Vintage Pulp

April 1 2023

ALL THAT JAZZ

Mid-century paperback artists were in tune with the times.

There are numerous jazz themed mid-century paperback covers. The jazz milieu—with its smoky clubs, passionate personalities, and idiosyncratic ways—fascinated readers. Above you see a small collection of fronts that visually reference the uniquely American (black American) art of jazz. We’ve also added a couple of the many torch singer and crooner covers out there that seem jazzy enough to fit. The artists are Barye Phillips, Stanley Zuckerberg, Harry Barton, Mitchell Hooks, Julian Paul, and others. We’ve previously posted quite a few jazz covers, and we have a few jazz themed books still to read, so in both cases you won’t see those pieces here. We don’t keyword for jazz, which means a search for those we’ve already posted would bring up a welter of books, movies, tabloids, and album covers. Therefore, in order to save you the trouble of wading through all that, here are some links. We’ll limit ourselves to ten: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Vintage Pulp

May 10 2022

BAD DREAMS

Ever wake up but feel like you're still having a nightmare?

In vintage crime fiction getting the hero laid—or at least having the opportunity arise—is almost a mandatory requirement. The main character of Evan Hunter’s, aka Ed McBain’s, 1952 novel The Evil Sleep is a heroin addict who, at a certain point, has had cold and hot sweats all day long, hasn’t showered, shaved, or brushed his teeth, yet manages to get laid by a clean, beautiful woman. This was a dead giveaway that she was shady, and dead giveaways in mysteries are something authors should avoid. Even so, The Evil Sleep is an interesting book. It’s about a junkie who wakes up with a corpse, and must dodge the police, find the real murderer, and get a fix, or somehow keep his shit together without one. It was later published as So Nude, So Dead. The cover you see here, which is unattributed, came from an auction site. Our copy, which came cheap as part of a lot, is basically coverless. By which we mean the femme fatale was cut completely out, probably to end up as part of some high-school art student’s collage that has long since gone to a landfill. Very naughty. If you want to buy this in good condition the price might run $400. That’s even naughtier.

Falcon Books, Evan Hunter, Ed McBain, Salvatore Lombino, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 7 2018

PUBIC OPINION

Yeah, wow, nice. I've never seen one without hair. It's slick as a— Wait, did you say you tore it out with hot wax?

Above, the cover of Orgy Man by Dean Hudson, a Greenleaf Classics house pseudonym used in this case by veteran sleaze author Evan Hunter, writing for Greenleaf’s Idle Hours imprint, with cover art by Robert Bonfils, copyright 1964. Hah. We did that all in one sentence.

Greenleaf Classics, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 9 2018

SCOUT’S DISHONOR

I don't understand your reluctance to do me in the privacy of my office. Your résumé says you did this guy Chekhov in the park.

Before we do anything else here are five book covers of women shooting men. And here’s a book cover of a woman whipping a man. And here’s one of a woman about to stick a gun in a man’s mouth. This is just paperback art, which is not to be taken too seriously, but we felt we needed to de-Weinstein things a bit anyway.

So what’s going on with this book? A sleazy casting agent named Stirling Steele catches wind of a beautiful singer and goes to Nashville to promise her anything she wants as long as she ends up naked on her back. Instead he gets arrested for trying to corrupt her morals and finds himself in jail with a friend of his, also a shady agent who’d heard about the singer and shown up in Nashville for the same reason. The jail is run by a hot matron, and there’s also a beautiful—

Wait. Let’s stop. This is silly. The plot doesn’t matter at all. Orgy Scouts is so stupid and badly written it isn’t even worth summarizing. Why do we torture ourselves with these books, you’re wondering? Because we buy them in lots, and others in the group promise to be better. We’ll see. This one is copyright 1967 with art by Tomas Cannizarro.

Nashville, Greenleaf Classics, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, Tomas Cannizarro, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 6 2018

FLASHY GORDON

Cats always get in the way at the worst moments.

The above cover from the Milan based publishers Longanesi & Co. features U.S. glamour model Virginia Gordon fronting a 1959 translation of Ed McBain’s The Pusher. McBain is basically a legend, but is it a stretch to call Gordon legendary too? We don’t think so. She was Playboy magazine’s January 1959 Playmate of the Month, and because of that her photos are highly collectible and expensive. You’d see two important reasons why if not for a mischievous cat, but you can outmaneuver him by clicking here or here.

Below we have a few more fronts from Longanesi, including Jonathan Craig’s Case of the Village Tramp, which also has Gordon on the cover, and John Jakes’ detective novel Johnny Havoc, featuring Carol Baker giving a nice over-the-shoulder glance. Like Australia’s Horwitz Publications and several other non-U.S. companies, Longanesi used (probably) unlicensed images of Hollywood starlets and glamor models as a matter of habit. We’ll show you more examples of those a bit later.

