By Brittany Daley et al. 2004, Feral House Books.

Buy it now from Amazon.com

Pulp novels, and more particularly the cover art of pulp novels, have been getting a lot of attention in the past couple years, with several beautiful collections of the art being published in nice, full-color books. Of course, no pulp novel is more fun than a sleazy pulp novel, and Brittany Daley's new book Sin-a-rama goes about celebrating the artwork of these deliciously lurid and often tasteless pulp romps through the worlds of sex, violence, sin, perversion, and adventure. Hey, what more could you want in a life, right?

The book starts off with a real treat, as well-respected sci-fi author Robert Silverberg spins a humorous tale of how he and other acclaimed authors like Harlan Ellison found themselves writing torrid sex pulps when the bottom fell out of the sci-fi publishing business. Looks behind the curtains into the lives of the men and companies who wrote these books always fascinates me. One would assume that these things, so full of twisted amorality and madness, were cranked out by some solitary freak in a trenchcoat sitting in a closet where the walls are covered with naked photos of his next door neighbor or something. In reality, they were often produced -- at the astounding rate of three per month in some cases -- by otherwise established authors and a stable of workman-like regulars in button-down shirts who just needed the cash or wanted to goof off. The book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay gives a brief glimpse of this world and of how the comic book industry grew from it, and Sin-a-rama gives you an even more revealing peek and this once-mighty industry that is only just now beginning to get the academic scrutiny it deserves.

Part of the problem with exploring the world of pulps, especially the sleazier ones that are represented in this book, is that many of the authors toiled away anonymously or under a pseudonym in order to avoid the stigma that being a sex novel writer would have on an otherwise "legitimate" career and life in the 1950s and 60s. Even more anonymous would be the artists who painted these wildly imaginative, saucy, and alluring covers. The essays that kick off Sin-a-rama go part of the way to waving away the mist that enshrouds these men, especially now that such a career is no longer stigmatized and is, in fact, something of a badge of honor and coolness. The essays are illustrated with samples of the sexy paperback covers, and once the essays are wrapped up, the art show begins in earnest.

Some go further than others, of course, but all in all, this is a beautiful collection showcases some truly eye-popping cover illustrations. It's a shame that this profession, that of illustrator, is almost dead. Remember how gorgeous movie posters were before they were just a photograph of the cast? So too with books, and it's good that, at the very least, the work of past "masters" is finally being collected together into books like this. The covers represented here are broken down into various categories: sexy adventure pulps, queer pulps (my favorite being the cover with the horrifying-looking man in a lavender leotard leaping madly out of the closet while his partner looks on in either glee or abject terror), street gang type books, and plenty more. Some of the artwork is a little crude, and much of it is shockingly great, with vivid use of colors and more titillation packed into one painting than could probably be packed into the book itself.

If you're a collector of such things, such things being either coffee table books of pulp artwork or the pulp novels themselves, then Sin-a-rama is a must-have as both an art show and a resource. The book ends by doing its best to create a list of publishers and authors who endeavored in this field so that you might be able to track some of the actual titles down. But best -- or perhaps worst -- of al is that the sheer wonder of what's on display -- those crazy, sexy covers full of switchblade-wielding lesbian gangs and topless jungle women and hillbilly mamas in their panties -- and the wild titles that accompany them, make you (or me, at any rate) think seriously about launching a career in sleazy pulp novel authoring. Until then, though, this is a wonderful book to flip through, look at, and yes, even read.

Labels: Art