Men's adventure magazines were a form of pulp publishing which flourished in 1950s and 1960s America, pandering to the cruelty and lust of young men with luridly illustrated stories of war, sleaze and savagery. As with pulp magazines from earlier decades, scantily-dressed women-in-peril were a favourite subject for cover designs; but in the early 1960s, magazines such as Man’s Story and Men Today saw sales rocket when they mixed this staple imagery with a new, fetishistic and taboo element – the swastika. The frisson of seeing half-naked, large-breasted females in bondage being menaced and tortured by evil Nazi doctors and henchmen was one which persisted throughout the 1960s. Man’s Story magazine alone published at least 50 covers featuring scenes of Nazi horror between 1961 and 1969. This decade-long deluge of exposed soft flesh, extreme torture, and the all-pervasive sign of the swastika represents a never-to-be-repeated cultural phenomenon in US publishing and art. The 65 examples displayed in this special ebook presentation stand as testament to this phenomenon, and also as a reminder to the lurid but innocent fun which people once enjoyed, before the invention of “political correctness” by repressive bodies bent on pulling popular culture - and life - back into the dark ages.

Thirty-five years in the making, and destined to be the last word in fanta-film references! This incredible 1,017-page resource provides vital credits on over 9,000 films (1896-1999) of horror, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, heavy melodrama, and film noir. Comprehensive cast lists include: directors, writers, cinematographers, and composers. Also includes plot synopses, critiques, re-title/translation information, running times, photographs, and several cross-referenced indexes (by artist, year, song, etc.). Paperback.

For decades, Screen World has been the film professional's, as well as the film buff's, favorite and indispensable annual screen resource, full of all the necessary statistics and facts. Now Screen World editor Barry Monush has compiled another comprehensive work for every film lover's library. In the first of two volumes, this book chronicles the careers of every significant film actor, from the earliest silent screen stars – Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks – to the mid-1960s, when the old studio and star systems came crashing down. Each listing includes: a brief biography, photos from the famed Screen World archives, with many rare shots; vital statistics; a comprehensive filmography; and an informed, entertaining assessment of each actor's contributions – good or bad! In addition to every major player, Monush includes the legions of unjustly neglected troupers of yesteryear. The result is a rarity: an invaluable reference tool that's as much fun to read as a scandal sheet. It pulsates with all the scandal, glamour, oddity and glory that was the lifeblood of its subjects. Contains over 1 000 photos!

From Paris to Stalingrad, the Nazis systematically plundered all manner of art and antiquities. But the first and most valuable treasure they looted were the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. This is the true-life Indiana Jones story of a college professor turned Army sleuth who foils a Nazi plot to preserve these cherished symbols of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich. Author Sidney Kirkpatrick draws on recently discovered and previously unpublished documents, including interrogation and intelligence reports, diaries and correspondence, as well as on interviews with all remaining living participants involved with the case, to re-create this thrilling true-life story.

Men's adventure magazines were a form of pulp publishing which flourished in 1950s and 1960s America, pandering to the cruelty and lust of young men with luridly illustrated stories of war, sleaze and savagery. They arose partly in response to the inauguration of the Comics Code in 1954, as a way of circumventing censorship by presenting material in a new, "adults-only" format. The prime years of the men's adventure magazine unleashed a visual and verbal deluge of exposed and tormented flesh, bloody mayhem and sexual delinquency, representing a unique cultural phenomenon in US publishing and art. SOFT BRIDES FOR THE BEAST OF BLOODe ^is a new anthology which collects some prime examples of text and artwork from a range of men's adventure magazines published during the prime years of the genre. The book is divided into two main sections: FEATURES includes a selection of sensationalistic, semi-factual confessions and case histories on such subjects as Nazi doctors, tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, cannibal serial killers, vice, juvenile delinquency and other aberrations; and FICTION collects numerous examples of garishly illustrated short pulp fiction, with categories including war, white slavery, Nazi horror, jungle savagery, Red menace, Devil worship, torture, sadism and erotic carnage. The book also features numerous examples of interior art from classic men's magazines, and includes 35 features and stories, with more than 80 illustrations, and 16 pages of full colour, with work by such classic pulp artists as Norm Eastman, Norman Saunders and John Duillo. Features and stories include: THE CANNIBAL BUTCHER OF HANOVER; A SOFT WHITE THROAT FOR THE DEVIl'S HANGMAN; TORTURED NUDES FOR THE DEVIl'S CHARNEL HOUSE; SOFT BRIDES FOR THE HIDEOUS RITES OF THE DAMNED; NUDE NURSES FOR THE BEASTS OF BUSHIDO; DOOMED NUDES IN THE CIRCUS OF HORROR; TORTURE TRAP OF THE NYMPHO SCHOOLGIRLS; PRISON BREAK FROM CHAWCAGEE HELL HOLE; and many others.

“Monumental.” —The New York Times Book Review Pulitzer Prize-finalist Stephen Kotkin has written the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin, from collectivization and the Great Terror to the conflict with Hitler's Germany that is the signal event of modern world history In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of the world’s largest peasant economy into “socialist modernity,” otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost. What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa. The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. But Stalin did not flinch. By 1934, when the Soviet Union had stabilized and socialism had been implanted in the countryside, praise for his stunning anti-capitalist success came from all quarters. Stalin, however, never forgave and never forgot, with shocking consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite of young strivers like himself. Stalin’s obsessions drove him to execute nearly a million people, including the military leadership, diplomatic and intelligence officials, and innumerable leading lights in culture. While Stalin revived a great power, building a formidable industrialized military, the Soviet Union was effectively alone and surrounded by perceived enemies. The quest for security would bring Soviet Communism to a shocking and improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain would not unfold as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective dictatorships, drew ever closer to collision, as the world hung in the balance. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is a history of the world during the build-up to its most fateful hour, from the vantage point of Stalin’s seat of power. It is a landmark achievement in the annals of historical scholarship, and in the art of biography.