 Never make a redhead angry. 
Above, a cover for Les aventures de Zodiaque #46, by Gaston Martin for Éditions de Neuilly, 1953, with cool art of a lethal redhead painted by Aldé. In French “manque” means “lack,” but we don't know “pot.” The phrase “mon pot” means something like mate or friend, but we have a feeling “manque de pot” could mean something unusual. Anyway, you can see more Les aventures de Zodiaque and learn a bit about its history by clicking the keywords below. Update: Jo to the rescue again:
«Manque de pot» means «lack of luck» Pot is a slang word for luck. No relation with a pot or a jar.
Thanks, Jo.
 Let me put it to you the only way men seem capable of understanding. 
Cool Aldé cover art for Les aventures de Zodiaque #33 — Drôle de musique, published by Éditions de Neuilly in 1952. We talked a bit about Aldé and Zodiaque several years ago, so if you're curious just follow this link. We also have a cover collection you can peruse here.
 Twelve signs of the Zodiac. 
Not long ago we showed you the cover from one installment of a French pulp series called Les aventures de Zodiaque. That was a lovely piece of art, but the series had modest beginnings. Above and below are one dozen fronts from the series’ early days, when it was being published in Montreal by Éditions PTE under agreement from the French parent publisher Éditions de Neuilly. These are all from the early 1950s.
Edit: Writing six years later, we realize now that these are not random women on these covers. They're celebrities. Or at least, we assume so, because we recognize Belgian actress Dominique Wilms on the fifth cover below, the light brown one. If we identify others we'll update this little addendum, but don't count on it, because if, like Wilms, the other women are French or Belgian, well, we're not as good on those actresses as we'd like. But we'll sure try.          
 The Zodiac is watching your every movement. 
Les aventures de Zodiaque was one of France’s most poplar pulp-style serials. Published by Editions de Neuilly throughout the 1950s, this one is entitled Cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un zéro and appeared in 1957, making it the 183rd entry in the series.
The man who worked overtime to churn these out was Gaston Martineau, aka Gaston Martin, and the stories involved the exploits of Zodiac and his sidekicks Elayne, Dede and a reporter named Gaston Martin (subtle, no?). The cover was painted by Aldé, who we gather was Martin in disguise. You have to be impressed. You’ve probably noticed the black “Europe n° 1” on the cover. That isn’t part of the title. Martin had been interviewed on the recently launched radio network Europe n° 1 by Pierre Maintigneux, and the cover was publicizing that fact. There’s a photo of Martin and Maintigneux on the rear of the book from the interview. We’ll get back to this series pretty soon, but for now you can see more covers at Muller-Fokker’s excellent webpage here.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1962—Marilyn Monroe Sings to John F. Kennedy
A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday," which does more to fuel speculation that the two were sexually involved than any actual evidence. 1926—Aimee Semple McPherson Disappears
In the U.S., Canadian born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears from Venice Beach, California in the middle of the afternoon. She is initially thought to have drowned, but on June 23, McPherson stumbles out of the desert in Agua Prieta, a Mexican town across the border from Douglas, Arizona, claiming to have been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and held for ransom in a shack by two people named Steve and Mexicali Rose. However, it soon becomes clear that McPherson's tale is fabricated, though to this day the reasons behind it remain unknown. 1964—Mods and Rockers Jailed After Riots
In Britain, scores of youths are jailed following a weekend of violent clashes between gangs of Mods and Rockers in Brighton and other south coast resorts. Mods listened to ska music and The Who, wore suits and rode Italian scooters, while Rockers listened to Elvis and Gene Vincent, and rode motorcycles. These differences triggered the violence. 1974—Police Raid SLA Headquarters
In the U.S., Los Angeles police raid the headquarters of the revolutionary group the Symbionese Liberation Army, resulting in the deaths of six members. The SLA had gained international notoriety by kidnapping nineteen-year old media heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment, an act which precipitated her participation in an armed bank robbery. 1978—Charlie Chaplin's Missing Body Is Found
Eleven weeks after it was disinterred and stolen from a grave in Corsier near Lausanne, Switzerland, Charlie Chaplin's corpse is found by police. Two men—Roman Wardas, a 24-year-old Pole, and Gantscho Ganev, a 38-year-old Bulgarian—are convicted in December of stealing the coffin and trying to extort £400,000 from the Chaplin family.
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