I've just discovered that the artist, Dennis McLoughlin, has
passed away. McLoughlin did almost all the artwork for UK
publisher T V Boardman's hardcover & paperback editions
of mostly US crime novels
(they seemed to print a particularly large number of Fred
Brown & Lionel White books) in the 50's & 60's. His
style was very different to the sex'n'sadism style
popularised in the US pb's of the time & mimicked all
over the world, including the UK. I think of his style as
sort of a naive take on Edward Hopper, sort of Rousseau meets
Hopper look, if that makes any sense, particularly the pb
covers, which I like the best, which are brighter & more
striking looking than the generally more sombre hardback
covers. His work deserves to be more well known, particularly
to fans of the noir/HB who are interested in the artwork of
the 1950's & 1960's editions of hardboiled lit. There
have been 2 books published about McLoughlin, including one
published by Gary Lovisi's Gryphon publications (previously
maligned in this forum but I & others think
Lovisi/Gryphon are doing a good job - & these new guys
doing the Fred Brown project, also, while I'm at it - more
strength to their arms!). I haven't read either of these 2
tomes but I do own a couple of dozen Boardman Books featuring
McLoughlin's art & most of them are quite beautiful,
particularly the paperbacks. While on this topic, I see that
there's a paperback & pulp fiction expo coming up in NYC
in September this year. This is organised by Lovisi &
others, I understand. Rare birds interested in more info
should look check out details at: http://www.gryphonbooks.com/News/news.html
Although only a minority of guests would be of specific
interest to HB/noir fans, I'd love to go. Some of the guests
include Maryjane Meaker
(aka Vin Packer) & Walter Popp, a vintage pb artist who
DID do lots of fabulous sex'n'sadism hardboiled covers. The
late Henry Slesar was to be a guest but passed away recently,
as was noted here a little while ago. Thomas M Disch, who
hasn't written any HB/noir as far as I know, has written some
classic SF & horror - I'm not a big reader of horror
fiction but his THE M.D was a wonderful concoction of black
humour & pure screaming horror. I think Disch is a
tremendously under-rated writer, although he does seem to be
enjoying some modicum of critical & commercial success
these days. Seeing as I'm veering very off-topic now, this is
probably a good place to stop.
Rene
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