Lynn Munroe Books

June 1961 – “$1,000,000 Diamond Raid at Africa's Secret Village of Virgins”

August 1961 – “Ed Admusson's Off-Shore, Off-Limits Free Love Cult” <detail

Editorial error gives credit to artist Charles Copeland instead of author Arthur Orrmont.

September 1961 – “Find Lt. Sommers – Last Seen in India's ‘Many-Woman' Village”

CHARLES COPELAND: MAGAZINES

I. SWANK & BACHELOR

May 1957 – cover by Charles Copeland

SWANK

SWANK magazine has had a long and varied life. It started in the 1940s as an Esquire-style men's mag, and was purchased in the mid-1950s by Martin Goodman. His first SWANKs are pocket-sized, but with the success of PLAYBOY and its imitators Goodman switched to standard magazine size with Vol. 2, No. 4 in December 1955. Goodman's SWANK is a microcosm of the late 1950s, overflowing with talent from the brilliant editor Bruce Jay Friedman and gifted art director Larry Graber to the well-known authors and a staff of talented young artists - like Charles Copeland, whose work appears in 13 of the 20 Goodman issues of SWANK. The only constant in magazine publishing is change, and by the January 1960 issue Martin Goodman had sold SWANK to a new group headed by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius (who would later become the publishers of Lancer Books). The early 1960s issues of SWANK continued the men's magazine line with nude pin-up photography and articles geared to affluent male readers. But now the art, which was so colorful and eye-catching in the 1950s, became uninteresting and often downright ugly. None of the artists are known to us. SWANK continued on, gradually improving the artwork. Then, as tastes shifted, it became a skin magazine and, under new owners, devolved into the XXX hardcore porno mag it has been for some years now. This SWANK checklist – with emphasis on the appearances of Charles Copeland - covers the Martin Goodman era only:

SWANK pocket-sized magazine, July 1955. Vol 2, No 3. There may have been a Vol. 2, No. 1 and No. 2 but if so I've never seen them. Let me know if you have one.

December 1955. Vol. 2, No. 4. First standard magazine-sized issue. “The New Man's Magazine”. Editor: Bruce J. Friedman. Photo covers except as noted. Cover by Robert J. Lee shows the new SWANK mascot, a hound. A great new series starts called “SWANK dines out with…” with a new interview in each issue, topped with a small illustration of the SWANK hound interviewing the celebrity. The first is Louis Armstrong, with art by Robert J. Lee. New stories by Saroyan, Steve Frazee, Erskine Caldwell. This issue also contains Simenon fiction with art by Clark Hulings.

February 1956. Vol. 3, No. 1. “SWANK dines out with Anita Ekberg” (artist unknown). Tina Louise photographed by Peter Basch. Fiction by Erskine Caldwell, James T. Farrell, Fan Nichols. Artists include Clark Hulings & Fred Freeman.

May 1956. Vol. 3, No. 2. Cover by Bob Maguire and Al Werner. Photography by Peter Basch, Russ Meyer and Weegee. Fiction by W.L. Heath and Graham Greene. “SWANK dines out with Jayne Mansfield” (artist uncredited, probably Lee). First SWANK appearance of artist Charles Copeland (a month after his first men's adventure magazine appearance in the April 1956 issue of Goodman's MEN) with a two-page illustration for “The Strange Courtship of Ethel Jones”.

August 1956. Vol. 3, No. 3. Cover by Mauro Scali and Al Werner. “SWANK dines out with Cleo Moore” (artist uncredited). Henry Kuttner fiction illustrated by an uncredited Rudy Nappi. And fantasy story “The Second Mrs. Gilbert” by Walter Wager, with brilliant half black & white / half duotone art by Charles Copeland, signed C.C.

August 1956

November 1956. Vol. 3, No. 4. Cover by Arthur Saroff. “SWANK dines out with Sophia Loren” (artist uncredited, possibly Lee). Baseball by Charles Einstein. Illustrators include Clark Hulings, Arthur Sussman, Jim Meese, Mort Kunstler and David Stone.

February 1957. Vol. 4, No. 1. Cover by Peter Hawley (also used on Lion LL168, THE BEDSIDE BACHELOR). Charles E. Fritch science fiction “Lhassa Come Home” illustrated by Copeland. “SWANK dines out with Frank Lloyd Wright” (artist unknown). Fiction by William Saroyan and Henry Kane, Julie Newmar photographed by Peter Basch.

May 1957. Vol. 4, No. 2. Cover by Copeland. And “The French Touch” by Jack Iams with delirious half-color illustration by Copeland. All of the pastels on the French artist's easel appear again in the painting. Plus: “SWANK dines out with Zsa Zsa Gabor” (artist unknown). Fiction by Graham Greene and Robert Sheckley, photography by Peter Basch. John Huston profile. Cover shown above. (Note: The April 1957 issue of BACHELOR includes an ad for this issue of SWANK showing a different cover intended to make “How to Get a Babe In the Woods” the cover story. It's fairly silly – it shows a woman hunter and a man dressed as a moose. At some point late in the editing, the change was made to the Copeland cover. The SWANK ad in the May 1957 issue of BACHELOR is corrected. The copy is the same on both covers, only the cover art changes.)

May 1957

August 1957. Vol. 4, No. 3. Three contributions from Charles Copeland: article “Midnight Sketchpad of an Artist by Charles Copeland”, plus a full-page duotone cartoon (uncredited Copeland) and “SWANK dines out with Monique Van Vooren” (uncredited Copeland). “SWANK dines out” evolves from great series with clumsy art to an unbeatable one-two punch of Friedman's humor coupled with Copeland's glamorous drawings. Plus: “Cover My Damp Grave” (SCORPION REEF) by Charles Williams, Mike Todd profile, art by Robert Schulz, Dawn Richards by Peter Basch.

August 1957

November 1957. Vol. 4, No. 4. “SWANK dines out with Mamie Van Doren” (uncredited artist, looks like Ray Johnson to me). “The Sweet Soft Kill” by Lane Kauffmann with terrific illustration by Harry Schaare. Alfred Hitchcock profile.

January 1958. Vol. 5, No. 1. “SWANK dines out with Barbara Nichols” (artist?) Plus art by Paul Rader and William Rose. (Rose art reused for THE RASCAL'S GUIDE by Bruce Jay Friedman, Zenith ZB-12). Howard Hughes profile.

March 1958. Vol. 5, No. 2. Three contributions from Charles Copeland: “The Switch” (sketch-type black & white illustration), a full page cartoon signed COPELAND in block letters, and “SWANK dines out with Lilo” (uncredited Copeland). Plus: Henry Kane's “Some of my Best Friends are Dead” illustrated by Samson Pollen, and “The Sleeping Redheads” by Robert Bloch illustrated by Ray Johnson. Photography by Mario Casilli, Linda Christian photo.

March 1958

Copeland's original art for “SWANK dines out with Brigitte Bardot”
Bardot gives the sideways look to the SWANK hound.

July 1958. Vol. 5, No. 3. With two illustrations by Charles Copeland: “SWANK dines out with Brigitte Bardot” (uncredited Copeland) and “How High the Stakes” half-page drawing. Plus “The Impossible Yen” with art by Paul Rader, “School for Frauleins” with art by Harry Barton, Bardot pictorial.

July 1958 September 1958

September 1958. Vol. 5, No. 4. Three contributions from Charles Copeland: “SWANK dines out with Greta Thyssen” (signed); a full page signed cartoon, and two-page color illustration for “The Big Wet Kill” (BIMINI RUN) by Howard Hunt. Plus art by Bob Stanley and Darryl Greene. Linda Christian profile, Walter Wager on spies.

September 1958 September 1958 (detail)

December 1958. Vol. 5, No. 5. “SWANK dines out with Abbe Lane” (signed by Charles Copeland), cover photo and interior photography by Russ Meyer, “Chicken” with art by Paul Rader, “Who Was That Blonde I Saw You Kill Last Night” (HIS NAME WAS DEATH) by Fredric Brown. Other illustrators include Ray Johnson and Rudy Nappi.

December 1958 April 1959

February 1959. Vol. 6, No. 1. “SWANK dines out with Belinda Lee” (unsigned Copeland illustration) and “Art, Booze & Balloon Girls” with color art signed C. Copeland. Other illustrators in this issue include Ray Johnson, Rudy Nappi and Julian Paul.

April 1959. Vol. 6, No. 2. “SWANK dines out with Vikki Dougan” (uncredited art of “The Back” by Copeland), plus art by George Eisenberg and Rudy Nappi.

June 1959. Vol. 6, No. 3. “Slay Darling” by Henry Kane, illustration by Ray Johnson. “SWANK dines out with Corinne Calvet” (artist unknown). Oscar Levant profile. Art by Julian Paul and Rudi Nappi.

