MEN'S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY started off great and just keeps getting better with each issue. Following volumes devoted to Westerns and espionage, the third issue of this beautifully done publication is devoted to vigilante justice, specifically that carried out by Vietnam vets against the Mafia and outlaw biker gangs. Not surprisingly, the Executioner novels by Don Pendleton get a lot of coverage, since that series pretty much created the genre. Abridged versions of the first two Executioner novels that ran as "Book Bonuses" in men's adventure magazines, along with articles by Linda Pendleton, Don Pendleton's widow, about her late husband's creation, occupy roughly half the pages in this issue, and it's fascinating stuff. I remember picking up the first Mack Bolan novel, WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA, when it was new and reading it one day when I was home sick from school. I was so impressed that after that, I bought and read each of Pendleton's entries as it came out. The "Book Bonus" version is called simply "The Executioner" and appeared in the October 1969 issue of FOR MEN ONLY. The second novel, DEATH SQUAD, got the "Book Bonus" treatment in the September 1971 issue of MEN. Both are reprinted here in their entirety.
But there's more, as they say on the late night TV commercials. You also get a guest editorial from Chuck Dixon, for many of us the top scripter on the long-running Punisher comic book, an article about THE EXECUTIONER'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, a digest that didn't really have anything to do with Mack Bolan but is interesting in its own right, page after page of fantastic artwork by Earl Norem, Gil Cohen, Mort Kunstler, and Jack Faragasso, among others, and three more long stories that fit in the vigilante genre. "Blood Feud With the Mafia" (TRUE ACTION, August 1970) is by Donald Honig, an author whose work I've grown to enjoy recently because each issue of MEN'S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY has reprinted one of his stories. "We Wiped Out Brutal Mack's Cycle Killers" (FOR MEN ONLY, November 1972) is a supposedly true story by one of the characters, "Jack August", who was actually some unknown pro spinning a yarn, and a good one, at that. It's more a tale of rival outlaw motorcycle gangs, but it does have a vigilante angle. Finally we have "The Amputee Vengeance Squad's Mafia Wipeout" (MEN, August 1975) by "Jack Tyler", another pseudonymous author, with a fantastic, over-the-top illustration by Earl Norem. This is my favorite of the three non-Executioner stories, and if the author had expanded it into a novel, it would have made a fine entry in the explosion of paperback series that followed the Executioner's success.
When I was a kid, men's adventure magazines were staples on the magazine racks where I bought comics and paperbacks. It seemed like FOR MEN ONLY, especially, was always there, month after month. And I always wanted to buy some of them but never did, since my allowance and the money I earned would only stretch so far. But now, thanks to Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham, I can at least read some of the stories and feast my eyes on the great artwork. They're to be commended for bringing this material to a new generation of readers. MEN'S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY is great. If you're not reading it, you should be. You can get the latest issue on Amazon or directly from Bob Deis via his eBay store.
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