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

April 9 2023

HELLION YES

She's great. But you know how they say dance like no one's looking? She can dance only when everyone's looking.

A few days ago we shared a book cover inspired by a 1948 Life magazine photo. We wanted to show you a more direct inspiration from that shot. Here you see Tony Calvano’s The Hellions, from 1965 for Greenleaf Classics, published by its sub-imprint Leisure Books. Calvano was in actuality Thomas P. Ramirez.

The art on this is by Robert Bonfils, and he basically copied the dynamic figure in the Life photo, and did so brilliantly, making changes to her hair (more and wilder) and bikini (smaller and flimsier). The result is an illustration that’s a real eye-catcher. You can scroll down a few posts if you want to see the Life shot in a larger size. It was part of a photo essay on a performative youth movement called Activationism, centered in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Greenleaf Classics, Life Magazine, Tony Calvano, Thomas P. Ramirez, Robert Bonfils, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

September 5 2018

NO WORK AND ALL PLAY

At this rate we're both going to end up getting an F. And not one that stands for anything good.

We never went to summer school. We just weren’t bad enough students for that but now we see it may have had its good points, as seen on this cover for Tony Calvano’s, aka Thomas P. Ramirez’s Summer Lust, about students in summer session who can’t keep their minds on their work. Greenleaf Classics could turn even the most obscure scenarios into sleaze, so you know something as obvious as summer school basically wrote itself. It’s copyright 1965, with cover art by an unknown.

Greenleaf Classics, Thomas P. Ramirez, Tony Calvano, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

March 22 2016

BOB’S BIG BUOY

It floats? How weird. I would have thought something that size drags you down like an anchor.

Swap Circuit was written by Thomas P. Ramirez in the guise of Tony Calvano, with cover work by Darrel Millsap, and published in 1968. A couple set up swapping sessions for profit only to see their scheme go awry when they attend an orgy that’s out of their league. This piece of art caught our eye because it fits perfectly into our large collection of swapping covers, which you can see here. Don’t trade it for anything.

Greenleaf Classics, Swap Circuit, Thomas P. Ramirez, Tony Calvano, Darrel Millsap, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 25 2015

BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR

Mid-century paperback art and the race to judgment.

Science has given humanity a lot over the centuries. What will turn out to be one of its most important gifts is its conclusion, widely disseminated beginning in 1950 but by today firmly proven thanks to DNA sequencing, that race doesn’t exist in any scientific way. Of course, many don’t consider that fact a gift—but many people also had serious problems with the revelation that the Earth wasn’t flat. The concept of race comes entirely from the human imagination, and anti-black racism dates from within about the last five-hundred years, created principally as a means to justify the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Seen in that light, scientific proof that race doesn’t exist represents not new knowledge, but a return to knowledge that was the norm before the drive for riches caused men to deliberately warp human thought as a means to cover for mass cruelty.

As an imaginary construct, however, race is persistently powerful, which the collection of paperback fronts above and below strongly illustrate. We weren’t around when any of these were written, but their existence reveals a surprisingly (to us) lively market in such material. Were all the books you see here of great worth? Certainly not. But even with their flaws—particularly woman-blaming for rape—these books are artifacts of a fascinating racial dialogue that we suspect, on balance, was beneficial. We have fifty examples and there are at least a couple dozen more we didn’t include (Black Dicks for Marcie was just a bit too out there). Some of those pieces will pop up later in a slightly different themed collection. In addition to what you see here, we also put together a related group last year featuring an Asian theme and you can see that here.

Vintage Pulp

August 3 2010

VICTOR’S SECRET

Don’t take this the wrong way, but this isn’t what I expect when a man says he’s into lingerie.

Above, 1967’s The Long, Long Lust, by sleaze pulp specialist Tony Calvano, née Thomas Ramirez, with great cover art by Robert Bonfils of a guy who’s pretty cocky considering he’s wearing lace panties. Would that we all could be so confident. You can find an extensive bio of Calvano/Ramirez here, and more Bonfils covers by clicking keyword ‘Robert Bonfils’ below.

The Long Long Lust, Robert Bonfils, Tony Calvano, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

November 20 2009

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

Ouch, that hurts! Wow, what a view!

Allow yourself to be tortured to get laid? What sort of idiot would do that? Not you, right? No, but you did sit through all those episodes of Sex and the City. Remember that? And let’s not forget all the times you ordered vegetarian at dinner. It’s coming back to you now, isn’t it? Hurts, right? Think you can take more? Ha ha. Remember that time you stayed the weekend at a B&B? I’m sorry, was that a scream we heard? No? Of course it wasn’t. You’re way too tough for that. Say, remember that time you took a salsa class? Oh, the pain. And remember that time you missed the Superbowl telecast because she wanted to go wine tasting? And let’s not forget that trip to Vegas with your buddies you missed because she got tickets to go to an art exhibit that weekend. Yes, we know. Just let it go. Let the tears flow. There there. There there. What was that? We’re sorry, we couldn’t quite understand what you said through all your blubbering. You said you’d rather be chained and whipped instead? It’s too late my friend—you made your choice.

Passion Carousel, Tony Calvano, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 16

1964—China Detonates Nuke

At the Lop Nur test site located between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts, the People’s Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, codenamed 596 after the month of June 1959, which is when the program was initiated.

October 16

1996—Handgun Ban in the UK

In response to a mass shooting in Dunblane, Scotland that kills 16 children, the British Conservative government announces a law to ban all handguns, with the exception .22 caliber target pistols. When Labor takes power several months later, they extend the ban to all handguns.

October 15

1945—Laval Executed

Pierre Laval, who was the premier of Vichy, France, which had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, is shot by a firing squad for treason. In subsequent years it emerges that Laval may have considered himself a patriot whose goal was to publicly submit to the Germans while doing everything possible behind the scenes to thwart them. In at least one respect he may have succeeded: fifty percent of French Jews survived the war, whereas in other territories about ninety percent perished.

October 15

1966—Black Panthers Form

In the U.S., in Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther political party. The Panthers are active in American politics throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but eventually legal troubles combined with a schism over the direction of the party lead to its dissolution.

October 14

1962—Cuban Missile Crisis Begins

A U-2 spy plane flight over the island of Cuba produces photographs of Soviet nuclear missiles being installed. Though American missiles have been installed near Russia, the U.S. decides that no such weapons will be tolerated in Cuba. The resultant standoff brings the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. The crisis finally ends with a secret deal in which the U.S. removes its missiles from Turkey in exchange for the Soviets removing the Cuban weapons.

October 13

1970—Angela Davis Arrested

After two months of evading police and federal authorities, Angela Davis is arrested in New York City by the FBI. She had been sought in connection with a kidnapping and murder because one of the guns used in the crime had been bought under her name. But after a trial a jury agreed that owning the weapon did not automatically make her complicit in the crimes.