The Last Hope of Earth, by Lan Wright

Well, Hurricane Sandy might have flooded large parts of New York City and plunged many residents into darkness. But at least conditions there aren’t as dire as those imagined by artist Jack Gaughan for this 1965 cover of a science-fiction novel by Lan Wright.

READ MORE: “A Visual History of New York City’s Destruction in 200 Years of Fiction,” by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings).

High on Ludlow

Early last year, I devoted a post on this page to the demise of American illustrator Mike Ludlow and some of his truly exceptional paperback book fronts. Since then, I’ve discovered more of his cover artwork, and would like to share it with you.

The front at the top of this post ranks among of my all-time favorites. It comes from the 1952 Dell Books paperback edition of My Enemy, My Wife, by Allen Haden. Below you’ll find the painted covers from Brother Death, by John Lodwick (Dell, 1952); Turn on the Heat, by A.A. Fair/Erle Stanley Gardner (Dell, 1940--one of many covers for that novel); Snatch, by Roger Taylor (Bantam, 1981); Three Blind Mice, by Agatha Christie (Dell, 1948); and the back and front covers from Washington Confidential, a look at the, well, shadier side of the U.S. capital, by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer (Dell, 1951).

Click on any of these images for an enlargement.







(Hat tip to Pulp Covers.)

READ MORE: “Noir Art: Mike Ludlow” (NoirWHALE).

Warped Wrappers

Guardian books blogger Alison Flood goes looking for the world’s worst novel fronts ... and finds more than she’d ever hoped to see.

Just Say Yes to “No”

A 1964 Spanish edition of Dr. No

Like millions of other people, you probably missed the memo, but today happens to be Global James Bond Day. It was 50 years ago, on October 5, 1962, that the film Dr. No--the first big-screen Bond movie, and the earliest of Sean Connery’s seven Agent 007 pictures--commenced showing at the London Pavilion. That thriller went on to debut in a number of other theaters around England over the next several days. Not until May 1963 did it finally reached U.S. movie houses.

(Left) British first-edition cover, Jonathan Cape, 1958

According to Wikipedia, Dr. No--which was of course based on Ian Fleming’s 1958 novel of the same name--initially “received a mixed critical reception”:

Time called Bond a “blithering bounder” and “a great big hairy marshmallow” who “almost always manages to seem slightly silly.” Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic said that he felt the film “never decides whether it is suspense or suspense-spoof.” He also did not like Connery, or the Fleming novels. The Vatican condemned Dr. No because of Bond’s cruelty and the sexual content, whilst the Kremlin said that Bond was the personification of capitalist evil--both controversies helped increase public awareness of the film and greater cinema attendance. However, Leonard Mosely in The Daily Express said that “Dr. No is fun all the way, and even the sex is harmless,” whilst Penelope Gilliatt in The Observer said it was “full of submerged self-parody.” The Guardian’s critic called Dr. No “crisp and well-tailored” and “a neat and gripping thriller.”

Other bloggers and critics may enthuse today over Connery’s interpretation, in Dr. No, of Fleming’s accomplished but demonstrably sexist secret agent. Perhaps they’ll extol the supple curves of co-star Ursula Andress’ bikinied Honey Rider. (One syndicated American entertainment columnist, Erskine Johnson, suggested back in 1963 that “tawny 26-year-old Ursula Andress should have been billed not by her last name, but as ‘Undress.’”) Let them have their fun. I wish, by contrast, to applaud the original book rather than the film, and showcase some of the covers featured on versions of that novel--as well as its comic book adaptations--over the last five decades.

Click on any of these images for an enlargement.

READ MORE: “007 Reloaded: Dr. No,” by Patrick Ohl (At the Scene of the Crime); “Dr. No in Comics” (Mister 8); “The Birth of Bond,” by David Kamp (Vanity Fair); “James Bond and the Modern Gadget Economy,” by Dominic Basulto (The Washington Post); “How Cary Grant Nearly Made Global James Bond Day an American Affair,” by Amanda Holpuch (The Guardian); “50 Classic James Bond Moments,” by Natalie Bochenski (Stuff.co.nz); “Best James Bond Opening Sequences,” by Kevin Fallon (The Daily Beast); and don’t miss The HMSS Weblog’s six-part series about this Dr. No anniversary; “The Beatles & James Bond: 5 October 1962,” by Terence Towles Canote (A Shroud of Thoughts).