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

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

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 17

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

February 17

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

February 16

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanideâ€”not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juiceâ€”resulting in his death in late 1937.

February 15

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

February 14

1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.