PACKING HEAT

The gun? Sorry to say that’s so I can deal with about 200 pounds of excess baggage I don’t want on this trip.

The Blonde and the Boodle, from Sexton Blake Library, entry number 394, is a labyrinthine tale by British author Jack Trevor Story of thwarted love and a thwarted bank heist. Basically, girl marries a crook, girl is influenced to rob bank, girl loses loot, girl decides husband is louse, girl looks for replacement, girl selects someone even worse than her first choice.

All very interesting, but what we really wanted to do was share the amazing art, which is by Fernando Carcupino, a man so respected as an artist he was knighted. Really—in 1983 he was made a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. That takes talent. Sexton Blake books have a vertical cover banner, but we’ve cropped that so you can see Carcupino’s work a bit more closely. For the purists among you we’ve uploaded the full cover as well. We’ll try to dig up more examples of this genius’s output later.

Italy, Britain, Sexton Blake Library, Fernando Carcupino, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 7

1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).

October 6

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.