Today I'm looking at Penguin Books from 1966. Why? Because that's the year they ditched the Marber Grid and brought in Alan Aldridge as art director to spice up their fiction covers!
He was a controversial choice, so let's see how he did...
Sleepwalkers, by David Karp. Penguin Books, 1966.
I really like this as a cover!
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. Penguin Books, 1966. Another favourite of mine.
Kiss Kiss, by Roald Dahl. Penguin Books, 1966. Art by Alan Aldridge.
Jubb, by Keith Waterhouse. Penguin Books, 1966. Richard Heimann did the photography on this one IIRC.
Boswell's London Journal: 1762-1763, edited by Frederick A Pottle. Penguin Books, 1966. Cover by Alan Aldridge.
Gunner Cade, by Cyril Judd. Penguin 1966. Cover by Ian Yeoman.
A Kind Of Loving, by Stan Barstow. Penguin Books, 1966. I do like this edition!
Island, by Aldous Huxley. Penguin, 1966. Cover by Ross Cramer.
Maigret's Special Murder, by Georges Simeon. Penguin Books, 1966. Cover by Karl Ferris.
The Penguin John Lennon (1966). Cover by Alan Aldridge.
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, by Robert A Heinlein. Penguin, 1966. Cover by Alan Aldridge.
Personally I'm a fan of Alan Aldridge's work at Penguin, though that does put me into a minority! De gustibus non disputandum est, as they say.
And finally... The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson. Panther Horror, 1969. Cover by Alan Aldridge (who had just been sacked as Penguin's art director that year!)
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What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.