Pulp and paperback artist Edward Mortiz created this femme fatale artwork as the cover of the 1961 Beacon Books title House Party by Dominique Napier.
Artist: Edward Moritz
Paperback & Pulp Art
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.
An important and technically masterful large format cover oil painting by James Avati, for the 1950 Signet books release of Love Knows No Barriers written by Will Thomas
Artist: James Avati
This cover painting by Tom Beecham for True Strange magazine is comprised of a montage of Marilyn Monroe imagery.
Artist: Tom Beecham
A large format, lurid and iconic paperback cover painting by Verne Tossey that was used as the cover for the 1955 Ace paperback Left Bank Of Desire.
Artist: Verne Tossey
The 1961 cover painting for the Beacon Book title Wild Body was created by an as-of-yet unidentified American artist. This novel by Manning Clay first appeared in digest form in 1953, our gallery also has that earlier cover painting available for sale. This lurid sleaze pulp fiction offering promises a wild ride — with more […]
Artist: Unknown American Artist
Teen-Age Gangs was created by Rafael Desoto as cover art for a 1954 Popular Library Paperback Book written by Dale Kramer and Madeline Karr. A gritty defining example which shows a bleak sensationalized, youth gone wild culture, which was to captured the moral panic over juvenile delinquency that was a focal point of American culture […]
Artist: Rafael Desoto
From the estate of the American artist James Lunnon, this is an unsigned proposed Black Mask pulp cover painting which was slated for publication in May of 1940. The yellow left side field is a telling trait and was unique to the title – this format was used between January 1937 to April of 1940, […]
Artist: James Lunnon
Futuristic, detailed, and very precise, we believe this science-fiction inspired imagination of cosmos exploration to have been created for cover use in the British magazine Understanding Science, a Sampson Low Publication.
Artist: Unknown British Illustrator
This original gouache painting by Harry Bennett was used as cover art for the Pyramid paperback publication of “Cry Shame” written by Gore Vidal under the pseudonym Katherine Everard. During his early career, Vidal published under several pseudonyms in order to evade the accusation that the rate of his publishing made it impossible for him to be a “serious” literary author. This is a singular opportunity to own an original piece of both illustration art and literary history, from the estate of Charles Martignette.
Artist: Harry Bennett
Two squared jaw toughs slug it out as a pretty redhead damsel in distress looks on in this classic pulp cover painting for sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
Artist: Mel Phillips
