Thanks to the kindness of fellow multi-hyphenate Sean CW Korsgaard, we're very pleased to share Wyatt Doyle's talk from PulpFest 2025: "Masters of MAMs." It's a brief overview of some of men's adventure magazines' (MAMs) leading lights from across their three decades of publication, with some explanation of why we believe they are important.
You can watch the whole 45-minute presentation via the embedded video above, or go directly to each subject by clicking their name below.
Reissuing Lawrence Block's long-lost work for men's adventure magazines in the Men's Adventure Library collection The Naked and the Deadly is a milestone for the series, and a considerable source of great pride for us.
We had two primary goals for the project: First, to issue Block's work in the kind of deluxe presentation it deserves. Second, to try to ensure that the book's sticker price would allow anyone who wants to read the book the opportunity to own a copy—even readers on tighter budgets.
But we are so wild about the hardcover presentations, we decided to issue another edition: a softcover that (mostly) replicates the contents and design of the hardcovers: a deluxe softcover edition.
Priced at $29.95 for a big 368 color pages, it's $16 less than the hardcover, but includes everything that's in the hardcover—minus the hardcover's bonus story.
It's been available for a while now. The problem is, many of our readers buy our books from Amazon, and Amazon doesn't seem to know what to do with a title that's been released in two softcover editions—despite the many differences between those softcover editions. Even searching for the deluxe softcover on Amazon can be a frustrating experience.
Of course, copies are always available from the book's co-editor Bob Deis via his webstore at MensPulpMags.com. Bob often offers deals and discounts on all our books there, and he's always glad to sign or personalize books on request. Order directly from Bob by clicking HERE.
Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle, co-editors of the Men's Adventure Library series, recently appeared on Terrance Layhew's Suit Up! Podcast to talk about Lawrence Block, The Naked and the Deadly, the rise and fall of men's adventure magazines, and how the sausage is made at the Men's Adventure Library.
The focus and subject matter of mid-century men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) were wide-ranging, and versatile storytellers able to confidently navigate genres, approaches, and authorial voices found regular, lucrative work in their pages. Among those talented writers was a notable newcomer: Lawrence Block—though his initial pieces would see print under various pseudonyms.
Not the Lawrence Block you know, who is among the most widely read, respected, and celebrated writers of crime and mystery fiction in the world. Internationally read and internationally honored, upon whom The Mystery Writers of America bestowed the title of Grand Master. A storyteller with over 65 years of professional experience in damn near every mode of written expression, whose essays, magazine columns, and non-fiction books focused on the art, craft, and business of writing have endured to inform generations.
Not that Lawrence Block.
Not yet…
The Men's Adventure Library announces the release of one of the most anticipated books in the series: The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines. Collecting Block's early work for MAMs, with stories ranging from dramatic non-fiction to hard-boiled crime, detective stories, and international intrigue, The Naked and the Deadly is at once a look at a legendary writer's earliest work and swift development as well as a representative selection of the types of stories that made MAMs famous -- and infamous.
In this latest release from The Men’s Adventure Library, series editors Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle restore the early work of Lawrence Block for their new collection, reissuing these long lost early stories in their original, unexpurgated versions for the first time since their original publication, and presented with the full cooperation of the Author.
To welcome Block to the Men’s Adventure Library, The Naked and the Deadly will be issued in four distinct, handsome editions:
1. An expanded 396-page, 6” x 9” color hardcover that adds over 60 pages to the contents of the paperback and ebook editions. Includes dozens of supplementary color and monochrome illustrations, further context and background by the Editors, and an entire additional 8,000-word story by Block that is exclusive to the hardcover. Get it here:https://amzn.to/3ORiKBV
2. A 12-story, 444-page, 4.370” x 7.000” collectible mass market paperback edition, created to honor Block’s many successes in paperbacks. Get it here:https://amzn.to/43fdIDy
3. A 12-story ebook, duplicating the contents of the mass market paperback. Get it here:https://amzn.to/3N5U6ev
4. A strictly limited, 200-copy edition of the expanded hardcover that includes a custom bookplate signed by Lawrence Block and the Editors, tipped-in by hand. Available exclusively at www.BlockNaked.com while copies remain. Get it here:www.BlockNaked.com
All editions include a scene-setting preface by the Editors and a brand new introduction written for this collection by Block.
This is the summer to get Naked!
Below is an early review video from Paperback Parade's Gary Lovisithat offers a peek inside both print editions:
Weasels Ripped My Flesh! A shirt-ripping, gut-punching anthology of two-fisted writing, ripped from the pages of long-lost men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Outrageous, 100% true tales of sex, crime, combat, jungle goddesses, beatnik girls, LSD experiments, animal attacks ... and nymphos. Always nymphos.
Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Showcasing rare, bare-knuckle stories by some of the toughest writers ever to punch a typewriter: Lawrence Block, Mario Puzo, Bruce Jay Friedman, Robert F. Dorr, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Walter Kaylin, Walter Wager, Jane Dolinger, Ken Krippene and more.
Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Edited by Robert Deis, with Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle.
Coming soon from New Texture. Man up.
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