| Vintage Pulp | Jul 11 2021 |
A dozen reasons to love French cover art.
We've done plenty on illustrator Jef de Wulf. Today we have a diverse collection of more of his work. As always, we'll circle back to him later. In the meantime, we recommend looking here, here, here, here, and here.
FranceJef de WulfAndré MartelKarl Von EckeJuan ManceroYvan Noé. Gore VidalNadine B.Terry CraneAlain MontbloyAllan BlythRice Lansencover artliteraturecover collection
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 23 2021 |
Paperback publishers get it up in Paris.
Below, seven more examples of vintage paperbacks using the Eiffel Tower on their covers. You can add these to the collection of twenty-two we put together a few years back.
FranceParisDigit BooksBernard NewmanMichel AtkinsonJulian PaulBarrowLouis-Charles RoyerJoseph HeronFrancoise DorysGeorge GoodmanRichard SpongPeter Cheyneycover artcover collectionliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 1 2021 |
John Creasey's franchise sleuth gets all the best lines.
Above, mid-century design in the form of Panther Books' Toff series by British author John Creasey. These covers from 1964 and 1965 combine photo-illustrations with beautiful line-based graphic design to excellent effect. The Toff is the nickname of a character named Richard Rollinson, the classic gentleman sleuth. Creasey published more than fifty Toff novels between 1938 and 1977, and more than six hundred books total under his name and twenty eight pseudonyms. We haven't read any, and the volume of output makes us question whether his books can be of high quality, but we may try the Toff anyway. Those upper class English gents are so hard to resist.
| Vintage Pulp | May 20 2021 |
A shot in the arm may finally set us free.
We got our vaccinations today, and in commemoration we have a collection of paperback covers featuring syringes. These should be considered a supplement to the larger collection of needles we put together in 2013. The process of vaccination was surprisingly efficient. The health pros were going thorough people at a rate of about one per minute. There's been no controversy here. No talk about refusing. Vaccinations are considered the right and sensible thing to do. We've had some shots before in our lives and mostly didn't feel them. This one felt exactly someone stabbing you in the arm with a long, sharp object.
During the last year-plus about ten friends got sick and recovered, and a couple of friends died, one in Guatemala and one in the U.S. But we can't complain about how the period has gone for us. We have plenty of space, an ocean view, mellow girlfriends, and we work online. Having all of that makes us reflect upon how difficult it's been for so many others. Early last year we threw a birthday party for PSGP. That party turned out to be the last get together between our social group, the last hurrah. Well, when it seems safe we're having a first hurrah. And we'll toast to our lost friends. Let's hope all these vaccinations work. More needles below.
R.L. GoldmanNelson AlgrenRoland VaneAndrew ShawGil LawrenceAlbert L. QuandtLeonard GribbleSloane BritainSloane BrittonGérard MoreauReginald HeadeLeslie Huxoncover artcover collectionliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 12 2021 |
Better late than never is our motto around here.
We're finally getting back to paperback artist Gene Bilbrew, whose odd style, with its scantily clad women and their muscular butts has become collectible in recent years. We didn't get it at first, but like a lot of art, once you're exposed to it regularly you begin to appreciate its unique qualities. There's clear intent in Bilbrew's work, a deliberate attempt to approach illustration from a different angle, and we've grown to understand that his cartoonish, chaotic, often humorous, and often bondage themed aesthetic is purposeful. In fact, his imagery has become so intertwined with the bdsm scene that in 2019 the National Leather Association International established an award named after Bilbrew for creators of animated erotic art. While it's not exactly a Pulitzer Prize, the point is that Bilbrew's bizarre visions keep gaining wider acceptance. So for that reason we've put together another group of his paperback fronts. You can see more of them here, here, and here, and you can see a few rare oddities here, here, and here.
After Hours BooksWizard BooksUnique BooksChevron BooksCorsair BooksFirst Niter BooksCrescent BooksSatan PressWee Hours BooksGene BilbrewHolly AdamsRussell TrainerReggie CarrArnold DixonMyron KosloffJane GreerLydia HansonDarrin WinslowJames MichaelsLana PrestonJoel FabianJohn Parkercover artliteraturecover collectionbdsm
| Vintage Pulp | Jan 5 2021 |
He may be gone but his good works live on.
