Book Review It's a Man's World by Adam Parfrey

After the publishing era of penny novels and pre-World War II pulps came another thrilling type of cheap magazine, the men's adventure magazine. It was the era between the good war and the bad war, between the Second World War and the Vietnam War. It was an era of adventure stories, twisted and active art, where men were men and women were women. It was the era between the pulps and the girlie magazines.

It's A Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps by Adam Parfrey is a look at the world of the post-World War II pulp magazine market. Primarily a collection of covers of these slick cheap magazines, It's A Man's World also gives an insight in the publishing world that produced these magazines.

The background text is focuses primarily on the writers, editors and artists working for Martin Goodman's Magazine Management firm (publisher of For Men Only, Man's World, Stag, True Action, and Swank), though one suspects that the rest of the industry was no different except in terms of respectability.

Looking at the artwork in our politically correct times, it is hard to believe that this type of artwork was ever acceptable. It is a rather disturbing slice of Americana, a hint that perhaps the good old days were not as wholesome as some would like us to believe. There are images of savage Indians; wild animals attacking humans and being attacked in return; evil German and Japanese soldiers fighting brave Americans; evil Germans and savage natives torturing women; as well as Cold War spies and urban criminals. And while there is not a nipple in sight, one wonders how this stuff got past the censors.

It was a different world as Adam Parfrey reminds us. "Speaking to the several extant writers and editors of the men's adventure genre, I was surprised by how little they were aware that their publications put across themes that might be interpreted as being racist, misogynist, imperialist, or any other postmodern construct today."

Why did the writers and artists do this type of work? It was good money during the heyday of the men's adventure magazine. Bill Devine, a collector of men's adventure magazines (who provides a checklist for this book), "estimates that well over 130 men's adventure magazine titles were released, a collection of over 6,000 individual issues."

It was also an unique working school for writers as the background text reveals. Often a story would start out as an illustration and the story would be written around it. Writers also learned to quickly research and write stories and articles. Nothing like it exists today; which is sad considering that within a few years, a writer would learn to be able to do everything.

Today, many of the stories would alarm people, not only because of their context (war, fighting against the wilderness, sadistic burlesque), but because many of the stories were labeled "true." The writers and artists made up events and sold it as truth. This included making up entire battles, cultural myths, and jobs (milking snakes and marrying whores to get grants). People actually believed this stuff, only commenting that the writers got some of the technical details wrong. Basically, the magazines went after the "Big Emotions": sex, death, danger, money, etc., and people brought into it.

Even the few pages of advertisements included can be disturbing. A "stuffed" girl's head (a trophy) and personalized panties (what a thoughtful gift), are right next to ads for trusses (there must have been lots of hernias) and the Rosicrucians (AMORC).

It's A Man's World gets four and a half stars. While being slightly shocking to a modern politically correct schooled modern American, it is still a fascinating look into a slice of Americana and a culture that brought its adventure at the newsstand.

It's A Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps by Adam Parfey. Design Editor: Hedi El Kholti. Contributors: Bruce Jay Friedman, Josh Alan Friedman, Mort Kunster, David Saunders, and Bill Devine. Los Angeles: Feral House (2003).