Judging Books By Their Covers: Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze

This week in aesthetic central: A blast from my grocery-store past. Let’s dig in.

Man of Bronze (Doc Savage #1) by Kenneth Robeson:

When was it published: 1964

Cover Artist: James Bama

Just looking- Seems nothing says adventure quite like a khaki bush shirt, but wait…James Bama is going to give us a ripped khaki bush shirt! No wimpy clothes for you! (I hope the people my age read that last sentence in the Soup-Nazi’s voice). I see toughness and determination. True grit.

What it makes me think – The haircut and the facial features look a lot like one of my grandfather’s friends. He was a guy from the backwoods. Hunter, farmer, mechanic. Solid guy. That generation was something. I also remember seeing these novels near the checkout lines in Kroger when I was a kid. I connected them to the 1975 film which I loved, but I wasn’t old enough to tackle reading this sort of content at the time.

Would I buy it? Yes. It has adventure cool written all over it.