Make a Note of It

• Why just use a good piece of art once, when--with a little manipulation--you can use it twice? Author-blogger Bill Crider spots a pair of look-alike paperbacks from the 1950s.

• Meanwhile, the Euro Crime blog has gathered together recent novel fronts displaying Britain’s iconic red phone boxes.

• Ragged Claws Network showcases five Sax Rohmer novels with very handsome cover artwork by Joseph Lombardero (1922-2004). It also features some of Lombardero’s science-fiction covers, for which he was probably better known.

• Pulp International presents its own fine gallery of paperback façades, this one themed around hitchhiking. “The hitchhiker,” it relates, “has been a central element of many a mid-century thriller, with the results of these rides ranging from hot sex to bloody murder, and several outcomes in between.”

• I hadn’t realized it before, but at least three of the paperback fronts I included in my updated gallery of “suburban sin” novels--Suburbia After Dark, The Empty Bed, and The Sex Rebels--featured famous artist’s model Eva Lynd.

• Beautiful Robert Barnard covers, illustrated by Greg Harlin.

• Back in May, when I reported in The Rap Sheet on the title and story direction of Anthony Horowitz’s forthcoming James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, it appeared that UK publisher Orion had settled on the cover design for that 320-page book. But The Book Bond suggests there’s still some tweaking going on.

• And which do you prefer, the British cover or the American cover of Horowitz’s novel? I’m frequently partial to the UK versions of books, but I have to say, I favor the U.S. martini-and-babe front of Trigger Mortis to the British rocket plans version.

• Finally, a belated adios to renowned painter and illustrator Earl Norem, who died on June 19 at the ripe old age of 91. As the lifestyle and entertainment site Unfinished Man notes, “Mr. Norem was known for his paintings of Masters of the Universe as well as MANY other pop-culture properties, defining the looks and ‘universes’ for many fans. He was still working as an artist up until his last day. His last project was for Mars Attacks. Mr Norem was incredibly influential on several generations of artists and many of us were fortunate enough to be able to meet him at PowerCon. He was prolific, one of a kind and he will be deeply missed.” You can enjoy much of his magazine and comic-book artistry by clicking here and here.

Just Making the Rounds

• I’ve never paid much attention to Saber Books, a line of paperback novels published during the 1950s and ’60s that, as the blog Eleven-Nineteen explains, specialized in “cheatin’ wives and wanton women.” But this morning’s post in Pulp International about 1963’s Call of the Flesh, by Jack Moore (and featuring art by Bill Edwards), caused me to investigate further. Check out Eleven-Nineteen’s collection of Saber fronts here. Vintage Sleaze has its own set here, and there are more on Flickr.

• This is a book I very much look forward to adding to my library: The Art of Robert E. McGinnis. Slated for release by Titan in October, and put together by McGinnis and co-author Art Scott, it will trace the career of this Ohio-born artist “best known for his book cover and movie poster work”--someone whose illustrations I have frequently highlighted in this blog. I can’t tell, by reading the brief Amazon write-up, whether this is an expansion of a 2001 book McGinnis and Scott put together, or a wholly new volume; I hope it’s the latter. By the way, the cover art decorating this Titan book appeared originally on the 1960 novel Kill Now, Pay Later, by Robert Kyle.

• French artist-illustrator Alex Pinon (1900-1961) wasn’t familiar to me until I happened across this post about his 1953 cover for Elle ondule du popotin. After appreciating that image, though, plus one of his contributions to keyhold-themed pulp art, I am hoping to learn more about Pinon as time goes by.

• I concur with “Jade Pussycat” (a nom de plume, if ever there was one!) that this cover--which Jade says “kind of reminds me of Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase”--is a winner. It comes from Addicted to Murder, a 1960 “sex and drugs novel” by public health official/author Theodore S. Drachman. By the way, if you haven’t explored Jade’s blog, The Pulp Fiction Project, you really should.

• This has to be one of the most beautifully suggestive covers ever!

• Robert Deis (aka “Subtropic Bob”) has written several times in his blog, Men’s Pulp Mags, about “the legendary artists’ model, pinup glamour girl and actress” Eva Lynd. But he has still more to say in this new post, which elaborates on Lynd’s collaboration with paperback illustrator Al Rossi and manages to throw in some of McGinnis’ work, pretty much just for the hell of it.

• And can we all agree that the title Death of a Ladies’ Man has now been used often enough to be retired? Of the assortment of paperback covers available at that link, I’m particularly fond of the one from Lee Roberts’ 1960 novel, featuring artwork by Charles Binger. More of Binger’s creations can be enjoyed here.

Nude in the Sand, by John Burton Thompson

I’ve been very impressed by the efforts of blogger Robert Deis, aka Subtropic Bob, to catalogue the numerous 20th-century book and magazine covers on which blonde model Eva Lynd appeared. Impressed enough to already have written one piece here, and to now revisit the subject. His latest post on Lynd highlights John Burton Thompson’s Nude in the Sand, which was published by Beacon in 1959 and featured the model in a cover illustration by Al Rossi.

To learn (much) more about Lynd and her remarkable career, check out all of Deis’ posts on the subject in Men’s Pulp Mags.

All About Eva

I must admit, I had absolutely no idea who Eva Lynd was until I happened across this article in the blog Men’s Pulp Mags. But I’ve apparently seen her many times without realizing it.

As the pseudonymous Subtropic Bob explains,

[B]eautiful, blonde Eva Lynd ... was a favorite female model of Norm Eastman, the illustration artist who created many of the most iconic, most popular and most notorious cover paintings for the subgenre of men’s adventure periodicals commonly called “sweat magazines.”

In many Eastman cover paintings, Eva was the model for one of the gorgeous damsels in distress who are bound and tortured by sadistic Nazis, Commies or some other evil fiends.

Bob has put together a collection of photos of Lynd, plus some captivating examples of magazine cover illustrations in which she appeared. See them all in a two-part feature, here and here.

READ MORE: “Eva Lynd ... Illustration Art Model, Glamour Photo Model, Actress, and More ...,” by Robert Deis, aka Subtropic Bob (Men’s Pulp Mags).