Fans of vintage mystery paperbacks revere many of the great cover artists of the 1950s – Robert Maguire, Robert McGinnis, Rudolph Belarski, James Avati, etc. – but what about the mystery covers of the 1940s? Before the more realistic style of the ’50s set in, the ’40s paperback covers were more stylized, usually employing striking graphics rendered in a slightly abstract airbrush style. The artists behind these gorgeous covers don’t have the reputations of those who came after, and in fact they remain mostly unknown since the paperbacks rarely name the artists, who seldom signed their work.
We recently acquired a nice collection of vintage paperbacks, and we love these 1940s covers too much not to share! If you’d like to bring one of these gems home, click on the image above to buy. In the meantime…ENJOY!
