Vintage Pulp

June 1 2023

TRAINSPHOBIA

In pulp you're always on the wrong side of the tracks.

We’re train travelers. We love going places by that method. It’s one of the perks of living in Europe. Therefore we have another cover collection for you today, one we’ve had in mind for a while. Many pulp and genre novels prominently feature trains. Normal people see them as romantic, but authors see their sinister flipside. Secrets, seclusion, and an inability to escape can be what trains are about. Above and below we’ve put together a small sampling of covers along those lines. If we desired, we could create a similar collection of magazine train covers that easily would total more than a hundred scans. There were such publications as Railroad Stories, Railroad Man’s Magazine, Railroad, and all were published for years. But we’re interested, as usual, in book covers. Apart from those here, we’ve already posted other train covers at this link, this one, this one, and this one. Safe travels.

Vintage Pulp

October 24 2019

SHE’S GOT HER BACK

Oh! Heh heh. You had something on your shirt and I was... er... just going to stab it for you.

It’s been a while since we featured Michel Gourdon’s work, so above you see a cover for L’évadée de Saint-Lazare by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, for Paris based publishers Éditions Robert Laffont, number 29 in its series Collection Rex. The book is about a ruthless criminal named Fantômas, who wears a blue mask and black gloves. He was one of the most popular creations in the history of French literature. Souvestre and Allain wrote thirty-two books about him between 1911 and 1913. That’s not a typo. They wrote fast, about a book a month, and were greatly helped by the money earned by selling him to the movies, where he became a stalwart of France’s early silent cinema. Éditions Robert Laffont republished the books during the 1960s, with Michel Gourdon illustrating all of them, and the above edition coming in 1963. Rear cover below. We’ll probably get back to Fantômas later.

France, Paris, Éditions Robert Laffont, Pierre Souvestre, Marcel Allain, Michel Gourdon, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 6 2018

LOCKED IN

French publisher Editions Ferenczi had a Verrou unique way of doing things.

Collection le Verrou (The Lock Collection) consisted of 205 pocket-sized crime novels published in France by Editions Ferenczi from 1950 to 1959. Some were written by French authors using pseudonyms that sounded English or American, while other writers used their real names, such as Alexandra Pecker (yes, that’s a real name) and René Poupon (idem). Other books were written by U.S. or British writers and had been previously published. For instance, above you see Le singe de cuivre by Harry Whittington, which you might know as The Brass Monkey, and below you’ll find entries from Lawrence Blochman and English scribe Peter Cheney, better known as Peter Cheyney. The art on these books is generally quite colorful. The cover above was painted by Michel Gourdon, and below you’ll find another piece from him, many efforts from Georges Sogny, and a couple from as-yet-unknowns. We really like Ferenczi’s output, so expect us to share more covers from this publisher later.

Vintage Pulp

December 9 2017

MARIE IN THE FIRST DEGREE

I shot the director. But I didn't shoot the D.O.P.

A DOP, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the Director of Photography, the director’s creative right hand on a movie set. J. P. Ferrière’s Marie-meurtre, which is entry #573 in Editions Fleuve Noir’s long-running Spécial Police series, is about a woman whose visiting brother dies in her home of a heart attack, and whose demise is immediately followed by the arrival of a Parisian gangster looking for a cache of stolen jewels. This would normally be a disconcerting development, but Marie has an enemy and the gangster’s presence turns into an opportunity for long sought revenge. The book was published in 1967 and it has Michel Gourdon artwork, possibly only tangentially related to the actual content. Since our French is bare bones at best we couldn’t pore over the book to find the connection to the cover art. But when you come up with a good caption you just have to run with it.

France, Éditions Fleuve Noir, J. P. Ferrière, Michel Gourdon, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 7 2017

FEMININE PERSUASION

Well, if that's the way you feel about it, fine—I'll go to the damn grocery store with you.

Here’s how food shopping works around here. When we go to the market we buy only enough for a day or two because we want to prevent food from going over, but when the Pulp Intl. girlfriends go they buy more than they can carry. Therefore, when we go alone we never get everything they want, and when they go alone they never have the help they need. We’re thinking of buying them a donkey to solve that problem.

Paul Kenny’s Consigne impitoyable has nothing to do with any of that. It’s an espionage thriller featuring the long-running character Francis Coplan, aka FX 18, who works for SDECE (Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage). The series, which was credited to Kenny as a pseudonym but written by Belgian authors Gaston Van den Panhuyse and Jean Libert, was immensely popular and sold tens of millions of copies globally.

As you can see, Consigne impitoyable had two nearly identical covers, presumably representing two nearly identical occasions when extra persuasion was needed to get Coplan off his ass to help with the shopping. He may need to buy a donkey too. Both editions had Michel Gourdon cover art and appeared in 1958.