August 1959. Vol. 6, No. 4. Story by Ed Sachs, “The Girl Who Was Wild about Harry” with illustration by Copeland, and “SWANK dines out with Julie Newmar” (uncredited Copeland). June Wilkinson cover & pictorial, “Die Now Pay Later” with fabulous two-page illustration by Rudy Nappi, and “I'd Walk a Mile for a Corpse” (BLOOD ON THE DESERT) by Peter Rabe, illustrated by Harry Schaare.

October 1959. Vol. 6, No. 5. “SWANK dines out with Tina Louise” with uncredited Copeland art, and “Memoirs of an Italian Girl Thief” by John Carlova, illustrated by Copeland. Plus art by Ray Johnson, Julian Paul, Paul Randall, and an uncredited Robert Maguire. After this issue Martin Goodman sells the rights to the title SWANK to new publishers, who begin in January 1960 with Vol. 7, No.1.

BACHELOR

Goodman and company published another men's magazine during the years they did SWANK. The two magazines advertised for each other and shared staff. Art by Charles Copeland appeared in 8 of the 10 issues. This incarnation of BACHELOR lasted only a couple years. Martin Goodman sold the rights to a different publisher after the November 1958 issue. BACHELOR continued to flourish as a men's pin-up mag throughout the 1960s and evolved into a slick skin magazine in the 1970s. The checklist that follows covers publisher Martin Goodman's issues only.

Pocket-sized BACHELOR, September 1956, Vol. 1, No. 2. Has anyone seen Vol. 1, No. 1?

January 1957. Vol. 2, No. 1. First standard magazine-size issue. Photo cover montage includes Marilyn Monroe, Betty Brosnan, Elsa Martinelli, others. Magazine version of the Lion paperback bestseller FULLY DRESSED AND IN HIS RIGHT MIND by Michael Fessier. Pictorial of Playmate/actress Sally Todd. Editor: Bruce J. Friedman.

April 1957. Vol. 2, No. 2. “The American Bachelor: His Life and Hard Times” with pin-up cartoon-style art by Charles Copeland; plus Salvador Dali profile, Frederick Lorenz story, pirates illustrated by Gil Cohen, Julie Newmar pictorial by Peter Basch. Newmar is also one of the models on the photo cover.

April 1957

May 1957. Vol. 2, No. 3. (New issues of BACHELOR normally appeared every two or three months, this is the only time they are dated just one month apart.) “Gamble With My Blood” (THE BIG BITE) by Charles Williams illustrated by Mort Kunstler. Ernest Hemingway profile. With a full-page unsigned cartoon by Charles Copeland.

August 1957. Vol. 2, No. 4. “Special Issue for Cads and Bounders”. Article “Wenching Around the Watercooler” by Morgan Morris illustrated by Copeland. Plus Fan Nichols, Charles Boswell. Illustrators include Clark Hulings and Gil Cohen. And “The Well-Dressed G.I. of 1970.”

August 1957

November 1957. Vol. 2, No. 5. Illustrators include James Bama and Leo Summers. Contributors include Robert Sheckley, Art Buchwald, Frederick Lorenz, Russel Crouse, and Philip MacDonald. Dawn Richards layout.

February 1958. Vol. 3, No. 1. “How to Become a Bearded Menace” with full-page illustration by Copeland. “The Latest in Las Vegas Wildness” has uncredited sketches reminiscent of Copeland's sketches for SWANK. Plus movie monsters by Walter Wager, Clark Hulings art.

May 1958. Vol. 3, No. 2. “Have Corpse Will Travel” by Bill Gault, illustrated by Bob Stanley, plus Errol Flynn profile, Clark Hulings. And an unsigned full-page blue duotone cartoon with three beautiful women, unmistakably Copeland.

May 1958 July 1958

July 1958. Vol. 3, No. 3. One full-page yellow duotone cartoon signed Copeland. Illustrators in this issue include Charles Frace' and Vic Prezio. Fiction by Ed Lacy, plus a Bill Wenzel cartoon.

September 1958. Vol. 3, No. 4. “GIs, Girls & Diggers” with art by Paul Rader. “A Blonde for Marrakesh” with art by Copeland. “Don't Go Away Mad” with art by Samson Pollen. Plus Bill Ballenger, one photo by Russ Meyer.

November 1958. Vol. 3, No. 5. “Let's All Go Kill the Red-Haired Man” (WIFE OF THE RED-HAIRED MAN) by Bill Ballenger illustrated by Copeland. Full-page blue duotone cartoon (unsigned Copeland). “Miss Gentilbelle” by Charles Beaumont, illustrated by Rudy Nappi. Goodman's last BACHELOR.

November 1958

II. MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES

MEN November 1956

There are over 500 magazines with Copeland illustrations on this checklist, but the editors at Magazine Management recycled art (and stories) wherever and whenever they could, so some of that number are duplicates. When Heritage Art Auctions offered Copeland's original art for “House of Hostage Frauleins” from MALE June 1966, the notes in the margins of the painting showed three different magazines the same art had been used in. (ACTION FOR MEN May 1968 and TRUE ACTION December 1970 are the other two.) Later, a fourth appearance turned up on the cover of a 1971 MALE ANNUAL.

Charles Copeland started working for publisher Martin Goodman at Lion Books in 1955. As far as I've been able to discover, this was his first credited job as a commercial artist after moving to New York City. He was soon offered work as an illustrator for Goodman's men's adventure magazines like MEN and MALE and STAG. With his versatility and speed, Copeland was a good fit for this assignment. He turned out a wide variety of illustrations over the next 18 years. He left the world of the men's adventure magazines only when the genre began to die out in the mid 1970s. A few of the other regulars like Norem and Minney held on but gradually all art was replaced by color nude photography as the very nature of these unique magazines changed.

This is the first draft of a work in progress. As I learned from longtime collectors, nobody has seen every one of the thousands of men's adventure magazines churned out during the decades after World War II. I am sure there are Copeland appearances I simply have not encountered yet, so if you have or find any other magazines with Charles Copeland art, please contact me.

With a list of this size some semblance of order is necessary, so I've chosen to list the magazines alphabetically instead of in the order Copeland painted them all.

ACTION FOR MEN

Magazine Management (as Vista Publications) published the bimonthly ACTION FOR MEN for about twenty years from the late 1950s to around 1977. It was published in the odd-numbered months, Jan March May July Sept & Nov. This is one of the Diamond Group, all from Martin Goodman's magazine factory, advertised in ads like this one:

Traditionally, many of the other magazines in the Diamond Group had cover art by Mort Kunstler, but Charles Copeland did at least a dozen covers for ACTION FOR MEN.

Editor: Noah Sarlat. Art director: Larry Graber. In its later years, ACTION FOR MEN was used mainly to recycle stories and art from their other magazines.

< ACTION FOR MEN August 1959. Cover by Charles Copeland.

July 1961 – cover>

< September 1961 – cover

December 1961 –cover

Dec 1961 Want

September 1962 – cover

September 1963 – cover (this cover art was previously used for FOR MEN ONLY November 1961) >

< May 1964 – “Airborne Vice Girls” 2-pg b&w interior illustration.

(all illustrations shown here are “interior illustrations” unless noted as “cover”)

	< July 1964 – cover September 1964 – cover>
	<November 1964 – cover June 1965 – cover>
	<September 1965 – cover and interior illustration “Ambush That Rescued the US 5th Army” reused from STAG October 1962. January 1966 – cover. Want. July 1966 – cover>
	<September 1966 – cover March 1967 – cover and interior “The Spy Who Couldn't Leave Women Alone” reused from STAG April 1965. Same story, same art, different title.

May 1968 – two interiors: “Bra and Panty Girl Hideout of the 9 Bail-Out GIs” (reused from MALE June 1966) & “Swim Party with a Bare-Skin Blonde” (reused from STAG March 1966)			January 1969 – “The Girl Who Played Virgin” reused from MALE December 1967 (same story & art, now b&w, with new title)
		March 1969 – two interiors “The Woman Stalkers” by Day Keene & Leonard Pruyn (story retitled from FOR MEN ONLY March 1965, art redrawn from MEN May 1966) <detail and “Love Lessons From a Blonde” (redrawn from MAN'S WORLD December 1966) not shown
July 1969 – two interiors: “The Yank Who Penetrated Moscow's Passion Cell 10” (redrawn from MALE November 1966) & “Naked on the Sand” (reused from STAG January 1967 & TRUE ACTION March 1968).	September 1969 – two interiors: second-page illustration (reused from MEN February 1967) for “Assassin in my Bed” by Mario Puzo writing as Mario Cleri (first-page illustration by a different, uncredited artist); & “Nude on the Deck” (retitled from MALE August 1965). detail>
November 1969 – “The Girl in the Bar” reused from FOR MEN ONLY Jan 1966.	May 1970 – “Elsa's Special Game” reuses art & story from MAN'S WORLD April 1968 with different title & byline.			September 1970 – “The Passion Tramp” reuses Copeland's art for FOR MEN ONLY March 1968.
1971?	January 1972 – “The Nymph Next Door” repainted from MALE December 1970.			March 1972 – “Annie's Love Nest” reuses art from MALE Feb 1969 & FOR MEN ONLY ANNUAL, 1970.
July 1972 – interior. Want				<September 1972 – cover & two interiors, all uncredited. “Bedroom Game with a Blonde Doctor” is from FOR MEN ONLY Sept 1970. “The ‘Scuba-Killer' of Treasure Key” uses the right half of the art from the Nov 1971 STAG, repainting the left half, changing skinny-dippers to the Scuba-Killer.

