| Vintage Pulp | Oct 19 2019 |
Parisian publisher does erotica as only the French can.
Today we have for your enjoyment an issue of Paris Frou Frou, #46, published in 1956. This was the brainchild of S.N.E.T.P., which decoded is Société Nouvelle D'editions Théâtrales Parisiennes. See, the French understood that smut must wear a fig leaf of intellectualism, which is exactly why we write so much on Pulp Intl. rather than just publish reams of nude photos. Hah, just kidding (did we mention the Pulp Intl. girlfriends are out of town?). The eroticism is just a bonus that comes with all the fiction, film, and art. And it's a bonus that helps our traffic.
Anyway, on the cover of this mag is Austrian actress Nadja Tiller, and the rear features a nice shot pairing yanks Lori Nelson and Mamie Van Doren. With a wrapper like that the inside must be nice, and indeed it is. You'll see Sabrina, the one-name star time has forgotten, as well as U.S. nudist model Diane Webber, aka Marguerite Empey. If your memory is very sharp you'll recall one of the same Webber photos appearing in an issue of the U.S. magazine Male from 1958 we shared a while back. Mixed in with the celebs is the usual assortment of Parisian showgirls. We'll revisit Paris Frou Frou later.
FranceAustriaS.N.E.T.P.Société Nouvelle D'editions Théâtrales ParisiennesParis Frou FrouNadja TillerLori NelsonMamie Van DorenDiane WebberMarguerite EmpeySabrinaNorma Ann SykesTina MarshallZaza BrooksNadine Tallierburlesque
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 7 2019 |
I love you, tiny shoe. I'm going to draw out the delicious anticipation before I put my foot inside you.
More from France today. Above you see Envoûtement sensuel, by Pierre Sénard for Éditions C.P.E., published in 1958. The title translates to “sensual enchantment,” and enchanting is a perfect word to describe this cover, which has a very romantic feel. The art wraps around onto the book's spine too, which makes it even nicer. We assume the cover figure is contemplating something other than her right shoe, but maybe not—we know a couple of women that get this way about footwear. The artist here is Jacques Leclerc, who signed his work as Jihel, and we think it's among his best.
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 21 2019 |
Who needs a man when you have technology?
Éditions R.R. specialized in beautiful covers, and this one continues the trend. The art is by Jef de Wulf, and it fronts Dit oui, Madame by René Roques. You can't tell, but this is about a woman who falls in love with a robot. And he's a French robot, so he shares his feelings, which is more than you do. Roques actually got racy enough here that the book was banned shortly after publication in 1957. Still, we bet it wasn't as wild as this mechanical lover novel. Or for that matter this one. They say robots are going to take all our jobs. Add sex to the list.
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 12 2019 |
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.
| Intl. Notebook | Jun 11 2019 |
Finally a place where the left/right divide isn't a bad thing.
No pulp hunter in Paris can possibly do without a trip to the bouquinistes, the sellers of used and antiquarian books located along the Seine. Actually, you don't even have to look for these guys. If you go into the city center you'll likely run into them without trying, since they're rather widely arrayed along the river's right bank between Pont Marie and Quai du Louvre, and on the left between Quai de la Tournelle and Quai Voltaire. It was rainy both days we popped by, which meant some weren't open. But even operating at less than half capacity, the bouquinistes had hidden treasures. We grabbed a few little things we'll be scanning and uploading imminently. For example, see the following post...
| Modern Pulp | Jun 11 2019 |
They're actually a little rude but the French don't seem to mind
Here you see the cover and few scans from Les femmes de Manara, which is a compendium from 1995 featuring published as well as previously unseen women created by the agile hand of Milo Manara, one of the great illustrators of graphic novels. He was born in Italy and was copiously published both there and in France, and remains extremely popular all over Europe. His niche is explicit erotica, and he's done it better than just about anyone, populating his books with lithe, beautiful women who manage to get into the weirdest scrapes. In Il Gioco, aka Click or Le Déclic, for example, the character Claudia Cristiani has an implant placed in her brain to help her with sexual arousal, which is all well and good until the remote control that operates it breaks and she's left in an ongoing nymphomaniacal state. It was made into a movie which we may discuss later, by the way. In Gulliveriana Manara's heroine survives a storm at sea only to find herself stranded naked on an island of tiny people. No movie of that, though we'd love to see one made. Anyway, these panels will certainly give you an idea why Manara became an icon in his field. He's still active, and maintains a nice website, frequently updated. So for more info on this master illustrator look there.
