Stanley’s Style: Sweat and Wild

Part of a 100th-birthday tribute to artist Robert Stanley.


(Above) Stanley’s cover for Adventure, May 1949.

Not long after I inaugurated this Killer Covers series about Robert Stanley, I was contacted by Key West, Florida, writer Robert Deis. A former political consultant, Deis is now the brains behind Men’s Pulp Mags, a handsomely illustrated blog focused on men’s adventure magazines (aka “sweat mags”) of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. He has also edited a variety of books—including Pollen’s Women: The Art of Samson Pollen (2018) and I Watched Them Eat Me Alive: Killer Creatures in Men’s Adventure Magazines (2017)—about the artists and authors whose work appeared in such periodicals.

Deis noted that while our biographical sketch of Robert Stanley laid out his career as a contributor to detective-fiction and Western-fiction publications, it omitted mention of his having “painted scores of cover and interior illustrations for men’s adventure magazines in the 1950s and 1960s.” Deis volunteered to send some of Stanley’s sweat mag artwork my way. Naturally, I accepted his offer.

Below, you will find most of the images Deis provided. They come from such varied but thematically aligned sources as Adventure, Stag, and For Men Only. Stanley provided cover art as well as interior illustrations for these pulpish products; six of each can be seen here.

In addition, I’ve installed at the bottom of this post a quartet of Stanley’s interior paintings from The Saturday Evening Post, just to make clear that he had a more refined, romantic side to him, as well, and wasn’t afraid to show it. (The Post scans are borrowed from the Today’s Inspiration Group pages on Facebook.)

Click on any of the images here to open an enlargement.

(Left to right) For Men Only, October 1956; Stag, November 1956


True Action, August 1960; O.K. for Men, April 1959


Adventure, June 1954; Stag, February 1957


Guy magazine, March 1959


Ken for Men, May 1959


Action for Men, January 1962


Male, June 1962


Action for Men, September 1964


Man’s Magazine, December 1966


(Left to right) “Rosanne and the Sailor,” by William Ashley Anderson, The Saturday Evening Post, April 24, 1954; “Outcast of the Florida Keys,” by Frank Skipp, The Saturday Evening Post, October 31, 1954.


“What Family She Had,” by William Holder, The Saturday Evening Post, January 24, 1953; “Rich Girl’s Whim,” by Frederick Borg, The Saturday Evening Post, September 27, 1952.