| Vintage Pulp | Sep 11 2014 |
Faced with this position surrender is the only option.
Here you see a pose that appears over and over in vintage paperback art—one figure looming menacingly in the foreground as a second cowers in the triangular negative space created by the first’s spread legs. This pose is so common it should have a name. We’re thinking “the alpha,” because it signifies male dominance and because of the A shape the pose makes. True, on occasion the dominator isn’t male, sometimes the unfortunate sprawled figure is depicted outside the A shaped space, and sometimes the art expresses something other than dominance, but basically the alpha (see, that just sounds right, doesn’t it?) has been used scores of times with only minor variation. You’ll notice several of these come from subsidiaries of the sleaze publisher Greenleaf Classics. It was a go-to cover style for them. We have twenty examples in all, with art by Bob Abbett, Robert Bonfils, Michel Gourdon, and others.
Greenleaf ClassicsPeggy SwensonJack UsherRobert BonfilsPaul MerchantGregory JonesJ.X. WilliamsChris DavidsonBob AbbettPatrick QuentinDoug WarrenAlan MarshallAndrew ShawDarrel MillsapDavid DodgeRussell TrainerWilliam KaneBob McKnightMark DunnJack KarneyVirgil CorningAlan RobinsonWilfred McNeillyLeo MaletMichel Gourdoncover artcover collectionliterature
| Vintage Pulp | May 19 2009 |
Three for the price of one.
Three Fleuve Noir covers painted by French artist Michel Gourdon, circa 1970s. These books were a steal at 1€ each.
