Vintage Pulp

November 22 2022

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She saw, she conquered, she came—over and over.

We read Jason Hytes’ 1962 sleaze novel Come One-Come All in electronic form, and thanks to a glitch in the page count we had no idea how long it was. Which led to the moment when we thought to ourselves, “This is getting interesting,” swiped to the next page and were confronted with the words—The End. By that page the book’s lead character Barbara Martin had succumbed to her own sexual voracity, progressed to random seductions with both sexes, reached the point of being lured into prostitution, and dealt with the decision working out not well at all. And by not well at all we mean really not well. So while unknowingly swiping to The End, we were anticipating the commencement of bloody retribution by Barbara against the tale’s villain. Nope. Barbara has learned her lesson and moves on. And so have we. But we’ll say this much—for the genre, Hytes is not a bad writer.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, John Plunkett, cover art, literature, lgbt

Vintage Pulp

April 14 2019

FLOPPY SECONDS

You know what? Don't worry about it. The first time wasn't that great anyway.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, John Plunkett, Paul Rader, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 16 2018

THE JOY OF SIX

You better hurry up. At the top of the hour I turn back into a housewife and hand you a list of chores.

Jason Hytes’ 1960 sleazer Sex Before Six is about a married twenty-something who uses her body to climb all the way from nowheresville to the cusp of a career in professional filmdom. She’s willing to lie, connive, and serially cheat on her mild mannered husband to reach her goal but is disturbed when she discovers film people are depraved. What’s their depravity, exactly? Some of them are gay and lesbian. The word “evil” occurs more than once. If you were to read this with your anti-regressive filter activated you might find a thrill or two sandwiched around the homophobia and Bible style retribution, but we wouldn’t go so far as to recommend the book. The best thing about it is the brilliant cover femme fatale painted by Bruce Minney. We’ve seen magazine art from him before but this is the first paperback front we’ve come across. Top work.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, Bruce Minney, cover art, literature, lgbt

Vintage Pulp

January 6 2018

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

If you're looking for a street walker keep looking. If you're looking for the street walker you've found her.

Above is the cover of Jason Hytes’ 1964 sleaze novel The Street Walker, with beautiful unattributed art in tones of red and violet. In the story, a judge becomes infatuated with a prostitute he encounters when she is a defendant in his courtroom. The judge’s wife becomes infatuated with a cop, and the middle-aged cop becomes infatuated with the wife and judge’s eighteen-year-old daughter. That’s a lot of infatuation and it all gets messy pretty quickly, as the judge beds the prostitute and other women who pass through his court, the cop beds the judge’s wife, and later the judge’s virgin daughter, a trio of workers bed the judge’s wife together, and round and round it goes, leading to a climax, so to speak, that sends the judge to a mental institution, the wife someplace unknown, and the judge’s daughter and the cop together down the marriage aisle. There isn’t much street walking in this one but there sure is a lot of sex, and the writing isn’t bad, considering the genre. Are we recommending it? Well, heh heh, not quite. Just saying, we’ve spent our time worse ways.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 31 2017

INTO TEMPTATION

A tease? Just because I strip down to my frillies and straddle a stool? You got some dirty ideas, mister.

Above, The Teaser, by Jason Hytes, aka John Plunkett, for Midwood Books, with top notch brushwork by the wizard of sexually suggestive paperback art Paul Rader. The story: a virginal girl is taught about sex by her eager lover, but shows such an aptitude for it that her desires grow to the point where they become perverse and freaky. Sounds like the perfect woman to us. Copyright 1963.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, Paul Rader, John Plunkett, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

July 15 2016

THE LINE FORMS HERE

Number 32? Is number 32 here? Last call for 32. Okay. Number 33?

From reliably sleazy Midwood-Tower comes Wait Your Turn, published in 1962 and written by John Plunkett inhabiting the Jason Hytes pseudonym. A soldier returns home from two years away and finds that his virginal bride has not only caved in to another man’s advances, but has also been set upon by a trio of local lowlifes who aren’t remotely finished with her. Besides the elements of voyeurism and sexual aggression, one thing you could always expect from Midwood sleaze was well-executed cover art, and this one is very nice, but sadly it’s uncredited. Should we guess who painted it? Well, we could, but we won’t bother, because another thing Midwood was good at was hiring artists who could execute its signature style, which means this cover could really be any of several regular illustrators. Luckily, cover credits tend to come out in the fullness of time thanks to the tireless work of numerous aficionados more dedicated and better connected than us. We’ll just have to hope something turns up on this eventually.

Midwood, John Plunkett, Jason Hytes, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 26 2016

HEAD TRIPS

That one too! Just like the last one and the one before that! Help me, doctor—they all look like people having sex!

Whenever we say “someone” should do something that just means we’re being lazy. A couple of days ago we said we liked therapy sleaze fiction covers and someone should put together a collection. Well, that someone turned out to be us. We took a quick scuttle around the web and the result is this small group of people baring their souls—and sometimes more—to their therapists. In P.G. Wodehouse’s case, the main character of Lady Doctor is actually a medical practitioner, but since others confide in her and the awesome Dutch cover is psychoanalytic in style, we’ve included that. The last three examples come from Killer Covers, which is a site you should get into the habit of visiting regularly.

J.X. Williams, Shane Douglas, Sloane Britain, Henry Lewis Nixon, Jason Hytes, Jill Monte, Jay Carr, John Knight, Manning Stokes, Amanda Cross, P.G. Wodehouse, cover art, cover collection, literature

Vintage Pulp

March 4 2016

THRILL OF THE CHAISE

I feel like I let people get close to me really quickly, doctor. Probably too close.

Jason Hytes’ 1965 psychotherapy sleazer Secret Session was originally published in 1962 as The Doctor and the Dike, so you can probably figure out the plot yourself just based on the titles. Basically, a high-priced headshrinker’s roster of female patients heat up his sessions, but it’s his lesbian receptionist who really sparks a more-than-professional interest. In mid-century fiction every lesbian is just a man-hungry freak in waiting. Paul Rader is on the cover chores for this one.

Midwood, Jason Hytes, Paul Rader, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

June 21 2010

RADER LOVE

Strange games and things.

Every once in a while, we like to feature Paul Rader as a reminder what a virtuosic illustrator he was. So here’s another aggregate post, this one of assorted steamy Midwood pulp covers by Rader, circa 1960s. As a side note, you may have noticed our pulp uploader is malfunctioning at the moment, but we’ll get that fixed as soon as we can. Anyone with contributions, please hold, thanks.

Yesterday’s Virgin, The Unloved, The Craving, Wild Honey, Love Toy, Winner Take All, Mark Clements, Jason Hytes, Frank G. Harris, Don Karl, Dallas Mayo, Peggy Swenson, Midwood, Paul Rader, cover collection, 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.