Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This oil on illustration board Pyramid Books paperback cover painting was created by by Victor Olson for a 1953 edition of Houseboy by Edison Marshall written under the nom de plum Walton Fairbank (ostensibly because of the controversial topic of interracial relationships explored in the title).The story was originally written as a Jim Crow title in the late […]
Artist: Victor Olson
A bawdy smoking redheaded bad girl finds herself proverbially “on the fence” and garnering the attention of a pair of well articulated convincing hayseeds in this large and wonderful original paperback book cover illustration by Sam Cherry. Painted in the 1950s, an oil on illustration board which was created for an as of yet unidentified paperback title exploring […]
Artist: Sam Cherry
Unquestionably, Carney’s Burlesque was one of the weirder cover offerings from the lurid sleaze paperback publishers Uni-books; a reissue of a British pulp story that changed both the name of the protagonist and author to Steve Harragan. Uni-books created the private eye Harragan character out of thin air, the only thing connecting him from one adventure […]
Artist: Walter Popp
A signed gouache on illustration board painting by Harry Barton, created as the cover for Dorine Clark’s 1959 novel Hell Cat. This original artwork is a prime example of the boundary pushing, subversive imagery that helped draw readers to the taboo and lurid stories put out by pulp paperback publishers. These titles often pushed the boundaries of […]
Artist: Harry Barton
This uninhibited and seedy painting by Raymond Johnson appeared as the cover of the 1953 Avon Books Paperback edition of The Untamed Wife Of Louis Scott. Originally published in 1950 under the title The Gift Of Glory, this W. Carrol Monroe novel told the story of Susan Scott, a dope fiend hedonist living a wanton life in post war America. Though […]
Artist: Raymond Johnson
This striking and tense dramatic painting by Norman Saunders was created as cover art for the the October, 1950 issue of the pulp magazine 15 Story Detective; a Popular Publications title. The scene is a classic example of menace art – a heroic uniformed pretty blonde WAC soldier attempts to disarm a poison wielding femme fatale in an airplane hangar, unaware […]
Artist: Norman Saunders
Stanley Borack created this striking, evocative and finely rendered painting for the cover of the 1954 Dell Books paperback Silver Doll by Blair Treynor. A lurid pulp fiction page turner set in Sin City; the back cover slug advertises “the story of a man in the rackets; of the doll who wanted to keep him there, and the woman […]
Artist: Stanley Borack
Futuristic, detailed, and very precise, this science-fiction inspired imagination of cosmos exploration was created in 1963 as the cover of the British magazine Understanding Science #71, a Sampson Low Publication. Geared to the high school audience, and part of the ongoing space race effort to get youths interested in science during the Cold War, the image dramatizes astronomy by […]
Artist: Unknown British Illustrator
This oil on board painting by Samson Pollen was created as cover art for the 1955 paperback Mambo To Murder, one half of the double sided Ace Double Novel D-109. Private eye Joe Moran, who had his license revoked for extracting “two fisted justice” is shown in a bleak urban hotel room lit by an outside […]
Artist: Samson Pollen
An original gouache cover painting for an unidentified issue of the notorious French publication “La Vie Parisienne”. The long running, humorous and racy magazine chronicled the exploits and sexual proclivities of sassy and free spirited French follies showgirls and their often dim witted suitors in risque, breezy, spicy pulp-like fashion. This original gouache painting is nicely double matted in an oval window in a fine antique ornate gesso gold frame behind glass.
Artist: Maurice Milliere
