Pollen's Women: The Art of Samson Pollen (Men's Adventure Library)

Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle – the editors of “The Men’s Adventure Library”, a series of books devoted to the pulpy arts and letters of the joyously lurid men’s magazines that flourished from the early 1950s and through the 1960s and then sadly went the way of all flesh in the mid-1970s – have brought out another fine volume with this compendium devoted to the paintings of the brilliant Samson Pollen. Unlike some other fine artists who were known for the more lurid sub-genre of “bondage and torture adventure”, Pollen specialized in relatively subdued illustrations of derring-do and foul play in war, crime, and lust; as Bob Deis points out in his introduction, Pollen also concentrated more on interior illustrations as opposed to cover art, a factor which might account for his as-yet relative obscurity in the field. Another thing Pollen specialized in was beautiful women, and thus we have the current volume. Pollen’s men are the usual square-jawed hard-guy American males that fans of the genre expect, and he does them very well, but when it comes to women his work reaches a sublimity unique in the world of pulp art. His women of course are sexy and beautiful – in this genre they had to be both – but they are also strong, seductive, powerful, laughing, mocking, and rarely the victim although often the victimizer. Samson Pollen gave Deis and Doyle access to his archives, and so we get page after page of full-color, duotone, and black-and-white original art as it looked before it had magazine text and layout overlaid; it is such a treat to see the original art on full pages of this jumbo-format book, followed by smaller reproductions of the same art as it looked in the original magazines. Some of the story titles will give you a good idea of what you will find here: “The Fraulein Spy Who Seduced Hitler”, “The Hell-Raising Nurses in Russia’s Foul-Up Combat Fleet”, “Summer Cottage Tease”, “Passionate Pickup on Route 101”, “We Were Shipwrecked on an All-Girl Island”, “Executive Suite Tramp”, “You Have 12 Hours to Find Saigon’s Nude Taxi-Dancer”, “Backwater Woman”, and the immortal “Nights of a Nympho Nurse”. Also included are some very amusing reminiscences from Samson Pollen himself, still kicking ass in his late eighties with a great sense of humor. Just a fantastic collection, and a wonderful time-machine back to a fantasy world where the men were tough, but – just as in the so-called real world – the women were tougher.

To be honest, I was a little hesitant to buy this book sight unseen. While I was vaguely familiar with the artist, I was worried that it would be slap together collection of public domain images with poor reproduction quality.Boy, was I wrong! Everything about this book is top shelf classy. Well...the subject matter might be low brow to some folks, I'm talking about the presentation.As for the art, yeah, its pulp-y in its subject matter, but the quality of the illustrations far surpasses most "pulp" artwork. I'm a HUGE James Bama fan, and I would say that Pollen's work is almost to that level of quality.Then again, I'm guessing if he had the time Bama did to do his paintings, he would have produced work that good.Seriously, this stuff has to be seen to be believed! The attention to detail is outstanding. And the energy on display just jumps off the page.Buy the hardcover (not sure if there is a paperback), you will want to return to the book over the years and you will want it to hold up.

I am loving this book. I purchased this title along with Mr. Deiss's other excellent volume on Mort Künstler, so I'll copy and paste part of that review here.This book is a feast for the eyes, and a real treat for the lover of mid century pulp art. I was a fan of the Men's Adventure genre in general, but wasn't aware of Pollen as an artist in particular - this book made me a huge fan of his work.The books is packed with so much great art I'd never seen before, and in beautiful color throughout, (though I was surprised the pages were matte instead of glossy photo paper).I was also pleasantly surprised by the great customer support from Mr. Deiss, the author/editor, who offered to sign the book. Great buying experience overall. High production value artbook for a good price and great customer support. What more could you ask for?

I've been a fan of the great artists who illustrated the men's adventure magazines for quite a few years: John Duillo, Norm Eastman, Norman Saunders, Syd Shores, to name a few.But I had never heard of Samson Pollen until recently, and this book is a wonderful collection of his work.I especially like the way the original art is shown, and then the actual magazine layout, always lettered and sometimes cropped, is displayed as well for comparison and for historical interest.It's always great when an actual fan, and not just some hack hired by a publisher, gets to write the book on an artist. You come away feeling that someone put his heart into the biography and wanted to deliver as much as possible. I wish all art books were done with this spirit.

Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle have culled, created, and kicked out a better than swell book containing some of the finest female-related, latter period, pulp artwork you could ever let your eyes land on. And it is all the work of the hitherto little-known, woefully underappreciated and criminally under-represented Samson Pollen.When I was just a kid, I used to have the opportunity to spend a couple of Saturdays a month at my Uncle's barbershop.He always had a big stack of various Men's Adventure Magazines, copiously illustrated by cats like Pollen, stashed in the back room of the joint and I loved rummaging around and pouring over those for a variety of reasons (some obvious, some not so). As a wannabe writer and yarn-spinner, these magazines and their illustrations fueled my creativity and made my small-town existence more than just bearable. They actually made things lively and fun!This excellent book brought back some great memories of a vastly different and far more adventurous time. And I am happier than heck I picked up a copy!Bravo, Deis, Doyle, and New Texture! Viva Pollen!

The print quality and book layout is well done. Fine collection of Pollen's men's magazine work. I will definitely buy other books in the line.