Do they still use cheesecake to push paperbacks? I don't think so - all the paperback covers I see today are 90 percent the author's name, a smaller title, and an itty bitty semblance of an illustration. Well, before I launch into a long and vitriolic speach about the glory days of the paperback, let's get on with the miniskirts. I present to you a small gallery of vintage paperbacks featuring the mini - most images are from Flickr, so click on the image to be directed to the image page and view full size. Enjoy!
This last one is actually a contemporary boook from Hard Case Crime books; their selection gives me hope these old crime novels are coming back into vogue.
That Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange) book had another cover
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burgessrta.jpg
Which is one reason I never read it even though it was in our basement.
Good post!
I work in a public library and can say that cheesecake still shows up in some covers like crime novels, fantasy and sci-fi. Not to the extent that it did years ago, but it still shows up some.
ReplyDeleteThat first one almost looks like the artist was trying for Kurtzman....
ReplyDeleteThis last one is actually a contemporary boook from Hard Case Crime books; their selection gives me hope these old crime novels are coming back into vogue.
ReplyDeleteI definitely applaud the efforts of HCC. They published, for the first time ever, Honey In His Mouth, a crime thriller written by Lester Dent, the creator of Doc Savage. And yes, the cover was superbly suggestive!
I'm certain that the woman on the cover of James Leasor's Host of Extras is Caroline Cossey, best-known as the first transsexual Bond Girl (For Your Eyes Only).
ReplyDeleteIs she the first transsexual to appear in Mini Skirt Monday? I wouldn't bet on it.
Wow, I actually read that edition of Somebody Owes Me Money. I read 6 or 7 of those Hard Case Crime paperbacks last year (the New York Public Library at 41st street and 5th Ave has many of them) and that Westlake was better than most of them, or at least more memorable. Better than Somebody Owes Me Money, however, were Gil Brewer's The Vengeful Virgin and Charles Williams's A Touch of Death. The Westlake is a little jokey and light-hearted, and I much preferred the tension and fear that pervaded the Brewer and Williams books.
ReplyDeleteOBEY THE RULES has a Bill Ward ("Cracked" magazine) cover, and LADY BOSS looks sorta like Steve ("Spider-Man")Ditko's work! I know he sometimes helped his studio-mate, Stanton, with some of his more adult comics work,but...?
ReplyDeleteAl Bigley