Vintage Pulp

September 23 2024

DANCE OF DEATH

Murder to the beat of a different drummer.

You could be forgiven for thinking the front of Robert Dietrich’s, aka E. Howard Hunt’s, 1961 novel Steve Bentley’s Calypso Caper was painted by Robert McGinnis, but it’s actually the work of Tom Miller. So sayeth the rear cover, otherwise we’d have guessed McGinnis and had little doubt.

What’s truly doubtless, though, is that Hunt rescued the Steve Bentley adventures from an ignoble death by toning down the invective. In this episode, the seventh Hunt wrote and the third we’ve read, Bentley is sent down to the steamy island of St. Thomas to help with a tricky tax case and arrives in time to see his client jailed on suspicion of murder. What’s an accountant to do at that point? He launches his own investigation.

It’s all very unlikely, but it works this time around, and Hunt manages to do well with island flavor (though he’s not particularly kind to island inhabitants). There’s plenty of action, drinking, sexual intrigue, and repartee. This is well above average work from Mr. Watergate. So, after a success, a failure, and today’s success, what next? We’ll leave on a high note. E. Howard, we barely knew ye.

Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Dell Publications, Robert Dietrich, E. Howard Hunt, Howard Hunt, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 16 2023

MALE FRAGILITY

Of course you were the first. Geez. Why does every guy ask the same question?

Monarch Books, Stuart Friedman, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 9 2019

YOUR CHEATING ART

It looks amazing, baby. Er... aaaand should look even better on my lovely wife. Thanks for letting me test it on your neck.

Sometimes when you’re caught you’re caught. You can try and brazen the moment out, but it usually does no good, at least in mid-century fiction. From there it’s just a short distance to mayhem, murder, trials, prison, and all the other fun stuff that makes genre fiction worth reading. From James M. Cain’s iconic The Postman Always Rings Twice to J.X. Williams’ ridiculous The Sin Scene, infidelity is one of the most reliable and common plot devices. What isn’t common is cover art that depicts the precise moment of being caught. Of all the cover collections we’ve put together, this was the hardest one for which to find examples, simply because there are no easy search parameters. We managed a grand total of sixteen (yes, there’s a third person on the cover of Ed Schiddel’s The Break-Up—note the hand pushing open the door). The artists here are L.B. Cole, Harry Schaare, Tom Miller, Bernard Safran, and others. And we have thre more excellent examples of this theme we posted a while back. Check here, here, and here.

Vintage Pulp

February 28 2018

GIVING HER THE BUSINESS

Well, duh, of course we used you until you were sad and broken. What the hell do you think we learn in business school?

Above: a cover for Carlton Joyce’s campus sleazer Fraternity Row, 1963, about a charming sociopath named Chaz Graycen III, king of the hotshot Delta Mu fraternity, who knows no bounds of taste nor conscience when it comes to using people for his own benefit. So basically it’s a deadly accurate take on entitled one percenters. The cover art is by Tom Miller, who we did a little feature on here.

Monarch Books, Carlton Joyce, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

August 18 2016

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

Well, its only fair. Your husband backed his car over my wife's rose bushes last year.

There’s no end to suburban misadventures in mid-century fiction. In Sam Webster’s My Neighbor’s Wife, a sales manager at a steel company develops an interest in an employee’s wife, so he gives the employee a traveling position and tries out some positions with the wife. Webster was a pseudonym for author Ben Haas, and this is copyright 1963 with Tom Miller cover art.

Monarch Books, Sam Webster, Ben Haas, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 11 2015

SEX SUBURBAN STYLE

Actually, my husband already came home. But don’t worry. Except for getting fresh beers he might as well be in Mongolia until WWE Raw is over.

Above, a nice Tom Miller cover for Suburban Lovers, Jay Carr’s tale of various married suburbanites bedding their neighbors, published 1962, for Monarch. Carr, who was in actuality James P. Duff, must have done okay with this theme, because he also published Crack-Up in Suburbia for Monarch, also in 1962.

Monarch Books, Suburban Lovers, Jay Carr, James P. Duff, Tom Miller, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

December 28 2011

DR. MANHATTAN

Okay, now you’re going feel a little prick.

Did you ever see the movie Doc Hollywood? Well, 1962’s A Halo for Dr. Michael is the same sort of thing—i.e., a bright young doctor passes up a glittering career in the big city (Manhattan) and practices medicine in a small southern town. He learns a little about himself, and of course finds love. Author Dorothy Worley specialized in this stuff, churning out books such as Dr. John’s Decision, Dr. Jefferey’s Awakening (are you sensing a theme here?) Dr. Michael’s Challenge, and, for a change of pace, Cinderella Nurse. It’s cheeseball stuff, but sometimes only a medical romance will scratch that itch. The cover art, in all its overwhelming pinkness, is by Tom Miller, who did a lot of work for Monarch and Fawcett. You don’t hear his name mentioned with the top rank of pulp artists, but he was a first rate stylist who created more than a few classic images. We’ve collected a few below so you can see for yourself.

Don James, Carlton Joyce, Mack Reynolds, Max Brand, Robert Dietrich, Carlton Gibbs, Edwin West, Carson Bingham, Dorothy Worley, Tom Miller, cover art, literature, cover collection

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

December 4

1918—Wilson Goes to Europe

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails to Europe for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, France, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office.

December 4

1921—Arbuckle Manslaughter Trial Ends

In the U.S., a manslaughter trial against actor/director Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle ends with the jury deadlocked as to whether he had killed aspiring actress Virginia Rappe during rape and sodomy. Arbuckle was finally cleared of all wrongdoing after two more trials, but the scandal ruined his career and personal life.

December 3

1964—Mass Student Arrests in U.S.

In California, Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents’ decision to forbid protests on university property.

December 3

1968—U.S. Unemployment Hits Low

Unemployment figures are released revealing that the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 3.3 percent, the lowest rate for almost fifteen years. Going forward all the way to the current day, the figure never reaches this low level again.

December 2

1954—Joseph McCarthy Disciplined by Senate

In the United States, after standing idly by during years of communist witch hunts in Hollywood and beyond, the U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for conduct bringing the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. The vote ruined McCarthy’s career.

December 1

1955—Rosa Parks Sparks Bus Boycott

In the U.S., in Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott resulted in a crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system, because the city’s African-American population were the bulk of the system’s ridership.