Charles Binger Cover Art Exhibit

If you live in the L.A. area you must go see this exhibit. And if you are feeling generous, please pick up "Cover to Joy Street," "Cover to Southwest," or "Yul Brenner" for me. Thanks.






















Cover to "The Day of the Locust"
by Nathaniel West (1953)
Oil on board - 26" x 24" (plus frame)

Charles Binger "A Pulp Life"

January 7 - 30
Opening Reception: Friday, January 7th, 8-11 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com

Charles Binger "A Pulp Life"
Charles Ashford Binger was a British-born painter who found great success in Hollywood and on Madison Avenue. His commercial art included film posters, pulp novels and celebrity portraiture in a career that spanned the 1920s -1970's. Binger's hallmark style utilized impeccable composition, rendered in a painterly style over roughened textures. His science-fiction paperback covers include masterpieces “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury & “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. As Marilyn Monroe’s favorite illustrator, he created three of her most memorable film posters, including “Niagara” and “River of No Return.” His gift at capturing beautiful and vulnerable women in oils made him a highly sought portraitist among the crowned heads of Europe, and a valuable commodity in the emerging post-war pulp market.

This is the first exhibition of his work in 45 years, and the very first time that these works have been offered for sale. Condition is consistent with commercial work of this era

Paperback 379: How To Win Friends and Influence People / Dale Carnegie (PB 68)

Paperback 378: Pocket Books 68 (26th ptg, 1944)

Title: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Author: Dale Carnegie
Cover artist: photo

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• LOVE the individualized book count number up top (in red). You can see that my copy (beat to hell) is the 26th printing–first printing was just three years earlier.
• This guy looks like a tool. A smug tool. Also, how are his glasses staying on his face?

Best things about this back cover:

• Sorry about the (considerable) soilage.
• This book apparently succeeded by preying on people's (massive) insecurities. There should be some caveat somewhere indicating exceptions for people who are just plain assholes. No amount of book is gonna get that out.
• I love how unrepentantly practical this book is—as if success were simply a recipe.

Also, time, or perhaps a small rodent, has eaten away the corners of the book, giving them a jagged yet neatly rounded appearance.

Page 123~

While we have been waiting for you, Mr. Eastman, I have been admiring your office. I wouldn't mind working myself if I had a room like this to work in. You know I am in the interior-woodworking business myself, and I never saw a more beautiful office in all my life.

This is evidently from the section on Advanced Ass-Kissing.

~RP

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Paperback 378: Murder Is Served / Frances and Richard Lockridge (Avon 363)

Paperback 378: Avon 363 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Murder Is Served
Author: Frances & Richard Lockridge
Cover artist: Eddie Chan

Yours for: $7 (cover is gorgeous, but separated from book, which is complete, but all kinds of falling apart)


Best things about this cover:

• OK, remember that's "thirty million dollars" in late '40s dollars, so I believe the answer to the question is "hell yes."
• Love his expression—I believe he is telling that lady, "You got served!"
• In turn, I believe the lady is either mimicking masturbation or trying (unsuccessfully, by the look of it) to make cutlery disappear.
• "You call those boobs!?"—sorry, just thinking of more things that guy might be saying.
• Her: "I made you a canoe out of a napkin and this is how you thank me!?" I could go on all day. This one painting is like an endless one-act play.

Best things about this back cover:

• I don't think "People say" that. I've never heard that. I will say that this is a very accurate opening of a student paper.
• There must be a tale of gender or sexual confusion in here somewhere, which I deduced by noting that the stabbed man-body is pink, while the stabbed woman-body is blue.

Inside cover claims the cover artist, Eddie Chan, is a "well known Avon artist," but I've never seen his name. I think it's the only Asian surname I've ever seen on a vintage paperback cover artist. Cool.

Page 123~

"Well," Carey repeated, but less truculently. With a cat on his shoulders, he seemed to have lost the conviction that events would be clarified by the direct approach. Martini, turning to investigate the source of this new sound, breathed into Carey's left ear.

"Are you coming on to me?" asked Carey vituperatively.

Since it's 2011, I resolve (again) not to fall off the paperback wagon anymore. 3 write-ups a week, coming your way. Tell a friend (seriously). Now if you'll excuse me, this book has created a strong urge to walk around with a cat on my shoulders, so I'm off to practice.

xoxo

~RP

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Paperback 377: The Corpse Came Calling / Brett Halliday (Dell D401)

Paperback 377: Dell D401 (1st New Dell, 1961)

Title: The Corpse Came Calling
Author: Brett Halliday
Cover artist: Robert McGinnis

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• I used to eat popsicles that color—the long kind they'd sell out of ice cream trucks. It's like pink and tangerine had a fight and nobody won.
• That right boob is levitating, I think.
• I love her torpid, world-weary look: "Ugh, are we really out of gin again? Well, if anyone wants, me, I'll be on the davenport with my two poodles."

