And nobody knows that better than paperback cover illustrators, as you’ll see. First, this one by Roger Kastel.Here’s an uncredited cover that implies something really scandalous. My online research hasn’t turned up any answers as to what constitutes “the strangest relationship of all time.”
Next, one of Robert McGinnis’ covers for Carter Brown’s (actually Aussie writer Alan Yates) mystery novels. These covers held me spellbound whenever I stumbled across them as a teen. Funny, isn’t it, how that woman stands exactly where you can’t see anything too naughty?A bigger puzzle, why is one man shooting into the woman’s breast?
Skimpy clothes on sexy women sold science fiction magazines and paperbacks too. This one’s by Robert Gibson Jones.
#SFWApro. I’d planned more substantial posts for this week but my schedule’s been a mess.
Did you know that sex sells?
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The good old days, when paperback novels actually had good covers, sigh!
I don’t think good covers are gone, but there’s no question i love the older ones.
Well, it depends on where you look. Hard Case Crime has tons of excellent covers – some of them originals by the aforementioned Robert McGinnis.
And expanding on Fraser’s point, I know I’ve seen a number of SF paperback covers of more recent vintage that I’ve really liked.
Some that come to mind immediately are the original US paperback editions of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (by artist John Harris):
I recently read The Look Of the Book (https://frasersherman.com/2024/04/24/the-look-of-the-book/) which studies book covers, styles and trends through the years — for example, how Ulysses and other classics have been covered and re-covered.