Vintage Pulp | Feb 22 2024 |
Aw, look. She's all puckered up and ready for a kiss.
Sure, we went there. Why not? We built our own wesbite so we can write any damn thing we want. Above you see another Europa Books foldout cover, Fritz Jantzen's 1963 sleazer Berlin Bed, which we found on Flickr, then brightened up a bit. The author obviously used a pseudonym, possibly for Charles Nuetzel, who is known to have used the name Jantzen. The art here is by Bill Edwards, identifiable anyway from the style, but doubly so thanks to the band-aid. If you want to see more Europa foldout covers, and learn a little about the company just click its keywords below and scroll.
Vintage Pulp | May 16 2022 |
Her situation is already bad, but as it unfolds it gets even worse.
A woman in a dire situation stars on this cover for Jack Leech's 1963 sleaze novel Satan's Daughters (interestingly, while Leech is credited as author on the outside, John Trimble gets credit inside, so take your pick). The artist here is Bill Edwards, and this is another foldout effort he painted for Europa Books. We love these things, but we wish there were more. As we mentioned previously, there are probably only five.
Vintage Pulp | Sep 27 2021 |
Are we safe? Beats me. I don't actually know much about wildlife. I became a great white hunter strictly for the babes.
Instantly recognizable Bill Edwards art of a woman reclining in grass fronts H.T. Lord's 1963 sleaze novel Sin Safari. This was published by Europa Books with one of its rare foldout covers. You see both the folded front and the extended cover here, and you can see another example we shared several years ago at this link. We don't know how many of these fold-outs the company produced, but our guess is a mere five, because that's how many we've seen across a decade of searching.
Turning our attention back to Edwards, his style is usually distinct enough to identify at a glance, but assuming one is unsure and the piece is unsigned, it can be confirmed as his work thanks to his trademark—a mole on his women's cheeks. But he didn't do that 100% of the time, and in fact didn't do it here. Instead he's placed a Band-Aid on her thigh. We don't know what that's about, but he painted Band-Aids on his women at least a few times, giving his work another identifiable element. We'll have more from Edwards and Europa soon.
Turning our attention back to Edwards, his style is usually distinct enough to identify at a glance, but assuming one is unsure and the piece is unsigned, it can be confirmed as his work thanks to his trademark—a mole on his women's cheeks. But he didn't do that 100% of the time, and in fact didn't do it here. Instead he's placed a Band-Aid on her thigh. We don't know what that's about, but he painted Band-Aids on his women at least a few times, giving his work another identifiable element. We'll have more from Edwards and Europa soon.
Vintage Pulp | Apr 16 2016 |
You're hired. Now let's have you fill out an application so everything's official.
Here's a beautiful art piece we saw on an auction site a while back, 1963's Sexual Interlude from Europa Books, Ltd., which was a U.S. publisher that specialized in sleaze novels with fold-out covers. The illustrator isn't credited, but we know Bill Edwards painted some Europa fronts and in fact this looks very much like his work—so much so that we're going to say it's him and await confirmation or correction. The author likewise isn't noted on the cover but the book was written by Fred Dessiers, who doesn't appear anywhere else in the literary record that we can find. Europa fold-outs are rare because the company was short-lived, but this discovery shows that their novels are worth seeking, at least for the art.
Femmes Fatales | Aug 12 2009 |
The greatest tourist attraction for hundreds of miles around.
French burlesque performer Lily Niagara, seen here at Le Crazy Horse saloon in Paris during filming for Alessandra Blasetti’s sex documentary Europa di notti, 1959.