Soft Nudes For The Devil's Butcher: Fiction, Features And Art From Classic Men's Adventure Magazines (Pulp Mayhem)

An incredibly well reproduced collection of the seemingly lost and forgotten era of Men's Adventure Magazine stories and art-work, all shocking in their well-crafted and classical execution. Stories worthy of early Jim Harrison and Ernest Hemingway, and extraordinary companion artworks that go far beyond mere pulp 'Illustrations' and enter into vastly talented museum-quality paintings (if they weren't depictions of Nazi Dwarves and Robed Satanists routinely desecrating near-nude Women-in-Peril). I finished this outstanding collection just as Mr. Pentangeli's second collection of high art for low brows, "Soft Flesh And Orgies Of Death" arrived in the mail. I am anxiously awaiting the publication of the third installation, "Soft Brides For The Beast Of Blood" - due out this July. A rare peek into the pre-Playboy/Penthouse days of two-fisted, whiskey swilling, Fascist killing, damsel saving Heroes that have been sadly pushed underground by the Politically Correct and Sanitized remembrances of the entertainment of the post WWII American dream.

Not quite as good as its predecessor, still quite entertaining. My review for the first collection could be reprinted here with one caveat. There are way too many Nazi's in this book. The first edition had more mad monks and bizarre personalities. Still, if you are a fan of pulp fiction from the 1950's and 1960's or the magazines for male readers that spawned it, you will find much to enjoy in this book. Again. I do not understand why all of the illustrations are not in full color, reprinting mostly in black and white seems to short change the reader.

This book is filled with the stories that came in men's magazines of the fifties and sixties and they are perverted, sleazy, filled with lurid descriptions of bad girls doing bad things (or having bad things done to them) and in short, they're terrific.Look, if you have a problem with a book like this, it's clear that you haven't got a clue. The title is Soft Nudes For The Devil's Butcher. This tells you everything you need to know about the stories inside.Enjoy!

If you are expecting soft-core titillation, look somewhere else. The only thing you will find in this book is graphic descriptions of torture, pain and death.If you are hoping for some soft-to-hardcore sex, BOY, are you looking in the wrong place! *ANY* and *ALL* sex is glossed over in as few as possible words, but pain, suffering and humiliation are spelled out graphically.SADLY amusing that any reference to sex is glossed over, but skinning someone alive is okee dokee!Can NOT imagine this appealing to anyone except a serial killer in waiting...YUCHTOTHE EXTREME

Disappointed. Expected more art.

This book is hot. It's a trip down memory lane when political correctness didn't cloud editorial judgement.

This is one of 3 books that reproduce a selection of the warped stories and art that formed the content of the (s)exploitational "Men's Magazines" that populated the magazine racks back in the 1950's - 60's. In their original incarnation - these were pulpish publications with cheesy newsprint interiors and lurid color cover art that typically depicted men and/or women suffering some sort of horrific abuse. The subject matter covered in the stories varied from tales of 'man against nature' wilderness adventures to (in the aftermath of WW II) war horror recollections of grim battles and even grimmer tortures at the hands of the Nazis and Japanese warlords. Additional sensational plots were gleaned from accounts of 'real-life' murderers and 'human monsters' of yore, plus lots of scary exposes dealing with modern slavery, drugs, gangs, juvenile delinquents, rampant nymphomaniacs, and the like. All in all it was pretty over the top stuff that has, now in retrospect, become a rich source for kitschy nostalgia.It's a little ironic that this most sleazy and reviled of pulp hardcore has NOW been given a first class re-introduction to the world! The yellowed newsprint has been replaced by thick glossy paper stock as a medium to reproduce the words and graphics that one often hardly dared to be seen looking at back in the day! This slick presentation is welcome for the picture reproduction - but seems a little overblown for the accompanying prose. Most of the illustrations that are provided are in B&W. Some reviewers have 'wished' that they were printed in color - BUT - the original interior artwork was actually mostly printed in B&W! There was a special style of painting that was developed for these magazines - with the artists working in gray toned tempra (casein) paints - that is unique to the genre - and it IS nice to have so many of these B&W illos made available for viewing again!There IS a section in each of the books (towards the front & back covers) that reproduces some of the cover art work in full color. My 'complaint' with this section is that, rather than re-printing the cover as it originally looked, the editors have chosen to 'zoom-in' on only a (detail) portion of the cover! While this does present some nice close-up detail of the artist's 'technique' - the over-all image cannot be appreciated! This is the situation for all 3 of the books currently in print.Fortunately, for those who really want to see more of the artwork - there are some other books (recently published) that focus in primarily on the cover art. One of the best examples is the volume: "It's A Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines" (available from Amazon!) that gives a great overview of the entire Men's Magazine phenomenon and reproduces literally hundreds of 'shocking' covers - organized by subject matter. "It's A Man's World..." is definitely the better of the books dealing with this weird sub-slice of period publishing - it is much broader in its' analysis and information on all aspects of the genre. BUT - if you find yourself wishing you could still read some of the crazed content that the covers allude to - this series of 'facsimile reproductions' gives you that opportunity.Don't expect any Pulitzer Prize quality writing in these compilations of sleaze - but there's lotsa 'screaming tormented virgins' and 'blazing gun heroic adventure' to be 'enjoyed'. For me it was a bit of a trip down memory lane back to the days when I was just a young lad too nervous to even pick this jaundiced product up off the shelf. Now it just makes a great 'conversation starter' in our current age of anything goes mega-porn. All the whip-wielding nymphos and tormented maidens seem almost like a return to a simpler, happier time. Recommended - if you like this sorta bent stuff.

A fun read!