Vintage Pulp

June 3 2021

POT! SHOT

Never make a redhead angry.

Above, a cover for Les aventures de Zodiaque #46, by Gaston Martin for Éditions de Neuilly, 1953, with cool art of a lethal redhead painted by Aldé. In French “manque” means “lack,” but we don’t know “pot.” The phrase “mon pot” means something like mate or friend, but we have a feeling “manque de pot” could mean something unusual. Anyway, you can see more Les aventures de Zodiaque and learn a bit about its history by clicking the keywords below.

Update: Jo to the rescue again:

«Manque de pot» means «lack of luck»

Pot is a slang word for luck. No relation with a pot or a jar.

Thanks, Jo.

France, Éditions de Neuilly, Les aventures de Zodiaque, Aldé, Gaston Martineau, Gaston Martin, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 20 2018

A SIMPLE EXPLANATION

Let me put it to you the only way men seem capable of understanding.

Cool Aldé cover art for Les aventures de Zodiaque #33 — Drôle de musique, published by Éditions de Neuilly in 1952. We talked a bit about Aldé and Zodiaque several years ago, so if you’re curious just follow this link. We also have a cover collection you can peruse here.

France, Éditions de Neuilly, Aldé, Les aventures de Zodiaque, Gaston Martineau, Gaston Martin, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

June 9 2017

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Your future is uncertain, however I do see lots of guns.

Above, ten covers from the popular French thriller series Les aventures de Zodiaque, published by Éditions de Neuilly throughout the 1950s, with cover art from Aldé, aka Gaston Martineau, aka Gaston Martin.

France, Éditions de Neuilly, Aldé, Les aventures de Zodiaque, Gaston Martineau, Gaston Martin, cover collection, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 8 2013

STARS ALIGNED

Twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Not long ago we showed you the cover from one installment of a French pulp series called Les aventures de Zodiaque. That was a lovely piece of art, but the series had modest beginnings. Above and below are one dozen fronts from the series’ early days, when it was being published in Montreal by Éditions PTE under agreement from the French parent publisher Éditions de Neuilly. These are all from the early 1950s.

Edit: Writing six years later, we realize now that these are not random women on these covers. They’re celebrities. Or at least, we assume so, because we recognize Belgian actress Dominique Wilms on the fifth cover below, the light brown one. If we identify others we’ll update this little addendum, but don’t count on it, because if, like Wilms, the other women are French or Belgian, well, we’re not as good on those actresses as we’d like. But we’ll sure try.

France, Canada, Montreal, Éditions de Neuilly, Éditions PTE, Les aventures de Zodiaque, Gaston Martin, Gaston Martineau, Dominique Wilms, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 14 2013

EVERY SECOND COUNTS

The Zodiac is watching your every movement.

Les aventures de Zodiaque was one of France’s most poplar pulp-style serials. Published by Editions de Neuilly throughout the 1950s, this one is entitled Cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un zéro and appeared in 1957, making it the 183rd entry in the series.

The man who worked overtime to churn these out was Gaston Martineau, aka Gaston Martin, and the stories involved the exploits of Zodiac and his sidekicks Elayne, Dede and a reporter named Gaston Martin (subtle, no?). The cover was painted by Aldé, who we gather was Martin in disguise. You have to be impressed.

You’ve probably noticed the black “Europe n° 1” on the cover. That isn’t part of the title. Martin had been interviewed on the recently launched radio network Europe n° 1 by Pierre Maintigneux, and the cover was publicizing that fact. There’s a photo of Martin and Maintigneux on the rear of the book from the interview. We’ll get back to this series pretty soon, but for now you can see more covers at Muller-Fokker’s excellent webpage here.

France, Éditions de Neuilly, Gaston Martineau, Gaston Martin, Aldé, Pierre Maintigneux, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 6

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.