Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here · Original art vs. printed page

Look Here: BLUE CAMELLIA (1966), with cover art by Charles Binger

Here’s another random paperback that I picked up at a local church sale just so I could scan it and post it here at RCN; the artist is Charles Binger, who also painted the blonde on the cover of the Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Rolling Bones (1960), which I scanned and posted back in February:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

As luck would have it, I was easily able to locate a snapshot of the original art, which sold at La Luz de Jesus Gallery for $2,800 back in 2011:

(N.B. Since I don’t own the above artwork and am not offering it for sale, I have taken the liberty of futzing with the original JPEG to make it a bit brighter and clearer, so at this point, it may or may not accurately represent the painting.)

The file name on the exhibition site — Binger_LG_Sophia-Loren-study.jpg — identifies the subject as Sophia Loren. But please note: although the woman in the painting does sort of look like a young Sophia Loren, I have no way to verify whether it really was intended as a likeness of her or not. I’m certainly not enough of a Loren fan to know if Binger based his “study” on a particular publicity photograph of her, but if you are, feel free to post the info below.

Keywords: Blue Camellia.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Four Pocket Books with cover art by Tossey, Binger, et al.

Well, I’m back with sort of a grab bag of covers this time around. Not sure why I chose to scan these particular items this morning, though I do think that even when the cover art is lacking, the overall design of vintage pulp paperbacks from Pocket Books, front and back covers included, is often interesting, and sometimes even amusing — “WOULD YOU ANSWER THIS AD? Thousands of men did, including Perry Mason, and one of the answers was MURDER!” — so maybe that’s the theme here:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Keywords: The Case of the Rolling Bones, The Case of the Lonely Heiress, Murder up My Sleeve, The Golden Goose.