It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps

by Adam Parfrey (Editor), Hedi El Kholti (Designer), Mort Künstler (Contributor)

"A panorama of lurid vintage covers and magazine layouts as well as acerbic insightful narratives from Parfrey... a sprawling, well-endowed retrospective of unbridled virility and lost mid-20th century American culture."— Spin

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Pulp, Art Design

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Adam Parfrey was an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centered on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge. A 2010 Seattle Weekly profile stated that "what Parfrey does is publish books that explore the marginal aspects of culture. And in many cases—at least back when his interests were almost exclusively transgressive—he sheds light on subjects that society prefers to leave unexplored, carving a niche catering to those of us with an unseemly obsession with life's darkest, most depraved sides."

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It definitely would have benefited from coverage of more publishers, foreign versions, and more demographic information. I wanted to know more about the average guy who bought this magazine, where did he live, what did he do for a living, things like that... and for a magazine genre that survived for a good 20 years, they definitely must have had access to that kind of information somewhere.

I also do not understand the book editor's explanation for why they ignored the best selling magazine of this genre titled True. they ignored it because it was popular and not as racy. Well, I've read more than a few old copies of true and it could be edgy at times.

There was virtually no coverage of comic sections to speak of (no Bill Ward, no DeCarlo, no Vip...blasphemy). Interior art (which would often be better than the exterior art because it didn't have to rely on the garish colors) was an afterthought.

What you are left with is a book of covers and only a few dozen of them are great.

[Duke Haney]

When I was a toddler, I was babysat by a middle-aged neighbor couple, and the husband had a collection of old magazines with covers that, as I later remembered them, featured bikini-clad Nazi chicks exchanging gunfire with other bikini-clad Nazi chicks from the decks of speeding boats. Was I dreaming? As an adult, on the rare occasions that I mentioned those magazines to people my age, no one shared my recollection of them.

Then I came across this book, which, at long last, assured me that such magazines once existed. I’ve now owned the book for a number of years, but I never read the opening essays and interviews until recently, arrested as I was by the pages upon pages of cover-art reproductions, which routinely display bikini-clad chicks and, here and there, Nazis and boats, not to mention exploding planes and gunfire exchanges, as well as monstrous animals, from sharks to bears to snakes to ants (!) to weasels (!!) to otters (!!!), to say nothing of the lashings and impalings and beheadings and almost every type of torture/execution scenario that could be painted and sold in postwar American dimestores without fear of litigation. What’s changed since then? Only, I think, that we live in a more self-censoring culture no less sadistic and paranoiac; it’s just not expressed so blatantly, though future generations will instantly recognize and sneer at our depravities while remaining blind to their own.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ass-kickin' gut-punchin' comp from REAL MENS Magazines of the Fifties and Sixties when us machos were chain-smokin' Luckies and spitting in front of church and all we shaved was our chins...if we felt like it!
I was gonna review this book but I was too busy fightin' off a Grizzly Bear in the Sahara while a Nazi Colonel had a bikini clad blonde bound and gagged in front of a red ant hill and a dozen scorpions ready to kill her and an evil but fetchingly stacked Japanese dragon lady in a torn up kimono and high heels was lashin' me with a whip, cigarette holder danglin' sexy from her crimson lips. Somewhere in that image Fidel Castro was probably jacking off too with his machine gun up his ass.
The images in the book are Cold War/Republican wet dreams let loose and you'll laugh at the ghastly horror.

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a Man's World pays tribute to to the American men's magazines that were tremendously popular from the 1950s through the early 1970s. These magazines were highly formulaic and catered to a particular brand of masculinity that became increasingly sexual and increasingly violent as time went on. They contained things you'd expect in today's magazines - how-to sections, dating dips, salacious exposes, etc. But they also contained things you wouldn't expect to find in your typical copy of GQ - over the top "true stories" of sex, violence, and sexual violence. These stories typically featured an American GI in some dire situation where he had to fight and fuck and kill his way to liberation.

I am clearly not the intended audience for this book, but I used it in my thesis, so here I am. As a woman, my main reaction was, "wow this is so fucked up." But what's even more off putting is that rather than contextualize the magazines, Parfrey and the various sections' authors glamorize them. They seem to be basking in the glory of the good old days, when a man could be a man...whatever that means. The major thrust of the collection is exemplified in the section where they justify the blatant racism and sexism by quoting an illustrator who says, "That's just the way things were." Which is problematic on so many levels.

Bottom line - if you're looking for unapologetic and hyper-masculine displays of sex and aggression with a total lack of nuance, this is the book for you. It gets 3 stars for providing me with such great content for my research - I couldn't find high quality reproductions of these covers and illustrations anywhere.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection of cover art is excellent. The text is woefully thin, however, with only a couple of essays and a few interviews. This expanded edition includes some fascinating WWII advertising meant to reveal the precursors of Men's Adventure magazine illustrations, but the case is only marginally made in the essay. The hundreds of pages of art carries this one.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of old men's pulp magazine cover art with some essay's thrown in. Great stuff.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm kind of inbetween books, so this is a cool placeholder that I pick up and flip through all the time.

[Margot Note]

I loved this book!

[I.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I wish there was a little more meat to it in terms of delving deeper into talking about the societal pressures that caused these wacko mags to exist, you can't deny that it gives an overview and provides loads of amazing art. It's not a total examination of a time, but more of a broad look at the weirdness. Totally recommended, if only for the batshit stuff inside.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the covers of shirtless guys getting attacked by everything imaginable in the animal kingdom. The Nazi stuff wasn't as funny.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jolly good fun; a heady mix of bizarre homo-eroticism and 50s and 60s prejudices.