I WATCHED THEM EAT ME ALIVE out now!

Out today from New Texture and The Men’s Adventure Library: I Watched Them Eat Me Alive, a full-color illustrated look at the frequently outrageous “killer creature” genre of pulp fiction stories and artwork featured in vintage men’s adventure magazines from the 1950s through the 1970s.

From man-eating shellfish to vicious snakes, from revenge-minded pumas to flesh-eating squirrels and bloodthirsty otters (!), literally any member of the animal kingdom turned killer in the imaginations of the men’s adventure magazine editors, writers, and artists, and eager readers ate the stories up for decades. Men’s Adventure Library editors Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle explore a bizarre and unique strain of hard-boiled pulp in this new, full-color collection, packed with tense stories of man vs. beast by men’s adventure greats like Walter Kaylin and Robert F. Dorr, and copiously illustrated with reproductions of spectacular covers and savage illustrations by “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” artist Wil Hulsey, Clarence Doore, and many others.

I Watched Them Eat Me Alive is available as a 106-page softcover for just $9.95, and in a deluxe 126-page hardcover edition for $24.95. The expanded hardcover features even more killer creature excitement, including ripsnorting work by pantheon men’s adventure artist Samson Pollen, and a long-lost tale of bloodthirsty crustaceans by SFWA Grand Master Robert Silverberg!

Order both editions from your local independent bookseller, or buy them via Amazon here...if you’ve got the guts!

The Wait

I started the day at the post office. A sixtysomething woman in line greeted me with a warm smile as I came in. She blushed a little as she explained that everything about me reminded her very much of her brother, dead some years now. She missed him terribly, and seeing me come through the door brought on a rush of happy memories. "That's why I smiled at you like that," she told me. Neither of us acknowledged that I’m white and he wasn't.

A few minutes later, the older black man behind me in line noticed the stooped, burly white man behind him was leaning heavily on a cane for support; he was damp with sweat and breathing hard from walking in the heat. He insisted the man move ahead of him to speed his wait. Inspired by the first man’s kindness, I encouraged the struggling man to move ahead of me, too. The man behind me went on to extend the same courtesy to the Syrian mother and daughter in hijab who had now moved into place behind him, because they were holding large boxes that looked heavy. They shared friendly smiles and thanked him, but by then the line was moving, and they said they’d wait their turn. A pleasant conversation had struck up between the woman who'd initially greeted me and the white lady in front of her, who was about the same age. They were strangers, but joked gently about their husbands like a pair of old friends. I almost had to remind myself I was in a slow line—at the post office!—on a sweltering July day. It was hard not to be affected by the graciousness and goodwill in the room.

Outside, I passed a woman in a crisp black T-shirt. The silkscreened image wasn't a rapper or pop star, but an elegant portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, an American who famously said, “I believe that all men, black and brown and white, are brothers, varying, through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and in the possibility of infinite development.” I told her I liked her shirt.

America’s still here, if you’re looking.


Text and photo © 2017 Wyatt Doyle

Wyatt Doyle's latest book, I Need Real Tuxedo and a Top Hat!, is available now from New Texture. Buy it HERE.