Description

One Man Army: The Action Paperback Art of Gil Cohen edited by Robert Deis & Wyatt Doyle

Hardcover – New Texture – Mar 2020 – 136 pages

Artist Gil Cohen is one of the towering figures in several art realms.

In recent decades he has established himself as one of the world’s premier military aviation artists. His beautifully-rendered, historically accurate paintings of military planes and their crews and high end prints of them are popular with aficionados of that realm throughout the world.

Early on in his career as an artist, starting in the 1950s, Gil was one of the top cover and interior artists for men’s adventure magazines (MAMs). Most of his MAM artwork was used for MAMs published by Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management company — the “Diamond logo” group that included ACTION FOR MEN, FOR MEN ONLY, MALE, MAN’S WORLD, MEN, STAG, and TRUE ACTION, among others.

There is a third realm that Gil is known for: his paperback cover artwork. In that realm he is best known as the primary cover artist for the hugely popular novels based on Don Pendelton’s character Mack Bolan, The Executioner. He also did the initial artwork for the Mack Bolan spinoffs: the SuperBolan series, the Stony Man series, the Able Team series and the Phoenix Force series.

The paperback edition of ONE MAN ARMY showcases full color reproductions of nearly 100 of Gil’s original Executioner, SuperBolan, Stony Man, Able Team, and Phoenix Force cover paintings. The deluxe hardcover edition includes more than 100.

The book opens with a quote about Gil by Linda Pendleton. Linda is Don’s widow and a prolific author of novels and non-fiction books in her own right. She co-authored several books with Don before his death in 1995, including the first entry in the Executioner comics series, and wrote the definitive book THE EXECUTIONER, DON PENDLETON CREATES MACK BOLAN. She maintains the Official Don Pendleton Website which includes in-depth information about him, his Mack Bolan novels, and the many other types of books he wrote.  What Linda says about Gil in ONE MAN ARMY will ring true to any serious Mack Bolan fan:

“When I visualize Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan, I see Bolan as Gil Cohen portrayed him on the covers of Don’s Executioner novels, and on numerous early Harlequin Executioners and spinoff series. Don loved Gil’s cover art, and I still receive comments from Executioner fans who mention how much they like Gil Cohen cover illustrations. Seventeen years of wonderful Mack Bolan cover illustrations by a very talented artist! I’m sure the scenes on the covers helped to sell books. Gil Cohen is very much a part of the Don Pendleton-Mack Bolan tradition of nearly half a century. The Executioner series would not be the same without Gil Cohen’s illustrations.” — Linda Pendleton