GIL COHEN - Inside Out

 

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.