Intl. Notebook

November 19 2021

SUNNY DAYS, DUSTY BOOKS

Walk a city's streets and you never know what you'll find.

We were wandering around town earlier today, and what did we spy outside a sundries shop but a stack of vintage reading material. Wedged between English teaching books and bags of sawdust was a stack of José Mallorquí and Keith Luger paperbacks, and there were even more inside. All of which reminded us that we had posted something from Luger—aka Miguel Oliver Tovar—years ago, which can see at this link. We didn’t buy any of today’s pile, but we may mosey back round that way another morning and pick up a few. After all, why not? They’re cheap as hell. Also, we want to know why people buy bags of sawdust, and we can only find out by going back to the store and asking. The overarching theme, though, is this: it’s nice to be living in a city where we can find a bit of pulp style treasure just by taking a stroll. For years that wasn’t the case.

Spain, Cadiz, Editorial Bruguera, Ediciones Favencia, Keith Luger, Miguel Oliver Tovar, José Mallorquí, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

April 19 2020

GRADUATION DAY

Brigitte earns an advanced degree in espionage.

Above, ten more covers for the spy serial Brigitte in Accion, written by Lou Carrigan, aka Antonio Vera Ramirez, and published by Barcelona based Editorial Bruguera. The artist remains Brazilian illustrator José Luiz Benicio, and Brigitte Montfort, nicknamed Baby, remains the hottest CIA agent of the Cold War. Mid-1970s on these. See the earlier collection here.

Spain, Brazil, Editorial Bruguera, Lou Carrigan, José Luiz Benicio, Antonio Vera Ramirez, cover art, cover collection

Vintage Pulp

July 28 2015

BURNING BRIGITTE

Red hot action from the middle of the Cold War.

Antonio Vera Ramirez’s, aka Lou Carrigan’s Brigitte en Accion was first published by Rio de Janeiro based Editora Monterrey in 1965, but here you’re seeing covers from Barcelona based Editorial Bruguera. The artist was the same for both, though—Brazilian illustrator José Luiz Benicio, and his work is beautiful. The series features the adventures of Brigitte Montfort, nicknamed Baby, a CIA agent posing as a journalist and getting into all kinds of sticky situations during the Cold War. We’ll have more Brigitte en Accion covers down the line.

Spain, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, Editorial Bruguera, Editora Monterrey, Brigitte en Accion, Lou Carrigan, José Luiz Benicio, Antonio Vera Ramirez, cover art, cover collection, literature

Vintage Pulp

June 14 2013

FEDERAL HEAT

The FBI’s ten most wanted.

Above, a mix of ten covers of F.B.I. and F.B.I. Selecciones, published by two Spanish companies, Bruguera and Ediciones Rollán, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Art is by Prieto Muriana and others. Also, you may notice that cover three is modeled after a famous portrait of James Dean, and, though we aren’t 100% sure, cover ten, just above, looks like it was based on Monica Vitti.

Spain, Ediciones Rollán, Editorial Bruguera, F.B.I. Selecciones, Prieto Muriana, James Dean, Monica Vitti, magazine art

Intl. Notebook

July 11 2012

MADE IN SPAIN

Pulp is where you find it.

We’re back from our jaunt to Sevilla, Cordova, and Pamplona, and as promised we looked for and found some pulp. On a 100 Fahrenheit day in Cordova we met an antique dealer on the Plaza de la Corredera who had four crates of vintage cowboy pulps from the Spanish publishing houses Bruguera, Crucero, and Andina. The example below, entitled La Heina de Tulsa, was written by Marcial Lafuente Estefanía in 1983, just a year before his death. Bruguera cover art was often uncredited, however this one is attributed to someone identified as Garcia. We’ll get to uploading more of these later.

Spain, Sevilla, Cordova, Pamplona, Editorial Bruguera, Publicaiones Crucero, Editorial Andina, La Heina de Tulsa, Marcial Lafuente Estefanía, magazine art

Vintage Pulp

October 22 2009

CLUBBED IN THE TUB

Wow this expensive body wash is great. Hope the missus doesn’t catch me using it.

We’ve seen a lot of covers for James M. Cain’s classic 1934 pulp The Postman Always Rings, but never one quite as unhinged as this Bruguera Spanish edition. Whereas the art is almost comical, in the fiction Cain’s murderous lovers are anything but. In fact, Postman was considered so provocative for its time that it was banned in Boston. The book is short (possibly that’s why it’s paired here with Cain’s The Embezzler), and its concise story arc made it a natural for adaptation to cinema. Over the years it spawned four official film versions, and its influence is detectable in many other movies. We recommend giving this one a read, and also, take the lesson of the cover to heart and leave your girl’s fancy soaps alone.

Spain, Editorial Bruguera, The Postman Always Rings Twice, James. M, Cain, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 12 2009

ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN

Pistolero loses second eye demonstrating how he lost the first.

This guy is just asking for it, right? Love the cover, though. We don’t know who painted it, but we know author Keith Luger wrote quite a few westerns and space operas for the Spanish imprint Bruguera. That makes perfect sense, because he was really Miguel Olivero Tovar from Valencia, Spain. Tovar/Luger was a big deal for about ten years, during which time he published many books, made time for a couple of screenplays, and saw three of his projects optioned into movies. More Lugers below, including one concerning Sharon Tate.

Spain, Valencia, Editorial Bruguera, Miguel Oliver Tovar, Keith Luger, Sharon Tate, cover art, Screenplay, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 14 2008

RUNNING SCARED

In the future we’ll all wear jumpsuits or else.

Check out these sweet covers we found. The little-known author Eric Sorenssen—not to be confused with the little-known author Eric Sorensen, with one ‘s’—wrote for the quite well known Heroes of Space series published by Spanish imprint Bruguera. We’ve seen no Sorenssen material in English, although it may be little known enough to have escaped our notice. We also know very little, or actually nothing, about who did the cover art—but it’s great.

Spain, Editorial Bruguera, Eric Sorenssen, Eric Sorensen, cover art, literature

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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.