Summer Stock

Blood on Biscayne Bay, 1960. Illustration by Robert McGinnis.

Longtime Killer Covers readers know I occasionally go back and update or expand older posts. I have learned a great deal about blog design since I began working in this medium back in the summer of 2005, so periodically I want to fix things. Often that means resizing artwork to fit my changing preferences, or sprucing up galleries of book covers I feel are in need of better or additional artwork. For instance, it wasn’t that long ago that I expanded my collection of “kiss covers” from 2012 as well as an assortment of “leggy covers” from 2010. In both cases, I think, those posts are now even more fun.

Half a dozen years ago, in June 2009, I got the brilliant idea to assemble an array of book fronts celebrating the pleasures and intrigues of summer. For Killer Covers, I put together a selection of 27 such façades and thought that was enough. But last July I decided to revisit what I have come to realize is a remarkably expansive field of summer-related paperback fronts, creating what I thought was a beautiful mini-series of posts called “The Heat Is On.” Again, I figured I was done with the theme. But ever since then, I have been filing away more examples of such works. And as this first week of 2015 got into gear, bringing with it record temperatures here in Seattle, I decided the time was right to compile the full results of my Web research on this subject.

So click right here to enjoy the new and improved post, “Summertime, and the Dying Is Easy.” I haven’t made significant changes in the text of that blog entry, but you’ll discover that the gallery is now more than three times the size it was, boasting 91 covers, with contributions from Harry Bennett, Robert McGinnis, Barye Phillips, Charles Copeland, Paul Rader, Ernest Chiriacka (“Darcy”), Mitchell Hooks, and others.

Finally, f you think I’ve overlooked any prize examples of summertime covers, please don’t hesitate to tell us all about them in the Comments section of this post.