Best things about this back cover:

• One of the great, simple back cover designs of all time. Great visual use of the tag line. Wish the text were off to the side to let the glass have the room it deserves.

Page 123~

"She had to shoot him. I don't doubt that at all. And you'd naturally want to keep her out of the picture. That's all right, too. But you know me. If that's the way it was, why not say so? I can pull the zipper on my mouth any old time."

Kinky.

~RP

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Paperback 376: Dracutwig / Mallory T. Knight (Award Books A488S)

Paperback 376: Award A488S (PBO, 1969)

Title: Dracutwig
Author: Mallory T. Knight
Cover artist: photo???

Yours for: [NO LONGER AVAILABLE]


Best things about this cover:

• I don't know. I might have gone with "Twigula."
• Mallory T. Knight! I really hope King Arthur is somehow also involved in this story (even though it's already pretty crowded in there)
• Cover says "luscious little sexpot," photo ... doesn't.

Best things about this back cover:

• That is possibly the greatest (in the sense of "most absurd") opening back cover sentence ever.
• "Mod scene"—this book could only have come into being during something like a 3-hour period in the late '60s. Great cultural snapshot. Never cared for the Twiggy look, but I'd like to thank Twiggy nonetheless for spawning whatever this is.

Page 123~

Karl's superb artistry in the field of theatrical makeup enabled him to assume any number of appearances, and what with his specialized talents, in one guise or another he managed to keep himself in constant demand by the rich kookie cultists of the area.

Mmm, kookie cultists. That's me. I'm baking at least two kinds of kookies this afternoon.

~RP

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Paperback 375: Death of a Doxy / Rex Stout (Bantam F3476)

Paperback 375: Bantam F3476 (2nd ptg, 1967)

Title: Death of a Doxy
Author: Rex Stout
Cover artist: [photo cover]

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• DOXY is one of the great words of the English language:

n. Slang, pl., -ies.

1. A female lover; a mistress.
2. A sexually promiscuous woman.

[Perhaps from obsolete Dutch docke, doll.]

• Just 'cause they're in a dish doesn't mean you're supposed to *eat* the cigarette butts, dearie. What did you think was going to happen?
• What is she doing with her right hand and are we sure she's really dead? Maybe she just gets turned on by the smell of ashtrays.
• I keep meaning to read a Rex Stout novel. And I keep not doing it. It might become my New Year's resolution. One of them.

Best things about this back cover:

• Blah blah blah text! Oooh, "honey-haired corpse," that's nice.
• I almost love the ads for other books on the backs of pbs like this one. Who is Edwin O'Connor and what are these "bestsellers" I'm supposed to have heard of. Coincidence: Carroll O'Connor was in "All in the Family." Also, another coincidence: as I was typing "O'Connor," singer Jennifer O'Connor came on my iTunes shuffle (and I'm shuffling 7700 songs ... 35 of which are by artists with last name O'Connor).

Page 123~ (book is so short that p. 123 = "About the Author"—so, Page 23)

She was tops at ignoring questions.

Wow, I really love that sentence.

~RP

P.S. apologies for the slow pace of new posts. End-of-semester blecch. Won't last.

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Paperback 374: The Making of Star Trek / Stephen E. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry (Ballantine 73004)

Paperback 374: Ballantine Books 73004 (PBO, 1968)

Title: The Making of Star Trek
Authors: Stephen E. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry
Cover artist: photos

Yours for: [SOLD! 12-5-10]


Best things about this cover:

• If I were a Star Trek fan, I would be geeking out so hard over this very cool paperback original
• That Enterprise is absurdly model-kit-looking in this photo. Maybe that's the point? "How it works!—we make cheap-ass models and use trick photography, suckers."
• Further, "How it works"? I like how it implies that the tech is real.
• Those are two handsome spacemen.

Best things about this back cover:

• A "biography" of a TV show! Printed while said show was still on the air. Pretty visionary / ballsy.
• Seriously, this back cover isn't lying. This book is Thick and chock full of photos, internal memos, a miniature episode guide, and a chapter entitled "Whither Star Trek?"! Oh, and whoever owned this book originally was a megageek, as there are tiny clipped-out TV Guide epsiode summaries taped and/or paperclipped into the episode guide section. Also, this section is annotated in some kind of code.

Page 123~

When the first screening was over, the general reaction from the people in the room was, "This is the most fantastic thing we've ever seen."

~RP

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