Men's Adventure Magazines

Rating:
Summary: Real sweat...FOR MEN!
Review:
This latest Taschen pop culture book covers the 'armpit slicks' of the American post war years and it will most likely turn out to be the definitive guide to these magazines. The seven chapters more or less cover all the adventure any male would want (or be able to handle) ferocious animals, sex-crazed pirates, restless natives, death on the front line, Nazis passion slaves, red and yellow perils and lastly, just plain ordinary trouble down your street. All of this action is revealed in over a thousand covers, either one (almost life-size) or four to a page and they are all beautifully reproduced.

The introduction reveals the history of the men's adventure mags and it seems that the 1958 Supreme Court decision to weaken the Government's ability to regulate printed obscenity encouraged this rather small corner of the media to expand the market with plenty of new titles, fortunately they only lasted a few years before morphing into 'skin' magazines of the Eighties and Nineties. Yet despite being able to be very explicit with cover art the publications avoided showing the prominent females in any situation that could be considered obscene (shock, horror!) but look through chapter five (A bonfire in hell for the Nazis' passion slaves) and see plenty of illustrations showing helpless, bound females subjected to extreme depravity and torture.

As well as the garish bright illustrations, which I expect basically sold them on the newsstands, the cover lines clinched the sale, a whole bunch of men could not resist buying and reading (really!) for example, New Man's Peril, January 1965, with these lines, Crazy cats who pretend they're chicks, We smashed the nympho virgin ring of the Pasha pimps, The tattoo gang's vicious kidnap torture of the society debs and The bizarre "ugly parties" of London's kink cultists. All for a mere thirty-five cents, too. At the back of the book a short piece about the publishers of these magazines says the quality ranged from the competent to the sub-literate, how very true.

This book examines the same cover material as 'It's a Man's World' by Adam Parfrey (ISBN 09229915814) which came out in 2003, it had a bit more text and a very informative title and artist listing but I prefer the Taschen book because it so visually comprehensive and looks a much better production. Besides the covers there are examples of editorial art used to illustrate the 'true' articles plus a biography of writers and thirty-five artists.

These titles seem to be uniquely American and 'Men's Adventure Magazines' does a beautiful job of covering this extinct format.




Rating:
Summary: disappointing....
Review: 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....