Trashy Book Covers

Each  Tuesday I will be highlighting pulpy covers from my collection. 

Some photographic covers by British publishers. All of them featuring girls and guns, and some nicely staged action scenes. More at my post from 3 April 2024: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/girls-and-guns-british-photographic-covers/

Some recently acquired Pan covers with artwork by Dave Tayler and William Francis Phillipps. More detail at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-book-haul-pan-covers/

Here are some recent acquisitions:

Plantation Pulp was a weird, and unpleasant, sub-genre of men’s adventure publishing in the 1970s. British publishers New English Library were particularly prolific in exploiting the experiences of slaves and they excelled in using eye-catching covers that contained provocative tropes of inter-racial sex, chains, nudity, whips and violence.

More information here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-plantation-pulp/

The early Carter Brown novels had some of the best titles ever, as in Dimple Died Deluxe, which appeared in this Collector’s Series Edition in 1958.

Australian publishers in the 1950s and 1960s often just printed local editions of American books, with little regard to copyright. This is the case with this early 1960 edition of the Beacon book The Show-Off Girls by Matt Harding.

Popular Australian men’s magazine Man produced a number of books containing the best stories from their magazines. Unholy Angels Of Death dates from the late 1950s (I think – there is no copyright date).

Horwitz did a small number of outback books and they gave them some really striking covers:

A stylish Horwitz cover for an early Mark Hood spy novel by J. E. Macdonell

Some more Cleveland westerns from the early 1960s. Read more here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-australian-pulp-cleveland-digests-and-books/

Although they are no longer popular, war novels were a major part of Australian publisher Horwitz’s output in the 1950s and 1960s, especially naval warfare books. They were given some terrific covers:

Neck biters:

Medical adventures and romances are an under-appreciated sub-genre of Australian popular fiction from the 1950s and 1960s. Here are some recent new additions to my collection:

I was recently fortunate enough to find four rare Phantom Books at a small bookshop near Goulburn. The covers are below and more detail can be found at my post here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-phantom-books-book-haul/

I have added some more Marc Brody covers. Article here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-wantons-movie-stars-female-wrestlers-and-smoking-ladies-marc-brody-covers/

Two Larry Kent novelettes I recently acquired featured Gals with Guns! More here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/gals-with-guns-early-larry-kent-covers/

I recently acquired a few copies of the Australian digest Western Monthly, which reproduced American western stories with new art work by Australian illustrators. Included in the batch was a copy of Tom Gill’s The Gay Bandit Of The Border, with clean shaven, bare chested, art work by Wynne W Davies. More at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-western-monthly-the-gay-bandit-of-the-border/

This is one of my favourite Digit ‘wrap-around’ covers. More detail at my post here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-steps-in-the-dark-by-mansell-black-digit-1957/

I recently added to my collection of Digit science fiction covers. Some of the covers below. For more info see my post of 15 November 2022: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-digit-sci-fi-covers/

It is interesting how the depiction of women on the covers of Cleveland Westerns changed over the course of the 1960s from quite demure to outright sexy, often influenced by the Spanish syndicated covers that Cleveland came to rely on. See more at my post of 15 October, 2022: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-a-very-early-cleveland-western/

Three recent books I have acquired with lazy photographic covers:

* She is not even wearing a skirt!

Some more Larry Kent books with covers by Spanish artist Fernando Fernandez:

And the one below is not a Larry Kent, but it is another syndicated Fernandez cover from my collection. This time for Leisure books:

Headless bikini models seems a strange cover choice, but it was a thing for a while there! https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-headless-bikini-models/

The Spanish syndicated art agency Nova Bossa really revolutionised the look of the Larry Kent books (Cleveland) in the late 1960s/early 1970s. One of the principal Spanish artists used was Josep Maria Miralles. Here is a selection of his covers. More detail at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-larry-kent-the-miralles-covers/

