Men’s Adventure Quarterly #14: The Bigfoot Issue!

It would have been around 1968 that a local theater in my hometown of Smyrna, GA booked a run for a nature documentary and tagged a short feature onto the bill; a 20-minute (or so) additional documentary that featured my first exposure to what would go on to become known as “The Patterson-Gimlin Film,” considered now for several decades to possibly be real live footage of a living, breathing Sasquatch (more on that at the end of this article). I was instantly fascinated and completely enamored with the concept of a North American equivalent to the more famous (at the time) Abominable Snowman, or Yeti. I walked out of the theater completely convinced in the existence of Bigfoot, who would hold a place of interest in my life for the next nearly six decades.

Throughout my childhood and into my teens and twenties, I continued to follow developments in the larger Sasquatch community. I bought the newest “non-fiction” books on the subject and searched out both documentaries on TV (The Mysterious Monsters, 1975) and the occasional theatrical release (The Legend of Boggy Creek, 1972), as well as cheaply-made “monster” movies featuring fictionalized attempts to scare me (such as Creature from Black Lake, 1976, which did the job quite nicely). Needless to say, the Bigfoot-related episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, 1976, were genuine early “must-see TV” engagements, along with Bigfoot and Wildboy (1977) on Saturday mornings.

So, it was with great enthusiasm that I saw that Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham had devoted the entirety of the newest edition of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY to reprinting with commentary some of the classic Sasquatch coverage from the past 60+ years of men’s adventure magazines. I have to admit I literally giggled when doing an initial flip-through of MAQ #14, the BIGFOOT ISSUE!

As is always the case with these MAQ publications, the high quality of the finished product is immediately evident upon opening the mailing package. Beautifully designed, printed, and artfully collected and presented (thanks, Bill Cunningham), this really is a love letter not only to the devoted Sasquatch fan, but also casts its net for the casual reader with an interest in the pulpier side of the subject. That said, within the pages of this issue we find several names who at one time or another have commanded degrees of respect within the Cryptozoological community that has sprung up around this hairy hominid over the ensuing decades. Names like Ivan T. Sanderson and Loren Coleman are celebrated (depending upon whose opinion you seek), plus guest contributions from pop culture expert Keith Roysdon and horror comic book artist/illustrator Stephen R. Bissette.

Perhaps the biggest single takeaway from perusing MAQ #14 is the fact that Bigfoot has become a foundational staple of modern pop culture in ways that can probably never be undone. Whether one chooses to believe in its existence or not, the Bigfoot enigma is with us and unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. Regardless of the eventual truth, we now have the definitive men’s adventure magazine take on it, combined with insightful modern commentary on the subject and its influence on popular culture through books, movies, and television.

The contents for MAQ #14 are pretty evenly split between reprints of classic Sasquatch-related stories from over the past several decades of men’s adventure magazines, combined with modern feature articles dealing with cultural impact. I found both to be highly entertaining. The reprinted stories all have a bit of a sensationalized quality to them, which is totally in keeping with the heightened thrill of discovery during the timeframes in which they were originally written.

Following an insightful editorial introduction from Bob Deis, these reprinted stories are each fascinating in its own right, helping the reader to understand the growth of not only the market for Bigfoot, but the cultivation and ongoing education of the fanbase. The original stories compiled within include:

• I HUNTED PREHISTORIC MEN by John Burns (Courage Magazine – 1958)

• THE STRANGE STORY OF AMERICA’S ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN by Ivan T. Sanderson (True Magazine – 1959)

• I FOUND AFRICA’S MAN-BEAST by Winston K. Morgan (Men Magazine – 1969)

• I KILLED THE APE-MAN CREATURE OF WHITEFACE by Frank Hansen (Saga Magazine – 1970)

• I SIGHTED THE YETI MONSTER THAT TERRORIZED ILLINOIS! By Jerry Little (Stag Magazine – 1976)

It’s interesting to observe the growth of the approaches to Bigfoot-related stories over time as the more fantastic elements creep into these reprints as they escalate over time from relatively straightforward science-light stories in the early reports into something much more indicative of first-person horror-adjacent concoctions most would associate with the men’s magazine source material. I found both directions entertaining, and appreciated the differing editorial approaches.

The focus articles are really what elevate this compendium for me personally, as I have a longstanding love affair with pop culture in general, but especially when the focus is on cryptids. As great as the time capsule-like reference articles are, the sheer volume of entertainment value and obscure information gathered in the articles is impressive, even to a jaded cryptid chaser like myself. And our guides prove themselves more than capable of providing a highly entertaining trip through the ongoing decades of Sasquatch-frenzy.

These articles get underway with a real heavy hitter—Loren Coleman’s overview of the TOP TEN BOOKS ON BIGFOOT. Coleman, Director of The International Cryptozoology Museum, takes his task seriously and offers a legitimate scholarly overview of resource publications that offsets the fevered mania that some of the collected authors herein bring to their musings. This is good stuff for the more serious-minded student of Sasquatch.

Keith Roysden provides a primer article on The Six Million Dollar Man TV show’s wildly popular multi-part episodes that dealt with the bionic man’s run-ins with aliens and their ability to control Bigfoot, who turns out to be a robotic machine not unlike Steve Austin himself. Illustrated with plenty of stills from the episodes, plus overflowing with details and behind-the-scenes insight, this is an engaging and informative reminder of just how popular Bigfoot became in the mid-70s.

However, nothing prepared my inner geek for the abundance of awesome that is found in Stephen Bissette’s article, POPSQUATCH: A Crash-Course on Where the Pop Cultural Bigfoot has Gone in the 21st Century. This article covers a personal favorite corner of Crypto-Fandom for me personally, Sasquatch as represented in popular culture, with a focus on fictional adventures in comics, books, and movies that cross multiple genres. I have always considered myself something of an expert in this area, yet author Bissette proves me to be a novice in spite of my best efforts. And the copious illustrations really bring some panache to everything!

Bissette stays aboard to provide the next article, an interview with comic author Steven Niles with an overview of he and famed artist Richard Corben’s BIGFOOT horror comic, published ion 2005. As a lifelong fan of Corben, I was shocked to discover that this existed and now I have to find a copy of each issue.

The final article is courtesy of co-editor and graphic designer, Bill Cunningham, and focuses on the Saturday morning live-action kids show, BIGFOOT AND WILDBOY, a show which I religiously watched every Saturday morning from 1977 through 1979 (ages 15‑17 for me at the time, a little long in the tooth for this show but, it WAS about Bigfoot!). The show was part of THE KROFFT SUPERSHOW, from Sid and Marty Krofft, most famous for their kids’ programming like H.R. Pufnstuff, Liddsville, and Land of the Lost. It’s all great stuff!

Finally, we are served up a gallery of illustrations and spreads from classic men’s adventure magazines. It’s definitely enough to make almost anyone with a pulse wish these types of publications still existed.

Co-editor Bob Deis closes everything out with an afterword that addresses the potential elephant in the room – the claims that the famous Patterson-Gimlin film may have been recently proven to be a hoax. I have not seen this evidence myself; I have only read about it. However, for me personally, I don’t know that its content really matters one way or another.

I choose to simply believe like I did as a 6-year old when I first saw the footage of a hairy man-ape walking on the edges of a forest. It looked cool. It captured my imagination. It made me want to learn more and I have spent the last almost 60 years chasing a deeper understanding and knowledge. That’s a recipe for living life right there!

MAQ #14 is available from Amazon or purchased directly from the publisher.

By Steve Carroll