Soft Flesh And Orgies Of Death: Fiction, Features & Art From Classic Men's Adventure Magazines (Pulp Mayhem)

If you are a fan of pulp magazines or fiction geared towards men this is the book for you. A collection of fiction compiled from the last gasp era of pulp publishing have a bit of everything for the "red blooded" male,Between the covers you will meet rampaging Mongol warriors, depraved Nazis and South Seas witch doctors among others. Much of the fiction is NOT for those with weak stomachs, women are objectified and abused for the amusement of rather bestial men. That said the stories are more titillation and sleaze than outright pornography. As in any anthology, the stories vary in quality but most selected for this volume are of the same caliber. The only thing preventing this from being a five star review is the fact that not all of the illustrations are in color. A fabulous final section of magazine covers only causes the reader to wonder why the entire book was not bursting with the lurid colors of the original pulp covers..

Nicely captures era of sleaze in 50's and 60's men's "sweat mags". Stories are over the top wacky, butthe illustrations could only belong to the era in question.Selection of color covers could have been bigger,butoverall,nice job of recalling these genuinely ephemeral mags.

If you are interested in the classic "Men's Adventure" genre you might check this out - its worth thousands in ebay scalpers. Still you might get a complete magazine also - for the ads, the letters, etc. So interesting how many things have changed and remained the same.

Great old pulp material. Some kinky stuff here!

Schnell und reibungslos. Perfekt.

I was surprised by the quality of the stories, which are great, but especially all the pulp art, which are amazing in full-page reproductions.

This is one of 3 books that reproduce a selection of the warped stories and art that formed the content of the (s)exploitational "Men's Magazines" that populated the magazine racks back in the 1950's - 60's. In their original incarnation - these were pulpish publications with cheesy newsprint interiors and lurid color cover art that typically depicted men and/or women suffering some sort of horrific abuse. The subject matter covered in the stories varied from tales of 'man against nature' wilderness adventures to (in the aftermath of WW II) war horror recollections of grim battles and even grimmer tortures at the hands of the Nazis and Japanese warlords. Additional sensational plots were gleaned from accounts of 'real-life' murderers and 'human monsters' of yore, plus lots of scary exposes dealing with modern slavery, drugs, gangs, juvenile delinquents, rampant nymphomaniacs, and the like. All in all it was pretty over the top stuff that has, now in retrospect, become a rich source for kitschy nostalgia.It's a little ironic that this most sleazy and reviled of pulp hardcore has NOW been given a first class re-introduction to the world! The yellowed newsprint has been replaced by thick glossy paper stock as a medium to reproduce the words and graphics that one often hardly dared to be seen looking at back in the day! This slick presentation is welcome for the picture reproduction - but seems a little overblown for the accompanying prose. Most of the illustrations that are provided are in B&W. Some reviewers have 'wished' that they were printed in color - BUT - the original interior artwork was actually mostly printed in B&W! There was a special style of painting that was developed for these magazines - with the artists working in gray toned tempra paints - that is unique to the genre - and it IS nice to have so many of these B&W illos made available for viewing again!There IS a section in each of the books (towards the front & back covers) that reproduces some of the cover art work in full color. My 'complaint' with this section is that, rather than re-printing the cover as it originally looked, the editors have chosen to 'zoom-in' on only a (detail portion of the cover! While this does present some nice close-up detail of the artist's 'technique' - the over-all image cannot be appreciated! This is the situation for all 3 of the books currently in print.Fortunately, for those who really want to see more of the artwork - there are some other books (recently published) that focus in primarily on the cover art. One of the best examples is the volume: "It's A Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines" (available from Amazon!) that gives a great overview of the entire Men's Magazine phenomenon and reproduces literally hundreds of 'shocking' covers - organized by subject matter. "It's A Man's World..." is definitely the better of the books dealing with this weird sub-slice of period publishing - it is much broader in its' analysis and information on all aspects of the genre. BUT - if you find yourself wishing you could still read some of the crazed content that the covers allude to - this series of 'facsimile reproductions' gives you that opportunity.Don't expect any Pulitzer Prize quality writing in these compilations of sleaze - but there's lotsa 'screaming tormented virgins' and 'blazing gun heroic adventure' to be 'enjoyed'. For me it was a bit of a trip down memory lane back to the days when I was just a young lad too nervous to even pick this jaundiced product up off the shelf. Now it just makes a great 'conversation starter' in our current age of anything goes mega-porn. All the whip-wielding nymphos and tormented maidens seem almost like a return to a simpler, happier time. Recommended - if you like this sorta bent stuff.

Much like the other men's adventure magazines books that have come out in recent years, this one serves as both a showcase for the art and a collection of the stories that accompanied - or were written because of - that art.The stories here run the gamut of the men's adventure theme, though focus predominantly on war/Nazi atrocities, though there are a few nature amok stories as well.The book is much larger than expected - about the dimensions of a magazine - and the paper quality is superb, as are the art selections. A few of the paintings seem a little overexposed or overblown, but this may be a source issue rather than the publisher's.Overall though a great book for men's adventure fans, and I plan on picking up the rest of the series.

Superb book