I have acquired a batch of early Cleveland westerns from the late 1950s and early 1960s. More details at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-more-early-australian-pulp-westerns-from-cleveland/; TRASHY TUESDAY: CLEVELAND WESTERNS | Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs

Some Carter Brown Horwitz covers from my collection. More Details at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/australian-carter-brown-covers/

A Phantom Book reprint of Edward Ronns’ Cowl Of Doom: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-phantom-books-3-cowl-of-doom-by-edward-ronns-aka-edward-sydney-aarons/

A couple of covers for shark week! https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-shark-week/

Maxine O’Callaghan was a pioneer in the female PI field. Originally published by Raven House, her books were not always treated to great covers! https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-death-is-forever-by-maxine-ocallaghan-1980/

Some more Larry Kent covers featuring art work from the Spanish syndicated art agency Nova Bossa. See more at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-more-larry-kent-covers/

Some more John Slater covers from Horwitz. See more at my post of
17 June 2020: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-australian-nazi-exploitation-pulp-swastika-castle-by-john-slater-horwitz-1966/

Some of my favourite ‘Saint’ covers. See more at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-a-selection-of-the-saint-covers/

Another case of Same Cover, Different Book. In this case Harry Barton nice example of Good Girl Art was re-used from John Creighton’s Not So Evil As Eve in 1957 to be the cover for Panther’s edition of A A Fair’s Spill The Jackpot. See more at my post of 13 May 2020: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-same-cover-different-book-3/

Between 1951 and 1961 Australian publishers Phantom Books mainly published reprints of American novels from the major US paperback companies. In the process, they usually copied the artwork from the US original, as they did here with the W. T. Ballard book: Murder Can’t Stop. See more at my post of 7 April 2020.

In my post of 2 April I discussed some Fontana photographic covers from the 1970s, including this dramatic one for Alistair MacLean’s The Satan Bug.

Early Australian pulp: An Ear For Murder by Max Afford. See more at my post of 26 March 2020.

Some Horwitz covers from my collection. See more at my post of 19 March 2020

Same cover, two very different books! See more at my post of 4 March 2020

Another Nazi torture book from Horwitz Publications. See more at my post of 26 February 2020.

Some Badger Supernatural Specials with covers by Henry Fox. See more at my post of 19 February 2020.

A selection of Larry Kent covers from my collection, including some from the Spanish syndicated art agency Nova Bossa. See more at my post of 5 February 2020. 

Danger Circuit was one of Horwitz’s attempts to break into the racing car thriller market. In the end it was more spy thriller than racing car fiction. See more at my post of 17 January 2020.

A nice old style British cover by Joe De Marco. See more at my post of 9 January 2020.

In my post of 12 December 2019 I suggested that the cover for Sky-jacked was arguably the worst cover ever done! It is wrong on so many levels!

This week I have added some early Carter Browns from my collection. See more at the Trashy Tuesday post of 26 November 2019.

This week it is four different covers for A. A. Fair’s (Erle Stanley Gardner) Top Of The Heap, including two by Robert McGinnis and a nice Oliver Brabbins cover. More at my Post of 19 November 2019.

This week it is a particularly dreadful photographic cover for Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case Of The Phantom Fortune. The Perry Mason novels often had some really nice covers (see the ones by Robert McGinnis and Sam Peff below), but this is not one of them! See more at my blog of 13 November 2019. I have also added it to my collection of covers featuring women smoking (although the cigarette does not seem to be lit!):
https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-smoking-ladies/

Bad Hair Day!!!!!!

This week is it a book from the James Bond spy spoof – The Lady From L.U.S.T. To Russia With L.U.S.T. was the sixth book in the series (not number 9 as indicated on the cover of this third edition). Using the Paul Rader illustration from the first edition – it has a good early 1970s feel to it. See my comments at the Post from 15 October 2019.

This week it is another cover from the glory days of Australian pulp paperbacks. This 1957 cover of Richard Lynford’s Temptation has a nice mix of colours and more effectively conveys a sense of menace than the photographic covers that were in vogue at the time. See my post from 10 October 2019 for more detail.