November 1972 – “One-Night Stand with a Topless Blonde” reuses art & re-titles story from MALE October 1970.

March 1973 (says March 1972 in error inside) “Madeline's Afternoon Special” reuses STAG March 1971.

May 1973 – “Barbara's Wildest Night”>

September 1973 – third use of interior illustration, here called “Ellen's Special Treatment”, from MALE September 1971 & TRUE ACTION August 1972.

ACTION LIFE

According to the excellent reference source DEVINE'S GUIDE TO MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES by Bill Devine (where I first learned a lot of the info passed on here), ACTION LIFE changed its name to COMPLETE MAN in 1965, and indeed ACTION LIFE ends with Vol. 4 and COMPLETE MAN starts with Vol. 5, No. 1. ACTION LIFE did a lot of reprints from earlier Diamond Group magazines. They were published by Atlas Magazines, one of the many faces of Magazine Management.

<ACTION LIFE August 1964 – cover

November 1964

“Get Moscow's Bra-and-Panty Spy Queen” reused from STAG February 1960. >

ADVENTURE LIFE

ADVENTURE LIFE had two lives; first as a great late 1950s adventure magazine from Vista Publications edited by James Collier, the same man who wrote FIRES OF YOUTH as “Charles Williams” for Magnet Books. After a hiatus, ADVENTURE LIFE returned to newsstands in 1961 from Atlas Magazines. The editors chose to start the numbering over with Vol. 1, No. 1 appearing in 1961, despite the fact that a different Vol. 1 of ADVENTURE LIFE had just appeared in 1957. Not clear why they chose to do it this way, but I suspect they did it to confuse and confound later researchers and magazine collectors.

ADVENTURE LIFE April 1957 – two interiors for “Daughter of Mata Hari”. <First is shown here, for second illustration see Berkley G161 in Paperbacks checklist.

October 1961 – cover>

Nazi / circus girl cover art, uncredited Copeland.

BATTLEFIELD

BATTLEFIELD #1, 1957.

<Two interior illustrations> for “Assault Platoon”.

Note: Cover by George Gross is misattributed to Copeland in Taschen's book MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES.

COMPLETE MAN

COMPLETE MAN appeared quarterly for only two and a half years, and as another reprint magazine it should have been rather lackluster. But I find COMPLETE MAN to be a rare and desirable collectible, mainly because of the vibrant and engaging color cover paintings on many of their issues by Charles Copeland.

COMPLETE MAN February 1965 – “World's Most Shocking Call Girl” b&w reprint of duotone from STAG December 1962.

June 1965 – “Hell-Raising Yank Boss of France's Prostitute Army” reused from STAG March 1962.>

September 1965 – “Give-Give Girls Who Hunt GIs” reused from STAG July 1962.

<December 1965 – cover

This painting was later used as an interior illustration in FOR MEN ONLY September 1966.

March 1966 – cover >

Also interior “Captive Girls of the World's Hottest Vice Town” reused from a similar but different article in STAG April 1963.

<October 1966 – cover

February 1967 – cover>

<April 1967 – cover

Table of contents example showing cover credit to Charles Copeland. >

FOR MEN ONLY

FOR MEN ONLY was one of the mainstays of the men's adventure genre, appearing in 1954 and creating a series of great issues – and covers – for over a decade before the cover art began to shrink in the 1960s. By the late 1970s it had changed into just one more girlie mag with photo covers, a move that quickly put it out of business. Copeland was working for FOR MEN ONLY by 1956 and continued to contribute memorable illustrations, and some covers, for the next 17 years. Published by Canam Publishers in the 1950s, Newsstand Publications in the 1960s and Magazine Management in the 1970s, all different names for the same group. In the 1950s many of Martin Goodman's Lion Books get condensed for his magazines. For example, the June 1956 issue of FOR MEN ONLY has Richard Matheson's FURY ON SUNDAY as “The Frenzied Weekend”.

<FOR MEN ONLY

June 1956- interior

illustration for “The

Night I Went Native”.

October 1956 –three drawings for “The Redhead Who Seduced the Legion”

November 1957 “Tomboy Jungle” by Wenzell Brown

August 1958 – “Your Point is a Blonde”

October 1958- >

“The Women Who Decoyed a Shipful of Sailors”

Compare her pose to THE WICKED AND THE WARPED, Berkley G161.

November 1958 – “The Chinese-American Bawdyhouse War”

	December 1958 – “The House of No Escape”
January 1959 – “Seduced: 3000 Legionnaires”

May 1959 – cover >

Reused as the cover of SPORTSMAN November 1963.

June 1959 – duotone illustration for “Guerrilla Queen of Johori Female Bandit Brigade”. Headhunters!

July 1959 – duotone illustration for “The Vanishing Lovers of Streetwalker Madeleine Libertaud”

August 1959 – “Cockeyed Chris Loves Slot Machine Sadie” (not shown)

September 1959 – duotone for “Sgt. Wilbur's Hunt for Bremen's Party-Girl Cellar” - postwar Nazis!
	<November 1959 – “Helen Happy Legs and the Plot to Kill General MacArthur”	December 1959 – “The Summer 4000 Call Girls Battled the Union Army” (not shown)
April 1960 – “Master of Greek Girl Island”

June 1960 – “Penal King John Graham and his Outback Women Hideout”

(not shown)

July 1960 – “The Brawling, Wenching Mad Baron of Arizona” (not shown)

<August 1960 – “Baron Staltazen's House of Beautiful Women”

September 1960 – “The Yank Who Ran Paris' Playgirl Sabotage Ring”

October 1960 - “The Backdoor Girls Who Invaded Pvt. Vincent's P.O.W, Stockade”

November 1960 – “The 1000-Face Commandant of Paris' Playgirl Underground”

February 1961 – “My Captive Year With the Free-Love Amazons”

October 1961 – “The Wild Widow Who Baited a Panzer Division” <detail

November 1961 – cover.

This is the cover shown in the film “Perversion for Profit” as an example of the “floodtide of filth” besmirching America's magazine racks, where “lust and violence-filled pages (are) devoured by juvenile eyes”.

Reused for ACTION FOR MEN September 1963

January 1962 – “The Wild Baroness Who Was Too Shocking For Paris” (not shown)

February 1962 – “Paris' Harlot Spy Corps” >

March 1962 – “Strange Case of the Sex-Mad Medic”

April 1962 – cover

May 1962 – “The Shocking Scandal of Hollywood's Sexiest Three” true crime article on the murder of William Desmond Taylor.

June 1962 – “The Redhead at Pick-Up Motel” (MURDER IN ROOM 13) by Albert Conroy

July 1962 – “Red Army Girls in the Allied Hell Camp” (not shown)

August 1962 – “Texan King of Africa's Exotic Woman Village” detail

November 1962 – “The Seducing Decoys in Captain Tom Jiro's Kidnap-Escape Team”.

(not shown)

<January 1963 – “Blow Up the Munda Air Base” (WWII's Craziest Raid)

February 1963 – “Glider Yank Who Led the Amazon Women of Montenegro” detail

March 1963 – “Swastika Slave Girls in Argentina's No-Escape Brothel Camp”

April 1963 – “Sgt. Lattimer's Combat Safari With the Sarong Girls of Malaya”

May 1963 – “The Decoy Nymphs of Luxemburg”

July 1963 - cover

and interior “Love-Lure Nymph Army of Bataan”

Detail>

September 1963 – cover

November 1963 – “Stockade-Busting Commandos of Berlin”

December 1963 – “The Love Goddess”

January 1964 – cover

February 1964 – “Desert –Doll Hellcats” detail>

March 1964 – “Case of the Big, Beautiful Blonde”

April 1964 - “Revolt of Warsaw's SS – ‘Love Slaves'

May 1964 – “Case of the Teasing Redhead” by Carter Brown.

