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

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "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.

Categories: Books, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: Casca, Cover Art, downthetubes News, Fanzines, Henry Treece, Historical Adventure, Justin Marriott, Men of Violence, Rafael Sabatini