Category Archives: cover art

I posted this 1955 Lu Kimmel cover back in June. It occurred to me last week that I had more to say about it.

First, of course, we have the Sex Sells aspect — just how much is the protagonist seeing? Then there’s his body language: obviously focused on her but clutching the satchel defensively (though the Amazon synopsis makes me think it’s a safety deposit box). She’s sending an invitation; he’s not sure it’s a good idea.

The cover copy gives it context. It tells us he’s a thief and a womanizer, not some innocent. That suggests to me he was walking out with his prize when he discovered he wasn’t alone in the house. Maybe not, but it does inject some added drama into the scene. I don’t see lines like that on covers any more but there’s something to be said for them.

We don’t know anything about the woman from the cover art. However any woman whose posing in front of a man like that qualifies as a bad girl by 1955 standards. Typically in a paperback thriller she’ll be part of the conflict — love vs money, wanting a woman he shouldn’t have, etc. I don’t have the urge to hunt for more information but if I saw it cheap in a used bookstore, I might pick it up.

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Two trilogies from Ballantine Books, two sets of triple covers. First, The Lord of the Rings by Barbara Remington.

These covers go back to when LOTR was still seen as a one-of-a-kind thing. Epic fantasy didn’t exist as a genre; there was Tolkien and people knocking off Tolkien, that was it. They are very much what I think of as the covers. Remington says she hadn’t had a chance to read the books when she drew the art or she’d have drawn them differently.

Second, the three Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, with covers by Bob Pepper.

Here’s a better look at the image without the titles.

If you think that looks weird, well so are the books: Titus Groan, Gormenghast — apparently I never blogged about V3, Titus Alone Peake’s wife put together a fourth volume from his notes and the novella Boy in Darkness falls between V1 and V2.

Part of the inspiration for this post was someone on FB saying that after reading LOTR they’d picked up the Peake books as another fantasy trilogy — that must mean a lot like LOTR, right? It must have been a jarring transition.

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One by Harry Schaare showing a typical work session at a typical office, as imagined in pop culture decades ago. For secretary stereotypes I recommend Lynn Peril’s Swimming in the Steno Pool.

Here’s a Barye Phillips cover going less for sex, more for thrills.

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This weird one is by Robert Foster.

A more conventional but less intriguing SF cover by Alex Schomburg

I’m a Clifford Simak fan so I don’t need a cover to sell me on his work — but I do like this cover. I don’t know the artist though it looks to me like Leo and Diane Dillon.

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First this Lu Kimmel Sex Sells cover from 1955.

This 1929 Weird Tales cover by Hugh Rankin is another Sex Sells cover. Less sexy, though, despite the woman wearing less clothes.

On this uncredited pulp cover, the woman is only in the text. Seriously though, who thought “J. Edgar Hoover vs. Machine-Gun Kelly’s widow” was a gripping idea?

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The one below, by Peter Stevens.

It does convey this is a story of exotic Arabia, with harems, sultans, turbans and swords. But what is the dude doing? Leading an attack on the women? Pointing at where to kidnap them? Or just going “Yeah, chicks!” And why is the seated woman doing what appears to be jazz hands?

And why does the swordsman keep one of his weapons tucked into a belt right over his groin?

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Cover by Jack Faragasso

This one’s by Richard Powers, natch.

An odd but eerie one by Ed Soyka

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This cover doesn’t work for me — it adds nothing to the cover copy at the top, doesn’t show anything about the book except that it involves … well, people.

This one is more effective in catching the eye, and conveys a sense of story even without the cover copy.

This one too, a 1945 novel showing a situation — misguided passion during wartime — that lots of people experienced. Some discussion of the book and the author here. And like The Tigress it’s a more interesting scene than the floating heads.

And here we have an example of that classic sub-genre of Southern fiction, the Sexy Swamp Chick. The image doesn’t tell a story but it does sell the book.

All cover art is uncredited and all rights remain with current holders.

I love this quote about cover art from The Look of the Book.

I was reminded of that quote looking at the 1958 cover below, by James Meese. Does it make genre visible?

The cover copy tells us it’s a mystery involving pearls and microfilm. The image gives us the tropics, a beautiful, worried woman in a swimsuit and a villain. Without the copy I think I’d assume it was some kind of “jeop” (‘woman in jeopardy’ story) — with the woman targeted by some kind of stalker. Or maybe a romance. Nothing about the cover says “spy” or “mystery.” Without the cover copy it doesn’t make genre visible.

However the cover does have copy so the genre comes across. I suppose it was reasonable to factor that in and go with a sexy woman as the hook (as so many paperbacks did in that era). Still, it’s at best adequate, nothing special

For another look at the same topic, one of the books I read during my recent Charleston trip was GOOD MOVIES AS OLD BOOKS: Films Reimagined as Vintage Book Covers by Matt Stevens. The premise is exactly what it sounds like. Here are more examples.

Most of the covers look cool. Some of them, like The Usual Suspects and Cast Away, are inspired. However I don’t think most of them would make good real book covers. Where The Usual Suspects is arresting, John Wick doesn’t tell us anything about what makes the movie compelling — hell it doesn’t tell us anything other than it involves a man with a gun. Ditto Say Anything on the book cover. They would not, shall we say, move the merchandise even though they’re pretty.

Part of that’s because Stevens is working primarily in the style of serious, tasteful literary paperbacks as I remember from the 1960s and early 1970s — the kind that, as Look of the Book says, doesn’t do anything so tacky as a vivid cover scene. The subtext is that you’re supposed to pick the book up because it’s Quality, not because it grabbed you with a lurid image (if you check out my cover art posts you’ll find lots of those).

The covers also have a certain sameness after a while (I’d have parceled them out over time but I had to get this back to the library). The book would have been more entertaining if we’d had more variety — the only really off-the-wall one is the psychedelic 1970s style for Fury Road. Great idea, not entirely satisfactory results.

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I don’t know the artist, nor the book. It looks interesting though John Brunner’s work is very hit or miss with me.

And a cover by Richard Powers because that’s always worth posting.

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