Original Men’s Adventure Magazine Illustration by Samson Pollen

Offered here is an exceptionally rendered, exceedingly sexy, vintage and original gouache on board grayscale illustration by the prolific and frequently-published illustrator Samson Pollen.

A classic example of 1970s men’s magazine art, this heady, thrilling illustration was published in a November 1970 issue of For Men Only magazine with the title of “Locker Room Tease”. Notations in the margin of the illustration also indicate that it may have been published again in a December issue of True Action magazine under the title “Gridiron Nymph”.

Chocked full of innuendo and sex appeal, Pollen manages to make grayscale pop with his rendering of a voluptuous and beautiful pin-up girl in thigh-high boots and a short jersey bearing the number 69. This provocative blonde uses her sexual prowess to distract football players and their coach as they try to map out plays on a blackboard in the locker room.

Men’s Adventure Magazines as a Genre

Men’s adventure magazines (or MAM’s) were a genre of magazine published in the United States from the 1940s up until the early 1970s. Catering to male audiences, these magazines featured pin-up girls and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime feats of daring, exotic travel, or conflict with wild animals. These magazines were also colloquially known as “armpit slicks”, “men’s sweat magazines”, or “the sweats”, especially by people in the magazine publishing or distribution trades.

Samson Pollen

Samson Pollen was a prolific illustrator in the genre of Men’s Adventure Magazines. In particular, Pollen’s dangerously beautiful women have gained quite a bit of attention themselves with the publication of the picture book, Pollen’s Women: The Art of Samson Pollen.

Pollen created hundreds of cover art and interior illustrations during the heyday of this genre, from the mid-1950s to the 1970s, and he is considered to be one of the greats.

Pollen recently passed away in December of 2018 and this never-before-seen original illustration is from his own collection.

This illustration is in excellent condition with no visible wear to the image area. The illustration board shows scattered corner and edge wear, but would be easily hidden behind matting and framing. Truly, a fantastic piece of mid-century American illustration!

The board measures 20″ x 30″ with an image size of 16″ x 25″