The work below was all done by Raymond Johnson. Other than that he was active in the 1950s and 60 and he painted the covers for several paperback publishers, I haven’t been able to find much biographical information about this artist. His work will just have to speak for itself.
The Affairs of A Leading Lady
Fred Charles Rodewald was an illustrator who was active from 1926 until his death in 1955. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much biographical information about Rodewald. He was born in Hanover, Germany but moved, with his family, to New Jersey when he was six years old. He dropped out of school in 1920, worked in his family’s store, and apparently never had any formal artistic training before he started his career as an illustrator. In 1954, one year before his death, he wrote and illustrated a book entitled Commercial Art As A Business, a detailed guide to the practical concerns of earning a living as a commercial artist.
A small sampling of his work can be found below.
Born in Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th Century, the prolific illustrator Rudolph Belarski dropped out of school at the age of 12 and spent the next ten years working in the coal mines. During this time, he studied mail-order art courses at night from the International Correspondence School, Inc. of Scranton, PA. In 1922, he moved to New York City and studied at the Pratt Institute. Upon graduating in 1926, he taught at Pratt for 5 years. He started his career as a cover artist in 1935 and worked regularly until 1960, painting covers for both pulp magazines and paperback books. His greatest work may have been done during World War II, when he served with the USO and drew thousands of portrait sketches of hospitalized veterans in New York and London.
A small sampling of his pulp work can be found below.
Bad Girls by James Alfred Meese
I haven’t been able to find much biographical information about James Meese. He was an illustrator who painted the covers for several paperback book publishers in the 50s and 60s, mostly featuring tough guys and sultry women in dangerous situations. Check out a sampling of his work below.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Earle Bergey is considered to have been one of the most prolific and influential pulp fiction artists of the 20th Century. His most famous cover was the one he painted for Gentleman Prefer Blondes in 1948.
Check out that cover and some more of Earle Bergey’s work below!
Born in Kansas and educated at the Kansas City Art Institute, Robert Stanley was a prolific cover artist who worked for paperback publishers like Bantam, Dell, Eagle Books, Lancer Books, Lion Books, Popular Library, and Pyramid Books. He’s probably best known for the racy work he did for Beacon Books.
A small sampling of his work can be found below.
46 years ago today, Apollo 11’s lunar module successfully landed on the Moon and in the Sea of Tranquility. Soon afterwards, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the surface of the Moon.
Happy Moon Day from the Shattered Lens!
(photography by Erin Nicole)
Photograph by Erin Nicole
Photography by Erin Nicole
Over the course of his 50 year career, Robert Maguire produced over 600 paperback covers, doing work for almost every mainstream publishing house in New York City. After beginning his education at Duke University, Maguire served in World War II and then studied with the Art Students League. He did his first covers in 1950 and, over the next two decades, his paintings would define the pulp genre. Below is a small sampling of his art. You can learn more about Robert Maguire and see more of his work at R.A. Maguire Cover Art.
Painter James Avati has been called both the “Father of the Paperback Book Covers” and the “Rembrandt of Paperback Book Covers.” Born in New Jersey, Avati studied architecture at Princeton University and, after serving in World War II, became a prolific commercial illustrator and cover artist. At first he used professional models but the majority of his paintings used friends, family, and people he spotted on the streets of Red Bank, New Jersey. Ten years before his death at the age 92, Avati was inducted into the Society of Illustrators’ Hall Of Fame.
Happy 4th of July! Here to help you celebrate are 16 “American” movie posters!
Through the Shattered Lens 