Men's Adventure Magazines: In Postwar America | 
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| Authors: Rich Oberg, Max Allan Collins, George Hagenauer
Creator: Steven Heller
Publisher: Taschen
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $9.73
You Save: $5.26 (35%)
New (27) from $9.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 130526
Format: Illustrated
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 25th Anniversary ed.
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7 x 1.4
ISBN: 3836503123
Dewey Decimal Number: 704
EAN: 9783836503129
ASIN: 3836503123
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Paying homage to the American periodicals of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that documented outrageous exploits, this hefty, comprehensive guide is packed full of colorful cover art, sumptuous sample spreads, and enlightening essays.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 It's Like a Miniature Museum of Manliness! June 10, 2008
Appearantly Taschen publishes art books. I wasn't familiar with this particular company before recieving this book as a gift, but I found it to be a great little book of... well pulp men's magazine art from the old days. You know, the type where some adventuring Indiana Jones-esque pulp hero gets lost in some exotic locale, fights savage beasts and makes out with sexy native girls. Culled from the covers of mags with titles like 'Man's Life, 'True Danger,' and 'Wildcat Adventures,' this little book is loaded with page after full colour page of muscle bound explorers, soldiers and cowboys going head to head with man-eating tigers and giant octopi, heroically battling the Nazis and Commies alike, and rescuing sexy, overly well endowed (and scantily clad) Polynesian girls from danger!
What's that you say? Sounds like it might be a little... two dimensional? Sexist? Offensive to today's sensibilities? Oh yeah, you bet... and then some! But that's part of the fun, really. These overly testosterone fueled manly fantasies were part of another era, and a fascinating one to look at at that! Besides... what man (or boy) doesn't like this sort of stuff deep down inside? It's shades of Kipling meets the Magnificent Seven and Dirty Harry mixed with D-Day, crammed with more cheap thrills, bloody violence and hot sweaty sex than you can shake a stick at! And it's all so over the top. I mean, who thinks of titles like "Those Slimy Rodents Are Eating My Flesh," "Terror in the Far East: The Wolf-Women of India," or "Aphrodisiac Scandal of the Sex Mad Intermns and the 63 Passionate Student Nurses"?
Divided up into chapters based around common themes such as wild animal attacks (which include everything from panthers to enraged bull elephants to inexplicably flesh-eating swarms of iguanas and flying squirrels!), World War II, pirate adventures and "the Yellow Peril," each chapter includes a brief article (again based on the chapter's theme) in English, French and German. This is nice not only because it provides some idea of context (for instance, Tahitian and Samoan sexuality became a popular subject due to the popularity of Mead's writings), but also because of the descriptions of the stories... which pretty much match what you'd expect from the covers. Like an Old West full of American Indians kidnapping white women, voluptuous hookers/spies fighting against the Nazis, and man-eating anteaters! Again, pretty un-PC stuff, but thats par for the course. The book also includes an introduction, explaining the background, development and eventual falling out of the manly, hair-on-your-chest pulp adventure magazines.
All in all, it turns out to be quite a fun and entertaining romp through the testosterone fueled, hyper-masculine adventure stories of a bygone era. Sure, it's easy to laugh at them, or get offended at the racial (sexual, political, etc) caricatures that they presented. But really, these should be appreciated for providing us with some insight into the psyches of those who read and created these works. And, as my cousin was quick to point out, these magazines were so great! I mean really, what little boy didn't want to be a cowboy, go on safari to Africa, or fight enemy soldiers on the battlefield? So much nostalgia there really... And who could resist a book that says "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" on the back cover? Come on... that ALONE should be enough to make you want to flip through it.
Weasels Ripped my Flesh! October 20, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
While I agree with other reviewers that Feral House's "It's A Man's World" is a vastly superior book, This is still a nice collection of images for the purveyor of unique Americana.
I collect these insane artifacts and there just can't possibly be enough books published on the subject. SO BUY 'EM ALL!
The "normal" Pulps have ignored and hidden away their retarded younger brother for too long. It's time to let him out of the cellar. Try to find a book on the history of "The Pulps" that admits these lurid items were the final incarnation of the format! YOU CAN'T! All those authors are ashamed to admit the legacy that fostered The Shadow, Tarzan and Conan ended brutally with the Men's Adventure Magazines. Now the truth is out. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
Anyway, buy Feral House's book first, then buy this one too. It makes a decent addendum to the Feral House book. You can never have too much lurid art to amaze your friends with...
Like all Taschen books, a beauty September 5, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book was a trip down memory lane for me; I got a kick out those lurid men's-magazine covers in my youth, and today I get... well, a surge of nostalgia, if no longer quite the same charge. The volume is beautifully produced, like all Taschen books, though I have to add that I find it no better than a similar compendium of men's-mag art called IT'S A MAN'S WORLD, which came out six months earlier; and IAMW, it should be said, has a more extensive and entertaining text.
Not perfect, but still essential... April 26, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Although one of my fellow reveiwers points out some valid criticisms of this book, I'd like to point out that if you are a fan of these types of magazines and you have the Feral House book "It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps" you'll still want this book, even though it's not as well written. Yes, this book does feature a lot of the lesser cover artists, but it gives me a real jolt to see some of these covers again after all these years. I did not buy these magazines myself but saw them at my uncle's house and so havn't seen them since they were first new. So the more cover reproductions the better I say. I just wish someone would do a book on these mags that would reproduce more of the interior artwork, which often had more nudity and violence then they could get away with on the cover.
 disappointing.... November 22, 2004
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
As a passionate and finicky book collector, I own several Taschen
books, which I treasure. But my big complaint with Taschen books--and
one of a number of disappointments I found with this Men's Magazines
book--is that the supporting text is usually weightless and even
downright dull--Once I finish actually reading the book, I am often
left feeling hollow and unfulfilled.
Also leaving a bad taste in my mouth are the egomaniacal Taschen
embarrassments like the Helmut Newton juggernaut and especially "GOAT."
What about that Koons dolphin/tire contraption?!? It all feels so
nauseatingly 80's Wall Street.
As a longtime collector of Men's magazines, I feel somewhat qualified
to be critical of Taschen's Men's Mag book. First, the big question:
why did Taschen even bother publishing this book in the first place? It
was released a year and a half AFTER Feral House's "It's A Man's World"
(the first book published on the subject and far more comprehensive,
with superior imagery & text) was released to broad acclaim.
The Taschen book reproduces many of the images already published in the
Feral House book, and lacks much of the latter's original art,
particularly those by Mort Kunstler, Norm Eastman and Norman Saunders.
The Taschen book has more images than Feral House's "It's A Man's
World," but they're mostly second-rate selections which feel like
filler. They are organized haphazardly, and many, already seen in the
less expensive but hardcover Feral House book, are inferior
reproductions.
Unsuprisingly, the text in the Taschen edition is nowhere near as
interesting as the Feral House ed, which reveals what happened in the
adventure magazine offices through hilarious and informative articles
by the people who were there--Bruce Jay Friedman, an editor of
adventure magazines, and from the illustrators Mort Kunstler and Norman
Saunders (written by his son, David). Additionally, all collectors and
pop culture researchers are better served by Feral House's edition,
considering its thorough bibliography of magazines, containing info on
the publishers, the writers, illustrators, circulation and years of
issue.
To my mind, the Feral House book is far superior. I like Feral House
books. Their illustrated books are well-designed, with text that
provides exactly what Taschen books lack--a deeper understanding of the
subject, more flavor and SOUL....
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