Vintage Pulp | Nov 24 2020 |
One woman, two men, and a plane that won't fit three add up to the most unavoidable brawl in history.
We stopped scanning our magazines and small treasures a while back because our scanner started putting a bright blue stripe on every scan. With the pandemic on we didn't get around to buying a new one, and it was also more difficult than it needed to be because of operating system issues—i.e. forced obsolescence by Apple, which is the nadir of modern evil. Months went by. Then we decided to move, then we packed, then we we moved. A couple more months were lost there. We were going to leave the old scanner behind but we figured it might come in handy for documents, lease agreements, etc. Well, the change of electricity has done it good, because the blue stripe has gone from intolerable to somewhat faint. So today you get fresh scans from your favorite men's magazine and ours, Australia's Adam. This issue is from November 1977 with a cover that illustrates the story “The Rogue,” a surprisingly good effort by Norman G. Bailey, who would go on to write a couple of war novels in the 1980s. Elsewhere inside you get the usual reliable array of art, photography, and cartoons. More from Adam soon.
Vintage Pulp | Feb 18 2020 |
The key to a successful assassination? Time management.
Just that quickly we have another Adam for you today. This issue is from this month in 1978, with a cover illustrating Norman G. Bailey's story, “The Assassination.” We're still trying to make sense of this take on the classic international hitman motif. If we understood it correctly, a highly skilled killer is hired for a hellishly difficult hit on a head of state in the fictional country of Damahomey. He travels by plane, boat, and train, cases the job, beds the femme fatale, pulls off the job, and returns home carrying a valise bulging with Damahomeen currency. But once back in the U.S., he finds he can't exchange this money for dollars because it went out of usage in 1930. Well, that's weird, considering everyone was using it in Damahomey. He subsequently finds that the man he assassinated was killed in 1930. So, seemingly, unbeknownst to him—or the reader—he traveled back in time and shot a guy. All without a machine or any bells and lights of any sort. We went through the tale again to see if we missed the part where he pushed a big red button marked, “Press Here To Travel Back in Time,” but nope, wasn't there. So the assassin was hired by time travelers, and somehow also time traveled through no agency of his own. Fine, we guess. Give Bailey credit for thinking outside the box. We have thirty-plus scans below, including rarities of Sharon Tate and members of the Manson Family, accompanied by Adam's take on the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders.