Artist Unknown

For nine years, from 1934 to 1943, Spicy Adventure Stories tempted pulp readers with adventure stories that featured a lot more sex and violence than even the usual pulp magazine.  The covers of Spicy Adventure were shocking and frequently sordid and they left no doubt as to what readers would find within the magazine.

They also worried a lot of the moral guardians of the time and, finding itself under attack as a bad influence, Spicy Adventure Stories ceased publication into 1943 and was instead reborn as the more socially acceptable “Speed Adventures.”  The magazine still featured stories about cults, pirates, and explorers but now, they were a little less explicit and the covers was a little more calmer.

Below are some of the controversial covers of Spicy Adventure Stories!  As always, the artist has been credited when known:

by Delos Palmer

by Harry Lemon Parkhurst

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by William Soare

by William Soare