ANOTHER SWINE MESS

That’s just my name for them. Everyone else still calls them men.

Don Holliday’s sleaze novel The Lust Pigs came from Greenleaf Classics for its Midnight Reader line 1962 with uncredited cover art. Holliday, as you know by now, was a pseudonym. The real author behind this was David Case, who wrote ten books total for Greenleaf, including Lust Circuit and Luster’s Lane. Clearly he had a thing about lust. As do we all.

The book is about a youth gang called the Wild Pigs, and their leader, a kid with the ridiculous name Nebraska Brace. Other members are named Fred the Head, Chino, Cherry Red, etc, and interestingly, they’re pan sexual. It seems so, anyway. Though it never comes up again in the narrative, check out this bit:

Let’s get Fred while he sleeps. He’s better than a woman anyway. Look at that head, it’s enormous. And he snores, too. We can sneak up and tag him before he knows what happened.”

Brace was cut short in his planning by the loud snap of Fred’s teeth as they closed. Fred still seemed to sleep, but his teeth clicked shut ominously. And that ended the great plan to rape Fred the Head, for if there was one thing that the Wild Pigs feared it was castration.

The rest of the book deals with the gang’s attentions toward neighborhood girls, occasionally with similar undertones of sexual assault. Nebraska eventually gets involved with a girl named Dixie, while Cherry Red hooks up with a girl named Judy. The fact that Dixie is the ex of the leader of another gang of toughs soon catalyzes conflict when that quintet rapes Judy twice over. At that point the stakes turn deadly.

The final lesson of the book? Stay out of gangs. The Lust Pigs was a very quick read, but a very bad one too. It’s the first Greenleaf book we’ve experienced, and if we were sane it would be the last, but it probably won’t. This sleaze thing is increasingly interesting to us, though not the rapey aspects. There are probably better examples from Greenleaf out there. We recommend steering far clear of this one.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1968—My Lai Massacre Occurs

In Vietnam, American troops kill between 350 and 500 unarmed citizens, all of whom are civilians and a majority of whom are women, children, babies and elderly people. Many victims are sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies are mutilated. The incident doesn’t become public knowledge until 1969, but when it does, the American war effort is dealt one of its worst blows.

1937—H.P. Lovecraft Dies

American sci-fi/horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft dies of intestinal cancer in Providence, Rhode Island at age 46. Lovecraft died nearly destitute, but would become the most influential horror writer of all time. His imaginary universe of malign gods and degenerate cults was influenced by his explicitly racist views, but his detailed and procedural style of writing, which usually pitted men of science or academia against indescribable monsters, remains as effective today as ever.

2011—Illustrator Michel Gourdon Dies

French pulp artist Michel Gourdon, who was the less famous brother of Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, dies in Coudray, France aged eighty-five. He is known mainly for the covers he painted for the imprint Flueve Noir, but worked for many companies and produced nearly 3,500 book fronts during his career.

1964—Ruby Found Guilty of Murder

In the U.S. a Dallas jury finds nightclub owner and organized crime fringe-dweller Jack Ruby guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby had shot Oswald with a handgun at Dallas Police Headquarters in full view of multiple witnesses and photographers. Allegations that he committed the crime to prevent Oswald from exposing a conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have never been proven.

1925—Scopes Monkey Trial Ends

In Tennessee, the case of Scopes vs. the State of Tennessee, involving the prosecution of a school teacher for instructing his students in evolution, ends with a conviction of the teacher and establishment of a new law definitively prohibiting the teaching of evolution. The opposing lawyers in the case, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, both earn lasting fame for their participation in what was a contentious and sensational trial.

This idyllic scene for Folco Romano’s 1958 novel Quand la chair s’éveille was painted by Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan. You'd never suspect a book with a cover this pretty was banned in France, but it was.
Hillman Publications produced unusually successful photo art for this cover of 42 Days for Murder by Roger Torrey.
Cover art by French illustrator James Hodges for Hans J. Nording's 1963 novel Poupée de chair.

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