Pub Call

Anyone familiar with this page knows that I tend to favor vintage book covers over old magazine fronts. But I have to confess, the blog Pulp Covers has been pretty much on fire lately as it’s showcased beautiful, long-ago painted façades from copies of Detective Yearbook, Police Detective, Line-up Detective, and assorted other crime-oriented publications. Two of the offerings from that collection are posted here: the 1951 Detective Annual (above), with a cover story—“Blood Money Buys a Party Girl’s Kiss”—that should have made it a candidate for my 2012 gallery of “kiss covers”; and the February 1949 edition of Best True Fact Detective (below), promoting a story with one hell of a brilliant title, “The Two-Timing Blonde Goes for a One-Way Ride.” While Pulp Covers doesn’t identify the artist in either of these cases, I’ll forgive it such omissions as long as it keeps adding to this string of winning pub fronts.

UPDATE: The cover artist behind the Detective Annual illustration shown above has been confirmed as Howell Dodd.