Vintage Pulp

June 12 2019

MISMATCHED PAIR

For you this is just a light, but for me it's the beginning of a toxic sexual obsession and eventual restraining order.

We’re going to do one more entry on France before we head to other countries. Once we have time to do some intensive scanning you’ll see the bulk of our Paris treasures. Paris, by the way, is a city where strangers often ask you for a light, which is why we thought of the above subhead. If we actually smoked it would be a great way to meet people, but since we never have an actual light all interaction ends there.

So while we learn how to smoke, above you see a cover for Elle ne perd pas son temps, by George Maxwell, aka Georges Esposito, for Presses Mondiales and its series Les grands romans dessinés, published in 1953. These were comic books adapted from the series La Môme Double-Shot, specifically 1952’s La belle se joue à deux, which you can see here.

Elle ne perd pas son temps translates to “She doesn’t waste her time,” and neither did the artist Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, when he painted this nice cover. If you’re inclined you can see examples from him here, here, and here, and you can certainly expect more in the future.

France, Paris, Jacques Thibésart, Mik, George Maxwell, Georges Esposito, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 17 2018

MICRO MANAGER

If anyone can get these people whipped into shape it's her.

Above is a cool cover for Jak Delay’s 1953 thriller Mission “microbienne”, a title that would translate as “microbial mission.” He wrote it for Éditions Le Trotteur and the art is by Mik, aka Jacques Thibésart, someone we’ve talked about extensively. We particularly like his femme fatale here. She’s carrying a whip, the indispensable accessory for any modern woman, perfect for keeping male subordinates in line, and good for getting the attention of bartenders and waiters. The microbienne aspect of the story has to do with chemical warfare. The heroine Isabel Didier is tasked with retrieving French bacteriological weapons stolen by East German spies. As usual in these types of tales, Isabel is a real hotty and that’s basically her main advantage dealing with various hapless commies. Or put another way, the Cold War warms up quickly thanks to Isabel. Mission “microbienne” could be the first in a series. We aren’t sure. But maybe we’ll check into that and report back. In the meantime, more Mik covers here and here.

France, East Germany, Éditions Le Globe, Éditions le Trotteur, Jak Delay, Jack Delay, Mik, Jacques Thibésart, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 2 2018

AGREE TO DISAGREE

Okay! Please, enough! How about we just admit we're both wrong and leave it at that!

So, after all these years the consensus among experts finally is that cover artist Jacques Thibésart’s stylized signature should be read Mik instead of Nik, so we’ve shared this cover today to call attention to the change we’ve made to all his previous mentions on Pulp Intl. The man has caused no end of trouble. But he’s worth it, because just look at this piece above, with a femme fatale Harveying the living daylights out of a problematic male. This fronts Bevis Winter’s Quand elles se mettent à cogner… which was published by Éditions Le Trotteur in 1953 for its series Le Roman de Choc, or Shock Novel. Winter was an English author active during the 1950s who published as Hyman Zoré, Al Bocca, Gordon Shayne, Peter Cagney, and other pseudonyms. It’s possible—but not certain—that Quand elles se mettent à cogner… is actually a translation of Larry O’Brien’s 1950 thriller Angels Bruise Easy. But don’t quote us on that, because French mid-century popular literature is a constant mystery and not even the experts seem able to unravel it.

France, Éditions le Trotteur, Bevis Winter, Mik, Jacques Thibésart, Larry O'Brien, Hyman Zoré, Al Bocca, Gordon Shayne, Peter Cagney, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

January 12 2018

DIRTY BLONDE

If you think this is painful wait until I tell you all the kinky things I did with your husband.

T’as triché marquise was written by the pseudonymous author George Maxwell and published in 1953 as part of Editions le Condor’s collection La Môme Double-Shot. This is one of the more violent entries in the series and the cover art reflects that. What we like best about it is how effortless the blonde makes her submission hold on the brunette look. Not a single golden hair has moved. Many of these Double Shot covers were painted by Jean Salvetti, but this one is by Jacques Thibésart, also known as Nik, or more likely Mik (we’re still avoiding changing all those old posts but we’ll get around to it). In any case, fine work.

France, Éditions le Condor, George Maxwell, Mik, Jacques Thibésart, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 16 2017

A.K.A. TROUBLE

She may be a bald mouse but you're about to be a dead rat, buster.

This beautiful cover was painted for Éditions le Trotteur’s popular collection Espions et Agents Secrets by Nik, aka Jacques Thibésart, and illustrates Yannick Williams’, aka Jacques-Henri Juillet’s 1953 thriller Mademoiselle “Chauve Souris”, aka Miss “Bat”. That’s a lot of aka’s, and here comes one more. In French souris means “mouse,” chauve means bald, and the two words together mean “bat”—literally “bald mouse.” French paperback titles can get a little slangy, though. Souris by itself—a mouse—is also a word for a pretty woman. So there could be another aka happening here in the form of a pun. We don’t know. Jo, where are you? We need you on this one.

Oh, and there’s one more thing, also aka related. Thibésart has an unusual signature—not visible on this cover but viewable here—in which the “N” could be read as a stylized “M.” Just lately, online experts are beginning to wonder if his signature should be read “Mik” instead of “Nik.” Thibésart is still around, but in classic French fashion refuses to discuss any of this despite several queries being floated his way. So for now we’ll stick with Nik. Also, we don’t want to change all our previous posts on this guy. We will update later if needed.

