BookTuber and critic Michael K. Vaughan is back...and this time he's gotten his hands on Nymphos for GarbAugust!
That's our Walter Kaylin collection, He-Men, Bag Men, & Nymphos, which we recently upgraded from the old black-and-white to a new, expanded, full-color edition.
(What is GarbAugust? I refer you to the event's founder, CriminOlly.)
So how did Nymphos measure up?
"An ultimate GarbAugust book."
"Tremendously entertaining stories...over the top, very violent, probably not the kind of thing you can get away with these days."
"This particular book is great. Not just for the stories, but the illustrations -- great, great stuff."
"The stories live up to the illustrations."
"Fantastic book. Highly recommended -- particularly if you're looking for something for GarbAugust, you can't do better than this. It's just awesome."
Thank you, Michael! We are pleased our Nymphos has satisfied your requirements. We've cued his video to his review:
Get Nymphos as a deluxe color hardcover from Amazon HERE.
Get Nymphos as a color softcover from Amazon HERE.
Get Nymphos as a deluxe color hardcover from the New Texture Shop HERE.
Get Nymphos as a color softcover from the New Texture Shop HERE.
The wild, much admired covers of men's adventure magazines (aka MAMs) were absolutely crucial to a magazine's success. Competition on newsstands was fierce, and attention-grabbing cover art and headlines meant everything when it came to persuading readers which MAM would deliver the thrills and excitement they were shopping for. Cover artists had to provide more than just great illustration art; under direction from some of the sharpest art directors in the business, their work had to rise above the visual noise of competing titles displayed side-by-side on store shelves, to rope in readers (and revenue) in a highly competitive and very crowded field.
Often called "America's Artist" for the historically themed paintings and bestselling art prints that defined the latter part of his career, Mort Künstler began his illustration career working in a quite different—but no less American—area of commercial art: MAM covers and interior spreads. During the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, Künstler numbered among the leading creators of artwork for MAMs. In those magazines' pages (and perhaps most importantly, on those covers), his work brought the fantasies and daydreams of mid-century American males to vivid life with rich, explosive color and an enviable sense of scope and grandeur, serving up spectacular depictions of epic action, exotic adventure, hard-boiled crime, survival, and courage on the battlefield.
Collecting an eye-popping array of Künstler's covers for legendary magazines such as Action For Men, Battlefield, and For Men Only, The Men's Adventure Library proudly presents Mort Künstler Covered Volume 1, in full color.
As a bonus, the collection also includes a scene-setting new edit of co-editor Robert Deis's historic 2011 interview with Künstler. This comprehensive conversation marked one of the first and very few occasions the artist spoke at length about his years working in MAM illustration.
Edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle for The Men's Adventure Library, Mort Künstler Covered Volume 1 is now available in softcover, and as a handsome casewrap hardcover with 20 additional pages of Künstler covers. Both editions measure 8.5" x 11" and are available now.
Support the publisher and buy Mort Künstler Covered Volume 1from the New Texture Shop, HERE.
Buy Mort Künstler Covered Volume 1 from Amazon HERE.
Texas Archives: Activism, Identity & Queer Joy in Houston
The American LGBTQ+ Museum
Wednesday, August 12 • 6 PM - 7:30 PM EDT
Overview:
Explore Texas’ pivotal placement in LGBTQ+ American history with footage from the vaults of Texas Archive of the Moving Image!
In the 1980s, Houston, Texas earned a new nickname — the “Gay Capital of the South” due to its prominence as an LGBTQ+ hub for activists, artists, night life, and more.
Utilizing stunning archival footage spanning from the 1970s to the early 2000s from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, we’ll explore Texas’ pivotal placement in LGBTQ+ American history through the lens of three core themes: Activism, Identity, and Queer Joy. Enriched by a panel of historical experts, experience with your own eyes how Houston’s LGBTQ+ community has always been on the forefront of social change through eye witness reporting and detailed news coverage.
Moderator: Katharine Austin: Curator, Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Panelists:
Brian Riedel: Associate Director for Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University
JD Doyle: Texas community historian and Founder, The JD Doyle Archives
Joyce Gabiola: Archivist and Curator of the LGBTQ+ History Research Collection at the University of Houston's Special Collections
Click HERE to visit the event page and to reserve your spot.
