So, we decided to combine our love of vintage sleaze paperbacks with our knowledge of graphic design. We embarked on a project in which we would create our own versions of vintage sleaze paperbacks. We put our imaginations to work and made cover proofs for books we wish the sleaze publishers had put out. The kind of books that wet dreams...err dreams... are made of.
To begin our project, we brainstormed and came up with some of our favorite vintage sleaze themes. One of the best themes: the devil. Anything with the Prince of Darkness was a sure winner in our book (both literally and figuratively). And the publishers of the time put out so many great devil covers themselves: everything from "Satan Was a Lesbian" to "Devil's Harvest." In the future, I will get the best devil covers out of storage and feature them here.
But for now, I present one of our creations (more in the future). We appropriated the art from "Satan Was a Lesbian" (a true classic with cover art by Doug Weaver) and another Weaver cover "Strange Honeymoon" to come up with.... MENAGE-A-SATAN!
Because who doesn't want to have a threesome with the devil?
Doug Weaver illustration that we appropriated(ABOVE)
The other Weaver illustration we used(ABOVE)
I'd also like to thank our friend Jim Linderman of "Dull Tool, Dim Bulb" and "Vintage Sleaze" for recently featuring our project on his blog. Jim is a fantastic historian and blogger, who constantly inspires me to get my shit together. If I could only have a shred of his discipline, I'd be set! Jim's feature included a fake vintage sleaze paperback we designed, which incorporated him as a character. It was a pleasure to design it for him, and it was too cool that he in turn featured it on his blog. So, show him some love and visit his blogs (if you haven't already).
Vintage Sleaze
Dull Tool, Dim Bulb
Love this!
ReplyDeleteThat's classic. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you all! : - )
ReplyDeleteI love the back cover synopsis. I think you should actually write the story!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice comment! That could be fun...maybe even a screenplay! : - )
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I own a copy of Sin-a-rama and love it. Definitely trailblazing, in terms of a reference work about vintage sleaze. Did it sell well? I bought my copy at Border's, of all places, when the book was first published. Did distribution in a major chain like Borders help the book's sales?
ReplyDeleteI forgot to ask: you are Brittany A. Daley, I assume?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the sales. I never asked my publisher for that kind of data. Yeah, that is my legal name however, I shudder at hearing it. A few years back, I decided to change my first name because I disliked it so much!
ReplyDeleteAs far as first names go, it could have been worse. It could have been "Snooki".
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha! Good point.
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ReplyDeleteThought I'd let you know, I recently finished writing a book which profiles about 125 paperback writers; it's similar in format to Lee Server's Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers. The only sleaze writer I cover is Orrie Hitt, although Mike Avallone and a few other writers I cover wrote some sleaze books; most are Gold Medal-type, hardboiled crime writers, with a few off-shoots such as lesbian-themed (Ann Bannon, Vin Packer) and backwoods-themed (Erskine Caldwell, John Faulkner).It'll be published in September by Stark House Press. Is it ok if I send you a "friend" request on Facebook?
ReplyDeleteVery cool! That sounds like an awesome project. Yep, you can friend request me on facebook. :-)
ReplyDelete