GIL COHEN
Inside/Out
Archive Collection
Edited by Robert
Deis & Wyatt Doyle
The Men’s Adventure
Library # new texture
135 pgs
We first met pulp
artist Gil Cohen back in 1968. Then again we didn’t know it at the time. Sound
strange? Let’s back track a little bit. We’d returned from Vietnam in the early
summer of 1968 after completing our Army enlistment. Once a civilian again, we
quickly reverted to our old comic collecting hobby with the intent of someday
becoming a pro comic book writer. Now somewhere within the rest of 1968 and the
start of 1969, we discovered a new paperback company on the drugstore spinner
racks called Gold Eagle. They were offering a new action series called “The
Executioner” by writer Don Pendleton. The first volume gave us the history of a
Vietnam vet named Mack Bolan who came home to bury his family; a tragedy
brought about by a Boston Mafia family. Upon discovering the local police would
do nothing to bring the guilty to justice, Bolan took it upon himself to mete
it. He became the deadly vigilante known as the Executioner.
The second paperback
in the series came out within weeks of the first and then a third and then a
fourth etc. etc. etc. After having devoured that first adventure, we made a
point of buying all of them. Soon we were collecting these paperbacks like our
Marvel and DC comics. Of course, being a comic fan, we instantly realized
Pendleton, in creating Bolan had picked up the mantle of the old 30s and 40s
pulp heroes ala the Shadow and the Spider and hundreds of others. Basically,
Gold Eagle was giving us “new” pulps, whether folks recognized them as such or
not. Within months of the appearance of “The Executioner,” they gave us
“Created the Destroyer” by Warren Murphy and Richard Saphir. Another bona fide
pulp character, Remo Williams, taking on America’s enemies with the help of an
old Korean Martial Artist known as the Master of Sinanju. It was all heady
stuff and we loved it.
We also appreciated
the truly stunning and evocative covers, especially those done for “The
Executioner” books. They were the work of a veteran pulp artist named Gil
Cohen, who, after the old pulps had died out, managed to stay active by doing
covers for paperbacks and both covers and illustrations for the then still
vibrant Men’s Adventure Magazines (MAMS). Of course, we were sadly ignorant of
all this back then; way too busy with getting our comic scripts written, and
with a prayer, sold. Eventually all that did happen and by the 1980s were
working steadily in the comics field.
Jump ahead a few
more decades. Yours truly, having attended a convention devoted to the
collecting of old pulp magazines, convinced pro artist Rob Davis on the insane
idea of starting a publishing company to produce new novels and anthologies
featuring many of the old, long forgotten pulp heroes that had since become
public domain. Thus was born Airship 27 Production. Once up and rolling, we
eventually expanded our media footprint by launching a podcast on You Tube
where we would promote whatever new titles we had coming out. During one of
those episodes, yours truly elaborated a wee bit on how the comics and
paperbacks of our modern era were truly the heirs of the old Golden Age pulps.
Within a few days of airing that show, we received a rather eye-opening e-mail
of criticism by Bob Deis arguing that pulps hadn’t simply jumped from the 40s
to the 60s paperback and comic book world. He explained how MAMS were in fact
the true descendants of those old adventure magazines and had kept alive their
tradition well into the early 1980s, being offered on newsstands right
alongside all those comics and paperbacks.
Of course, he was
right and we’d been given a most welcome education. During our next episode, we
read Bob’s letter to our followers. Within months of that initial contact, Bob
began sending truly amazing books from his new imprint, Men’s Adventure Library
# new texture press created by he and his partner Wyatt Doyle. Within those
pages, your reviewer soon discovered incredible stories of action and adventure
as penned by some of America’s finest writers during the 50s and 60s. Again,
veteran pulp scribes who gone to the MAMS after the pulps faded into history.
Deis and Doyle didn’t only reprint the stories; they also reprinted the
magnificent covers and mind-blowing interior illustrations. Another classic
holdover from the original pulp titles. Knowing of our personal love of graphic
art, Bob continued to send me more of these wonderful books and so at long last
we met Gil Cohen, among many other truly gifted artists. Oh yeah, here was the
guy who first introduced us to Mack Bolan. For this reviewer, it all was coming
full circle.
Today Bob Deis and
Wyatt Doyle are true cultural historians working diligently to keep the history
of the MAMS alive for future generations to appreciate. This new volume,
spotlighting Gil Cohen’s long career, is nothing short of stunning and
breathtaking. If, like this reviewer you are a true fan of graphic art, this
book belongs in your library now. It is a glimpsed into a time when true
artists wielded their pencils and pens with so much love, their legacy lives on
these undying pages. Cohen was one of the best of the best.
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