JD Doyle's 1981—My Gay American Road Trip is available now from QMH Press/New Texture. To purchased the softcover or deluxe hardcover edition from Amazon, click HERE.
Another PulpFest in the books (ahem!), and as always, it was all over much too quickly. It's a special place, and I think The Book Graveyard's Groundskeeper Nick Anderson summed it up eloquently in his opening comments to his pre-PulpFest interview with chairman Jack Cullers. I've cued the clip to Nick's comments:
"It's a beautiful thing to be a part of." Absolutely true!
YouTuber Rock Savage stopped by the New Texture table asking a question that, in more literate times, was a conversation starter at parties: What was the last book you read?
What I should have said was, "It wasn't Christopher Nolan's Odyssey movie that inspired me to read it. It was Ralph Fiennes'Odyssey movie, The Return!" (Highly recommended, by the way.)
Gary Lovisi has been reviewing Men's Adventure Library releases pretty much since we started releasing them, and he's been very kind to our books. His review videos are not only informative, but thanks to the presence of his wife (and camera operator) Lucille, Lovisi videos are among the most charming as well.
I've cued his video to our meeting (our first in person!), and my somewhat starstruck response to appearing on the Lovisi cam after years as a viewer is sincere.
Lee Charlton, aka The Retired Book Guy, is a recent addition to the ranks of BookTubers covering PulpFest. He hung out for a bit talking MAM art and artists. He picked up our Mort Künstler collections at the show, and promises a fuller video review of both books is in the offing. I'll look forward to that, and will share it here when he posts it.
Finally, we circle back to Nick from The Book Graveyard, who dropped by the table to chat and see what Men's Adventure Library titles were getting the most attention this year:
While I've cued these videos to my appearances, I hope you'll take the time to review all the videos in full, so you can meet some other PulpFest characters and envy their book hauls. At the very least, you'll get a sense of what you missed and why you should start planning to attend next year's festivities.
Big thank yous to the three guys at the top of the PulpFest totem pole, all of whom are incredibly patient, ridiculously supportive, and a lot of fun: Thank you Jack Cullers, thank you Mike Chomko, thank you Bill Lampkin. Thank you William Patrick Maynard for being such a funny and generous table neighbor. Thank you Eric Blackburn, Neal and Bernice Jones, and Innes Weir for your help and support at the event. Thanks to friends new and old who stopped by the table to chat. Thanks to those who supported our work by buying our books. And thanks to all the volunteers and attendees who helped make PulpFest a success.
Meanwhile, dates have been announced for PulpFest 2027! Get the early news on the PulpFest site, HERE.
Yay, it's time for the Houston LGBTQ+ Book Fair. It was organized by author John Merullo, who did a great job last year. I admit last year I was skeptical of whether it would bring people out. Well, I was surprised and impressed. I sold out of all the books I brought by 2:30pm, so I was delighted. Bravo, John!
The Second Annual Houston LGBTQ+ Independent Author Fair will be held at The Montrose Center, 401 Branard Street in Houston on Saturday, August 1, from 10 am to 3 pm.
Since JD sold through his stock of books so quickly last time, we recommend you drop by early!
JD Doyle's 1981—My Gay American Road Trip is available now from QMH Press/New Texture. To purchased the softcover or deluxe hardcover edition from Amazon, click HERE.
All Roads Lead to Great Neck by Josh Alan Friedman is available in softcover and hardcover editions from Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture. Cover art by Bruce Carleton. Get copies from Amazon HERE.
Longtime pop culture critic Rudy Panucci of PopCult Blog goes Inside/Out over Gil Cohen's Archive Collection:
"This is work that was created under intense deadline pressure. Yet Cohen’s artistic ability and professionalism shine through. He managed to take deliberately sensational stories, filled with lurid details and PG-rated prurient interests, and illustrate them with beautifully-composed and expertly-delineated flash."
Read his full comments (and 20 years of archived reviews!) on the PopCult site HERE.
Buy the SIGNED edition of the Archive Collection with FREE SHIPPING from New Texture HERE.
Buy the trade hardcover of the Archive Collectionwith FREE SHIPPING from New Texture HERE.
All Roads Lead to Great Neck by Josh Alan Friedman is available in softcover and hardcover editions from Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture. Cover art by Bruce Carleton. Get copies from Amazon HERE.
