| Vintage Pulp | Sep 16 2017 |
Okay, he's taken the bait. We'll let him get close, then you distract him by puking on his coat, and I'll take him down.
City Streets was written by Gene Harvey, aka Jack Hanley, who we last saw authoring 1942's Leg Artist. Harvey was a literary vet who authored such memorable lite-sleaze epics as She Couldn't Be Good, A Girl Called Joy, and Stag Stripper. City Streets is from 1954 and apparently his various publishers liked it so much they issued it four times—Venus Books put it out in 1950 as Cutie, Exotic Novels released it as Passion's Slave the same year in an illustrated format, Original Novels published it as what you see above, and finally Star Novels published it, also as City Streets, in 1955. These companies were closely related, but that's still a lot of mileage from one book. It explores the trials and tribulations of beautiful young Dru, “a bad girl of the slums,” who's gotten her education from the school of hard knocks—i.e. from Chicago's south side. The cover art on this is by Rafael DeSoto, who cleverly hid his signature in the gutter. It's a really beautiful effort from him, certainly one of his best. We've featured him often, so just click his keywords below if you want to see more.
ChicagoOriginal NovelsExotic NovelsVenus BooksGene HarveyJack HanleyRafael DeSotocover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Jan 11 2017 |
That's great. Very sexy. Now why don't we—just for context, you understand—see where the legs actually attach.
Originally published in hardback in 1942, with this Red Circle paperback appearing in 1949, Leg Artist is the story of a model named Lee Martin who rises to the top of her profession only to be targeted by a con man and felled by the tabloid press. The title refers to the photographic arts but is also a double entendre, as a “leg artist” is mid-century slang for a man adept at picking up women. Harvey revisited this theme later with 1950's Leg-Art Virgin. Red Circle was part of a publishing group put together by U.S. publisher Martin Goodman, and some of these companies evolved into Timely Comics, which in turn morphed into Marvel Comics. The art for this cover is by unknown.
