Vintage Pan Covers That Were

After the Vintage Books Covers That Never Were from a couple of weeks ago, here's a selection of covers from the aforementioned recently arrived shelfload of old Pan paperbacks. They have such a distinctive look, and seeing a bunch of them together only increases their appeal. There are, of course, some hardcore Pan collectors out there, none more hardcore than the curator of this mighty website, which is the (endlessly browsable) last word on the subject.

The covers below include Audrey Hepburn as painted by Sam Peffer (aka Peff), one of the best known Pan artists, particularly remembered for his James Bond work. In the years before Connery, Peff's Bond (complete with the unruly curl and vague resemblance to the American singer Hoagy Carmichael, as stipulated by Fleming in Casino Royale) was arguably *the* public image of 007. You can read more about Peff and see some of his Bond covers here.

There are also some covers by J. Oval, aka Ben Ostrick, who has been mentioned on this blog before...

Baron Munchausen and the Original Brian Robb

This blog is partial to a bit of Baron Munchausen. A previous post dealt with a rather lovely old edition illustrated by Bichard (so lovely, in fact, that it left the shop under the arm of a visiting London Dealer...). This recent arrival is a different, somewhat more modest edition, but the illustrations are equally wonderful in their own way.

They're by Brian Robb, who had an illustrious (sorry) career working on posters and adverts for London Transport and Shell, cartoons for Punch, and book covers and illustrations. He taught at Chelsea Art College (where he became a mentor to Quentin Blake), and ended up as head of illustration at the Royal College of Art. He died in 1979. A class act then.

The coolest part of his cv though is his role in Operation Bertram. He held the brilliant title of Creative Camouflage Officer in the Western Desert of Africa during WW2, helping to deceive Rommel as to the location and size of the allied forces in the run up to El Alamein by camouflaging the eighth army's preparations in the North, and creating a complete dummy force to confuse the aerial photographers in the South. He was a (word of the day alert!) 'Camoufleur' par excellence.

He's referred to in the title of this post as the 'Original' Brian Robb to differentiate him from the current Brian (J.) Robb, the noted writer, who, when he's not popping up on Withnail Books' Facebook page, can be found here critiquing the work of Charlie Chaplin film by film (exactly 100 years after their release), reviewing the latest in sci-fi, fantasy and horror entertainment here, and in your local bookshop as author of acclaimed books about Tolkien, Steampunk and Philip K. Dick to name but a few.

Anyway, here's a selection of the Original Brian's Baron...

Vintage Book Covers That Never Were

The Little Shop is now home to a shelfload of vintage Pan paperbacks (or will be once I've sorted them out). They're wonderful old things, all sporting covers of the 'they don't make them like that any more' variety. Except, they do. Thanks to some enterprising fans and artists, 'vintage-style pulp paperback covers for books which never had them originally' has become a very entertaining little artistic subgenre.

Speaking of Pan paperbacks, a fellow calling himself Honeypot Designs has repurposed some original art (mostly by Sam Peffer) to create some cracking James Bond covers for titles which were never in Pans of that era:

He's also done some rather good Richard Chopping pastiches. Here's the one for Solo, the most recent Bond novel:

For Doctor Who fans of a certain age, the novelisations by Target Books are possibly even more fondly remembered than the actual programmes themselves (certainly, the special effects were always better), and many talented Whovians have busied themselves providing covers to more recent stories which never got the Target treatment. There's scores of them on the web, but here's a small selection. I especially like the way that some of them change the title of the original episode to something more 'exciting', just like Target used to do:

A final mention has to go to Timothy Anderson, who has created some bang-on pulp covers for Blade Runner and Star Wars, plus poster art for the original trilogy reimagined as spaghetti westerns. Here they all are (and if you want copies for your wall, all these and more are available at his Print Store).

A Double Sided Dust Jacket Mystery

Here's a recent arrival at Withnail Books: a 1945 novel with a great cover design:

It was evidently a 'plucked from the headlines' affair, as the blurb says: "The Coastal Command kept constant watch over the seas around the coasts on the lookout for enemy submarines and aircraft as well as guarding merchant ships carrying food and munitions needed by Britain. The author skillfully portrays the hazards faced by the pilots and gunners on these missions and of the courage, high spirits and resource with which they countered them!"

What caught my eye though, as I took the dust jacket off to cover it with protective film, was that it had something printed on the other side...

I'd first come across a different double sided dust jacket a few weeks ago, and wondered if it was some kind of weird, one-off printing error. Then I realised it was just a wartime rationing/saving measure: take sheets of jackets that have been printed but then for whatever reason not used, and print on the blank side. I planned to blog about it, but Callum James at the excellent Front Free Endpaper, by pure coincidence, beat me to it.

But this copy of Wings Over the Atlantic intrigues me. Most of the (few) jacketed copies on ABE mention that the wrapper is 'recycled', and one listing mentions the title on the other side: Percy Westerman's The Rival Submarine. This copy evidently isn't the same. In fact, I don't think it's reprinted from a dust jacket at all. When I first looked it at, I thought it might be an illustration of a prehistoric stone on a little hill, but then my colleague Other Adam pointed out that it was someone's back:

I think early history is right though: is that a spear head, perhaps? At the top of the image is what looks like a village of huts, a pier, and a chap in boat...

It can't be a dust jacket though, as it's way too big an image. So what was it? A poster, or print? Does anybody recognise it? For now, it's a mystery.

Anyone for Odds Against Norway?

No, this isn't an early guide to next year's Eurovision. An unearthed cache of World War 2-related books has arrived in the Little Shop, mainly ones which were published not long after (or even during) the event itself. There are some cracking covers here, and a couple of scarce titles. Anyone desperately searching for a copy of Odds Against Norway with a dustjacket won't find another one online at the moment...

Really? A Rather Disturbing Victorian Guilt Trip Advert

One of the most popular posts in the history of this blog was a look at a rather disturbing Victorian children's book, so, for fans of rather disturbing Victoriana, here's an advert I found in a little book of recipes for things like jugged hare and stewed eel. The cover is rather sweet and and decorative...

... but flip open the front cover, and the first thing you see is this:

No messing about from Fennings there. Nice of them to point out that their powder is not heroin, too.

I love the language in these old ads. By the time I'd finished reading this one, I really was ready to try their product...

Is it just me, or does 'Italian Warehousemen' sound like a euphemism for something?

Penrith in the Dandy, 1969 (B.A.P. 02)

Back in the late 1960s, The Dandy was already over 30 years old, but still had Korky the Cat on the front page (Desperate Dan didn't make it onto the cover until 1984, amazingly). Back then, a page each week was given over to a feature called 'My Home Town', where a reader nominated their home, and the Dandy team supplied some relevant illustrations and fascinating facts.

In December 1969, issue 1463, thanks to reader Jacqueline Cherry, age 12, of 22 Inglewood Road (who won a £1 postal order!) it was the turn of Penrith.

Here then, for the first time online, is Penrith in the Dandy...