Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle have been regaling enthusiastic PulpFest audiences with their takes on the men’s adventure magazines of the late 20th century ever since 2018. Their presentation a year ago even led to a widely acclaimed book — Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants: When Men’s Adventure Magazines Got Weird.
They’re back at PulpFest 2024 with a look at “Pulp Spice in the Men’s Adventure Magazines,” a presentation on how the “spice” of the “girlie pulps” and Harry Donenfeld’s and Frank Armer’s “Spicy” magazines evolved and mutated in both stories and artwork for the men’s adventure magazine era.
The touch of her fingers on his arm was flame. His eyes glowed passionately when they caressed the curve of her soft breasts, sought and found the beginning of the cleft between them when the low neck fell away. Once she leaned toward him and picked something from the floor. Her breast brushed against his knee. He felt shock, numbed by the contact, and his fingers opened and closed convulsively. The smile she gave him when she sat up was taunting.
Dancing around sex through suggestive phrasing and artwork, Culture Publications deftly kept the do-gooders at bay . . . at least for a time. A decade or two later, the men’s adventure magazines performed a similar feat, delivering cover and interior art promising far more explicitness than they actually delivered.
“Throw ’em a few hot words,” was Martin Goodman’s edict when a nervous editor suggested heating things up a bit for sales. These were along the lines of “heaving breasts,” “long shapely legs,” or “a flash of pink panties.” It may be that a “dark triangle” or two slipped by, but I rather doubt it.
Please join PulpFest 2024 at 6:55 pm on Friday, August 2, as we welcome Bob Deiss and Wyatt Doyle to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania for “The Spice Must Flow! Pulp Spice in the Men’s Adventure Magazines.”
Bob Deis has worked as a teacher, artist, musician, logger, magazine writer, and state government bureaucrat. By accident, he fell into a lengthy career as a political consultant. Now retired, Bob spends much of his time collecting, writing, and editing books about men’s adventure magazines.
In 2009, Bob created MensPulpMags.com, the popular website about the genre. Several years later, Bob and Wyatt Doyle launched the Men’s Adventure Library. In 2021, Bob and Bill Cunningham of Pulp 2.0 Press debuted a new magazine that features men’s adventure stories and artwork. Entitled Men’s Adventure Quarterly, it’s available through MensPulpMags.com, Amazon, and other booksellers.
Wyatt Doyle is a writer, designer, publisher, musician, and photographer from Pennsylvania. For two decades, he earned a living in the Los Angeles film and television industry. He launched New Texture in 2006 and edits and designs most of its publications. He assisted Georgina Spelvin in the publication of her memoir, The Devil Made Me Do It, and served as editor and publisher of Black Cracker, by writer and guitarist Josh Alan Friedman. He curates the New Texture website and Reverend Raymond Branch’s RevBranch.com.
Together, Bob and Wyatt co-edit the Men’s Adventure Library which collects classic stories and artwork from the men’s adventure magazines. Their books include Eva: Men’s Adventure Supermodel; Exotic Adventures of Robert Silverberg; George Gross: Covered; A Handful of Hell: Classic War and Adventure Stories; Maneaters: Killer Sharks in Men’s Adventure Magazines; Mort Künstler: The Godfather of Pulp Fiction Illustrators; One Man Army: The Action Paperback Art of Gil Cohen; Pollen’s Women: The Art of Samson Pollen; Weasels Ripped My Flesh! and other titles.
PulpFest 2024 begins on August 1 and runs through August 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. We’ll be celebrating “Spice, Spies, Shaw, and More” at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the Schedule button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re almost sold out!
If you want to sell at this year’s PulpFest, our wall tables are sold out. Island tables are still available, but they won’t last long. Register soon!
Our featured image is “My Life with New Guinea’s Amazon Women,” an article by Conrad Strick that appeared in Stag for September 1957, with art by Mort Künstler.
Our lead image was adapted by Wyatt Doyle from Samson Pollen’s interior illustration for Emile C. Schurmacher’s “The Girl from Singapore,” featured in the September 1957 issue of Male.
Our three covers from the men’s adventure magazines are Adventure for February 1967, with cover by Vic Prezio, All Man for May 1959, with cover by Clarence Doore, and Man to Man for December 1960, with cover by Syd Shores.
All of the art selected seems to promise a whole lot more than the magazines actually deliver, as demonstrated by our quote concerning Martin Goodman’s men’s adventure magazines, written by former Magazine Management editor Bruce Jay Friedman in Weasels Ripped My Flesh! (New Texture, 2012). Bob and Wyatt will be debuting a new, color, expanded edition of the anthology at this year’s PulpFest.
