Men’s Adventure Quarterly #6

Issue 6 of Men’s Adventure Quarterly focuses on heists, which certainly sounds promising. These stories all appeared in men’s adventure magazines in the late 60s and and early to mid 70s. Men’s adventure magazines enjoyed huge popularity for quite a while. In a way they were successors to the old pulp magazines.

The most impressive features of these magazines were the terrific illustrations by some of the greatest pulp artists of all time, and Men’s Adventure Quarterly includes full-colour reproductions of the illustrations plus lots of cover artwork. Men’s Adventure Quarterly really is beautifully presented.

The bonus feature in this issue is a profusely illustrated piece on Angie Dickinson who of course starred in one of the classic heist movies, Ocean’s Eleven, in 1960. I suppose at a pinch her 1974 movie Big Bad Mama could almost be described as a heist movie as well. And what’s not to love about Angie Dickinson?

The Stories

The Flying Bank Looters by Tom Christopher appeared in Man’s World in October 1967. Tom Christopher was a pen-name used by Thomas Chastain who went on to a fairly successful career as a writer of thrillers.

This is the story of a bank robbery, but the target really is a flying bank. In the wilds of Colombia people don’t have access to banks so they have to keep their money hidden under the bed. Now a local bank has introduced a flying back service. Once a week a DC-3 arrives and the locals can do their banking.

Frank Cage has a plan to rob the flying bank. The DC-3 of course carries armed guards (one of whom has a machine-gun) but Frank thinks the heist can be pulled off anyway.

This is an exciting clever fun story with a genuinely inventive heist, reasonably colourful characters and some fine action stuff.

The G.I. Stick-Up Mob That Heisted $33 M in Nazi Gold appeared in Male in November 1967. It was written by Eugene Joseph. It’s based on a legend that may contain some truth - that in the closing days of the Second World War a group of American soldiers stole a huge shipment of Bavarian gold.

The story starts a few years after the war. First Lieutenant Steve Brock is heading to a meeting with the last survivors of his platoon. He almost doesn’t make it to the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to divide the loot from a daring heist his men pulled off in January 1945. The story of the heist will be told in flashback.

It’s a surprisingly complex story and a surprisingly dark one. Let’s just say that Brock’s plan is a clever one but it doesn’t go too smoothly. An ambitious story with nasty nifty twists and it really is excellent.

Stop California’s Iron Shark Heist Commandos was written by Tom Irish, a pseudonym used by Martin Cruz Smith (who later became reasonably successful under his own name). It appeared in For Men Only in December 1967.

You have to have a gimmick if you’re going to write a heist story. The gimmick in this one is that the robbers use a military hovercraft to raid a waterfront casino. It has to be said that as gimmicks go this one is pretty good. A fairly exciting story packed with mayhem and a very high body count.

Band of Misfits by Don Honig was published in Action For Men in 1970. Grady Benson decides to rob a casino in Puerto Rico. But first he has time for a little sexual escapade with a pretty blonde divorcée. He also has to deal with a guy who seems to be following him. The robbery is easy, getting away with the loot is more of a challenge.

This is a very disappointing story. The heist is incredibly unimaginative. There’s a sub-plot that is pure filler. There’s a bit of sex and a bit of action but neither is exciting enough to compensate for the dullness of the basic story.

The Great Sierra Mob Heist by C.K. Winston was published in Male in December 1971. This is another story that relies on a gimmick - the thieves use a customised all terrain vehicle to reach a resort hotel in the mountains by an otherwise in accessible route. The heist itself is straightforward and without a great deal of interest.

It’s the way the story is told that is interesting. This is a cynical, even nihilistic, tale with a nor fiction flavour. It’s also pretty brutal. It’s not a bad story.

The G.I. Wild Bunch by Grant Freeling was published in Male in March 1975. This story opens with a heist. In Germany an armoured car is robbed by a gang armed with an anti-tank gun. The robbers were American Army uniforms and speak German with heavy American accents. The US Army is coöperating with the local German police and they soon have a suspect under lock and key and they have hopes he’ll reveal the identities of the other gang members. But despite the evidence against him Corporal Landers stubbornly insists on his innocence. What Landers needs is a chance to prove his innocence, and he gets it in an unexpected way.

Landers is a typical men’s adventure protagonist. He’s a soldier with a glittering record in wartime but in peacetime his temper and his dislike of authority land him in constant trouble. A decent enough fairly well-plotted story and an interesting protagonist.

G.I. Hayseeds Who Pulled a $2 Million Gold Heist by Michael Cullen appeared in Male in July 1975.

Three amateurs, all Vietnam vets, rob a train in Canada. They steal a huge shipment of gold coins. The most interesting things about this story is that the coins are counterfeit, . but they’re still worth $2 million since they are 20% gold. The heist itself is disappointingly straightforward. The problem for the heisters is that they really are amateurs and disposing of the gold presents problems. And then they find that they have gangsters plus the Mounties plus the F.B.I. all pursuing them.

This story just doesn’t quite pay off.

Arizona’s Incredible ‘Kung Fu’ Vengeance Heisters appeared in Male in November 1973. This is another reasonably entertaining tale. The idea of a heist carried out without guns is a good one, but in fact guns do end up getting used.

Final Thoughts

Men’s Adventure Quarterly is doing a great job in making these long-forgotten stories accessible. Issue #6 is recommended, especially if you’re nuts about heist stories.