| Vintage Pulp | Aug 8 2021 |
When you choose an inspiration choose the best.
Above you see a cover from Beacon Signal books, circa 1960, for All Woman by Matt Harding. The woman in this case is the legendary Bettie Page, rendered by illustrator Jack Faragasso. Page appeared on vintage book covers several times, either in photo or painted form. We've shown you examples of both types here and here, and you'll notice one of those covers is also by Faragasso. Clearly he had an affinity for Page, and there's a reason. When he was attending the Art Students League of New York in 1951 he shot nude photos of her. This was before she was well known. Faragasso later published those images in a book, but as far as using them as inspiration for paperback covers, he did it only twice. We'll keep an eye out for more Page covers. For that matter, we'll keep an eye out for more Faragasso covers too.
New York CityArt Students League of New YorkBeacon SignalMatt HardingBettie PageJack Faragassocover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Jan 22 2017 |
When the dean's away the wife will play.
Above, another entry in the school sleaze genre, The Dean's Wife, by Lee Thomas for Beacon Books. Thomas was a pseudonym used by author Lee Floren, who also wrote as Matt Harding, Will Watson, and possibly other entities. He didn't just write sleaze—he authored numerous westerns, and generally wrote those under his own name. The Dean's Wife is copyright 1963, and the art is by Charles Copeland.
| Intl. Notebook | Nov 28 2014 |
Thank you! That was the best Thankgiving turkey ever!
We totally forgot to acknowledge Thanksgiving yesterday, because, well, we don’t have that holiday here. Here, that day is nothing more than the day after hump day. But for the last five years we’ve hosted friends the Saturday after Thanksgiving and amazed and thrilled them with U.S.-style feasts, after which they say, “No wonder Americans are so fat.” We always have to special order the turkey, but everything else is readily available here, though used in different ways. For example, mashed potatoes? Forget it. Candied yams? Wait, you’re gonna do what with those? Anyway, to the U.S. readers of Pulp Intl., happy belated Thanksgiving.
We also let another milestone pass unnoticed—Pulp’s anniversary. It was on November 1, 2008 that this site went live, so we’re into our seventh year of operation. There were some bumps along the way. Black Bomber once had to flee San José City to avoid a machete attack, and P.S.G. Pumpometer had to manuever his way through a hairy confrontation in an alley in Marrakech. And then there were the really scary moments—server problems. But we’re still here and the site is drawing healthy traffic. Not bad for something we came up with as a timekiller. While drinking. Heavily.
