"Man's Best"....let's hope not!

Isn't it funny that the magazine is called "Man's Best" yet the painted cover features two men being strung up by a Nazi she-devil ala Ilsa?

Every Single One of Us the Devil Inside (in this case, literally)

During the holiday season, my husband and I were feeling stifled by all the rampant consumerism and general madness of the season. We needed a creative outlet to distract ourselves from what came to be known as "Piss-mas."

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

Stop the Insanity!

I have not posted in the last 10 days or so, because things have been mad lately just mad. In honor of all the madness, I give you a woman who looks pretty mad. Well, mad with fear, anyway.

This Coulda Been Me After All the Recent Partying...

My apologies for the brief hiatus. My brother was in Atlanta for 10 days, having flown in to visit from Seattle. We visited some interesting sites, such as the world famous Clermont Lounge. Truly the John Waters of bars/strip clubs. Anyway, for the moment, behind on my FP scanning, but enjoy this delightful image.

They Don't Make Hedonism Like They Used To...

Where are these 'cellar clubs'? They sound like meccas of hedonism. In the context of their time, wilder than a weekend in the bottom of Lindsay Lohan's purse.

Attack of the Adorable Monsters

Oh, c'mon...those don't look mean. They're adorable!

"G-Men Detective" Pulp

G-Men detectives: what are they looking for? The G-spot?

A Little Belarski This Fine Sunday Morning

See, this is why I'd never be a maid. Too many occupational hazards.

True Crime, pulpy pulp pulp

Nice contrast here with the "blood lusting demon" and the "fair young girls of France."

Reefers, Redheads, and the Road to Ruin (okay, so why do they show a blonde?)

This is nice. Just plain nice. Love the coy smile.

Sympathy for the Devil

I like collecting items with the devil on them. I find him as imaginary as an unicorn or Jesus, but still, it's a fun hobby. Okay, don't get me on a technicality here. I know Jesus as a person isn't technically imaginary, but the whole zombie thing, well you know what I mean. This one has a Belarski cover, so it's also "For the Love of Rudolph Belarski."

Just because he's furry doesn't mean he won't fuck you up

Don't mess with bear dude. He will fuck you up.

For the Love of Rudolph Belarski VI

This cover painting was so awesome that later Popular Library reused it for "Death and Taxes" by David Dodge. I would have scanned it as a companion piece, but it's in one of a gigantic stack of boxes in my storage unit.

For the Love of Peter Driben II

Peter Driben painted great pin-up art for Harrison's mags. He was also a damn fine detective mag artist.

"Gay Love" Romance Pulp

That snowman needs a Valium.

For the Love of Rudolph Belarski V

I wanted to signal that I'm still alive and blogging. And this is how I feel about Republicans.

For the Love of Rudolph Belarski IV

I was really happy to read the tagline of this Belarski cover and find out that "Death wears skis." I couldn't be happier with the news! I don't play sports and growing up in cold weather, I plan to stay away from it permanently. I guess this means I'll live forever.

Crime Detective: A Friendly Reminder that "Crime Does Not Pay"

Crime Does Not Pay! But it's sure fun to read about it. Blood, guts, and misery--oh my!

Crime Detective: The Classic 'White Woman in Peril'

The US media is as exploitative as ever. I'm shocked that words like "racket" have gone out of style. It's such an over-the-top, cheesetastic word. You'd think we'd be hearing about different "rackets" all the time.

And the whole "white woman in peril thing." Sometimes I wish the media would just be honest. We know you're obsessed with missing white women, why don't you just acknowledge your little fetish, media? Can you imagine a newscaster saying, "In today's news, yet another missing white woman. Everyone knows we love a good missing white woman story. Of course, a missing woman can't just be a woman, she's gotta be attractive too (or at least a 6 out of 10) and don't forget the most important part, WHITE."

Anyway, I know all this commentary is tangential to the "Crime Detective" shown. I just think it's interesting to contrast over-the-top media of the past with our over-the-top media. I think if you're going to be over-the-top, you should take it all the way and not try to pretend you're something you're not. The headline on the front of the "Crime Detective" should be "Please no! Don't hurt this poor, attractive, white woman!"

For the Love of Rudolph Belarski III