The Twelve Dames of Christmas, 2018: #9

Celebrating this festive season with brassy bombshells.



All Dames Are Dynamite, by Timothy Trent (Novel Library, 1949). Several sources give credit for this book’s cover art to Peter Driben (more of his work here and here). But others claim to see the initials “DB” in the painting’s lower right-hand corner.

Two-fer Tuesdays: Uh, Is There a Third Option?

A twice-monthly pairing of book covers that just seem to go together. Click on either of these images to open up an enlargement.



Say Yes to Murder, by W.T. Ballard (Best Detective Selections, 1943), with a cover illustration by Peter Driben; Never Say No to a Killer, by “Jonathan Gant,” aka Clifton Adams (Ace Double, 1956), featuring a painting by an unidentified artist.

Crime on the Cheap

On those occasions when I think of publisher Martin Goodman (1908-1992), it’s generally in relation to the comic-book division he launched, and which would evolve into Marvel Comics. But as Michael J. Vassallo explains in his blog, Timely-Atlas-Comics, Goodman was also in the business of selling paperback crime-fiction digests. Vassallo showcases some of those, from the 1940s, in this post. I’m particularly fond of American pin-up artist Peter Driben’s cover art for the 1943 release of Say Yes to Murder, by W.T. Ballard.