July 1964 – “Kremlin's Top Killer in Rome … Get Him!”

December 1964 – “Captive Girl Compound”

<detail

February 1965 – “Wild Bill Donovan's Beautiful Decoy Who Saved The Dutch Underground” detail>

March 1965 – “The Girl Hunters” (WORLD WITHOUT WOMEN) by Day Keene & Leonard Pruyn.

This book bonus is reprinted in ACTION FOR MEN March 1969 with a different title and different Copeland art.

<June 1965 – “Flying Gambling Girls Who Play No-Limit Sex”

August 1965 – “Million Dollar Hooker”>

September 1965 – “Russia's Playboy Spy”. To compare this b&w reprint to the original color art, see STAG July 1963.

October 1965 – two by Copeland: “Master Jewel Thief” – reused from STAG May 1962.

And “Night Flight With a Sure-Thing Redhead”

January 1966 – “After Hours Redhead” (reused in November 1966 issue of ACTION FOR MEN).

March 1966 – “Training Camp Tramp”

June 1966 – “Sheriff Sue is a Nympho!” Story appears with different Copeland art in TRUE ACTION Jan 1968.

August 1966 – “Locker Room Tease” “she had a yen for baseball”.

Copeland's original art for the August 1966 FOR MEN ONLY

November 1968 – “I Found the Blonde Tribe of the Amazon”.

<March 1969 – Shack-Up With the Warden's Daughter”

June 1969> – “While Her Husband Slept”

October 1969 – “You Can Marry a Rich Girl”

February 1970 – “Bus Stop Lover” (reused in TRUE ACTION February 1972)

March 1970 – “The Love Trap”

May 1970- “My Body Pays The Fare”. Art is used again for TRUE ACTION in June 1972.

September 1970 – “Doctor in the Nude” (reused ACTION FOR MEN Sept 1972) detail

October 1970 – “Blonde Bait for a Sex Thrill Kidnapper”

FOR MEN ONLY ANNUAL #6, 1970 – “The Neighbor Lover” b&w, reused from MALE Feb 1969, used again in ACTION FOR MEN March 1972.

July 1972

June 1973

KEN FOR MEN

July 1959 – cover & interior

blue duotone “Sweet Swindles of Playboy Walker Avery”

September 1959 – green duotone “The Captain's Bride Married The Crew”

November 1959 – red duotone “Escape is Worse Than Death” (this art is shown in our introduction)

MALE

MALE was one of the tent pegs of Martin Goodman's magazine empire, and one of the longest running men's adventure magazines, appearing from 1950 into the late 1970s. Charles Copeland became a MALE artist in 1957, and several of his early appearances are among my favorites, in large part due to MALE's cool decision to have its artists paint not just a title-page illustration for the Book Bonus, but eight additional drawings as well for the body of the story. Later on an anonymous staff artist took over the additional sketches. MALE was published by Male Publishing Corp.

MALE January 1957 – Charles Copeland is the perfect artist for Gil Brewer's “House of Captive Women”, condensed from the Gold Medal paperback A KILLER IS LOOSE. A sample of his additional illustrations:


	February 1957 – “The Blonde Who Runs the Syndicate” - detail (All of Copeland's title-page illustrations for MALE are duotones until noted otherwise.) March 1957 – “An Inmate Has Escaped”
April 1957 – sepia duotone “The Night We Tore Up Tia Juana”

May 1957 – “Many Lovers For Stella”

July 1957 – “We Were Prisoners of Africa's Forbidden Tribe” <duotone

with 8 illustrations, sample:

April 1958 – “Madam Bee's Million Dollar Love House” (CALL HOUSE MADAM) – Wolsey. Duotone, with 8 drawings.

April 1958 continued – <example of additional art (see also Berkley G199)

August 1958 – “Alma Rattenbury and the Tragic Silk Pajamas” true crime by James Collier.>

December 1958 – “The Wonderful Binge of Baron Bum” (not shown)

January 1959 – “The Day Hollywood Shot Pancho Villa”

March 1959 – “Me and Louie Control ‘Tall Girl' Island”

Compare Copeland's original art below to the printed magazine here:

October 1959 – “The Revolt of Nude Nan Patterson”

January 1960 – “The Naked Diary of Rhoda Ringman Hoyt”. Reprinted in TRUE ACTION February 1964.

May 1960 – “The Debutante Who Seduced a Million Storm Troopers” <detail. Reused: TRUE ACTION Feb 1963.

June 1960 – “Bar Room Girl Who Touched Off a Tribal War” red duotone

(Not shown)

July 1960 – “Sally Shack-Up and the Great Tokyo Manhunt” detail>

August 1960 – “The Invading Yank and the Villa of Gay Chinese Widows”

September 1960 – “The Amorous Doc Who Shared His Patients' Beds”

October 1960 – “The Underground Dolls Who Seduced Italy's Frogman Fleet”

November 1960 – “The Prisoner in Fraulein Anna's Private Compound” (not shown)

January 1961 – “The White Emperor of Tononga Island” (not shown)

February 1961 – “Chicago Bill Otis' Army of Halfbreed Dolls”

March 1961 – “Baker's Dozen” reused in TRUE ACTION June 1964 (not shown).

April 1961 – “The Yank Who Raided Russia's City of Exiled Women”

(MALE art now in four-color until noted otherwise)

July 1961 – “Mistress of The Mediterranean's Infamous Penal Hole”. Yes, it really does say “penal hole”.

August 1961 – “Imprisoned Yank in the Orient's ‘Foolish Virgin' Spy Center”. Take that, you Red Commie buzzards.

November 1961 – “The Fast-Living Nymph Who Ruled an Illicit Diamond Empire”. Reused in TRUE ACTION February 1970.

December 1961 – “The American Agent Who Kidnaped Moscow's Top Sex Kitten” four-color art was later used as a b&w illustration in TRUE ACTION September 1964

January 1962 – “The American Who Escaped The Soviet Middle East With Five Easy Ladies”

March 1962 – 2 illustrations for “The Bold American Who Blocked a Red Takeover in Macao”. Title illustration reappears in TRUE ACTION June 1965.

April 1962 – “The Strange Redhead and her International Pleasure Legion”. A choice example of four color illustration.
		August 1962 – “The Girl in the Gold Bra”
	September 1962 – “Nude Girl Divers of Shima Island” - detail. Reused in TRUE ACTION March 1965. October 1962 – “The American Who Joined Red China's Train-Busting Outlaw Nymphs” detail

November 1962 – “Sealed Up Alive in Singapore for Five Months” detail. Used again in TRUE ACTION May 1966.

December 1962 – “Hitler's Man-Hungry ‘Lost Women' Brigade”

Charles Copeland Original Art MALE January 1963

January 1963 – “The Government Man and his Two Scandalous Love- Nests”

February 1963 – “The American Agent who Escaped Moscow's Dreaded Prison-On-Wheels”

March 1963 – “Hitler's Front-Line Legion of Amusement Girls”

April 1963 – “Yank Desert Raider Who Saved Our Casablanca Beachhead” detail

June 1963 – “French Streetwalkers Who Set Up Our Marseilles D-Day Landings”

September 1963 – “The Mountaintop Harem of a GI Dambuster” detail

October 1963 – “The Hunted American Who Ran a ‘Sex Subway' Out of Wartime Berlin” (not shown)

December 1963 – “Red China's Female Army of Sex and Shock Troops” detail

MALE ANNUAL #1, 1963

Two b&w illustrations: “Imprisoned for Six Months in Japan's Secret Female Garrison” from STAG June 1960 detail>

Copeland's second illustration in

MALE ANNUAL #1, 1963 is “The Amazon Queen Who Ruled an Experimental Sex Outpost”

January 1964 – “The Yank Who Led a Legion of Russian Convict Women” by Walter Kaylin.

<detail

March 1964 – “The Sleep-Around Playgirls of New York's East Side”

April 1964 – “GI Who Cut Off Hitler's Bavarian ‘Battle Maniacs'”

May 1964 – “One Last Night With Roma” by Erskine Caldwell

August 1964 – “The Girl From Hong Kong's ‘Hot Street'

October 1964 – “John ‘Red' Marston's Island of Delight” by Mario Puzo writing as Mario Cleri.

Reused for TRUE ACTION Sept 1966.

November 1964 – “Notorious Compound of Prostitute Slaves” not shown

December 1964 – “Our Top Supersonic Expert is in Chinese Communist Hands” detail

January 1965 – “Yank Who Smashed the Nazi War Criminals' Escape Ring” detail>

February 1965 – two illustrations for “French Girls' Barracks” (WOMEN'S BARRACKS) by Tereska Torres.

