Vintage Pulp | Dec 1 2011 |
The woman who finds herself standing over a dead (or possibly drugged) man is a classic motif in true crime magazine cover art. Sometimes the woman is responsible for what's happened, while other times she simply has the bad luck to stumble into the situation. Covers of this type, you're probably already aware, fall under the category of Good Girl Art, with the “good” referring to the woman’s appearance, rather than her morals. Above and below are unlucky thirteen examples from mid-century crime magazines, with art from Barye Phillips, Jay Scott Pike, George Gross, Jack Rickard, and others. We borrowed one of these from Fringepop, and most of the rest we culled from online auctions where they’ve been languishing for months if not years. Feel inclined to collect a few classic true crime magazines? There are plenty of choices out there right now. Thanks to the original uploaders.
Vintage Pulp | Oct 12 2011 |
This is a brilliant cover for Joan Sherman’s, aka Peggy Gaddis Dern's Suzy Needs a Man, published 1950. Dern was an extremely prolific author who between 1934 and 1966 wrote under many names, producing mostly romances, nurse novels, and light sleaze. The art here is by the great George Gross, who painted hundreds of covers for every pulp imprint from Detective Book Magazine to Football Stories. We’ll get back to Gross a bit later, but in the meantime you can see more of his work here.
Vintage Pulp | Apr 16 2010 |
In pulp, a skinny dip always leads to an unexpected encounter. Possible results range from steamy sex among the water lilies to being scalped with a stone axe, but in all cases, getting naked in the woods is an open invitation to whoever—or whatever—might be passing by. As camping season draws near, we thought we’d share some book covers illustrating that immutable truth.