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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
@PulpLibrarian
Sep 26, 2020 • 12 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Today in pulp... a rather elusive artist, the brilliant Gene Szafran! #SaturdayVibes Image
Gene Szafran was born in Michigan in 1941 and studied at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He later became an art teacher there. Image
Szafran moved to New York City in 1967, where his work featured in Playboy and Cosmopolitan. He also worked on a number of album covers, winning the 1969 Grammy for his Rhinoceros album cover. Image
This led him into the world of book cover design, particularly science fiction where his stylized kaleidoscopic images brought him to the attention of Signet Publications. Image
Gene Szafran produced an incredible set of covers for Signet's range of Robert A Heinlein novels between 1971 and 1974. As a collection they're stunning and unique. Image
It certainly wasn't what you might expect a Heinlein book to look like: bold colours and exquisite geometry, often coming together around a central human form. Image
The Heinlein covers led to a number of contracts for other work. Szafran's amazing use of colour and symmetry seemed a perfect match for the early 1970s scene. Image
Although Szafran did more traditional cover art - notably for Daphne Du Maurier titles - it's his science fiction work that really stands out as unique. It set an esoteric, somewhat erotic note. Whether the books themselves warranted it is a moot point. Image
In 1972 Szafran won the Locus Award for best paperback cover artist; his career in the industry seemed assured... Image
And then... tragically he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which severely affected his ability to paint and draw. His last covers were completed in 1977 before he returned to Detroit with his family. Image
Gene Szafran's work is a time capsule of 1970s psychedelic Americana: complex, dazzling and rich. He was an exceptionally gifted artist with a keen sense of colour and composition. Image
Sadly Gene Szafran passed away in 2011, but his legacy is a fantastic collection of artwork that's well worth collecting. Keep an eye out when you next visit your local book market.

More artists another time... Image

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 27
The Playboy bluffer's guide to appearing well read now follows... Image
"Yes, Mary McCarthy is a much neglected novelist now and that's a shame." Image
"Well I don't know if an Oedipal reading of Hamlet really does it justice, but once you see it you kinda can't unsee it." Image
Read 8 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 26
Today I'm looking at a few books from New York publishing house Grosset & Dunlap... Image
London After Midnight, by Marie Coolidge-Rask. Grosset & Dunlap, 1928.

This is a movie tie-in version, although the last known copy of the film was destroyed in 1965 at a fire at MGM's vaults. It's one of the most sought-after lost silent films now. Image
A Thousand Years A Minute, by Carl H Claudy. Grosset and Dunlap, 1939. Cover by A C Valentine.

Part of the Adventures in the Unknown series, this is a time travel novel sending its heroes back to the prehistoric world. Image
Read 14 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 23
One of the best #Christmas presents you could ever get was a View-Master! It sold over one billion reels across the world, but it's based on Victorian technology. How did one simple gadget get to be so popular?

Let's take a look at the toy that took over the planet... Image
Stereographs are cards with two nearly identical photographs mounted side by side. Viewed through a binocular device they give an illusion of depth. By 1858 the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company had published over 100,000 of them. Image
Sawyer's Photo Finishing Service began in 1919 in Portland, Oregon. By 1936 they had teamed up with William Gruber, who had been experimenting with stereoscope photography using the new Kodachrome colour film. Image
Read 18 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 22
Today in pulp I look back at a few forgotten '80s sci-fi movies and ask: is it time to reappraise them?

Spoilers: not all of these are available on Betamax... Image
There were a huge number of mid and low budget sci-fi movies released throughout the '80s, many of which went straight to video. Today they lurk in the far corners of your streaming service.

Should you watch them? Well let me take you through a few you might be tempted by. Image
Battle Beyond The Stars (1980) was Roger Corman's retelling of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in space. James Cameron did an impressive job on the SFX with a small budget and the film certainly has a distinctive look. Image
Read 22 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 21
"A dream to some. A nightmare to others!" As it's Christmas let's look back at a film that I think helped redefine an old genre, captivated the imagination and launched many successful acting careers.

Let's look at John Boorman's Excalibur! Image
For a long time the film industry found the King Arthur story amusing. Camelot (1967) was a musical comedy; Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was pure comedy. Image
Image
But director John Boorman had been thinking seriously about the Arthurian legend since 1969, particularly Sir Thomas Malory's 1469 telling of the story 'Le Morte d’Arthur'. The mythic theme greatly appealed to him. Image
Read 20 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 19
Today in pulp I'm looking back at some Michael Moorcock books, and having a think about the New Wave of science fiction that started in the 1960s... Image
In Britain the New Wave is often associated with New Worlds magazine, which Moorcock edited from 1964 to 1970. Financial troubles caused the magazine to close in 1970, but it made sporadic comebacks over the subsequent years. Image
However he started as editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1957, where he introduced Sojan the Swordsman - perhaps his first stab at creating an 'eternal champion' character Image
Read 20 tweets

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