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| Intl. Notebook | Jun 9 2019 |
Endless sights in the City of Light.
We're back from Paris and it was as expected. We found a lot of great items we'll be uploading in the next days and weeks. And months, probably. Paris has many great sights, in every part of the city, but this time we ended up staying in Montmartre, an area that reminds us a bit of Washington Square, in San Francisco, that same feel of a tourist zone in a big city that has somehow managed to hang onto a neighborhood identity. As we wandered around town we saw scores of bookstores, some of which you see photos of below, and many had the type of material we were searching for. The focus this time ended up being on cinema magazines and comic books. Keep your eyes peeled. We have amazing things to show you.
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FranceParisMontmartreThe Seven Year Itch7 ans de réflexionMidnight LacePiège à minuitMarilyn MonroeDoris Daycinema
| Intl. Notebook | Jun 2 2019 |
Pulp Intl. visits Paris as it springs into summer.
We're going to Paris for a bit. The trip is not due to our initiative. The Pulp Intl. girlfriends plan to intersect with friends passing through there, and we're going along partly to keep them company and partly to buy magazines and books. When the girls go to meet pals we generally stay home and take the opportunity to eat popcorn, hit the bars until sunrise, and churn out website material at an increased rate, but not when Paris is involved. As buying opportunities go, that's a city you can't pass up. So the website will be idle for a few days. Five or six, depending.
Second topic, you remember a technical glitch threw us offline a while back. Every time that happens we lose some functionality or other, and this time it was the ability to navigate to earlier pages using keywords or section headers. Savvy internet users know that it's possible to paste “?next=10” onto the end of the url and navigate backwards by changing the number—i.e. “?next=20,” “?next=30,” etc. So that's an option for those that want to bother.
But it's also a pain, and we know that. We will fix the navigation problem, hopefully soon. But of course, that will be a case of slapping duct tape on the most rickety old website left online. So, as we've been promising for years, a Pulp Intl. 2.0 is coming. It's 95% built, we swear. Whether that final 5% will take a week, a month, or years is not known at this point. We'll get there eventually. But right now we want to get to Paris. We'll be back soon.
Second topic, you remember a technical glitch threw us offline a while back. Every time that happens we lose some functionality or other, and this time it was the ability to navigate to earlier pages using keywords or section headers. Savvy internet users know that it's possible to paste “?next=10” onto the end of the url and navigate backwards by changing the number—i.e. “?next=20,” “?next=30,” etc. So that's an option for those that want to bother.
But it's also a pain, and we know that. We will fix the navigation problem, hopefully soon. But of course, that will be a case of slapping duct tape on the most rickety old website left online. So, as we've been promising for years, a Pulp Intl. 2.0 is coming. It's 95% built, we swear. Whether that final 5% will take a week, a month, or years is not known at this point. We'll get there eventually. But right now we want to get to Paris. We'll be back soon.
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 4 2019 |
When the lights go down the stars come out.
This beautiful poster with a statuesque dancer front and center was made to promote a documentary on burlesque, a Japan-only release with no western distribution or title, called 日本の夜, which basically would translate as “Japanese Nights.” The central figure is Gypsy Rose Lee, and the movie was filmed in 1962 by Keiji Oono—not in Japan, but rather largely at Le Lido de Paris, home of the legendary Bluebell Girls. Le Lido still exists, though it's moved from its original 1946 location. If it's anything like the poster, with singers and geishas and glittering comet trails, we'll be visiting on our next trip to Paris.
| Intl. Notebook | Mar 3 2019 |
There's nothing like the Aslan touch.
Here's something a bit different—a poster advertising an exhibition of work by the great French illustrator Aslan, also known as Alain Gourdon. It began today in 1977 in Paris at Art Concorde, a gallery of the era. There are probably still occasional exhibits of Aslan's work in France, but it's cheaper to see it on Pulp Intl. The better examples are here, here, here, and here, plus we wrote a little post when he died, which you can see here.
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