He’s Got You Covered

In case it wasn’t obvious from some of my previous postings, I’ve become a huge (if Johnny-come-lately) fan of classic paperback illustrator Robert McGinnis, whose extraordinary talents as a cover artist are being rediscovered, thanks to his work for Hard Case Crime. Also spreading the word about the now 80-year-old McGinnis is Graeme Flanagan, who has been building up an invaluable Web-based collection of this illustrator’s work from the last half century. Flanagan has recently added dozens of new cover scans to his site, including seductive jackets from crime-fiction titles by Carter Brown, John D. MacDonald, and Richard S. Prather.

My favorite covers among the latest additions include those of Angel!, Nymph to the Slaughter, Play Now ... Kill Later, A Tan and Sandy Silence, The Aseptic Murders, Murder Wears a Mantilla, The Ice-Cold Nude, and The Sad-Eyed Seductress. However, the novel I would most like to read among these new selections--based solely on its cover blurb--is Charlie Sent Me! (1965). “Introducing Larry Baker,” that blurb reads, “a fun-loving, woman-chasing, TV gag writer who finds that murder can be a serious business.” C’mon, how could you pass that one by on a bookstore shelf without stopping to look more closely?

(Hat tip to Bill Crider.)