February 1965 – second illustration

April 1965 – “The Kremlin School for Sex Spies”

(this is one of many Copelands not shown here that are available for viewing on the American Art Archives website. I recommend it highly).

May 1965> – “The Nymph at Armored Oasis 17” detail>

Reused in 1966 MEN ANNUAL.

June 1965 – “The Death Makers”

August 1965 – “Luxury Boat Tramp” reused in b&w for ACTION FOR MEN Sept 1969.

September 1965 – “Black Lace Blonde Out Of Havana”

October 1965 – two illustrations for “The Non-Stop Lover” (HANDSOME) by Theodore Pratt.

<Oct 1965, second page b&w illustration

November 1965 – “Hot Rod Tease” reused in STAG ANNUAL #6, 1969.

December 1965 - “Edge-of-Town Blonde” -

Signed C.C.

Male Annual #3, 1965 –

“School House Tramp” (from EPISODE IN PALMETTO) by Erskine Caldwell, b&w.

March 1966 – “The Girls in the Bordello on the 25^th Floor” reused in b&w in TRUE ACTION February 1970.

April 1966 – “Gina, The Promiscuous Spy” detail

May 1966 – “Night School Tramp” by Alex Austin. Reused in b&w in STAG ANNUAL #6, 1969, as “The Bedroom Lesson” by Jay Sorkin. Same story, same art, different title, different byline.

June 1966 – “U.S. Agent Who Invaded Hitler's House of Hostage Frauleins”. This four-color art is reused in b&w in ACTION FOR MEN May 1968 and TRUE ACTION Dec 1970 and in color for the cover of MALE ANNUAL, 1971.

August 1966 – “Saigon Nymph who led the Green Berets to the Cong's Terror HQs”

September 1966 – “My Two Years in the ‘Barracks of Caged Young Girls'”

November 1966 – “Find the Kremlin's Blonde Nympho Hostage”. This is repainted for ACTION FOR MEN July 1969.
			December 1966 – “The Girls in the ‘Villa of Untamed Desires'”. MALE ANNUAL #4, 1966 – cover> and interior b&w reused from MALE Dec 1964.
		February 1967 – “The Hot-Blooded Nymph Next Door”, reused in MEN ANNUAL #3, 1969.
		March 1967 – “Trapped Girls in the Riviera's Flesh Casino” by Mario Cleri (Puzo). Reused in TRUE ACTION Nov 1969 and MAN'S WORLD Dec 1971.
	December 1967 – “All Night Date With Cindy” Reused in ACTION FOR MEN January 1969.

MALE ANNUAL #5, 1967 – color cover

Top painting appears to be Copeland, but the novel inside; “Beach House Tramp” (THE TEASE) by Gil Brewer, has art by Earl Norem. Lower two paintings are by Mort Kunstler.

February 1968 – “Karate Gym Nymph” reused in 1973 MEN ANNUAL.

March 1968 – “Party on Love Swap Highway”

	May 1968 – “Girls of Pleasure Penthouse” by Mario Cleri (Mario Puzo) – < detail And second-page b&w illustration.>
		June 1968 – “Lorna Loved Them All” August 1968 – “Voluptuous Widow…Eager to Give” >
December 1968 – “Love-Break Girl”

Copeland original art for MALE ANNUAL #6

MALE ANNUAL #6, 1968 – color cover & three b&w illustrations for “The Big Night of Blondy Niles” by Erskine Caldwell. Title-page illustration reuses color art from STAG Aug 1965, changing man's hair to match the story. Also the two “paintings” on the wall behind her have been redrawn to fit the story.

MALE ANNUAL #6 <second-page illustration.

January 1969 – “Nude Saturday”

February 1969 – “Motel Woman” reused in FOR MEN ONLY ANNUAL #6, 1970 (without the stripe on the shirt) and in ACTION FOR MEN March 1972

March 1969 – “The Love Lottery” detail>

April 1969 – “Prescription: Nurse in the Nude”

June 1969 – “Blonde With the Violent Touch”>

July 1969 – “The Bike Brutes” (two illustrations)

July 1969 – second illustration.

September 1969 – “The Taming of Mrs. Parris”			Two illustrations in MALE ANNUAL #7, 1969: “Weekend Romp With Liz” redraws STAG November 1966, and second-page illustration for “Hard Contract for a Mafia Blonde” (title page is by Gil Cohen) reused from MEN April 1965.
January 1970 – “The Little Love Arena”

February 1970 – “Garage Girl”

October 1970 – “The Topless Swap” reused for ACTION FOR MEN November 1972

December 1970 – “The Nude Who Wore Glasses”

Reused for different story (without her glasses) in ACTION FOR MEN January 1972. Not shown.

<January 1971 – “The Passion Vault”

February 1971 – “I Surrender, Mr. Big”

March 1971 – “Paint Me -- Love Me” >

June 1971 – “Cara's Love Cage”. Although “topless” photography is seen in MALE as early as 1969, the interior illustrations stay covered up until 1971. Charles Copeland, who excelled at painting beautiful women, was a natural for this new assignment. His nudes, like this one, are among MALE's best.

September 1971 – “The Cure”. Copeland's original art for this issue is two pieces cut together – one is the man at top, the other is the woman – suggesting that the editors may have asked him to repaint half of his first version of this painting.

The same image was reused twice as a black & white interior: TRUE ACTION Sept 1972 and ACTION FOR MEN Sept 1973.

	October 1971 – “Raid on the Nazis' Sex Circus Stalag” reused in TRUE ACTION October 1973.
	December 1971 – “Buy Me Nude” detail
MALE ANNUAL “#6”, 1971 – cover Clearly misnumbered, we have just seen a MALE ANNUAL #6 in 1968. The Annuals were coming out once a year for 7 years, but now they are either doing several each year or using some new numbering scheme, for the next one seen is #13. Top illustration by Bruce Minney, bottom illustration by Copeland is familiar, from MALE June 1966, there in four-color, here in full color. MALE ANNUAL #13, 1971 – “The Impatient Redhead” reprinted from STAG March 1970.
		March 1972 – “'Easy' Diner Girl” April 1972 – “Judy's Night Game”

<May 1972 – “Busy-Bed Blonde”

April 1973 – “Diner Nude” detail>

May 1973 – “The Nympho Next Door”

August 1973 – “I Found Helga Roehm – Most Wanted Female War Criminal”. War stories trickle down to about one per issue in the 1970s and slowly disappear as MALE becomes an all-photo magazine.

MALE ANNUAL #17, 1973 – “The Seductress Next Door” reprinted from MEN May 1970.

MAN'S LIFE

In addition to his long association with Magazine Management, Charles Copeland did a little freelance work and some art through Ed Balcourt's art service. MAN'S LIFE is not one of Martin Goodman's magazines. MAN'S LIFE was published by Crestwood Publishing of Canton, Ohio, with editorial offices on Broadway in New York City. MAN'S LIFE sadly did not usually give artist credit, but for a brief glorious period in the late 1950s they did, and we find four issues then with Copeland artwork. MAN'S LIFE had wonderfully ludicrous covers (usually by Will Hulsey) of people being attacked by animals, and stories like “Spider Monkeys Tore Me Apart” and “Those Slimy Rodents are Eating My Flesh”.

MAN'S LIFE November 1957 – “Football's Coming Scandal”, a rare sports-themed assignment for Copeland.

January 1958 – “It's Got To Be Tonight”

March 1958 – The artists are not credited in this issue, but Copeland's distinctive style can be identified on two of the illustrated articles. This is “Where Bachelor Girls Run Wild”

<The other March 1958 story is “Too Much Woman”.

May 1958 – “One Kiss Before I Die”.

MAN'S WORLD

We learn from DEVINE'S GUIDE TO MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES that the first three issues of MAN'S WORLD were called MEN IN ACTION. The title changed with Vol 1, No 4 in November of 1955, and Charles Copeland came onboard as a regular contributor for editor Noah Sarlat in February 1958. He often did at least one cover a year in addition to his interior work. MAN'S WORLD was a bimonthly, published in the even-numbered months Feb Apr June Aug Oct & Dec. Devine describes this magazine well when he says: “Great cover paintings of men in danger, wild animals, military scenes”. Like all men's adventure magazines it changed over the years. When Bruce Jay Friedman became editor in 1964, the cover art got smaller but MAN'S WORLD became more of a modern “men's magazine”, with “Girl in a Man's World” pin-up photography. MAN'S WORLD was published under several names – Medallion, Official Magazines, Olympia, Vista, etc – but they were all various identities of Magazine Management, Goodman's Diamond Group. Later on, photo covers - and photo-illustrated stories - took over in the 1970s, but in its heyday MAN'S WORLD was the real thing.

