting the cops’ immediate disbelief. Way unwittingly reflects policing culture around sexual crimes at that time (and often this time too). Or at least, we assume it was unwitting. Maybe he’s a cleverer writer than we think. But since the attack never happened, the cover art represents the wife’s fabrication to the police and her husband.

As a side note, the reason the art put us in mind of pushy door-to-door solicitors is because we have our own unwanted (sort of) salesman. While we have numerous stores in the pueblo, we get our eggs from a man we call “The Egg Guy.” He brings farm fresh eggs to people’s doors, which is fine, but the problem is he tries to sell us dozens a week. We tell him over and over we can’t eat that many eggs, but he doesn’t get it. So while we do buy from him (the eggs are excellent), we also spend a lot of time turning him away. We admire the hustle, though.

As we paged through this Adam we found numerous fascinating features, such as the factual stories “Witchcraft Love Cult,” about a man captured by Panamanian Indians, and “Be Murdered or Sold,” about a woman trafficked into sexual bondage in Yemen. There’s also fiction from veteran Adam contributor John P. Gilders called “The White Man’s Burden.” That term, for those who don’t know, refers to the idea that white men were morally obligated to “civilize” inhabitants of the lands they colonized. The story completes an unusually interesting set of literary contributions in a magazine that never fails to entertain.

In addition, on the inside of the front cover is U.S. model, actress, and photographer Salli Sachse, who appeared in such films as The Million Eyes of Sumuru and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. She died just last month. Several other beautiful models grace the interior pages, none of whom we can currently identify. Maybe we’ll get a bit of reader help on them.

And of course there’s art. Jack Waugh, as always, makes his presence felt, and Earl Norem makes a surprise appearance. We thought his work appeared only in U.S. men’s adventure magazines, so our first thought was: Good on him for making it Down Under—hope he got well paid. Then we had a closer look. His art for the story “Escape Ring” looks far less crisp than the other illustrations. His signature is fuzzy. We think Adam borrowed the art from another magazine. Don’t quote on us that. Dirty Aussie thieves! Don’t quote us on that either. Forty-plus art panels below.

Australia, Yemen, Panama, Adam Magazine, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, The Million Eyes of Sumuru, Salli Sachse, Earl Norem, Jack Waugh, John P. Gilders, magazine art, literature

ACTION FIGURE

Perfect! Now show them your front again! If you keep distracting them we might just win this fight!

Above are scans from an issue of Adam magazine published this month in 1976. The cover art pairs with Richard Lindsay’s story “Seaward from Samarinda,” about a river captain with the awesome name Salvador Cain who finds himself upriver deep in Borneo trying the save a princess from assassins sent by her brother the prince. He gets her aboard a riverboat in a town called Samarinda and that’s when the real action begins. It’s good work from Lindsay, with a pitched gun battle, multiple sticks of thrown dynamite, and more. This issue of Adam goes a bit heavier than usual on the glam models, which suits us fine because among them is Swedish export Annika Salmonsson, better known as Anita Hemmings, in the photo feature “The Awakening.” You can see more of her starting here. Adam will return.

Australia, Sweden, Malaysia, Borneo, Samarinda, Adam Magazine, Anita Hemmings, Annika Salmonsson, Arne Paule, magazine art, literature, nudity, boxing

REALMS OF THE FANTASTIC

Monthly pulp took readers on Adventures beyond the imagination.

Above and below are scans from an issue of Fantastic Adventures, published this month in 1946. The magazine, which specialized in science fiction, fantasy, and the supernatural, was launched in 1939 by Ziff-Davis and ran until 1953. As usual in these pure pulp magazines there isn’t much art. There’s the hypnotic cover by Arnold Kahn, which, along with an interior ink illustration by Henry Enoch Sharp, pairs with Chester S. Geier’s novel length tale “Minions of the Tiger.” Other stories also get illustrations, but in the end we’re talking about a mere eleven panels of art. However, Fantastic Stories more than lives up to its title. Readers got a full novel, three short novels, and two substantial short stories, all of which was quite a bargain for twenty-five cents. If that sounds like your thing we have good news—these days you can have the magazine even cheaper than twenty-five cents because it’s available online free. If we’d known it might have stopped us from buying it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Our scans are better, though. Download here.

Ziff-Davis, Fantastic Adventures, Chester S. Geier, Arnold Kahn, Henry Enoch Sharp, Virgil Finlay, William Lawrence Hamling, Leroy Yerxa, magazine art, literature, sci-fi

CASH AND DASH

First I'll let her wake up and see that I struck it rich. Then I'll tell her I'm divorcing her.

The above issue of Adam magazine was published this month in 1961, with a cover illustrating Arne Paule’s story “Dead on Time,” about a gangster who hires out the killing of his mistress, which of course doesn’t happen once the killer gets a look at the target. As usual there’s art signed by Jack Waugh inside, while another illustration—the one split into panels five and six—is signed by Yaroslav Horak. Sometimes known as Larry Horak, he was a Czech-Russian born in China who emigrated to Australia in childhood, began working for Adam‘s parent company K.G. Murray Publishing in 1957, and put together a career that made him one of the most prolific cartoonists in Australia.

Elsewhere in Adam the editors devote several pages to international boxing, and specifically the idea that referees need to be tough. We’ll agree with that—we’ve seen a couple get slugged in the face. The article gives numerous examples of problematic situations for refs, and mentions that in the U.S. the Ku Klux Klan had a part in fixing fights so white boxers would win. In addition, in panel eleven you saw a typical theme in mid-century cartoons—two men in a dungeon. We put together a collection of those a while back which you can see here. We still have issues of Adam coming in on occasion, so right now we have more than thirty to post. Look for more soon.

Australia, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, China, Russian, Adam Magazine, Jack Waugh, Yaroslav Horak, Larry Horak, Arne Paule, Ku Klux Klan, magazine art, literature, boxing
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  • FEATUREd PULP

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

Italian artist Sandro Symeoni showcases his unique painterly skills on a cover for Peter Cheyney's He Walked in Her Sleep.

OPEN SECRETS

French artist Jef de Wulf was both prolific and unique. He painted this cover for René Roques' 1958 novel Secrets.

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