Saturday, May 7, 2011

Men’s Adventure Magazines

The late 1950s and 1960s were the era of the male magazine, with names like Stag, True, For Men Only, Saga, Swank and Man’s World. There you’ll find “true” adventure and combat stories—typically about an average G.I. behind enemy lines put in command of a secret army of French gun-toting prostitutes to defeat the Italian army.


The new issue of Illustration magazine has a spotlight Charles Copeland (1924-1979), one of the illustrators who contributed to the men's pulps.

Copeland's work appears alongside other artists who became better known, such as Mort Kunstler and James Bama, and alongside writers who made it in the world of the ‘slick’ magazines and popular novels, such as Mario Puzo and Ian Fleming.

Illustration magazine #33 is on the newstands, but you can also order it on the website, or view thumbnail views of the contents. Dan Zimmer and his contributing writers like Lynn Munroe, who wrote the piece on Copeland, produce the magazine primarily as a labor of love, and since few in academia are devoting researchers to the topic, the key interviews with living illustrators who worked 50 years ago are being largely gathered by this magazine.
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Illustration Magazine
More about men's pulps at Illustrateur blog (in French)
Books:
It's a Man's World Adam Parfrey
Men's Adventure Magazines by Max Collins
More about this era of illustration at Today’s Inspiration blog

7 comments:

  1. Quite a picture. The little guy to the right looks like Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen's ventriloquism dummy. All he needs is a monocle. The man's arm behind the back goes along with this being a ventriloquist moment...as well as being a moment with other issues unfolding.

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  2. Man I love the artwork from this era, especially some of the really "quality" pulp artist. Guys like Copeland and Bama are great (love Bama's work on Doc Savage), and another good Illustrator from this period that did a lot of pulp work was Norman Saunders.

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  3. a secret army of French gun-toting prostitutes
    Heh, the reminds of the typical charlie's angels plot "kelly, jill and kate go undercover as aerobic instructors ..."

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  4. When I first saw James Bama's work, I had no idea he did illustrative work, but I see that influence in his realistic depictions of the West, (i.e. Cowboys both new and old, and Indians). Good stuff.

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  5. Jon H., you're right. Copeland probably did use the same models for all the poses. It was fairly common, and whether the reader noticed was determined by how closely the artist followed his reference shots. There's a Fred Leudekens illustration in the Famous Artist's Course of a roomful of guys with their faces showing. The same man obviously posed for them all. The result is almost surreal. It's like a guy is having a meeting with his clones.

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  6. I love the flip flops on the main guy's feet. He's the only one wearing any footwear. Kind of a Jimmy Buffett moment.

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  7. Every issues are talking about the illustration of the magz covers. But nobody said anything about what the magazines content. What is these magzs talked about actualy?

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