Vintage Pulp

December 8 2024

DECISIVE ACTION

When men get together weird things happen.

Above you see the cover of an issue of Action for Men published this month in 1962. We love to imagine the production meetings for these magazines. For this issue we can picture editor Noah Sarlat discussing Edwin’s Johnson’s story, “Lt. Clevenger’s Survival Hideout with Norway’s Hottest Blonde,” which is highlighted on the cover with eye-catching yellow text. We figure the story was originally titled, “Lt. Clevenger’s Survival Hideout.”

Sarlat: “Lt. Clevenger’s Survival Hideout? Boring! Add a blonde! A Norwegian blonde! A hot Norwegian blonde! I’ve got it—with Norway’s Hottest Blonde!”

The story is pretty good, with the requisite action and skin, and it comes with excellent art by Robert Stanley, whose work is easily recognizable because nobody painted women’s faces quite like him. Elsewhere there’s art by Ray Johnson and Shannon Stirnweis, and the cover was painted by James Bama. We have many other vintage men’s magazines sitting around, and hopefully we’ll be able to scan some of those soon.

Action for Men, James Bama, Ray Johnson, Shannon Stirnweis, Robert Stanley, Noah Sarlat, Edwin Johnson, Elkit Benit, magazine art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 9 2019

THEFT BY MISS ADVENTURE

She's not the first girl who met her idol and decided to take him home.

This is the second issue of Adventure magazine we’ve scanned and uploaded. The first was from 1958. This issue was published this month in 1966, and there’s been a complete turnover in staff, from editor, to associate editors, and the entire art department. But the magazine is basically unchanged in content. The cover was painted by Shannon Stirnweis for a story to whose amateur author Adventure paid a $200 prize. The tale concerns a woman’s attempt to steal a ruby-encrusted native idol by grabbing it and running away hella fast. For some reason she and her companion do it naked, so that’s kind of fun.

Actually, what’s truly fun is Stirnweis’s painting, which we consider a classic in the men’s magazine realm. He was another illustrator who, as they often did, moved into fine art. He focuses mainly on historic Native American scenes, western landscapes, and wild animals, and from a look at his website it seems he sells his work successfully. He was responsible for a couple of Adventure‘s interior illustrations also, working under his pseudonym F. Bolivar. And you get art from Marshall Davis and the well known Basil Gogos. We have thirty eight images below for your enjoyment, and another Adventure at this link.

Adventure Magazine, Shannon Stirnweis, Marshall Davis, F. Bolivar, Basil Gogos, magazine art

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 15

1920—League of Nations Holds First Session

The first assembly of the League of Nations, the multi-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, is held in Geneva, Switzerland. The League begins to fall apart less than fifteen years later when Germany withdraws. By the onset of World War II it is clear that the League has failed completely.

November 15

1959—Clutter Murders Take Place

Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas by Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The events would be used by author Truman Capote for his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, which is considered a pioneering work of true crime writing. The book is later adapted into a film starring Robert Blake.

November 13

1940—Fantasia Premieres

Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.

November 12

1912—Missing Explorer Robert Scott Found

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his men are found frozen to death on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where they had been pinned down and immobilized by bad weather, hunger and fatigue. Scott’s expedition, known as the Terra Nova expedition, had attempted to be the first to reach the South Pole only to be devastated upon finding that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them there by five weeks. Scott wrote in his diary: “The worst has happened. All the day dreams must go. Great God! This is an awful place.”

November 12

1933—Nessie Spotted for First Time

Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster while walking back from church along the shore of the Loch near the town of Foyers. Only one photo came out, but of all the images of the monster, this one is considered by believers to be the most authentic.

November 12

1969—My Lai Massacre Revealed

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai massacre, which had occurred in Vietnam more than a year-and-a-half earlier but been covered up by military officials. That day, U.S. soldiers killed between 350 and 500 unarmed civilians, including women, the elderly, and infants. The event devastated America’s image internationally and galvanized the U.S. anti-war movement. For Hersh’s efforts he received a Pulitzer Prize.