OK, so I admit I’ve been a bit lax about updating this blog of late. I have been concentrating my energies on The Rap Sheet instead, but that’s only because so much has been happening in the crime-fiction field of late. Despite what rumors you may have heard, I am only one person, with so few hours in each day to work. Fortunately, my delinquency in contributing to this page does not mean I haven’t been paying attention to the book-art world, and especially to recent postings about older, interesting imagery.
• One thing well worth checking out is this collection, in the French blog Les Rétro-Galeries de Mr. Gutsy, of classic illustrations by “girlie” paperback cover artist Reginald Heade. I’ve written about Heade in The Rap Sheet before, but several of his pieces that “Mr. Gutsy” offers up are new to me, including the one topping this post, taken from the 1950 Archer Press edition of Dames Are No Dice, by an author named Slim Vincent (who also penned the deliciously titled but long-forgotten Floosie on the Run).
• Meanwhile, Retrospace has assembled another in its popular series of “paperback sleaze” posts, this one featuring the fronts from such justly lost literary “gems” as Sexual Strike Force, Sinful Cowboy, and Lustin’ and Teasin’, She Needs Some Pleasin’.
• Portland, Oregon, blogger and author Evan Lewis introduces me to a new pulp artist, H.J. (Henry Joseph) Ward, in his selection of Private Detective Stories covers from 1937.
• The blog Kinoimages highlights the most beautiful poster I’ve ever seen promoting actor Steve McQueen’s 1968 detective thriller, Bullitt. The artist is identified only in a small signature as “Rey,” but we know the piece comes from Belgium.
• And I’ve unfortunately never read the 1968 James Bond novel Colonel Sun, written by Kingsley Amis under the pseudonym “Robert Markham.” However, Robert K. Abbett’s super-sexy illustration--embedded below--created to accompany an excerpt from that book in the May 1960 edition of Cavalier magazine, certainly makes me think there are elements of the tale that would appeal to me. The artwork suggests such a brutal scene--poor 007!--yet the almost topless torturer classes it up nicely with her string of pearls.
READ MORE: “The Curious Case of Colonel Sun: Kingsley Amis’s Missing Bond Novel,” by Aug Stone (The Quietus).
3 comments:
Hi !
That's funny, I used to follow your blog even before I created mine !
Thanks for the link ;)
- Mr G. -
Colonel Sun was the first 007 novel written after Ian Flemings last and final novel of 007, The Man with the Golden Gun.
Bond is shot and has a stomach wound. In Colonel Sun, a Chinese Loney, the story picks up with him slightly recopersted.
Written by famed British Author Kinlsley Amis under his psudenum, Markham.
For years after no one picked up the 007 titles due to resistance from purists.
After some time John Garner wrote more than a few Bond Novels.
Thanks, But I believe Colone Sun was 1970 copywright.
Vince
Hmm. Everything I see says that Colonel Sun was originally released on March 28, 1968, by UK publisher Jonathan Cape.
Cheers,
Jeff
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