| Vintage Pulp | Mar 10 2017 |
You're finally here. Your apartment's on fire. Someone threw matches in the window. Someone who doesn't like waiting I bet.
Whenever we see this sort of distinctively sculpted red hair on a cover femme fatale we think the artist is Howell Dodd, but Gary Lovisi's Dames, Dolls and Delinquents: A Collector's Guide to Sexy Pulp Fiction says this is actually Rudy Nappi's work on the front of Orrie Hitt's Sheba. Nappi did his share of sculpturally coifed redheads, so Lovisi is probably right. The cover banner says Sheba Irons would sell anything, which might be true, but her actual job, once she secures it, is to sell cars. She and the other employees at the dealership sucker customers into unscrupulous financing deals, but this is Hitt fiction, which means the details of the business are minimal—the recipe here is sex and scandal. The men at the dealership all want Sheba, and when they eventually find leverage they seek revenge for having been rejected. We've seen this called one of Hitt's worst books, but anyone who would say that really doesn't know Hitt. There's no worst—they're all bad. This one is solidly middle-of-the-road for him.
Orrie HittRudy NappiGary LovisiDames Dolls and Delinquents: A Collector's Guide to Sexy Pulp Fictioncover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 2 2016 |
Then she realized she had an aptitude for it and today she's the very best.
Above, She Tried To Be Good, by the prolific Florence Stonebraker for Venus Books, 1951. The cover is the flawless work of Rudy Nappi, whose output we've shown you before. We think this is one of the most beautiful illustrations of the mid-century era, and we suspect we're not alone in that opinion. We'll have more from Nappi a bit later.
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 28 2016 |
When girl meets girl sparks fly.
Above and below is a small percentage of some of the thousands of lesbian themed paperback covers that appeared during the mid-century period, with art by Paul Rader, Fred Fixler, Harry Schaare, Rudy Nappi, Charles Copeland, and others, as well as a few interesting photographed fronts. The collection ends with the classic Satan Was a Lesbian, which you’ve probably seen before, but which no collection like this is complete without. Hopefully most of the others will be new to you. Needless to say, almost all were written by men, and in that sense are really hetero books reflecting hetero fantasies (fueled by hetero misconceptions and slander). You can see plenty more in this vein on the website Strange Sisters.
Tom ForanAnn SummerhillJackson HarmonStan O'DairMarguerite FrameFred HaleyA.M. WillisHoward TowardC.B. ShoreGale WilhelmD.W. CraigSheldon LordJerry JasonElise AbelArthur AdlonClaire StanleyRod StrongStanley CursonRichard MarsheJoan EllisRandy SalemToni AdlerAnn TowardLeslie BehanRene CoquelinKay AddamsDorian LeeLilyan BrockJ.S. RobinsMarch HastingsRex WeldonToni WrayRichard VillanovaEdwin WestDominique NapierVincent E. BurnsSloane BrittonSloane BritainHal KantorGreg HamiltonPhil AndersPaul RaderFred FixlerHarry SchaareRudy NappiCharles Copelandcover artcover collectionliteraturelgbt
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 4 2015 |
What happens in the sticks stays in the sticks.
More hicksploitation from Hallam Whitney, aka Harry Whittington—Backwoods Shack, for Carnival Books, digest format with great cover art by Rudy Nappi. A love triangle in the Florida outback is centered on hot-to-trot “backwoods trash” Lora and her two suitors, uptight Roger and proudly countrified Cliff. 1954 copyright.