Italy, Milan, Longanesi & Co., Virginia Gordon, Ed McBain, Evan Hunter, Jonathan Craig, John Jakes, Henry Kane, John McPartland, Adam Knight, Carol Baker, cover art, literature, cover collection

Vintage Pulp

May 6 2018

A CLEAN BREAK

This is really fun! After this I'll shave your legs and pluck your eyebrows.

Above, a cover for Shame Star, copyright 1964, written by Evan Hunter using the pseudonym Dean Hudson for Idle Hours Books. Yep, we read it. It’s about a free spirit named Francie Jordan who gets low on money, gets into nude modeling, and ends up involved in the NYC skin flick racket. The cover doesn’t depict her, though. For some reason it shows a secondary character enjoying an assisted cleanse in a Japanese bathhouse in Harlem. Maybe someone could ask the artist why he chose that scene, but the cover is uncredited. Overall this is standard sleaze, maybe a hair better written than usual, but nothing we’d recommend.

New York City, Greenleaf Classics, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

April 28 2017

CROWD PLEASER

Just stay over there a minute. I want you to get the full effect of this awesome pose.

In Evan Hunter’s 1954 novel Don’t Crowd Me an NYC advertising copywriter seeks tranquility in the lake region but instead finds himself encountering two sisters with very different temperaments who both seem to find him irresistible. Then, of course, there’s a murder to spoil everything, and it looks like he’s the only one who can solve it. The plot may sound improbable, but Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino, was better known by his pseudonym Ed McBain, which means you would expect this to be decently written. And in fact you would be correct. The cover art, which is great, was painted by Walter Popp.

Vintage Pulp

March 29 2016

SCIENTIFIC SEXPERIMENT

And when ze leetle libidometer say zat your libido is at just ze right level all of us vill haf you sexually.

Above you see ze cover of… COUGH COUGH! Had something in the throat there. Above you see the cover of Dean Hudson’s, aka Evan Hunter’s, Twisted Tulips, yet another winner from Greenleaf Classics, this time for its Leisure imprint. 1966 copyright with uncredited art.

Greenleaf Classics, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 1 2015

DESTINATION: SEX

You know, here they really frown on this sort of thing, but if you really can’t wait…

Above, Passion Suburb by Evan Hunter writing as Dean Hudson, published 1962. The suburb in question is called Rustic Acres, and it’s filled with horny women who bed any man who happens along. Or as the local Chamber of Commerce put it on the brochures: If you lived there you’d be boning by now. The cover art is by Harold W. McCauley.

Greenleaf Classics, Passion Suburb, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, Harold W. McCauley, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 20 2013

SELFISH JEANS

It's not their fault—it's a jean-etic disorder.

In pulp and sleaze fiction there are many types of bad women—vamps, golddiggers, black widows, you name it—but women who wear jeans, or even jean shorts, are destined for a special brand of trouble. Some of these women are already corrupt while others are merely at the gateway, but they all end up in the same place—Calamity City, daddy-o.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 15

1945—Laval Executed

Pierre Laval, who was the premier of Vichy, France, which had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, is shot by a firing squad for treason. In subsequent years it emerges that Laval may have considered himself a patriot whose goal was to publicly submit to the Germans while doing everything possible behind the scenes to thwart them. In at least one respect he may have succeeded: fifty percent of French Jews survived the war, whereas in other territories about ninety percent perished.

October 15

1966—Black Panthers Form

In the U.S., in Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther political party. The Panthers are active in American politics throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but eventually legal troubles combined with a schism over the direction of the party lead to its dissolution.

October 14

1962—Cuban Missile Crisis Begins

A U-2 spy plane flight over the island of Cuba produces photographs of Soviet nuclear missiles being installed. Though American missiles have been installed near Russia, the U.S. decides that no such weapons will be tolerated in Cuba. The resultant standoff brings the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. The crisis finally ends with a secret deal in which the U.S. removes its missiles from Turkey in exchange for the Soviets removing the Cuban weapons.

October 13

1970—Angela Davis Arrested

After two months of evading police and federal authorities, Angela Davis is arrested in New York City by the FBI. She had been sought in connection with a kidnapping and murder because one of the guns used in the crime had been bought under her name. But after a trial a jury agreed that owning the weapon did not automatically make her complicit in the crimes.

October 12

1978—Sid Vicious Arrested for Murder

Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is found in their room at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel. Vicious and Spungen had a famously stormy relationship, but Vicious proclaims he is innocent. He is released on bail and dies of a heroin overdose before a trial takes place.

October 12

1979—Adams Publishes First Hitchhiker's Book

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in a series, is published by Douglas Adams. The novels follow on the heels of the tremendously successful British television series of the same name.