Pulp Cover Friday Presents: DIME MYSTERY DEUX
Welcome to our second installment of covers from the seminal shudder pulp DIME MYSTERY.
What have we learned so far about this pulp?
1. Their covers are a little less zany than DIME DETECTIVE — but there are some to come that are pretty out there, so stay tuned.
2. The like coffins.
3. The like women in red dresses.
4. They like women in red dresses in coffins.
5. With a few obvious exceptions, their cultists seem to shop at different supply stores than cultists we’ve encountered in the past. Though there is the occasional scarlet-garbed fiend, most of the DIME MYSTERY cultists seem to prefer earth tones, perhaps the better to blend into their dank underground hideouts.
6. The bad guys in these covers seem to eschew the gat, and prefer more visceral weapons, like the whip.
7. Story titles compare favorably to those in DIME DETECTIVE for sheer outrageousness.
8. I’ve got to get me an Arthur Leo Zagat collection.
Enjoy!
Hmm, in the last four of those our hero (or, in one case, our robed villian) all have near identical hair, tilt to their heads, and facial expressions. It’s not as blatant as we saw earlier (I think it was a couple Spider covers) and maybe the artist just had a very consistent way of depicting men. But they do look a little funny all in a row like that.
I like how the first couple of covers explicitly tell you which story is being represented by the cover. I’ve never seen that before.
Maybe it’s just me, but nearly any pulp hero-type seems to resemble the pulp version of Doc Savage. I wonder how kids of the day could distinguish between them. Must be why the Shadow sold so much better, what with his distinctive honker and all.
Good eye — both of you.
The covers probably remind you of Doc Savage, Joe, because a bunch of this batch were done by Walter Baumhofer, the Doc Savage cover artist.
The similarities are caused, probably, because these guys had to knock off the covers in a couple of days because of low payment. I’m always pretty astounded as to how great a lot of these covers are given the fact that the artists usually had to do so many to make a living wage.
Hounds of the Restless Dead? Wow, that is some title. And these are wonderful covers. Let’s hear it it for women in red in bridal coffins.
Satan’s Glassworks!