BOOK: Men's Adventure Magazines (Taschen, 2009)

Missing off to one side are the words: Weasels ripped my flesh.

Amazon Review Title: A feast for the eyes.
Star Rating: 5

About forty pages of text in a 352 page book. The rest is a massive collection of illustrations, mostly covers and mostly in colour. I've always loved pulp illustrations for their garishness and their -argh- over the topness and these are most definitely garish and over the top.

In some ways, and I'm being deeply serious for a moment, these magazines pandered to a man's baser instincts and prejudices on a sexual and racist level as well as displaying a crude attitude towards nature as a dire threat. There's also a distinct homoerotic subtext to some of the pictures.

But mainly this is the funniest book I've -I can't say 'read, can I?- that I've seen for ages. The very crudity of the sexuality on display, the brutality, nature run rampant, are all absolutely hilarious when viewed with a modern perspective. I also defy any Frank Zappa fan to look at the cover showing a man attacked by weasels and boasting the words 'Weasels ripped my flesh' not to collapse laughing.

I particularly like the nature run rampant chapter: "Chewed to bits by giant turtles", "Flying rodents ripped my flesh" (flying -technically, gliding- rodents tend to be vegetarian), reptiles, rats, vultures, octopuses (yes, I know it's 'octopi'), fiendishly fanged gorillas, and so many more.

Oh all right, yes there are more women with big chests in various stages of undress than a normal person would want to count -busting out all over, to coin a phrase.

This is a wonderful book and an incredible bargain for price, so sit back and revisit a time when men were men, women were big and busty, and nature was red in tooth and claw and enjoy. And then give thanks we've progressed somewhat since those days.

Now if those nice people at Taschen would produce a companion volume devoted to pulp science fiction and horror magazines, I'd be happy as a pig in a muddy sty.