TRAMPS AND HUSSIES

A Pulp Intl. reader sends in a little random sin to liven up our (and your) Wednesday.

Here’s an interesting something we received via email from a photographer named Dave Delvecchio. Says Dave:

Hi there. I love the site. I have recently created a few of my own mock pulp covers. Had a little photo shoot at my apartment with some friends. This is what I came up with…

These are nice, clearly. And we can’t resist commenting that these mock-up covers are far more eye-catching than what we generally see in bookstores. Today the typical crime novel’s cover is a stock photo overlaid by white or yellow text. Maybe an embossed trickle of blood somewhere in the mix. Theoretically, such generic covers are easier and cheaper to produce than covers with actual art, but we’re not so sure. Having worked in publishing a bit, it seems to us as if graphic design houses charge a pretty penny for their uninspired efforts, whereas a talented but unknown artist might be tempted to create a nice cover for far less money. But that’s just a theory. In the end, the books sell without nice cover art. Soon, they’ll probably sell without cover art at all, just a qr code splashed across the front. Anyway, thanks for sending these pieces over, Dave.

Dave Delvecchio, cover art

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

September 7

1978—Giorgi Markov Assassinated

Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.

September 6

1901—McKinley Fatally Shot

Polish-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies September 12, and Czolgosz is later executed.

September 5

1939—U.S. Declares Neutrality in WW II

The Neutrality Acts, which had been passed in the 1930s when the United States considered foreign conflicts undesirable, prompts the nation to declare neutrality in World War II. The policy ended with the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, which allowed the U.S. to sell, lend or give war materials to allied nations.

September 5

1972—Munich Massacre

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, a paramilitary group calling itself Black September takes members of the Israeli olympic team hostage. Eventually the group, which represents the first glimpse of terrorists for most people in the Western world, kill eleven of the hostages along with one West German police officer during a rescue attempt by West German police that devolves into a firefight. Five of the eight members of Black September are also killed.

September 4

1957—U.S. National Guard Used Against Students

The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, mobilizes the National Guard to prevent nine African-American students known as the Little Rock Nine from enrolling in high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.