The Manly Covers Of Man’s Illustrated


Man’s Illustrated was a pulp magazine that ran from 1955 t0 1975.  Judging from the covers, it seems that the magazine was mostly focused stories about manly men conquering the frontier and fighting our enemies overseas, while thankful women either watched amazed in the background or waited to be rescued.

Men’s magazines were a huge part of the pulp era.  Because I have a rule about not posting any covers that feature either Nazi imagery or non-consensual sex, I usually avoid men’s magazines when I’m selecting an artwork of the day or putting together an art profile post like this one.  Fortunately, the covers of Man’s Illustrated were tamer than most other men’s magazines, with most of them focusing on tough guy with a weapon in his hand and a look of determination on his face.

Here are a few covers from the 20 year-run of Man’s Illustrated.  Two of these covers are credited to Stanley Borack.  The rest don’t have a credited artist.

by Stanley Borack

by Stanley Borack

Love On The Range: The Covers of Cowgirl Romances


Yee-haw!  It’s time to celebrate love on the range with Cowgirl Romances!

Cowgirl Romances was published by Fiction House, a publishing company that operated from 1938 to 1954.  Twelve issues of Cowgirl Romances were published between 1950 and 1952 and, judging from the covers below, it looks like they featured all of the dusty romance and hot cattle rustling that a girl could hope for.  All of these covers were done by Maurice Whitman, who understood that, on the range, guns and kisses go together like blacksmiths and horseshoes.  The other thing about these covers is that they show that real cowgirls can take care of themselves out in the wild, except for issue #10.  I don’t know how she is going to outrun a mountain lion in high heels.

Here are the covers of Cowgirl Romances: