Lessons in Lesser

It has actually happened! The beautiful, long-promised book, The Art of Ron Lesser Volume 1: Deadly Dames and Sexy Sirens, has finally been published. It should be explained here that I had a modest hand in making this possible, as a healthy chunk of the material contained in said work draws from my Killer Covers series about Lesser and his six decades of artistic accomplishment. Therefore, I may be more enthusiastic about this release than the typical reader.

Most of the credit for this 145-page tribute belongs to Bob Deis, an expert in the art of vintage men’s adventure magazines (and the editor of a blog on that very subject), and Bill Cunningham, the head of Pulp 2.0 Press, who, with Deis, now publishes Men’s Adventure Quarterly magazine. Deis contacted me last fall, asking whether I would be willing to let my lengthy 2018 interview with Ron Lesser be reused (and slightly re-edited) in a print release, and I quickly agreed. Since then, I’ve been sent various proofs from the volume, which is not only elegant but eye-catching as hell, thanks both to Cunningham’s design expertise and Lesser’s distinctive talents.

Early responses to this book have been altogether flattering. Leif Peng, author of The Art of the REAL Tom Sawyer and creator of the Today’s Inspiration Group on Facebook, wrote:

The Art of Ron Lesser Volume 1 isn’t just a beautifully designed collection of Lesser’s exceptional artwork, we also learn about his career—and the mid-20th-century illustration business in general—as described by artist himself. For fans of popular culture, genre fiction, and lovers of the best in illustration art of the period, this book is a must-have!

Meanwhile, Australian novelist and pop culture critic Andrew Nette (who also edited my contribution to 2019’s Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980) had this to say:

Messrs. Deis, Cunningham and Pierce have cemented themselves as among the foremost fan scholars of pulp. They have put together a book that not only beautifically showcases some of Lesser's stunning artwork. It executes a deep dive into the mechanics of his work and the economic and cultural forces that influenced it, over a range of mediums—paperbacks, magazines and film posters. It also sheds much needed light on the people who were vital to the lurid appeal of pulp paperback cover art but who have for the most part been erased from its history, the cover models.

This is not only a must-have for fans of mid-century pulp artwork, but an essential resource for those interested in changing visual and illustration styles more generally.

And author Max Allan Collins’ remarks were laudatory enough to earn them a spot on the book’s rear cover:

This astonishing book—perhaps the best ever assembled about a key artist of paperback book covers—is a mind-boggling feast for the eyes. What surprised me most was how many books I have purchased over the last fifty years, how many movies I have attended, that were due to Ron Lesser luring me in. Nothing ‘lesser’ about Ron—he is one of the handful of masters, right next to [Robert] McGinnis and [Robert] Maguire.

While the focus of this first volume of Lesser’s work explores his creative turnout between 1959 and 1979, Deis and Cunningham promise that future sequels “will cover different periods and aspects of the artist and his artwork.” I’m very pleased to have been a part of this production, and am planning more coverage of its print appearance in my Killer Covers blog. Stay tuned.