Here we have the fourth issue of this excellent fanzine devoted to “men’s adventure magazines”: Men’s Adventure Quarterly. This time the focus is on jungle girls. Think stuff like hot jungle girls of various ethnicities who may either threaten the men or be a possible love interest, or a female version of Tarzan, such as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and the like.
As before, publisher Bob Deis (Men’s Adventure Library) and graphic designer Bill Cunningham (Pulp 2.0 Press) have put out an excellent issue. There’s no real guest editor this time. Both provide great intros.
This is another well-designed issue, with both color and black-&-white artwork, articles, and reprints that include fiction, non-fiction, cartoons, ads, and pictorals. It comes in at about 150 pages, and is 8.5- x 11-inches in size, like all the rest. This rounds out the first year of this magazine.
Full disclosure, I was sent a copy to review.
So, again, for those new, let’s make a few things clear on men’s adventure magazines (or MAMs): These were an outgrowth of the pulps, with many of the first ones being former pulp magazines that changed their focus and format. Paper changed from pulp to slick. So MAMs are not pulps, but a replacement of them in popular literature. Or, you could call them a successor. Others were paperback books and digest magazines.
Focus was on what interested men: pinups of girls and stories of lurid adventure, as well as non-fiction. Many claimed to be “true life” adventures, but probably most were not, or were heavily exaggerated. These magazines ran from the 1940s until the ’70s, and I view the numbered men’s adventure paperback series, such as Mack Bolan and The Destroyer, as one of the replacements of them.
Now, the focus on this issue is “jungle girls,” with a particular focus on Jane Dolinger and Marion Michael. I wasn’t aware of either.
So first up Jane Dolinger (1932-95). She was in her time a well-known adventure-travel author who wrote books and articles on her travel adventures in exotic and remote parts of the world. She was married to fellow author and documentarian Ken Krippene, though this was kept out of their articles. They both used pictures of Jane, sometimes (often?) in various levels of undress in their articles. How much was true or not in her writing? Who knows.
We get an interview with Lawrence Abbott, who wrote a bio, Jane Dolinger: The Adventurous Life of an American Travel Writer in 2010. He gives some insight into her. We then get a trio of articles by her, one being “I Helped Shrink a Human Head” (!?!), another taken from one of her books. There are a couple of photo articles on her, one by Ken (credited to him at least) and another by Jane. Another is an article on her getting into a harem. (!?!)
Marion Michael (1940-2007) was, at the time, a young German actress who was billed as Germany’s answer to Brigitte Bardot. Michael starred in a jungle-queen movie, Liane, Jungle Goddess, in 1956. This was a movie along the lines of Tarzan, but with Liane replacing Tarzan. A sequel was done the next year that was titled Nature Girl and the Slaver. Bob Deis provides a introduction and overview, followed by three photo articles on her from MAMs of the time.
Rounding out the issue are four other jungle-girl stories, with much accompaning artwork, taken from various MAMs. We get a story of a strange, female vampire in Malay. A “true life” adventure of a white explorer who rules over a tribe in Guatemala. Borneo’s topless army is highlighted next. Then we learn of a forbidden compound of Amazons in the jungles of Brazil.
As always, the mix of stories is great. I think this made it a stronger issue than if it had just been a collection of various stories with no specific focus. As noted, this is the fourth issue and rounds out their first year. Every issue has been great, and I hope they are able to keep this up for the coming year.
The next issue, coming this spring, is themed “The Dirty Missions” issue. Now, if you are thinking something like the movie The Dirty Dozen, you’re probably close. But this is MAM, so add hot girls to the missions as well. Should be another interesting one.
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