Update: it was needed.

France, Éditions le Trotteur, Yannick Williams, Jacques-Henri Juillet, Mik, Jacques Thibésart, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

January 28 2016

ATOMIC BLONDE

Nuclear intrigue in North Africa.

Above, top notch cover art by Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, for Jo Claver’s Bombe atomique à Port-Lyautey, which was published by Éditions Le Globe and Éditions Le Trotteur in 1956. Claver was aka Georges Claver-Peyre, and this particular book is Cold War intrigue and romance set in Morocco. See more fine Thibésart here and here.

France, Morocco, Port-Lyautey, Éditions Le Globe, Éditions le Trotteur, Jo Claver, Georges Claver-Peyre, Jacques Thibésart, Mik, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

January 5 2016

SHADOW AND FRIGHT

The shape of bad things to come.

Above and below are assorted covers featuring yet another fun mid-century paperback art motif—the looming or threatening shadow. The covers are by the usual suspects—Rader, Phillips, Gross, Caroselli, Nik, as well as by artists whose work you see less often, such as Tony Carter’s brilliant cover for And Turned to Clay. That’s actually a dust jacket, rather than a paperback front, but we couldn’t leave it out. You’ll also notice French publishers really liked this theme. We’ll doubtless come across more, and as we do we’ll add to the collection. This is true of all our cover collections. For instance, our post featuring the Eiffel Tower has grown from fifteen to twenty-two examples, and our group of fronts with syringes has swelled from thirteen to twenty-six images. We have ~~twenty-four~~ twenty-six—see what we mean?—more shadow covers below, and thanks to all original uploaders.

Vintage Pulp

January 3 2014

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Looks like it’ll be her last birthday.

Well, after yet another failed New Year’s Eve effort to obliterate ourselves before the calendar turned we find ourselves here in the strange and uncharted territory called 2014. Never thought we’d make it this far, but since we did let’s get back to some pulp with yet another excellent Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, cover, this one for Ça va être ta fête, aka “It’ll Be Your Birthday.” We really like this piece, especially the foreboding monochromatic landscape into which the beleaguered femme fatale is about to pitched unless she comes up with some groin destroying karate or a fingernail rake to the eyes. Not related to the 1960 French movie thriller of the same name (as far as we know), this was published by Éditions le Trotteure for their series Les Grands Romans Noirs in 1953, and written by Peter Viane, who was a pseudonym used by Pierre Cambon and his wife Viviane Pernet. To see more Mik, click.

France, Éditions le Trotteur, Jacques Thibésart, Mik, Peter Viane, Pierre Cambon, Viviane Pernet, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

October 1 2013

DUO DANGEREUX

Hell hath no fury like a woman armed.

We’re back to book covers today with two from Éditions de la Seine’s series Agents Secrets Contre X. The first is La rouquine flamboyante, by Georges Mera, and the second is Gangsters en smoking by Jacques Alexandre, both from 1956. The first title, translated, means “The Fiery Redhead,” and as for the second, “smoking” in French means either “tuxedos,” or “smoking jackets,” depending. The art is by the great Jacques Thibésart, aka Mik, and if you want to see a bit more from him check here.

France, Éditions de la Seine, La rouquine flamboyante, Gangsters en smoking, Jacques Alexandre, Jacques Thibésart, Mik, Georges Méra, Georges Méra, Robert-Georges Méra, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 9 2012

DETAILS INDEED

When we said the Devil is in the details, we had no idea how prophetic that would turn out to be.

So, we got an email a few days ago from a reader named Paul about our Mort au diable post “The Devil Is in the Details” from last month, and we were asked if we were 100% sure the art for that poster was painted by Jacques Thibésart. Well, we thought we were. Then we realized we weren’t. Turns out the poster was from Belgium’s S.P.R.L. Belgique, and they have a mark that, if you aren’t paying close attention, looks like Thibésart’s signature. Thibésart signed his work Mik, Tib, or with his own name sometimes, but the Mort au diable signature, which reads Wik, is obviously different (see above). S.P.R.L. is a famous press, and their signature is well known—to everyone but us, as of a couple of days ago. Below is the last portion of our reply to Paul:

It’s actually rather interesting, because for us the site is just simple fun, and we often joke in our posts about how we don’t take it seriously. However our analytics tell us that people are continually cross referencing here and using it for research, and the traffic is far larger than we ever expected [snip]. With that in mind, we pledged a while back to try and get all our information correct, and we are quite diligent nowadays, but something still slips through occasionally. Without readers checking our facts, we’d never get everything right, so you’ve done us a big favor.

So there you have it. Epic fail on Mort au diable, but every mistake makes us a little better. We’ve corrected the earlier post, but didn’t want the change to go unacknowledged. As it happens, yesterday we were in France, in a town called Bayonne, and at a vintage bookshop we saw another piece from S.P.R.L. Belgique. We didn’t have any Thibésart handy to use for a detailed comparison of the signatures, but there was no need—we already knew we’d gotten it wrong. Now the good news. First, we picked up a stack of great French pulp. And second, we’re going to get this Thibésart thing right today. All the great covers below are his. They’re from the imprint Presses Mondiales for their series Amour et Police, and were published during the 1950s. 100% on this. Seriously.

France, Belgium, Bayonne, S.P.R.L. Belgique, Presses Mondiales, Jacques Thibésart, Mik, 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.