Monday, January 18, 2010

Paperback Cover Cavalcade 10

I ran out of time on the post I was planning for today as it has been a bit of a crazy weekend. Went bowling Saturday night and, as I knew I wasn't going to have much time for blogging, wrote up a quickie post on an unknown author called Geoffrey Mark Saturday morning. As it turns out, I then spent most of Sunday evening following up clues to a biographical sketch which Jamie Sturgeon discovered on one of his books.

And then there's the e-mails. 263 e-mails that needed responding to, some dating back quite a few weeks. I managed to get it down to 240 but if you've sent me an e-mail and not heard from me, sorry... I'm doing the best I can to keep up with them but a lot of the e-mails I get require a lot of digging around for information and I can't always promise a quick reply. Some of the subjects for this evening's digging included Bingham Dixon (William Armstrong Borland), photos of comic artists, Andy Pandy, a story paper writer called C. B. Dignam, some additional research for an article on Robert Prowse (both senior and junior) and the aforementioned Geoffrey Mark.

The text for another writer is written but I suddenly realised that the picture needed a hell of a lot of cleaning up and it wasn't going to be something I could do quickly. So that post goes on hold and I've now got to think of something quick.

So here are a couple of covers, inspired by some correspondence I've been having with David Roach. At top we have Consul 1071 (1961) which David thought was by an Italian artist and which probably is... I think I must have missed some of the to-ing and fro-ing on this one between the UK and Italy. Immediately below is one that I came up with as being possibly by an Italian artist, only to be shot down from all sides. The only consensus is that it might be a British artist or maybe an American reprint. But the one below that is definitely Italian as it is signed by the fabulous Enrico De Seta.

The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett (Consul M718, 1959)

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (Digit Books, Jun 1957) Cover by De Seta

So, here we are again: well past midnight and a busy day to look forward to as I'm back on the Wells Fargo introduction (6,500 words and counting) and have every intention of finishing the book in this coming week. Wish me luck.
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4 comments:

  1. Rafiq Raja18 Jan 2010, 07:50:00

    Steve, I always admire your interest in helping out anyone who seeks information about the lost creators of this wonderful medium, let alone replying to all your fan emails.

    Thanks much for the work, and hoping to dig more and more stuffs out of your blog.

    By the way, Best of Luck for Wills Fargo. Looking forward to read your Intro.

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  2. Gary Mills18 Jan 2010, 12:44:00

    That 'Merrily to the Grave' paperback cover looks like it could have been painted by Arnaldo Putzu....?

    http://radonbrainstorm.blogspot.com/2008/03/rare-putzu-no1.html

    G

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  3. Anonymous21 Jan 2010, 17:28:00

    I think I briefly owned the artwork to The Dain Curse, salvaged from a skip outside the World premises in 1983 (long story). Can't see any clues but the three principal suspects would be Walt Howarth, Edgar Hodges or (then the art director at World, I believe) Ron Smethurst.

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  4. Tim S.28 Jun 2024, 02:22:00

    Hi Steve, late to the party here, but 'Merrily to the Grave' is unmistakingly by Renato Fratini.

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