I know that's the content you come here for... #FridayFeeling
Now I know what you're thinking: 1975? Surely that was wall to wall Bookman Swash!
Well not quite...
We all know that the books of '75 were fond of a cursive font. Goudy Fancy was all the rage and even Cooper Black got a bit swashy.
But many new typefaces were starting to appear too....
Futura Fineline had first appeared in 1971 and its elegant glyphs were a good match for the mid-70s mood.
Eightball had also appeared in 1972. Its slightly crazy, slightly zany look was a popular way to add a nonchalant counterpoint to many a boring book cover.
The Tabasco typeface had appeared in the early 1970s and was part of a trend towards a kind of simple futurism in font design - unfussy, but just jarring enough when you parsed the title.
So was Pipeline. Released in 1970 this was a very popular choice for sci-fi novels and movie posters in 1975, mixing lower case 'n's into the title case mix.
Expressa, launched in 1973, took a different route towards simple futurism: smooth curves and pleasant proportions. It worked well with a shadow too.
Speaking of shadow... Pluto half-solid was a very mid-70s typeface. It had a psychedelic chrome vibe that suggested a funky future was just around the corner.
Funky was certainly a popular theme for the fonts of 1975. Here's Behemoth Clarendon Italic Swash, proving that less isn't more when it comes to a title typeface.
Anonymous, released in 1974, is a top-heavy marching line of chunky, blocky glyphs that I think is quite charming.
Speaking of blocky, 1975 also saw a nostalgic harking back to fin de siècle typefaces such as Gothic Bold from 1899...
...and Marschall from 1905. I do like the 'W's and 'A's here.
But for me the typeface that sums up the book covers of 1975 is ITC Serif Gothic. It was everywhere that year: elegant, emotional and ever so expressive.
That's it for my look at the fonts of 1975. More typography another time...
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Today in pulp... let me introduce you to Mark Hardin: The Penetrator! #ThursdayMotivation
Mark Hardin is a one-man strike force against corruption. Orphaned at the age of four he was brought up mean and hungry. He learned his fighting skills in Vietnam before returning to an America gone bad.
Actually The Penetrator is one of a long list of vigilante pulp heroes thrown up in the 1970s counter-counterculture backlash, along with The Destroyer, The Iceman and The Marksman to name but a few.
Today in pulp I look back at that staple of sci-fi: the ray gun!
This thread will involve a mad professor from Cleveland and Archimedes #JustSaying
Directed-energy weapons have a long history. If historical sources are true Archimedes* developed one in 212 B.C. - a parabolic mirror that focussed the sun's burning rays on enemy ships attacking Syracuse.
(*told you!)
If it did happen* then it's more likely there were soldiers holding up dozens of mirrors, focussing the beams to a point right where the target was. The effect would be more powerful, but of course much harder to achieve.
Today in pulp: a woman with great hair is fleeing a gothic house. Why?
Well this is a signal to the reader: they hold in their hands one of ‘those’ books – not a historical romance or a ghost story, but a modern gothic romance.
New readers start here: what is a modern gothic romance? Well it's a romance story with strong supernatural themes, all tied to an atmospheric and foreboding building which our heroine must flee.
Actually it's a lot more complex than that...
Firstly it has a long pedigree. Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) is usually acknowledged as the first gothic romance; set during the Crusades it follows Lord Manfred's fateful decision to divorce his wife and pursue his dead son's bride-to-be Isabella.