It's been a couple of years since we had a cover by French illustrator Jean Salvetti, so here's one for Dorothy ouvre le bal, or “Dorothy opens the ball,” published in 1952 by Paris based Éditions le Trotteur and written by Oscar Montgomery, aka José del Valle. There were three books in the Dorothy series, with this one coming second. Short synopsis: Dorothy goes to Egypt, hurts a bunch of bad men. As you can see, Salvetti signed his work Salva. More Salva here, here and here. 

So, after all these years the consensus among experts finally is that cover artist Jacques Thibésart's stylized signature should be read Mik instead of Nik, so we've shared this cover today to call attention to the change we've made to all his previous mentions on Pulp Intl. The man has caused no end of trouble. But he's worth it, because just look at this piece above, with a femme fatale Harveying the living daylights out of a problematic male. This fronts Bevis Winter's Quand elles se mettent à cogner... which was published by Éditions Le Trotteur in 1953 for its series Le Roman de Choc, or Shock Novel. Winter was an English author active during the 1950s who published as Hyman Zoré, Al Bocca, Gordon Shayne, Peter Cagney, and other pseudonyms. It's possible—but not certain—that Quand elles se mettent à cogner... is actually a translation of Larry O'Brien's 1950 thriller Angels Bruise Easy. But don't quote us on that, because French mid-century popular literature is a constant mystery and not even the experts seem able to unravel it. 

This beautiful cover was painted for Éditions le Trotteur's popular collection Espions et Agents Secrets by Nik, aka Jacques Thibésart, and illustrates Yannick Williams', aka Jacques-Henri Juillet's 1953 thriller Mademoiselle “Chauve Souris”, aka Miss “Bat”. That's a lot of aka's, and here comes one more. In French souris means “mouse,” chauve means bald, and the two words together mean “bat”—literally “bald mouse.” French paperback titles can get a little slangy, though. Souris by itself—a mouse—is also a word for a pretty woman. So there could be another aka happening here in the form of a pun. We don't know. Jo, where are you? We need you on this one.

Oh, and there's one more thing, also aka related. Thibésart has an unusual signature—not visible on this cover but viewable here—in which the “N” could be read as a stylized “M.” Just lately, online experts are beginning to wonder if his signature should be read “Mik” instead of “Nik.” Thibésart is still around, but in classic French fashion refuses to discuss any of this despite several queries being floated his way. So for now we'll stick with Nik. Also, we don't want to change all our previous posts on this guy. We will update later if needed.

Update: it was needed.

Above, top notch cover art by Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, for Jo Claver’s Bombe atomique à Port-Lyautey, which was published by Éditions Le Globe and Éditions Le Trotteur in 1956. Claver was aka Georges Claver-Peyre, and this particular book is Cold War intrigue and romance set in Morocco. See more fine Thibésart here and here.

We love this cover. It looks very much to us like the man who’s being choked was staring at a woman’s breasts and can’t take his eyes off them—even while being choked. That’s dedication. Y’en a marre… p’tite tête, by the way, means something like “fed up… little head.” Presumably that’s another of those French terms you have to be French to really understand. We'll await illumination via e-mail.

Update: Jo B. comes to the rescue again: "Petite tête" means that you have no brain, that you forget everything you've got to do or that you've been told. It means also that you're absent minded. On the contrary, "forte tête" which means "strong head" is used to design a person with a rough character, who doesn't like rules, who contests everything, doesn't like discipline and is always against the law. In roman noir, he's a bad boy, quite a gangster, the guy who doesn't tell anything to the police even if he's tortured or beaten. As the expression is used on a roman noir cover, I would say that the "petite tête" is used to design a bad guy who ain't got any future in gangster life, who will never be a "forte tête," who will be a loser and say everything to the police if he's arrested. It's pejorative and insulting.

Thank you again, Jo. You've been a great help, and thanks so much for continuing to visit the site.

Above, a cover for Elle ondule du popotin, written by Jack Norton for Éditions Le Trotteur’s Collection Paprika and published in 1953. Norton was of course a pseudonym, in this case for Jean de Backer, who also wrote as Jacques Norton, Henry Ghils, and others. The title of this translates rather provocatively as “she sways her ass,” which is exactly what the artist seems to have been trying to depict with this femme fatale in sheer lingerie. That artist was Alex Pinon, a favorite of ours. We haven’t really begun to share his work the way we’d like, but we will, and in the meantime, if you click over to our keyholes collection from last July, you can see a few more Pinons there. By the way, “popotin”? That’s one of the funnier words for butt we’ve heard. Not great as a song lyric, but maybe we can work it into conversation sometime. 

Well, after yet another failed New Year’s Eve effort to obliterate ourselves before the calendar turned we find ourselves here in the strange and uncharted territory called 2014. Never thought we’d make it this far, but since we did let’s get back to some pulp with yet another excellent Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, cover, this one for Ça va être ta fête, aka “It’ll Be Your Birthday.” We really like this piece, especially the foreboding monochromatic landscape into which the beleaguered femme fatale is about to pitched unless she comes up with some groin destroying karate or a fingernail rake to the eyes. Not related to the 1960 French movie thriller of the same name (as far as we know), this was published by Éditions le Trotteure for their series Les Grands Romans Noirs in 1953, and written by Peter Viane, who was a pseudonym used by Pierre Cambon and his wife Viviane Pernet. To see more Mik, click.