Men's Adventure Quarterly, Vol 3 by Bob Deis & Bill Cunningham

The third edition of the Men’s Adventure Quarterly magazine is yet another fine addition to the stable. Whereas the first volume was devoted to Westerns and the second to Espionage, this third volume focuses squarely on vigilantes. All of the content, prose and artwork, is sourced from the men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) of the 1950’s, 60s’ and 70’s.

In addition to an editorial from both editors, Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham, a third is presented by famed comic book and prose author, Chuck Dixon. Three vigilante-style stories are presented in the first half of the magazine while it devoted the second half to the father of all action-oriented vigilante fiction, Mack Bolan, AKA “The Executioner”. A “book bonus” feature is presented for the first two Mack Bolan novels, "War Against the Mafia" and "Death Squad". These lengthy pieces are condensed from the original novels but appear just as they did in the pages of “For Men Only” magazine and “Men” magazine in 1969 and 1971, respectively. I’ve read both novels many years ago, but these condensed versions really capture the essence and most of the plots of those two books.

Of course, there is much more here than just the stories. The artwork alone is worth the cover price but there are also oodles of informative content about the authors, artists and publishers behind the work. A real highlight of this issue is as article written by Linda Pendleton, wife of The Executioner creator and author, Don Pendleton. Plenty of insights on the history of this iconic series is presented.

I’ll keep on reading these as long as they produce them. Absolute quality all the way around.