MAN'S WORLD February 1958 – cover. This cover appears in Adam Parfrey's IT'S A MAN'S WORLD: Men's Adventure Magazines, The Postwar Pulps.

October 1958 – “The Call Girl Who Led a Legion of Rebels”. The intro suggests this was written for STAG, perhaps indicating that even early on, MAN'S WORLD was used for overflow, leftovers and reprints from MALE & STAG.

December 1958 – title-page illustration,

and four small b&w drawings (one shown here) for “The Woman-Hunting Sailors of the Sulu Sea Islands”.

February 1959 – “The Vanishing Legionnaire”. Other small illustrations for this article are by an unknown, uncredited artist.

April 1959 – “Give Me Every Woman in Paris”. Not a typical men's adventure mag article, this is a profile of the artist Amadeo Modigliani.

October 1959 – cover

April 1960 – “My 9 Years in a Vice-Ridden Penal Colony”

June 1960 – cover & interior for “The Adventurer Who Wrecked Germany's Amazon Slave-Girl Empire”

August 1960 - want

October 1960 – “Secret Life of Moscow's No. 1 Hell-Raiser”

April 1961 – “Pushover Blonde” art reused from STAG April 1957.

June 1961 – “Ed Delaney's Secret Female Escape Camp”

(not shown)

August 1961 – “Sailor's Girl” by Joe Gores >

December 1961 – cover & interior “We Were Hunted in Zanzibar's Port of Desperate Nymphs”. Interior was reused in SPORTSMAN November 1964. This is the painting that suggested Copeland had to be the uncredited artist of Berkley BG238.

<August 1962 – cover

October 1962 – cover>

and interior

<Oct 1962 interior “The Fleet-Wrecking Russian Nymph Who Staked Out a U.S. Naval Base”

February 1964 – cover>

- top art is for “That French Street Woman” (13 FRENCH STREET) by Gil Brewer, with interior art by Gil Cohen.

June 1964 – cover

August 1964 – “Big Mike's Wild Young Sister-in-law” by Mario Cleri (Mario Puzo). b&w>

October 1964 – “Hot Saturday”

June 1965 – cover. Copeland painted these odd sized half-cover paintings to scale per the publisher's instructions, using one half of an art board for each.

August 1965 – cover & interior

Aug 1965 interior is “Confessions of a Jet Set Calldoll”.

December 1965 - cover

February 1966 – “Those Two Hours With Nora” – reprinted in MEN ANNUAL #2, 1968 and TRUE ACTION March 1969.

April 1966 – “Those Girls at French Annie's Place”
June 1966 – “The GI Spy and the ‘Grotto of Wild Widows'”.
August 1966 – “Agent For Hire – 21, Gorgeous Legs, All Kills Guaranteed”.

February 1968 – “Blonde in the Pink Silk Jumpsuit”

April 1968 – “Health Club Tease” reused in ACTION FOR MEN May 1970.

October 1968 – duotone “Order Lucy For Tonight” by Mario Cleri (Puzo).

December 1968 – duotone “Private Game Girl”.

February 1969 – “The Games That Ginger Plays”.

This is Copeland's original art for the black & white illustration, titled “Ginger's Secret – MAN'S WORLD”, which suggests the title was changed late in the editorial process.

April 1969 – “The Blonde Swinger Next Door”. Copeland's b&w redraws his color painting for STAG December 1966, changing her hair color to match the title.

June 1969 – “Three Hot-Blooded Sisters” (from THIS VERY EARTH) by Erskine Caldwell. >

(Except for Oct & Dec 1971, my MAN'S WORLD collection from Oct 1969 through Dec 1974 is very weak. If you have issues from that period with Copeland art, please let me know.)

October 1971 – “More Than Naked”.>

December 1971 – “Girl Trap for a ‘Nazi Hell Ferry'” flipped & redrawn from MALE March 1967, used again in TRUE ACTION Nov 1969.

MEN

Collectors often talk about MALE and STAG being the cornerstones of the Diamond Group, and while that's true, MEN ran a very close third. It appeared on newsstands from 1952 until the early 1980s, first as a great men's adventure magazine with dynamic cover art and fine illustration. An early issue credits Monroe Froelich Jr. as Business Manager, Noah Sarlat as Editorial Director and Mel Blum as Art Director. Of all the adventure magazines I've looked at, MEN April 1956 is the earliest issue to credit artist Charles Copeland, for a story called “Michigan's Sexiest Twins”. It's about Saginaw and Bay City, the twin cities, and although “sexy” is not the first word that comes to mind when visiting them, they must have been something back in 1956.

Martin Goodman's paperback company Lion Books did not last, but Copeland's work for Goodman's publishing empire continued in magazines for another two decades. Some of the best Lion books were abridged for magazine reprints in MEN, most notably Jim Thompson's BAD BOY in the November 1956 issue illustrated by Charles Copeland.

In the mid-1960s MEN gave us a top-notch series of issues from the unbeatable team of editor B.J. Friedman, associate editors Mario Puzo et al, and art director Larry Graber. They lined up writers like James M. Cain and Richard S. Prather, and they used Copeland in almost every issue of that period. MEN ANNUAL #1 and #2 both feature Pussycat comic strips by Bill Ward.

MEN April 1956 – “Michigan's Sexiest Twins”.

November 1956 – “Private Lives of a Hell-Raiser” (BAD BOY) by Jim Thompson.
		February 1957 – “1001 Nights of Ruffian Dick”, the story of explorer Richard Burton.
May 1957 – “All of My Sons are Brave”
July 1957 – two illustrations “How to Cope With a Come-On Girl' looks like his work for BACHELOR or SWANK…

…and “The Blonde Booby Trap” (KISS HER GOODBYE) by Wade Miller, a Lion Library reprint using the cover art credited to “Richard Copeland” from the book, gets Charles Copeland's name right this time.

May 1958 – “The P.O.W.'s who Seduced a Town”>

June 1958 – “Queen of the Legion's Deserters” (not shown)

July 1958 – “The Love Couch Impostor”

<detail

plus two small second-page illustrations

August 1958 – “Wanted For Cannibalism: The Monster of Dusseldorf”

October 1958 – “Those Girls From Greenwich Village”. Not typical men's adventure fare. Almost everybody is paired off in this fun SWANK-style party scene; including the first depiction of a lesbian couple I ever remember seeing in the pages of MEN.

MEN October 1958

February 1959 – “Live-It-Up King of the Swindlers”

<duotone

April 1959 – “Uncle Johnny's Woman Farm” duotone>

June 1959 – “Punishment Compound for Frauleins”

December 1959 – “The Hell-Raising Saga of ‘Soldier Sam' Baldwin”

February 1960 – “A Giant Came Ashore”

Second-page illustration (not shown here) is also Copeland, later small illustrations by unknown staff artist.

MEN May 1960 – “Miss Society By Day ‘Any Bed Dolly' By Night”

When I was a young and naïve magazine collector, I used to think that the magazine editors would take a color painting and make half of it black & white, or all blues like this one, to save money. When I saw Copeland's original art for MEN May 1960, I realized that he was painting per the editor's exact requirements. This painting is half-color and half-duotone, exactly as it appears in the magazine.

July 1960 – “Fraulein Rosemary, $1000. a Night”

duotone. Not shown.

June 1961 – “The 50 Blushing Brides of ‘Deadly Jim' Watson”

<detail

November 1962 – “The Fraulein was a Tramp” reused: see TRUE ACTION May 1966.

May 1963 – cover and interior “Fastest Girl in Town”. Top of his three cover paintings and the interior are clever mirror images, not a flip but a reworking of the same scene. Copeland recycled this cover art for TRUE ACTION December 1965, where the lady has dark hair.

July 1963 – “The Passionate Hooker” by Henry Kane. Ah yes, the old gun in the teddy bear trick.

August 1963 – “Case of the Wild Widow” (from HUNTER AT LARGE) by Thomas B. Dewey.

September 1963 – two b&w illustrations for “Lost Village of Heathen Blondes”

December 1963 – “Redheaded Hellcat of Hershel Island” detail

January 1964 – “Strange Bedfellows” (not shown)

February 1964 – two illustrations for “Backwoods Tease” (THE BRAT) by Gil Brewer. Later smaller drawings are by an uncredited staff artist.

June 1964 – “Passionate Afternoons of Belle De Jour”. Second-page and all later drawings by uncredited staff artist.

September 1964 – “The Promiscuous Babysitter”

Not shown.

October 1964 – “Pushover Blonde in Room 504” detail.

Copeland will appear in 20 of the next 24 issues of MEN.

December 1964 – “The Loose, Young Widow of Sailor Street” by Mario Puzo writing as Mario Cleri. Recycled in TRUE ACTION Sept 1966.

