An action packed Cold War-era interior illustration by Bruce Minney for the October, 1965 edition of For Men Only. Illustrating the special book bonus story by Bill S. Ballinger, Nude Of The China Seas, an excerpt from The Spy in the Jungle, book three in the Joaquin Hawks thriller series.  The story itself focuses on Hawks’s James Bond-inspired escapades with Anna, a double agent described on the title page as follows:

“She was wilder and deadlier than a panther, but Hawks had to tame her or half of Asia would be plunged into war…”

The illustration showcases the CIA agent using his kung-fu skills (an unusual talent for an American to have in the pre-Bruce Lee days) to take down a VietCong general in Saigon. Along with the blood stained skirt and ripped blouse of the blonde in the foreground, a poster of Chairman Mao and a Hammer & Sickle flag hang from the walls to remind the viewer what manner of menace Hawks is up against.

 

A recent estate find by Grapefruit Moon Gallery from the collection of Bruce Minney, as featured on the television series American Pickers.