So I recently received the 12th issue of Men’s Adventure Quarterly, the excellent magazine series focused on men’s adventure magazines. This time, the focus is on private eyes.
Now, PIs may be thought of as detectives, but many PIs as often solve cases with their fists as much as their brains.
Seeing as this is the 12th issue, they have now succeeded in getting out three years of issues. I look forward to what they will bring us next.
As with previous issues, MAQ is available in three formats: the full-color printed version, a black-and-white “noir edition,” and a full-color “digital replica edition.”
Full disclosure, I was sent a copy of the full-color edition. And I would encourage people to get this one over the black-and-white edition due to all the great color artwork.
As noted, this is the private eye issue, focusing on various PIs, gumshoes, private detectives, and the like in the MAMs, as well as TV, movies, and books.
As before, publisher Bob Deis (Men’s Adventure Library) and graphic designer Bill Cunningham (Pulp 2.0 Press) have another great issue. And their excellent intros to each piece are a big reason why this magazine series is so great. These intros get into the author, artist, and sometimes publisher behind that particular work. For me, I sometimes enjoy these more.
This time they are joined by guest contributors James Reasoner, Paul Bishop, David Spencer, David Avallone, and John Harrison.
So let’s first look at the fiction we get here. We get several fiction pieces, including a “book bonus,” and a couple of one-page, comic-strip mysteries.
First up is “The Case of the Murdering Detective” by Alan Hynd, claimed to be a true-crime story of a famous detective Raymond Schindler and his solving the 1910 murder of a 10-year-old girl. The intro article on it shows that this is, in fact, a true-crime story. Schindler was a famous detective, starting from his solving that 1910 crime until his passing in 1959. And another case he handled was the murder of a billionaire in 1943 Bermuda, which was the subject of a book and a couple of movies.
Next is “Party Girl” by Frank Kane, which we learn from the intro is one of several stories using his detective Johnny Liddell. Kane wrote about 50 short stories and 30 novels with this character.
We then get some interesting stuff from the short-lived MAM Private Eye Illustrated. The intro article tells about this MAM, which lasted only two issues, and focuses on its art director: Sol Brodsky, who had a long career in comics. He was half of the team behind the short-lived Skywald Publications and had worked at Atlas Comics and later at Marvel Comics, overseeing production.
From this MAM, we get “Sing a Song of Sex-Mail,” which starred a Mike Hammer-like PI named Adam Baxter. He only appeared in those two issues, along with a Honey West-like female detective. Also from those two issues are one-page comics were “You Be the Private Eye,” allowing the reader to solve the mystery.
And having mentioned Honey West, it’s only fair we get the only Honey West short story, “The Red Hair-ing,” by G.G. Fickling, really husband and wife team of Forest and Gloria Fickling. The two wrote 11 novels from 1957 to ’71. Their Honey West was different from the TV version. And we get an excellent article on the Honey West TV show starring Anne Francis, which lasted only one season, and the accompanying media created for the show.
One of the “grandmasters” of MAMs is Walter Kaylin. He wrote both fiction, usually under the pen name of Roland Empey, and non-fiction, usually as David Mars. MAQ has included other works by him, and the Men’s Adventure Library has a whole volume of his works as well. This piece “I Had to Amputate My Leg to Save My Life,” came out under his Empey pen-name, and is fiction posing as non-fiction.
Finally, the “Book Bonus” for this issue is Michael Avallone‘s “Make Out Mob Girl,” which is a shortened version of his first novel, The Tall Dolores. With it are two pieces on him. We get a great intro on him by David Spencer. And this is followed by a personal remembrance by his son, David Avallone.
As to the other non-fiction piece, the issue kicked off with an editorial by Bob Deis on the recent passing of artist Mort Künstler, which the Men’s Adventure Library has put out collections on.
As to the other fiction pieces, I have mentioned the Honey West article. From James Reasoner is one on western detectives. Some of these I am familiar with. I know Steeger Books is reprinting the Sheriff Henry stories by W.C. Tuttle, but hasn’t yet done the other two series noted here. I did read the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee novels by Tony Hillerman. But never got into the ones his daughter did. I watched Longmire when it was on A&E, but when it moved to streaming that was it. The others mentioned here I’m not familiar with.
We get some reprints from the time on a couple of TV detective series: 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye.
Sherlock Holmes continues to be a popular detective character known by most, and we get an article by Paul Bishop on some of the pastiche stories of him. I am aware of some of the ones mentioned and have reviewed them on my blog.
From John Harrison, we look at sf private eyes from several movies. I think most have seen some of these.
It’s another excellent issue. The next one will focus on femme fatales, which will be a change from the jungle girls and gang girls issues. It looks to be another fun issue. I hope they are able to keep on putting out great issues.
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