Men's Adventure Quarterly #7: Gang Girls! - Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham, eds.

I’ve read novels about gang girls by such masters as Orrie Hitt and Robert Silverberg and always enjoyed them. The subject came up frequently in the men’s adventure magazines, too, providing an excellent theme for the seventh issue of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY. This time around, this great publication offers seven stories of juvenile delinquents, biker gangs, and the tough, beautiful girls who ran with them. Included is a lengthy condensation of one of the most notorious and sought-after gang girl novels, ZIP-GUN ANGEL by the mysterious and possibly pseudonymous Albert L. Quandt. Since it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever own a copy of the collectible original edition published by Original Novels in 1952, I’m glad I got a chance to read this version, which was published first in the September 1958 issue of MAN’S ILLUSTRATED.

It’s the story of Pebbles Jackson, a beautiful teenager with an ex-con father who finds herself caught up in the rivalry between two gangs, as well as being the object of attention from a handsome young cop who doesn’t know whether to arrest her or kiss her. Quandt keeps things moving along at a very fast pace, made even faster by the abridgment. Whoever he was, he was a good storyteller and kept me turning the pages.

One of the other stories is by Wenzell Brown, who wrote numerous novels and non-fiction volumes about juvenile delinquency, but who I first encounted in some espionage stories published in THE SAINT MAGAZINE during the Sixties. I’ve always enjoyed Brown’s work, and his story here, “Tomboy Jungle”, from the November 1957 issue of FOR MEN ONLY, is a top-notch blend of gritty fiction, history, and sociology.

My other favorite this time around is “Street Queens Are Taking Over Teenage Gangs”, from the January 1962 issue of WILDCAT ADVENTURES. Pure fiction presented as a true exposé, it’s a bloody, lurid tale of rival gang girls worth of being published in a magazine with “Wildcat” in its title.

Editors Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham have assembled another winner here. The two of them, along with guest editors Jules Burt and Andrew Nette, provide some fascinating articles and story introductions, and of course there’s plenty of great, beautifully reproduced art by Samson Pollen, Bruce Minney, Earl Norem, Robert Maguire, and others.

I’ve run out of superlatives to describe just how good MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY is. If you’re interested in the men’s adventure magazines, beautiful art, and stories that are a real window into another era, I give this issue and all the previous ones my highest recommendation. You can pick up this issue from Amazon or directly from the publisher.