France, Belgium, Éditions Fleuve Noir, Paul Kenny, Michel Gourdon, Jean Libert, Gaston Van den Panhuyse, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 6 2017

RODE TO PERDITION

She's not out of the woods yet.

This is your regular reminder that Michel Gourdon was a top notch illustrator, though his brother Alain was the one who attained legendary status. Michel was more of a workhorse, though, painting many hundreds of paperback fronts, which probably contributed to him producing the occasional less-than-stellar effort. But this piece for Pierre Courcel’s, aka Roger Jean Tribot’s La haine qui rôde, aka The Hatred that Lurks, is Michel at his best. The sports car and female figure are nice, but the background of trees and sunlight is particularly beautiful, we think. It’s from 1965 for Editions Fleuve Noir, entry #483 in its long-running Collection Spécial-Police.

France, Éditions Fleuve Noir, Michel Gourdon, Pierre Courcel, Roger Jean Tribot, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 7 2017

AUTO FOCUS

Traffic mishaps reach an all-time high.

Below, assorted paperback covers pairing mortal danger and automobiles, including many examples from France, where the theme was particularly popular. Thanks to all the original uploaders on these.

France, Italy, Germany, Michel Gourdon, Barye Phillips, Jef de Wulf, cover collection, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 26 2016

DOWN THE UP STAIRCASE

In vintage fiction you really need to watch your step.

The first step is a doozy, as they say, but in vintage fiction so is the last one and all those in between. Above and below are assorted paperback covers featuring characters who’ve had a bad time navigating stairs, a few due to accidents but most via ill intent from third parties. We also have one hardback dust sleeve we added at the bottom because it was so interesting. Just scroll down, but do it carefully.

Vintage Pulp

March 23 2016

SHOE ENOUGH

Man, he had tiny feet. Suddenly it's hard to remember why I thought he was so dangerous.

Above, a Michel Gourdon cover for Serge LaForest’s Les mains propres, aka Clean Hands, for Collection Special Police from French publisher Fleuve Noir. LaForest was a pseudonym used by Serge Arcouet, who wrote 140 novels as LaForest, Russ Rasher, Tony Stewart, and—we love this one—John Lee Silver. Actually, he shared Silver with two other French writers Pierre Aryaud and Léo Malet. Remember those trips to France we took? These Fleuve Noir paperbacks are staples in every secondhand bookstore you find, probably because very close to a billion have been printed and sold from 1949 until today. Les mains propres is from 1960

France, Éditions Fleuve Noir, Les mains propres, Serge LaForest, Russ Rasher, Tony Stewart, John Lee Silver, Pierre Ayraud, Leo Malet, Michel Gourdon, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 23 2015

DIVINE INSPIRATION

He might have broken the law, but he had a higher calling.

What’s an illustrator to do when he doesn’t have a model? Borrow a celebrity. And if you’re going to use a celeb you might as well take inspiration from the best. French artist Michel Gourdon decided upon the era’s most celestial sex goddess Raquel Welch for his cover of M.G. Braun’s Sam et Sally—Le sang du ciel, published in 1972 by Editions Fleuve Noir as part of its Collection Spécial Police. This would not be the last time Gourdon used Welch as a model, but it’s probably the best example.

This sort of appropriation was not unique to Gourdon. During this same period Italian artist Mario De Berardinis used Playboy Playmate of the Year Cyndi Wood for his poster promoting the film Giro girotondo… con il sesso è bello il mondo, Sharon Tate was used for at least two late 1960s paperback covers, Lavar Burton was borrowed for the front of an ultraviolent Italian fumetto, Ornella Muti provided the physical basis for the main character of the vampire series Sukia, Beba and Fiona of the Pornostar comics were based on two showgirls from Striscia la notizia, and none other than Iggy Pop appeared on the cover of Elvifrance’s Wallestein.

All of these examples using celebrity images for profit would be violations of intellectual property laws today, we’re fairly certain, but we could be wrong about that. Were they illegal in the past? Not in Italy, apparently—Ornella Muti must have known her image was being borrowed, since she worked primarily in Italy and Sukia was published there. Same goes for the Striscia la notizia showgirls. Maybe they were flattered. If so, they should have looked inside the comics, where their characters were ripping throats out and shanking dudes in the groin. In any case, we love curiosities like these, and we’ll doubtless run across more later.

France, Éditions Fleuve Noir, Sam et SallyLe sang du ciel, M.G Braun, Michel Gourdon, Raquel Welch, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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.

October 2

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.

October 2

1968—Massacre in Mexico

Ten days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, a peaceful student demonstration ends in the Tlatelolco Massacre. 200 to 300 students are gunned down, and to this day there is no consensus about how or why the shooting began.