In this week’s post I have included three covers of doctors behaving badly! Including the now rarely seen sight of a doctor smoking! More details at my post of 1 October 2019.

A better cover of Turn On The Heat by Victor Kalin

Today’s cover is the second edition of Marc Brody’s Sinister Sister (1959). One of the main rivals in Australia to Carter Brown, the Brody were good light fun and featured the signature silhouette of Brody on the front cover of each book. More detail at my post of 24 September 2019.

One of the many Carter Brown imitators which sprang up in Australia in the late 1950s, were the Jason books. The eponymous Jason was the author and star of ten books between 1958 and 1959. In the blog post of 18 September 2019 I consider one of the middle books in the series, Vanishing Venus. The front and back covers of the digest are set out below:

These 1950’s covers from the Australian edition of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine feature floating women and a killer clown. See more at my blog post of 11 September 2019.

This British Mayflower edition of Nick Carter’s The Golden Serpent is probably one of the worst ‘photographic’ covers I have seen. The juxtaposition between the tuxedo wearing Nick Carter and the bare breasted girl with a sombrero is just weird and is not helped by the look on the girl’s face (and the unzipped jeans). See my blog of 2 September for more comments and additional covers.

This week I have added four covers from British publishers in the 1950s showing beautifully arranged female corpses as the centre piece. None of them show any signs of violence and all are still wearing their high heel shoes! More detail at my post of 28 August 2019

When I did the series of books on smoking ladies a few weeks back (10 July) I forgot to include this one by Carter Brown (Alan Yates). Written in 1953 this novelette by Brown (34 pages) was an early entry in his “lovely” mystery series. A low-key cover, compared to most of the illustrations used on the Carter Brown books, it gives the impression of being dashed off quickly to keep up with Yates’ amazing output. Like all of the “lovely” mysteries it features a “lovely” with a hint of daring. I love the title – Murder Is A Broad -not one you would get away with now!

This week I am posting this marginally sleazy cover by Coronet of Donald Hamilton’s Death Of A Citizen. This 1968 edition is an early example of the photographic covers that were beginning to replace the traditional painted covers of the time. It is not a good representation of the spy novel within, the first of the tough Matt Helm books, and seems more suited to a generic crime novel. It could be titled ‘A shelf too low’. I have also posted two of the painted covers which were done for the early Matt Helm books by Gold Medal (released in the UK and Australia by Frederick Muller). See my post of 21 August 2019 for more detail.

This week I am posting a trio of books with ‘Wanton’ in the title. A word not used much nowadays, it often found its way onto the covers of books during the Golden Age of paperbacks. My favourite is the Barker Dragon Book’s edition of Patrick Quentin’s Puzzle For Wantons. My post of 25 July 2019 has more detail.

Rampaging animals were a popular horror sub-genre in the 1970s and 80s, with everything from killer cats, rats and bats to moths. New English Library were keen contributors to the genre and were responsible for two books by Michael R Linaker about killer scorpions. I discuss the second book, Scorpion: Second Generation in my post of 19 July 2019.

My post of 10 July 2019 highlighted covers with women smoking on them. The covers are set out below, including a classic one by Robert McGinnis and a striking Gold Medal cover by Ted Coconis.

Two very different books, but the same cover! See my Post from 4 July 2019 for more detail:

I came across this copy of the Horwitz book tie-in to the 1960 movie Man In The Moon, starring Kenneth More in my collection. The description on the back cover “Only a gay stripper…” shows how words gain different meanings over time.

This week I have added three covers from my collection of Marc Brody novels. Two, including the unfortunately titled A Blonde For My Punchline, are digests, while the third, Baby Your Type’s Murder is a paperback. More detail is provided at my post of 25 June 2019

Louis L’Amour’s Shalako was a good book, but made a terrible movie, despite the presence of Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot and a stellar cast. It did have a great movie poster by Tom Chantrell, which served as the cover for this 1971 Corgi edition of the book. Further down is the French edition of the book with a dull still from the movie on the cover. See my comments at my blog of 18 June 2019.

