Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

HORSING AROUND

Wheeeee! Nothing compares to a butt-naked bareback ride on the beach! Not sex! Not money! Not anything!

Robert Bonfils did well with this wild cover for T.A. Maschke’s 1961 sleazer Sex Is Like Money. His art convinced us to give the book a shot (literaure buffs may notice, by the way, that this title predates John Updike’s famous quip from his 1968 book Couples). Maschke tells the story of a Chicago cab driver and former pro wrestler named Mike Turner, who’s asked by a mystery woman named Della to swim eight-hundred yards into Lake Michigan and back to retrieve a briefcase of dirty financial records she intends to toss off a yacht and give to tax authorities. Turner wants to get laid, so he goes along with the plan, manages to return to shore with the briefcase, but soon learns that it contains not documents but a million dollars. Oops—duped!

The money belongs to Chi-Town crime kingpin Killer Canasta, and obviously he’ll be furious—the guy is known as Killer, after all—so Della plans to flee to South America. She’s willing to take Turner along, but he drags his feet, arguing instead that they should give the money to the feds and collect a reward. Dumb, right? Turner then discovers Della has an identical twin sister named Ella and things get weird. The tale eventually ends with a televised wrestling match in Soldier Field between Turner and Canasta. How does Maschke manage to bend the narrative toward that bizarre conclusion? It doesn’t matter, because under no circumstances should you read Sex Is Like Money. And you always take our advice, right? Trust us this time—it’s terrible. And on we go to the next… 

Chicago, Newsstand Library, T.A. Maschke, Robert Bonfils, John Updike, cover art, literature

READY FOR HER ENCORE

Now I'd like to do a little number about the fantastic sex I'm going to have later with a random member of the audience.

Above: a Robert Bonfils cover for Thom Martin’s sleazer Serenade to Seduction, which came from Newsstand Library in 1960. We figure the singer here, after making her announcement, goes right into a steamy rendition of Dinah Washington’s “Big Long Slidin’ Thing.”

Newsstand Library, Thom Martin, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

TRADE AGREEMENT

You wanna do something really wild? How about you and my husband swap bank accounts instead?


Robert Bonfils is on cover duty for G.A. Graeme’s The Wife Traders, from Newsstand Library, circa 1959. Here a weekly bridge game turns into a swinging free-for-all, which of course leads to death. The story is written in the form of an investigation of two murders by an intrepid reporter who has to go undercover to crack the case wide open. Nothing new, but we always dig Bonfils. 

Newsstand Library, G.A. Graeme, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

LAYING DOWN THE INLAW

I always get confused about this. So, like, if you're my mother's husband does that mean you can or can't spank me?

Above: a cover for My Mother’s Husband, written by M. Anderson for Newsstand Library, a company based in Chicago. M. Anderson is obviously a pseudonym whose real identity seems lost to time, and believe it or not, this is actually a detective story. It’s copyright 1960, with Robert Bonfils art.

Newsstand Library, M. Anderson, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

HUNGRY FOR LOVE

You excite me so much, darling, but that's not my heart making that noise. That's my gastrointestinal tract.

Above: a cover for the medical romance novel Amorous Dietician by Mary Shomette Gooch, 1961, with art by Robert Bonfils. Gooch, who has such a ridiculous name you have to suspect it’s real, also wrote Cheating Woman, The Tainted Rosary, and The Lusting Breed as Mary S. Gooch. And if you say that fast, you can make it sound like “Mary’s gooch,” which would be funny but it turns out women don’t have have gooches. Only men do—we looked it up.

Newsstand Library, Mary Shomette Gooch, Mary S. Gooch, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

Actually, she isn't the youngest anymore. But she's been a harlot for some years and it's sort of an honorary title now.

Above, an amusing cover for The Youngest Harlot by Jay Carpenter, from Newsstand Library, 1961. The cover text, in case you can’t read it, says juvenile delinquency is the most biting indictment of our times. The fiction bites a little bit too, but in a fun way. If you’re inclined you can find out for yourself by downloading a copy at TripleX Books. The art, by the way, could fit into our collection of characters leaning against poles, which makes the cover a winner for us. Thank Robert Bonfils.

Newsstand Library, Jay Carpenter, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

TOTALLY BOGUS

Good sleaze can be like beautiful music.

Above you see a really nice Robert Bonfils cover for Bogus Lover, published by Newsstand Library in 1960. What’s bogus, though, is how the author got ambushed on this one. According to mysteryfile.com, Hy Silver—his real name, by the way—originally wrote a standard detective thriller that was converted without consent into a sleaze novel. And what a conversion: “Her hips began to sway in low, rhythmic circles, eager with anticipation, then faster until they were undulating to a restless mambo beat.” Note to aspiring novelists—remember to use Latin American music as a metaphor for really good sex. The rumba works, as do the samba and bolero, and the tango is a really good one, especially when describing the interaction of two tongues. We’re giving you this for free. Run with it. 

Newsstand Library, Hy Silver, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

FEELING HORNY

Wow! He's really mastered some hot licks!


There’s something special about how a great talent handles his instrument, right? It becomes an extension of him. A real virtuoso uses every technique in his repertoire—double and triple tonguing, lip trills, circular breathing, and of course quick valve water emptying—until it all comes together in one climactic crescendo. By the way, if you don’t know what quick valve water emptying is, well child, you better ask somebody. In the past most players were men, but of late there are plenty of women who blow masterfully. The best often do dates in the legendary Trumpet City. That place is tops… Um, yeah. 1961 on this, with Robert Bonfils art. 

Newsstand Library, William A. Austin, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

TUTU CRUEL

She’s finally going to make her mark on Broadway.

The comic book-like art isn’t of good quality, but we had to share this because it fits into the collection of falling covers we put together a while back. The Penthouse Killings was written by Horace Brown for Toronto based Newsstand Library in 1950. If you actually want to know why this ballerina is tossed off a building, check the detailed review here. 

Canada, Toronto, Newsstand Library, The Penthouse Killings, Horace Brown, cover art, literature
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1940—The Battle of Britain Begins

The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.

1948—Paige Takes Mound in the Majors

Satchel Paige, considered at the time the greatest of Negro League pitchers, makes his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 42. His career in the majors is short because of his age, but even so, as time passes, he is recognized by baseball experts as one of the great pitchers of all time.

1965—Biggs Escapes the Big House

Ronald Biggs, a member of the gang that carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, escapes from Wandsworth Prison by scaling a 30-foot wall with three other prisoners, using a ladder thrown in from the outside. Biggs remained at large, mostly living in Brazil, for more than forty-five years before returning to the UK—and arrest—in 2001.

1949—Dragnet Premiers

NBC radio broadcasts the cop drama Dragnet for the first time. It was created by, produced by, and starred Jack Webb as Joe Friday. The show would later go on to become a successful television program, also starring Webb.

1973—Lake Dies Destitute

Veronica Lake, beautiful blonde icon of 1940s Hollywood and one of film noir’s most beloved fatales, dies in Burlington, Vermont of hepatitis and renal failure due to long term alcoholism. After Hollywood, she had drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. A New York Post article briefly revived interest in her, but at the time of her death she was broke and forgotten.

  • FEATUREd PULP

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.
Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

LOVES OF A BLONDE

Uncredited cover art for Orrie Hitt's 1954 novel Tawny. Hitt was a master of sleazy literature and published more than one hundred fifty novels.

INSATIABLE APPETITE

George Gross art for Joan Sherman’s, aka Peggy Gaddis Dern’s 1950 novel Suzy Needs a Man.

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