Men's Adventure Quarterly #8: Heavy Hitters! - Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham, eds.

Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham are back with MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY #8: HEAVY HITTERS!, featuring tales of hitmen (and hitwomen) that appeared originally in the men’s adventure magazines of the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies. Deis and Cunningham are assisted this time around by guest editors Gary Lovisi and Michael Stradford. This issue also takes a look at the connection between men’s adventure magazines, bodybuilding magazines, and legendary muscleman Joe Weider.

The assortment of stories and articles is a good one, as always, but two of the tales reprinted in MAQ #8 have a personal connection for me, even though I never met or had any contact with either of their authors.

David Mazroff is a very familiar name to me because I saw it dozens of times on the Table of Contents in dozens of issues of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE from the Sixties and Seventies. Mazroff specialized in true crime articles for MSMM, usually centering around legendary gangsters or other organized crime figures. He wrote at least one of the Mike Shayne novellas under the Brett Halliday house name and three novellas under his own name about a private eye character of his creation, Rick Harper. In “I Was Al Capone’s Hatchet Man”, from the March 1958 issue of MAN’S ODYSSEY, Mazroff delves into his own criminal past when he was part of Capone’s gang in Chicago during the 1930s. I had no idea Mazroff had been an actual gangster and did time in prison for his criminal activities. He and I appeared in the same issue of MSMM only once, the August 1977 issue, which included his article “Who Killed Johnny Roselli?” and the first story ever published under my name, “Comingor”. Mazroff had one more article in MSMM after that, in the December 1977 issue, but I didn’t have anything in that one.

The other author name in this issue that’s very familiar to me is Wayne C. Ulsh, who wrote “The Day Castro Beat the CIA’s Mafia”, originally published in the October 1975 issue of FOR MEN ONLY. In the mid-Seventies when I was trying to break in as a writer, one of the markets I targeted was FOR MEN ONLY, and as I read the issues I picked up I quickly began to look for Ulsh’s name because his stories were always well-written, suspenseful, and entertaining. His Castro story in this issue of MAQ is pure fiction. Or is it? Well, yeah, it probably is. But it’s a good yarn, like everything else by Ulsh that I’ve written. He published two novels in his lifetime, which ended prematurely when he died early at the age of 58. I own one of them, RIP-OFF, but haven’t read it. His other novel, McDADE, is a mystery published by Belmont-Tower. In 1975, I wanted to be Wayne C. Ulsh. My career wound up taking a much different path and I can’t say that I’m sorry about that, but it was sure nice revisiting his work and remembering those days nearly 50 years ago.

My favorite of the other stories is Anthony Scaduto’s long article about Bugsy Siegel, “Ever-Lovin’ Top Gun of the Syndicate”, from the August 1963 issue of STAG. We watched all five seasons of the HBO gangster drama BOARDWALK EMPIRE not long ago, and I enjoyed reading this lightly fictionalized version of the notorious Bugsy’s life.

Guest editors Lovisi and Stradford contribute articles about hitmen in novels and iconic cover model Steve Holland’s appearances on crime-related magazine and paperback covers, respectively. These guys know their stuff, and their articles are both informative and entertaining.

And of course, this issue of MAQ, like all the others, is packed with beautifully reproduced artwork by Bruce Minney, Samson Pollen, Mort Kunstler, Robert Stanley, and many others. It’s the proverbial feast for the eyes thanks to Bill Cunningham’s masterful production. Bob Deis oversees the whole thing with love and expertise. Everyone involved in this issue can rightfully be proud of it.

Coming up in the next issue . . . Croc Attacks! Hopefully there’ll be a few gators in there, too. Meanwhile, you can pick up MAQ #8 in three different editions: a full-color trade paperback, a black-and-white paperback edition, and a digital replica edition that looks great on a Kindle Fire. Whichever you prefer, MAQ #8 gets my highest recommendation.