Latest “Men of Violence” tackles historical fiction

By John Freeman on November 22, 2018

The latest issue of the fanzine of men’s adventure paperbacks, Men of Violence (Issue 11) is a historical fiction special from Justin Marriott with a cover by Rik Rawling.

Historical fiction is popular today, but the number of titles available is nothing compared to the genre’s heyday between 1950 and 1980.

Step back in time and find out more about the fictional adventures of Vikings, Roman soldiers, pirates and soldiers of fortune from a team of writers that includes Paul Bishop and Joe O’Brien.

This 68 pages, all colour issue comes packed with reproductions of rare and unusual paperbacks, and includes a feature on “Forgotten Cover Artists”, plus articles, reviews, interviews and features onBarry Sadler’s Eternal Warrior, Casca and authors Stuart Cloette, Gardner Fox, Henry Treece, Talbot Mundy, Rosemary Sutcliff and Rafael Sabatini.

Justin Marriott publishes a series of terrific fanzines through Amazon’s Createspace service which are primarily dedicated to vintage paperbacks, but often cross over into comics material. They’re well worth a look.

• Men of Violence Issue 11 is available here on Amazon (using this link helps support downthetubes, thank you)

• Check out Justin’s most recent zines here on Amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support dowthetubes

• There’s an interview with Justin here about his titles on MensPulpMags

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.