Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Publishers of depression-era pulp magazines, post war men’s adventure and girlie magazines, and lurid paperback titles all used risqué, action-packed illustrations to make their offerings jump off the newsstands in the highly competitive market for readers attention. Cover art pushed the boundaries of what was allowable in a heavily-censored era, coming up with increasingly deviant and outlandish portrayals of sex, violence, and perilous escapes from danger. Today, these works—which provide an intriguing peek into the shadow side of 20th century American culture—are studied by historians and coveted by collectors.
This original oil on canvas painting, used as the cover for the January 1955 pulp digest, Imagination – Stories Of Science And Fantasy, offers a whimsical mid-century futuristic look at the then far-off year of 1990. The 1950s were abundant with delightfully optimistic and utopian visions of what future life would look like – works like […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
A remarkable, pulp cover painting by Harold H.W. McCauley for the Ziff-Davis science fiction pulp title Fantastic Adventures. Created as the cover for the July 1947 issue, illustrating the interior story “Goddess of the Golden Flame” by William P. McGivern. This is a dazzling work that combines suspense, peril and drama, with a […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
A blazing and risqué paperback cover painting by Mort Engel for the Avon paperback, Death Of A Hooker by Henry Kane. Featured is the alluring albeit misguided Kiki Kalmer, adorned only in ostrich plums in man-eater mode, prior to her joining the ranks of the infamous dead blonde club. Title slug reads… Here’s Peter Chambers, hip-deep […]
Artist: Mort Engel
A genre defining girl in peril, menace themed pulp cover painting by the prolific and gifted American illustrator Peter Driben, this appeared as the cover for the December 1941 issue of Expose Detective True Crime Cases. Illustrating the interior story The Scarlet Sinner’s Final Exit, this lurid, large and rare surviving pulp cover painting has it all. Beautifully framed and in a fine state of conservation.
Artist: Peter Driben
A spectacular, large format, science fiction painting by Dean Ellis which was first used as the paperback cover for the 1970 Corgi published compilation of science fiction writing, SF-5 New Writings in Science Fiction, one of a series of 30 British science fiction anthologies released from 1964 to 1977 under the successive editorships of […]
Artist: Dean Ellis
An explosive, apocalyptic WWII battle scene rages in this lurid large format illustration painting by Bruce Minney which appeared as the cover for the October 1963 edition of For Men Only magazine. With its strong jawed GIs and busty damsels with dynamite, the cover slug line of “playgirls turned killers…” sexploitive narrative is on full display, […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
With a human sacrifice as the central conflict, a high octane tribal fight scene, and lurid bondage damsel in distress subject matter, this Bruce Minney artwork–which appeared as the cover for the June 1970 edition of New Man Magazine–captures all of the subversive allure of the Men’s magazine genre. Loosely illustrating the interior story, “Smash the Latins’ Jungle Combine […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
This provocative, subversive interior illustration by Bruce Minney for Male Annual #8, 1970 illustrates the interior story “I Fought A Desert Bullwhip Duel For A Fortune In Gems.” The S&M and fetish themes are foregrounded in the image as Minney shows Yank Pat Duncan armed with only the whip of his savagely murdered partner getting frontier justice in […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
An action packed Cold War-era interior illustration by Bruce Minney for the October, 1965 edition of For Men Only. Illustrating the special book bonus story by Bill S. Ballinger, Nude Of The China Seas, an excerpt from The Spy in the Jungle, book three in the Joaquin Hawks thriller series. The story itself focuses on Hawks’s James […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
A daring gang of female POWs rappel down a wall of a secret “Nazi Sex Stalag” atop the perilous heights provided by Germany’s notorious Liecht castle, with the help of the “G.I. master escaper” Sergeant Howard Lester. This tense and taut hyper dramatic interior illustration scene by Bruce Minney is a classic example of men’s […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
