Category Archives: Art

Artist Profile: John Fernie (1919 — 2001)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

John Fernie was born in Dundee, Scotland and received his first formal training in art at Manchester University and Glasgow University.  After serving in World War II and spending five years as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, Fernie embarked on his career as an illustrator.  He began his career in Canada before eventually moving to New York City and then, in his later years, to Vermont.  Along with being a popular illustrator, Fernie was also an acclaimed painter and raced in Alfa Romeo with Sports Car Club of America.  You can find more information about the life and work of John Fernie at his website.

Here is a small sampling of the work of John Fernie:

The Adventures of Steve Harragan and His Eye Patch

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Who was Steve Harragan?  He was a hardboiled private investigator who was the main character of a handful of paperback detective novels that were all published in 1952 and 1953.  Though his adventures were not much different from those of any other P.I. of the pulp era, Steve Harragan has a cult following for two reasons.

First off, the author of Harragan’s adventures was also named Steve Harragan.  Did the author Steve Harragan name the character after himself or was “Steve Harragan” just a pseudonym for another author or perhaps several authors?  No one knows for sure, though all of Harragan’s novel were written in the first person.

Secondly, Steve Harragan the Detective only has one eye.  In almost every cover, he’s featured wearing an eye patch.

Here are a few of the Steve Harragan covers.  As always, the artist has been identified when known:

Author Unknown

Author Unknown

Author Unknown

by Bernard Safran

by Walter Popp

Author unknown. I’m not sure which one of these men is meant to be Harragan but you’ll notice that the eyepatch got left out of this cover.