January 1965 – “Buzz Ryan's Sensuous New Secretary”

February 1965 – “Oriental Pushover”

March 1965 – title page & second-page illustrations for “The Blonde From Shack Road” (CLAUDELLE INGLISH) by Erskine Caldwell.

Later small drawings are by a different artist.

April 1965 – title page & second-page illustration for “Killer's Nymph” (READY FOR THE TIGER) by Sam Ross. Later small drawings are by a different artist.

Reused in MALE ANNUAL #7, 1969.

<Apr 1965 second-page illustration

May 1965 – “Movie House Tease” reused in TRUE ACTION July 1969.

June 1965 – “The Girl With Hot Dreams”

July 1965 – “The Not-So-Pure Girl” detail

August 1965 – “Wild Girl on Parole” reused in TRUE ACTION July 1967.

October 1965 – “The Promiscuous Pick-Up” (from ENTER WITHOUT DESIRE) by Ed Lacy.

November 1965 – “Valley of Chained Blondes” <detail

December 1965 – title-page and second page >

illustrations for “Nude Redhead in Murder Trap 212” (from FIND THIS WOMAN) by Richard S. Prather.

January 1966 – “I Supply Beautiful Girls to Millionaires” (not shown)

February 1966 – cover and two interior illustrations for “The Sins of Sally Brown” (THE MAGICIAN'S WIFE) by James M. Cain.

Later small drawings are by an unknown staff artist.

Title-page illustration shown here.

March 1966 – “Vendetta on the Street of Lonely Frauleins” by Mario Cleri (pen name of associate editor Mario Puzo).

Second-page illustration (not shown) is by Earl Norem.

Introducing Scarlet Tracy. Not everyone can support a bra holster.

May 1966 –

cover and two illustrations

for “The Black Bra Caper” by James McKinney.

Second-page illustration>

And -

May 1966 title page - art was redrawn (no guns) for ACTION FOR MEN March 1969.

June 1966 – two illustrations for “Counter Nymph” by James Leasor.

July 1966 – bikers and Green Berets cover by Copeland

- plus interior “Golden-Legged Girl at Call-Doll Motel” (from MAKE MY BED SOON) by Jack Webb – detail

(second-page and other small drawings by staff artist)

September 1966 – two illustrations for “Killer's Love Slave” (THE HUNGRY ONE) by Gil Brewer.

January 1967 – cover

February 1967 – two illustrations for “Passion Trap at Counterkill House” (MAID IN PARIS) by Frank Kane.

Title page illustration is reused in ACTION FOR MEN September 1969.

Second-page illustration for Feb 1967. Later small drawings for this story are by a different artist.

October 1967 – “The Body Hunters” by Frank Kane.

Small back-pages drawings for this article are by a different artist.

December 1967 – “The Thrill-Kill Pack” (not shown)

MEN ANNUAL #1

Says 1966-67 on the cover, just 1967 inside.

Copeland cover and b&w interior “Nymph Blonde at the ‘Oasis of Bayonets'” reused from

MALE May 1965.

January 1968 – “That Party in Shack-Up Mansion”

March 1968 –“‘Come and Take Me' Nude” April 1968 – “Pure No More”

(Both illustrations use mirror images.)

June 1968 – “Castle of Strange Passions” July 1968 – “Buried Alive - - 36 Days in a Cong Hell Bunker” (not shown)
		August 1968 – “Bayou Girl” used again in STAG ANNUAL #9, 1970 (and shown there below). <September 1968 – “Let's Make Susan” October 1968 – “Encore With a Tease”>
		November 1968 - “One Hot Weekend”. This b&w 2-pager reuses color art from STAG November 1965, where it was used to illustrate a different story December 1968 – “Pillow Girl” detail
	MEN ANNUAL #2, 1968 – two illustrations: “Captive Females of Passion House” (THE BOMBSHELL) by Carter Brown > and “Hot Afternoon With Nora” reused from MAN'S WORLD February 1966 & used again in TRUE ACTION March 1969.

January 1969 – “The Surrender of Linda Rawlings”

February 1969 – “Sleep-In Nurse”

March 1969 – “Nude Blonde in Hangar 10”. Like his fellow MEN artist Bill Ward, Copeland was one of the all-time best at drawing gorgeous women wearing black bras and panties.

July 1969 – “Billie Mae's Love Cabin” reused for 1971 STAG ANNUAL. (not shown)

August 1969 – “The Body Traders” by Theodore Taylor.

October 1969 – “Wild Harvest” by Stephen Longstreet.

	November 1969 – “Greetings From a Nude Blonde”
December 1969 – “Louise's Love Pit” >		MEN ANNUAL #3, 1969 – cover (reused from MEN January 1967 cover) and interior illustration for “Backyard Nymph” (reused from MALE Feb 1967). May 1970 “The Love Teacher” reused in MALE ANNUAL 17, 1973.
August 1970 – “Weekend with a Wild Tease”
MEN ANNUAL #4, 1970 – b&w splash page for “The Marriage – The Seduction – The Peeping Toms” by Erskine Caldwell. MEN ANNUAL #14, 1973 – “The Body-Lock Blonde” reused from MALE Feb 1968.

MEN'S PICTORIAL

MEN'S PICTORIAL was not a Diamond Group magazine, and to date I've only discovered one freelance illustration in it by Charles Copeland. This magazine was published by New Publications of Canton, Ohio, with editorial offices at 205 E 42nd St. in New York City. This oddball piece is even more unusual because it is a Western story, an unusual assignment for Mr. Copeland. STAG and MEN published a lot of Western adventure stories but almost always used other artists to illustrate them.

MEN'S PICTORIAL

December 1957 – “The Day of the Killers” by William Rohde.

SPORTSMAN

A great adventure magazine of the 1950s & 1960s, SPORTSMAN was published by Male Publishing Corp. and was edited by Noah Sarlat. This Diamond Group publication always featured great covers of tough he-men battling animals or cannibals or both, and gave us such stories as “My God, The Sharks Got the Women!” and “Skull Splitters of the Amazon”. Copeland's July 1956 illustration for “A Lion for J.J.”, like most of his earliest magazine work, is very action-stylized. The men have enormous heads and muscles compared to the women beside them, like something you'd see in an adventure pulp or a Frazetta illustration. I love them. Copeland will refine his style to something more realistic as time goes by.

SPORTSMAN

July 1956 – “A Lion For J.J.”

May 1957 – “Senora Kelly – Savage of the Chaco”

(If you collect SPORTSMAN between 1958 and 1963 and find Copeland art, please contact me.)

November 1963 – cover (recycled from cover of FOR MEN ONLY May 1959) and interior illustration “Yankee King of Tononga Island” b&w re-use of duotone from MALE January 1961.

November 1964 – “Death Run From Zanzibar's Killer Nymphs” reprint from MAN'S WORLD Dec 1961.

February 1965 - want

STAG

Martin Goodman purchased the rights to STAG, a 1940s men's magazine, and turned it into a men's adventure magazine in 1950. It remained a cornerstone of his publishing empire for over 40 years. STAG was published by Official Magazine, then Atlas, then Magazine Management, all names for Goodman's Diamond Group. The longtime editor was Noah Sarlat. STAG ANNUAL was edited by Martin's son, Charles “Chip” Goodman. Charles Copeland contributed art to STAG for 17 years. Although it is difficult to imagine, our checklist here shows that Copeland appeared in 30 of the 36 issues STAG published from 1962 through 1964. STAG became a girlie magazine in the mid 1970s as tastes changed and the era of the men's adventure magazines died out.

STAG December 1956 – “Man-Hungry Emma Kolbe” detail. The story of a white cannibal queen. I think Emma might have been “man-hungry” in more ways than one.

April 1957 – “Pickup”

Reused for MAN'S WORLD April 1961.

The sideways look.

An early indication how good this artist was at painting in duotone.

July 1957 – “Man-Hungry Huntress” by William Woolfolk. Two-page duotone (shown in our Paperback Covers section with Berkley G199) and seven small b&w illustrations, two shown here:

December 1957 – “Brother Chalmers: Harem Keeper, Cannibal, Missionary”

The man throwing the spear shows up again on the Feb 1958 cover art for MAN'S WORLD.

January 1958 - “The Man-Hungry Queen of Brazil's Penal Legion”. There seemed to be a preponderance of man-hungry females in STAG's 1950s stories.

