Vintage Pulp

July 2 2025

RED DRESS DIARIES

How is it from this angle, boys? Give it to me straight. I really want to make a splash in the fallen women set.

Richard S. Prather’s Dagger of Flesh came fifth in a series of more than forty books starring franchise detective Shell Scott. This Falcon Books edition is from 1952, with excellent Rudy Nappi cover art. The book goes back so far Scott still had black hair. Prather changed it to snow white at some point, but here he’s described by a woman as having, “Black curly hair, brown eyes, a very nice nose, even a Cary Grant dimple in that square chin.” Plotwise he helps a friend who’s been given a post-hypnotic suggestion that may be forcing him to sell his quarter million dollar business for $25,000 to organized crime figures. In desperation he signs the enterprise over to tough guy Scott, and now the crooks have a problem. Of course, with hypnotists around anything can happen, fictionally speaking. Scott begins to suspect he’s been post-hypnotically coerced into committing murder. Improbable? All of it, definitely. Prather does his best with it, but it doesn’t really work. Well, we’ll give him a pass on this one. It’s written fine, so that’s something.

Falcon Books, Richard S. Prather, Rudy Nappi, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 31 2022

RED LINES

Long story short, I said a lot of hateful shit about people, and as my agent I need you to make me look like the victim.

We’re dying to read this. Certainly the possibilities for quips and puns based on the cover were endless, even though the type of cancellation referred to is murder, not banishment. We’ll put this on our Holy Grail list and if it ever pops up we’ll grab it. You see this cover all around the internet, but we first noticed it at the one and only Sleazy Digest Books. The copyright is 1952, and the art is by Howell Dodd.

Falcon Books, Hamlin Daly, Hoffman Price, Howell Dodd, cover art, literature

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

March 6 2021

THE LESSER EVILS

Oh, come on, we're not that bad. Most of the guys we date would tell you their wives are the ones that are out of hell.

Above: Girls Out of Hell! by sleaze vet Joe Weiss, published in 1952 by Falcon Books. Weiss was also behind such titles as Gang Girl, Love Peddler, and Forbidden Thrills, for which he paired up with Ralph Dean. All those books will cost you a pretty penny. The question is whether it’s because of the often excellent cover art on sleaze digests—this one is by George Gross—or because of the literary content. We intend to find out soon.

Falcon Books, Joe Weiss, Ralph Dean, George Gross, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 20 2020

SWEET MUSIC

The truth is I only listen to classical, but all the guys at those concerts are too old and frail to risk taking to bed.

Last stop for the scum of humanity on the road to hell? Sign us up! But 1953’s Honky Tonk Girl isn’t the throwaway novel you’d expect. The premise is unique—a Dixieland jazz musician named Johnny Nickles fears he’s recorded a haunted album. The platter, The Ghost Album, is so titled because it’s a tribute to dead jazz kingpins, and seems to have heralded a series of misfortunes: the band’s arranger dropped dead of a heart attack; Johnny’s girlfriend stole his money and car; his band lost the cushy house gig they’d been promised; and now, playing nightly in a dive bar in nowheresville, the band’s drummer has been murdered. Nickles decides to solve the case and gets help from a hooker, a chanteuse, a cop, and some obvious clues. We thought the idea of a haunted album would be the launch pad for a memorable book, but Beckman doesn’t quite get this one airborne because—despite his extensive pulp pedigree—he’s middling as a writer. But what does come through is his musical knowledge and familiarity with the hand-to-mouth existence of ambitious young jazzmen. We give it a 5 for prose and an 8 for atmosphere. The cover art, on the other hand, is a solid 10. It’s by the always amazing Howell Dodd.

Falcon Books, Charles Beckman Jr., Charles Boekman Jr., Howell Dodd, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

June 28 2019

MIDDAY TREAT

Then I picked up something at the market and now I'm about to heat it up and enjoy it. How's your day going?

Above: a cover for The Scarlet Bride by Mark Reed, about a cheating wife with a dangerous husband and the horndogs who risk life and limb to get on her. Reed was actually Norman A. Daniels, a prolific author who wrote for pulp magazines, where he created the character Black Bat (the second, more popular one). He also wrote for radio, television, and once published eighteen books in a two year span. This particular effort is copyright 1952.

Falcon Books, Mark Reed, Norman A. Daniels, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 16 2018

DOUBLE WHIPPED

Aussie publisher beats the life out of a classic Howell Dodd cover.

Didn’t we just share a cover for Whip Hand? We did, but that was a totally different book. That was Whip Hand by W. Franklin Sanders, 1961, and this one is Whip Hand! by Hodge Evens, 1952. And as you can see below, this is yet another book for which the art was copied by a foreign publishing company—Sydney, Australia based Star Books, in 1953. It may seem impossible that Dodd didn’t know of this, but back then it was indeed likely he had no clue. And even if he did know, there’s little he could have done. Whoever painted this was not credited, and why would they be? Compared to Dodd’s original it’s pretty limp.

Australia, Sydney, Star Books, Falcon Books, Hodge Evens, Howell Dodd, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 15 2011

HARD HABIT TO BREAK

Once an addict always an addict.

The title of Jonathan’s Craig’s, aka Frank E. Smith’s novel Junkie! is a bit misleading. The junkie in question has little part in the action save as the damsel in distress, mostly kept offpage. But the art by Ketor Seach captures the book’s mood nicely, even if it highlights someone other than the actual protagonist, a jazz musician named Steve Harper who prowls the mean streets and smoky clubs of Washington, D.C. trying to solve a murder, then another, then another. A trio of beautiful women keep him thoroughly baffled, and a specially made couch plays a crucial role. Harper’s characterization as an actual musician is thin, but the book is a good read, with short chapters and spare prose. Though the fertile milieu could have led to a higher quality result, we recommend the final product.

Washington D.C., Falcon Books, Jonathan Craig, Frank E. Smith, Ketor Seach, drugs, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 16

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.

March 15

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.

March 15

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.

March 14

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.

March 13

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.

BABE IN THE WOODS

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.

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