Here’s a very nice Sir! cover from July 1958, featuring a cowboy and a vaquero dueling to the death while tied together, straddling a log, and dressed like two members of the Village People. That’s supposed to be American frontiersman Jim Bowie on the left, and since he later dies at the Alamo, we know how this fight ends. And even if we didn’t know he died at the Alamo, we’d know he won the fight. Otherwise when you went into a hunting supply store and asked for a Bowie knife, the clerk would look at you really confused, and say, “Bowie knife? I never heard of a Bowie knife, but if you’re looking for top quality we’ve got these great Gonzales knives.” 

Cover and interior pages from Adam, July 1976.  

This Master Detective from July 1960 has cover art that incorporates two elements millions of Americans dream about every night—a beautiful girl and a dead BP executive. Inside is a grisly story on housewife Nancy Haas, who was murdered by nineteen year-old Robert Elton Edwards in March 1960. Edwards’ MO was to knock on the doors of houses with For Sale signs in the yards, then rob the people inside. In this case, he tried to chain Haas to a bed but when she struggled he shot her dead with a .22 pistol. She was the first woman Edwards had killed, and the last, because Haas’s daughter, who was only three, told police, “A bad man hurt mommy and drove away in a white car.” That simple description led to police arresting Edwards three days later in Arizona, driving a stolen white 1959 Plymouth Fury. Edwards pleaded guilty to murder and at his sentencing the judge said he’d contemplated sending Edwards to the gas chamber, but changed his mind. The judge explained: “I’m not doing you any favors.” Then he sentenced Edwards to life in prison. 

June 1961 issue of Australia’s Adam magazine, with a cover illustration of two guys trying to win a girl by fighting to the death, or possibly by doing the twist. We actually aren't sure.

Whisper magazine from May 1951. This is the first time we’ve posted an issue of the early Whisper, with its classic cheesecake covers painted by Peter Driben. Inside, the designers do good work with a three-color format, using judicious swaths of red to spice up the visual interest. The women pictured—Joy Madison, Cindy Sullivan, Pat Swanson, and the curiously named Kevin Daley—left nary a ripple in the historical record. Too bad the internet didn’t exist then—they could have leaked a sex tape and had nice careers in reality television. We have more of these old Whisper mags we’ll be posting soon. 

1950 issue of Paris-Hollywood, with cover star Rosine Luguey, who was an actress in France during the 1940s and 1950s. Also, this issue has another cool stripping centerfold by Roger Brand, as well as some bonus pin-up art as a finale, which we've chopped in half for better viewing. Sacrilege, we know, but we're prisoners of our 433 pixel column width. Maybe one day, if we get really ambitious, we'll make the art open in a separate, larger window. In the meantime, you can see the other Brand centerfold we posted here. 

Cover and selected interior pages from Australia’s Adam magazine, May 1964. 

Assorted images from the American celeb magazine Film Fun, April 1940, with stars Myrna Loy, Bebe Daniels, Robert Preston, Dorothy Lamour, Susan Hayward et al.

Above is a True Detective cover from August 1960, with a story about convicted rapist Caryl Chessman. Chessman had been executed in the California gas chamber several months earlier, but not before the U.S. Supreme Court heard his appeal. The case was complicated. Chessman was the Red Light Bandit, a rapist who preyed on motorists parked in secluded areas. Using what looked like a dome light to make them think he was a policeman, he would approach them, rob them at gunpoint and sometimes violate the women. At trial prosecutors used the Little Lindberg Law to argue for the death penalty. That law was written to punish criminals who kidnapped their victims. Chessman hadn’t done that, but he had dragged one girl a short distance away from her car. Prosecutors argued that this constituted kidnapping, and in so doing promptly gave anti-death penalty advocates a textbook example of death penalty abuse. The case became national news, but after ten years of various legal battles, Chessman finally met the executioner on May 2, 1960. Three months later, True Detective waded into the continuing uproar over abuse of the Little Lindberg Law to remind people that there were actual victims involved. Their article claimed that the end justified the means. We bet how you feel about that depends on how you feel about the legal system in general. But as far as how you feel about True Detective's cover art, we'll go out on a limb and assume you think it's as brilliant as we do.

Assorted images from Adam, March 1973, with nice shots of Claudia Cardinale and Vanessa Redgrave in panel nine. It also features something we’ve never seen before—a cover that reverses the traditionally assigned roles. For an idea what we mean, check here.