Vintage Pulp

January 8 2022

WANDER WOMAN

I didn't notice you trying to claw your way out of the room, buster, so we're both hitch-hike hussies, in my view.

Above is a 1959 cover for Hitch-Hike Hussy painted by Saul Levine, who we’ve shown you before, such as here and here. This cover was also used in 1954 for Hans Habe’s Walk in Darkness, but with a different male figure and background. The duo of John B. Thompson and Jack Woodford are the minds behind this tale, the story of a hitch-hiking runaway named Sunny Neversen, and her adventures and sexual involvements, which include a young trucker named Jim Bottomly, a man in his sixties named Mumford Basserman, and others. None of it is convincingly erotic, and little of it actually takes place on the road. She mostly works in a gambling hall, and after a few guys get to sample her wares Bottomly turns up again to sweep her off her feet. This is rote sleaze fiction, one of many mid-century books to use the hitchhiking gimmick. The only interesting aspect of this is pondering why it took two people to write it. Nothing to see here, people. Move along…

Beacon Signal, John B. Thompson, Jack Woodford, Saul Levine, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 17 2020

LIP SYNCING

Kiss me and I'll kiss you back.

Below, another collection of covers featuring characters expressing a little affection, a continuation of the lip locks we put together way back in 2013, and an adjunct to our collection of Harry Barton neck kisses from 2017.

Bonus action: see more kisses here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Tiffany Thayer, Michael Avallone, Franklin M. Davis Jr., Von Hoffman, Ruth Livingston, Florenz Branch, Rex Weldon, Ruth Park, Kathleen Norris, R. G. Mayzk, Robert Carse, Robert Paul Smith, John Dexter, Peter Cheyney, J.B. O'Sullivan, Perry Lindsay, Harry Best, Erskine Caldwell, Watkins E. Wright, Don Elliott, Van Nize, William E. Gordon, Edith Roberts, Frank Yerby, Kyle Onstott, Lance Horner, Dick Dale, Vicki Baum, Nancy Hale, John Bramlett, James Ramsey Ullman, Viña Delmar, Ian Stuart Black, Dana Wilson, James M. Cain, John B. Thompson, Judith Heiman, Gordon Merrick, Kim Savage, Daoma Winston, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, Alberto Moravia, Dylan Thomas, Émile Zola, Robert Wilder, Martha Gellhorn, Ellen Caren, Robert Briffault, Anthony Thorne, Theodore Pratt, Vincent James, Faith Baldwin, cover art, cover collection, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 15 2020

BARELY HANGING IN THERE

*sigh* This was more fun before the social distancing thing.

Orrie Hitt turns his sleazolicious talents to the subject of nudism for the succinctly titled Nudist Camp, published by Beacon Signal in 1957. We’re treated to the story of an Icelandic immigrant to the U.S. named Della who finds herself needing to earn her keep due to a looming divorce, and turns her patch of rural land into a nudist resort. Problem is her partner in this scheme is secretly planning to photograph the visitors and blackmail them with the prints. When Della finds out, she’s aghast, and bends her efforts toward thwarting this rude plan, leading to a scheme to steal the photos and hopefully burn them.

Mixed into the intrigue is a bit of romance, and lots of waxing rhapsodic about Iceland and its beautiful women. That part Hitt actually got right. We’ve been there, and the women do in fact often have perfect ivory skin. Despite these factoids, and the exploration of body-free culture, Nudist Camp is a preposterous tale, uninspiringly told, signifying very little. You know what would have made it a lot better? More nudity. Go and figure. The cover art here is by Bernard Safran, and was adapted from a piece that originally appeared on the front of 1953’s Male Virgin.

Iceland, Beacon Signal, Orrie Hitt, Bernard Safran, Jack Woodford, John B. Thompson, cover art, literature, nudism

Vintage Pulp

March 6 2019

WANTON SOUP

A flavorful stew of mid-century paperback covers.

This post was long overdue. Most pulp oriented websites do a collection of covers that have the word wanton in the title, so we’re following suit. Basically because we couldn’t think of anything else to do today. Numerous examples below. Enjoy.

Vintage Pulp

May 18 2017

NECK AND NECK

A nuzzle a day keeps the blues away.

A couple of days ago we shared a cover painted by Harry Barton, and today we’re back with assorted examples in the same vein, once again showing instances of neck kissing, or variations very close to that. All of these were also painted by Barton, who clearly had a fine appreciation for female necks. Or male mouths. Whichever.

Barton was a prolific artist who through the ’50s and ’60s produced covers for Avon, Bantam, Dell, Monarch, and Pocket Books. He painted even more fronts with poses close to those seen here, for example men and women kissing normally, but today we decided to stick only to neck kissing. Which by the way is a nice way to spend a few minutes if you have a willing partner.

Orrie Hitt, A L. Roget, Daoma Winston, Curt Donovan, Jason Morgan, Jon Balmer, Jim Layne, Kim Savage, Karl Kramer, Ron Saxon, Harry Barton, Carol Caine, Stephanie Chrisman, Dean McCoy, John B. Thompson, cover art, cover collection, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 7 2015

UNHAPPILY CARRIED

For better or worse, in sickness and health, women in pulp don’t have a heck of a lot of choice about it.

Pulp is a place where the men are decisive and the women are as light as feathers. We’ve gotten together a collection of paperback covers featuring women being spirited away to places unknown, usually unconscious, by men and things that are less than men. You have art from Harry Schaare, Saul Levine, Harry Barton, Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, and others.

Vintage Pulp

October 25 2013

MAIN SQUEEZE

And with two balls he goes way inside with his split finger.

In honor of the World Series and all the unintentionally sexual terminology you hear on sports broadcasts—and he manages to squirt that one up the middle!—we thought we’d share this cover for Kozy Books’ sleaze novel Squeeze Play. It was written by Walter Feldspar, whose name is a pseudonym of course, but we don’t know who occupied it. Orrie Hitt is a prime suspect though. Whoever it was, we have to give credit for cleverness—feldspar is a mineral that has no value but makes up the majority of earthly rock. He’s doubtless saying the same about his fiction—no value, but can be found everywhere.

Given enough time anything can accumulate value, though, and such is the case with ’60s sleaze fiction. Kozy output seems more popular all the time, so in acknowledgment of that fact we have a selection of their covers below. You would not necessarily call these pieces completely successful, with their often unreadable yellow-on-white or orange-on-orange text, but in terms of promoting the product the covers told you exactly what you were going to get. The company had a habit of not crediting art, so we’ve nothing for you there. But enjoy the selection anyway, and if you want to see a real Kozy winner, check here.

Kozy Books, Orrie Hitt, Lew Lessing, Guy Andreya, Adam Snavely, Shelly Lowenkopf, John B. Thompson, Eric Thomas, Gail Evans, Robert Bledsoe, Craig Barstow, Walter Feldspar, cover art, literature, cover collection

Vintage Pulp

July 2 2012

BAYOU WILDLIFE

They’re beautiful but they bite.

In honor of ’Gator Bait, which we wrote about a few days ago, we’ve gathered together a small collection of covers with art set in swamps and bayous. There are many different types of swamp denizens. You got your babes, your nymphs, your spawn, and even your occasional brat. Usually these creatures are safe to be around, but do remember that they attack if provoked. Thanks to all the original uploaders for these images.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 7

1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).

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.