EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 30 © 2020 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

35 Weasels Ripped My Flesh orThe WildWorld of Men’s Adventure Magazines FACING PAGE: Escape From the Female Hellions of Lombok Tai , gouache on board. Man’s Life, February 1960. Painting by Wil Hulsey, who often depicted scenes pitting men against ‘killer creatures’. ABOVE: Weasels Ripped My Flesh , Man’s Life , September 1956. Another illustration by Wil Hulsey. The title of this picture was later parodied by musician Frank Zappa and used as the title for his eponymous 1970 album. On one cover, two bloodied men frantically try to fight off a horde of vicious flying squirrels, above a headline that reads: ‘Flying Rodents Ripped my Flesh.’ On another, a club-wielding caveman is abducting a screaming woman who is dressed in a torn blouse and miniskirt. The title for that story, ‘Bestial Orgy of the HairyAinu’ suggestedwhat was in store for her (and for buyers of the magazine). An even wilder cover showed a clearly dementedNazi officer preparing todrip caustic acid on the face of an iconic scantily clad damsel in dis‐ tress, next to the headline, ‘Grisly Rites of Hitler’s Mon‐ ster Flesh Stripper.’ These were just a few examples of the covers from the genre of vintage periodicals vari‐ ously called men’s adventure magazines, men’s pulp magazines or men’s “sweat mags.” Between the early 1950s to the mid-’70s, more than 160 different men’s adventure magazines were pub‐ lished in the United States. Some of them — such as Adventure, Battle Cry, Bluebook, For Men Only, Male, Man’s Life, Man’s Magazine, Man’s World and Real Men — were published throughout most of that time period. Others lasted for only a few years. Some for just a few issues. At their peak, in the 1950s and 1960s, men’s adven‐ ture magazines were read by millions of men each month. They were sold at newsstands, drug stores and supermarkets across the country. The men’s adventure magazines that tend to attract the most fans — and critics — are those with bondage and torture scenes on the covers. The most notorious