Two marvelous early 1970s covers from John Gardner’s series about cowardly British spy Boysie Oakes. See my post from 11 June 2019.

This 1980s cover with the dark backdrop, bright blood red title and reflected image of frightened children, would seem to place it in the realm of an early 1980s Gothic horror or V C Andrews novel. However, it is primarily a small town police novel. See post of 4 June 2019 for more details.

This 1953 Phantom Book version of George Axelrod’s Blackmailer had a dramatically revamped version of the original Gold Medal cover (below) when it was released in Australia. The 1959 edition (below) featured a nice example of GGA by Barye Phillips. See more at my post of 28 May 2019.

Three different covers of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case Of the Caretaker’s Cat (see more at my post of 23 May 2019):

This plantation/slaver novel by Clint Rockman (Kenneth Bulmer) is more maritime adventure than plantation porn. Its striking Richard Clifton-Dey cover makes it a stand out example of the genre. See more at my post of 14 May 2019

See my post of 30 April for more detail.

This bright, action packed cover nicely catches the feel of British adventure thrillers from the 1970s and 80s.  More at my post of 19 April 2019.

This is the second book by Charles Alverson about PI Joe Goodey. The cover is very crowded but contains a number of the main tropes associated with 1970/80s PI books. See more at my blog of 9 April.

The cover of this Nazi-torture pulp features a well-placed riding crop.  Horwitz, among other Australian publishers, catered to a strong public appetite for Nazi POW stories, usually involving the torture of young women.  The cover is by Col Cameron. See more at my Blog Post of 2 April 2019.

The Coastwatchers by Michael Owen (Horwitz, 1965)

This catchy cover by Col Cameron captures the style of Australian POW fiction which flourished during the 1960s.  More detail on today’s blog: 25 February 2019

Neon Madman by John Harvey was the fourth and last book in his series about tough British PI Scott Mitchell.  This is the 1977 Ist edition by Sphere.  More details in today’s blog (19 February 2019)

This 1968 Thriller Club edition of Adam Diment’s The Bang Bang Birds has a great ‘art class’ drawing of a young woman with a strategically placed machine gun.  Although not as eye-catching as the psychedelic covers of the original hardback and paperback editions, with naked girls wearing stockings and holding machine guns, it is still quite good.  More details in today’s blog (12 February).

This 1973 Panther cover of James Hadley Chase’s This Is For Real features a striking image that would probably not be acceptable today.  The cover is unusual for a James Hadley Chase novel, which usually featured semi-naked women and guns (as the one for You Have Yourself A Deal shows below).  The book is the first entry in Chase’s four book series about Mark Girland, a free-lance CIA agent based in Paris and is well worth checking out.  More details in today’s blog (5 February 2019).

You Have Yourself A Deal – Corgi 1980

This Fleetway Thriller Library cover is typical of lower tier British thriller covers in the 1970s. See more at today’s post (7 May 2019).

Plantation Pulp was a weird sub-genre of Men’s Adventure novels that appeared in the late 1960s and 70s. New English Library (NEL) were a particularly enthusiastic promoter of Plantation novels and this example by Norman Gant features the typical NEL cover of nudity and implied violence. See more at my Post of 29 March 2019.

The Vengeance Run was Robert Rostand’s second novel and is a solid example of the revenge/heist novel of the 1970s. Set in Rio during Carnaval is a tough action thriller that builds to a good ending. More details in my Post of 19 March 2019.

This eye-catching Digit cover is by James McConnell. See more at my Post from 13 March

This ‘treasure hunter’ thriller from 1973 has a great Robert McGinnis cover. Read more at today’s blog post (5 March 2019).

This 1971 Pan cover of Victor Canning’s The Whip Hand has all the elements of a trashy 1960/70s cover – blondes, Swastika, machine gun and bikinis!