This dog goes Harf Harf. We like the work of French illustrator F. Harf, but he can be hit and miss and above you see one of his less successful covers, for Le bonheur difficile. What seems to have been difficile here was painting a dog. This is surely the world’s least convincing pooch. If it’s a dog at all. It could be a naked, neutered, armless old man. If you want to see a prettier Harf cover check here. Le bonheur difficile was published by Éditions de la Mode Nationale S.E.P.I.A. as part of their Collection Fama, and it was written by Lidone, who was in reality Marie-Madeleine Lavergne. She wrote quite a few books as Lidone, Magda Contino, Maria Mario, and Jean Namur during her thirty-year career, primarily in the romance genre. This one, also a romance, but hopefully not involving the dog faced man, is from 1956.
Don’t it make her brown eyes blue. We said yesterday that we had located a few more Harf pieces, and here’s the best of the lot, in our opinion, the cover for Louise Toudet’s romance Bleu sur fond noir, which would translate to something like “blue on black background.” It was published in 1956 by S.E.P.I.A. for the Fama series. This is the only book that Toudet ever wrote, according to our research, but we have a lot more great Harf art that we’ll share down the line.
Save the last dance for her. Above is a really nice cover for Marylise Bessières’ 1954 pulp romance Kari la Hungara, which was number 58 in the Fama series published by Société d’Edition Publications et Industries Annexes, aka S.E.P.I.A. Bessières wrote five or six books of this type in the early 1950s, but seems to have had no output after 1954—at least not under that name. The cover is by someone who went only by F. Harf. These French artists and their initials. It would be so much easier to research them if they signed their full names, but c’est la vie. We know nothing about Harf right now, but we’re digging. In the meantime, we found some other excellent pieces from this person we’ll be sharing in a bit, so keep an eye out for those.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1933—The Gestapo Is Formed
The Geheime Staatspolizei, aka Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established. It begins under the administration of SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police, but by 1939 is administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or Reich Main Security Office, and is a feared entity in every corner of Germany and beyond. 1937—Guernica Is Bombed
In Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, resulting in widespread destruction and casualties. The Basque government reports 1,654 people killed, while later research suggests far fewer deaths, but regardless, Guernica is viewed as an example of terror bombing and other countries learn that Nazi Germany is committed to that tactic. The bombing also becomes inspiration for Pablo Picasso, resulting in a protest painting that is not only his most famous work, but one the most important pieces of art ever produced. 1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission.
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