February 1958 – “Ten Years with the Legion of Hell” detail

Plus two small b&w drawings on second page:

Feb 1958 additional art

March 1958 – “The Strange Secret of Muto the Tenth”

November 1958 – “The Legend of Wild Jack Gascar”

(Charles Copeland's original art is shown above)

December 1958 – “32 Wives For the Captain”

May 1959 – “Air-Express Harem of Flight Officer Toni DeJong” (not shown)

October 1959 – “Bring Me Every Scarlet Woman in Missouri”

November 1959 – “Prophet Briggs and his Share – The –Wife Cult”

February 1961 – “Eighth Air Force Spy Drop at the House of Exotic Hostesses”

March 1961 – “The General, The Party Girl and 58 Hell-Raising Raiders” (not shown)

May 1961 – “The Night Belgium's Streetwalkers Captured Gestapo Headquarters” (not shown)

July 1961 – “The Harem HQ. of WWII's Missing-in-Action Major” (not shown)

September 1961 – “The Navy Crew That Kidnaped 77 Kamikaze Harem Virgins” (not shown)

<October 1961 – “The Society Nymph Who Seduced Gen. Pershing's

17^th Philippine

Scouts”

November 1961 – “Girl Who Led the Great Scientist – Kidnap Raid” >

December 1961 – “The Great Stakeout of L.A.'s Geisha Spy House” (not shown)

February 1962 – “Russia's Sex-for-Secrets Party Line Girls”

March 1962 – “The Yank Sergeant Who Ran DeGaulle's Secret Army of Women” (not shown)

April 1962 – “I Was the Last ‘Untouchable'” >

May 1962 – “Interpol 59 Phantom Global Crime Busters” reused in FOR MEN ONLY Oct 1965.

June 1962 – “Break-Out Team From Hell” (not shown)

July 1962 – “Troop-Following Comfort Girls” reused in COMPLETE MAN Sept 1965 (not shown) “one of those cuckoo chapters of the Korean War not recorded in official histories”.

September 1962 – “The Frauleins Who Were Smuggled Into the Maginot Line”>

October 1962 – “Hell-Raising Females in Logan's Ranger Army” reused in ACTION FOR MEN Sept 1965.

December 1962 – “Lisa – 100 Men Had Her Phone Number”- reprinted in b&w in COMPLETE MAN Feb 1965.

January 1963 – “No-Return Mission of Sgt. Lew Terelli”

February 1963 – “The GI Who Tracked Down Paris' Mademoiselle Underground”

March 1963 – “By Any Means… Stop Them From Killing King Hussein”

April 1963 – ‘Shocking ‘Backstage” Auctions in the World's Hottest Girl Town”

Reused in COMPLETE MAN March 1966. Not shown.

May 1963 – “‘By Invitation Only' Private Party Girls”

June 1963 – “Exposed: Show Business' Back-Room Vice Girls”
One for you redhead lovers

July 1963 – “Weird Red-Country Sex Game” reused in b&w in FOR MEN ONLY Sept 1965.

August 1963 – “Vice Girls Who Hustle Hotels”

September 1963 – “POW Breakout From Castle ‘No-Escape'”.

October 1963 – “Phantom Texan Who Bottled Up a Japanese Army”

December 1963 – “Night Mission With Laos' Hot-Blooded ‘Cemetery Girl' Commandos”

February 1964 – “Commando Hell-Raid on Fraulein Barracks”

March 1964 – “Cuba's Off-Limits Women Camps”

May 1964 – “9 Ways to Pre-Test Your Date's Sex Drive”. This self-help article is psychological hogwash; and surely the most inappropriate use of Nazis in STAG's history (see detail below).

Detail of May 1964 article. Do starving POWs and Nazis have anything to do with 1964 dating tips? Only in STAG.

June 1964 – “D-Day Sex Trap That Wrecked the Seventh Panzer Army”. Europe in 1944 – much better use of Nazis. Not true (“just released after 20 years”) but more appropriate than concentration camp references in dating tips.

July 1964 – book bonus “Quick, Before It Melts” by Philip Benjamin. (Later small illustrations for this book bonus are by an uncredited staff artist.) Although best known for his human beings, I think Copeland's animals are awesome. But people always ask what kind of animal this one is supposed to be – it's a seal.

August 1964 – “The Cheaters”

September 1964 – “Pickup For a Rainy Night”

October 1964 – “G-2's Nude Debutante Decoy of Embassy Row”

November 1964 – “Afternoon of a Passionate Redhead”

December 1964 – “The Great 36th Division Breakout”

January 1965 – “Concubine Village” (not shown)

March 1965 – “Until There Are None”

April 1965 – “Your No. 1 Man is a Soviet Spy!” The story of Kim Philby. Reused in b&w for ACTION FOR MEN March 1967.

August 1965 – “The Coed Trap” – art is redrawn for the 1968 MALE ANNUAL, where the man is a blonde and the pictures on the wall behind the woman change.

November 1965 – “Enough Man For Carolyn” (see MEN Nov 1968)

STAG ANNUAL #2, 1965 >
– two uncredited b&w illustrations for two stories by Erskine Caldwell: “The Seduction of Emily Brown” & “The Seduction of Mr. Sears”.

February 1966 – “Kuwait: Richest, Wildest Kingdom on Earth”. Wildest? Not so much any more.

March 1966 – “Summer Shack-Up”

Reprinted in b&w in ACTION FOR MEN May 1968.

April 1966 – two illustrations: “The Girl Who Taught Love” “art by Charles Copeland”, signed ‘C. Copeland' (reused in the Jan 1968 issue of TRUE ACTION, the guy in that story is not in the Army so there's no stripe on his sleeve); and…

…Copeland's second April 1966 appearance is “Vicious Red Plot to Auction Human Hostages”, “art by C. Wesley”, signed ‘Wesley' (his middle name).

<July 1966 – “Russia's Top Spy ‘Heroes' Unmasked”

August 1966 – “Behind the Over-Exotic-Girls Scandal” by Walter Kaylin. detail>

October 1966 – “Beach Girl For the Night”. Repainted for TRUE ACTION August 1971.

November 1966 – “Weekend with the Shackup Blonde” (not shown) reused in MALE ANNUAL #7, 1969.

December 1966 – “Hottest Tease in Town” reused in MAN'S WORLD April 1969, where the woman is a blonde.

January 1967 – “Locker Room Tramp” reused in TRUE ACTION March 1968, third use in ACTION FOR MEN July 1969.

Note: there are no Charles Copeland illustrations throughout the spring and summer of 1967.

October 1967 – “The Big Frame”

November 1967 – “The Hunted”
December 1967 – “Nude Blonde Neighbor”. This painting is reprinted in b&w as a second-page illustration in the 1969 STAG ANNUAL.

STAG ANNUAL #4, 1967 – cover and interior illustration for “Wife for a Hot Afternoon” by Erskine Caldwell.

I used to believe the editors of STAG pasted their covers together from different paintings (and sometimes they did). But this is what Charles Copeland's original art for the cover of STAG ANNUAL #4 looks like:

January 1968 – “The GIs Who Took Over Germany's ‘Live-It-Up' Castle” not shown

March 1968 – “Rendezvous With Caroline”

May 1968 – “The Fraulein Tunnel Barracks: Secret Yank POW Hideout”

June 1968 – “The Night Drexler's Wife Cheated”

July 1968 – “Nudist Camp Doctor”

STAG ANNUAL #5, 1968 – two Erskine Caldwell stories:

<“Hot Afternoon With Ellen”

And “Last Night With Laura”>

April 1969 – “Russia's Exploding Prostitution, Dope and Murder Scandals”

May 1969 – “Night of the Two–Couple Swap”

June 1969 – “Dealer in Death”

July 1969 – “The Terror Bureau”

September 1969 – “The Blonde Bribe”

October 1969 – “My ‘Very Private' Nurse” – later reused for the cover of ACTION FOR MEN Sept 1972, with the nurse changed to a blonde doctor.

November 1969 – “My Crazy Topless Blonde”. This time, the art does not match the title.

December 1969 – “The Girl Who Couldn't Wait”

Three b&w repeats in STAG ANNUAL #6, 1969: 1. “The Bedroom Lesson” from MALE May 1966; 2. second-page art for “Death Comes Naked” reused from STAG Dec 1967 (title page art by an uncredited Earl Norem);

And >

3. “Backseat Tease” “art by Barry Charles” reuses MALE Nov 1965 art with Copeland's signature visibly rubbed out in lower right corner.

January 1970 – “Susan at Bedtime”. A handsome nude male takes a sideways glance in STAG.

March 1970 – “I'll Take the Redhead”. Reprinted in the 1971 MALE ANNUAL.

July 1970 – “Julie – The Naked Hitch-Hiker”

August 1970 – “Twins are Twice as Loving”. Signature: C.W.C.

September 1970 – “3 Men – 3 Women Marooned on Sunken Treasure Key”

October 1970 – “Two Nudes in Motel Room No. 8”

November 1970 – “The Crowded Bed”

Home | Charles Copeland | Paperbacks | Mistakes / Movie Posters | Magazines

Lynn Munroe Books