Above, five more paperback covers painted by Jean Salvetti—aka Salva—who we've featured several times before. French paperback illustrators, except for Aslan, Michel Gourdon, and a few others, tended toward more freeform styles, but their command of color was excellent and we've always liked their approach. Click Salvetti's keywords below to see more.
FranceÉditions le TrotteurYves RollatRoddy GerfeeldJack NortonRudy BombergJack AuburtinJean SalvettiSalvacover artcover collectionliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 31 2020 |
Some people need a mental health day every day.
We were going to post an assortment of covers we thought were scary, but when we came across these Psycho fronts we realized they were all we needed. The creation of veteran horror author Robert Bloch and originally published in 1959, one of literature's early homicidal psychopaths remains frightening even today. When Bloch wrote Psycho the concept of psychopathy was little known in American culture, but after Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 movie adaptation, as well as the real-world Dahmers and Specks and Bundys, that naïveté evaporated. Now everyone knows psychopaths are real and live among us.
Bloch's man-child Norman Bates, a sadist and misanthrope with lust/hate feelings toward women, was able despite his dysfunctions to operate in society with a veneer of civility, and was capable of love, but only a stunted and twisted variety instilled by an emotionally violent forebear from whose shadow he could never fully escape. Sound like anybody you know? We have mostly front covers below, along with a rear cover and a nice piece of foldout art we found on the blog toomuchhorrorfiction. These are all English editions. We'll show you one or two interesting non-English covers later.
Crest BooksWarner BooksCorgi BooksTOR BooksPsychoRobert BlochAlfred HitchcockJanet Leighcover artcover collectionliteraturehorror
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 10 2020 |
All these books are on our bucket list.
When you look at paperback covers every day it's interesting the common elements you notice. Of late, we've noticed buckets. They pop up on backwoods and rural sleaze novels, usually in amusing fashion, often in the possession of hardworking women going about difficult chores while nearby men don't do dick. We'll just tell you—that's not the way it works around our place.
Venus BooksCameo BooksCarnival BooksSignet BooksGold Medal BooksPyramid BooksPeggy GaddisHarry WhittingtonAmos HatterSilvia ErskineStuart EngstrandWilliam Brown MeloneyJacques du Boutcover artcover collectionliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 7 2020 |
British publisher Corgi slips its readers some Mickeys.
A while ago we found a cover of Mickey Spillane's The Deep from Corgi Books and commented that we thought the art was by an Italian illustrator named Renato Fratini. That's now confirmed. Fratini painted covers from British publishers such as Corgi, Coronet, Hodder, and Pan, and was also prolific in the realm of magazine art and movie posters. Above and below we have more of his Corgi-Spillane covers, published during the mid-1960s. Fratini sometimes produced alternate versions of these, and other times Corgi changed the background colors for later editions, which means there are even more Fratini-Spillane pieces out there to be found. We also couldn't find a usable cover for Bloody Sunrise, starring his spy character Tiger Mann. Maybe we'll have better luck with that later. But as it stands, this is a nice little collection showcasing an interesting artist who we think deserves to be more widely known.
| Vintage Pulp | May 17 2020 |
Kiss me and I'll kiss you back.
Below, another collection of covers featuring characters expressing a little affection, a continuation of the lip locks we put together way back in 2013, and an adjunct to our collection of Harry Barton neck kisses from 2017. 
Tiffany ThayerMichael AvalloneFranklin M. Davis Jr.Von HoffmanRuth LivingstonFlorenz BranchRex WeldonRuth ParkKathleen NorrisR. G. MayzkRobert CarseRobert Paul SmithJohn DexterPeter CheyneyJ.B. O'SullivanPerry LindsayHarry BestErskine CaldwellWatkins E. WrightDon ElliottVan NizeWilliam E. GordonEdith RobertsFrank YerbyKyle OnstottLance HornerDick DaleVicki BaumNancy HaleJohn BramlettJames Ramsey UllmanViña DelmarIan Stuart BlackDana WilsonJames M. CainJohn B. ThompsonJudith HeimanGordon MerrickKim SavageDaoma WinstonVladimir NabokovWilliam FaulknerAlberto MoraviaDylan ThomasÉmile ZolaRobert WilderMartha GellhornEllen CarenRobert BriffaultAnthony ThorneTheodore PrattVincent JamesFaith Baldwincover artcover collectionliterature
