(All images in this post are pictures taken by me of the books that I am reviewing, unless otherwise noted.)
Well before I began budgeting my book purchases I had ordered a number of things through my local comic shop. Back around May, this book, Dames Dolls and Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire, serendipitously arrived as I was smack dab in the middle of reading crime/noir/pulp fiction. I wasted no time in reading it, after all it was a beautiful collection of art from an artist whose work I admire. In an effort to catch up on book reviews, it seemed like a splendid idea to wrap this book review around a Friday Favorites post, thus giving you more bang for your buck.
Please join me in paying homage to one of the the true masters in paperback book cover illustration, Robert A. Maguire.
Maguire (1921-2005) has over 600 cover illustrations to his credit. After serving in WWII he got down to the business of getting an art education and unleashing onto a willing audience a signature style of art that continues to generate admirers to this day.
(Cover for Wild Town by Jim Thompson, click on image for a more detailed version)
I’ve long been a fan of Robert McGinnis, and Robert A. Maguire is in that same upper echelon of masters in this medium. Each artist has such a distinct style. Where McGinnis’ women are hyper-realized and proportionately exaggerated at times, Maguire’s damsels in distress and femme fatales seem to be more real, more “down to earth, approachable, though sometimes at your own risk” as Maguire’s daughter writes on her website tribute to her father’s work.
(Cover for Glitter and the Greed by Robert Taylor)
Robert A. Maguire’s women seem less aloof and more involved in the moment which we see illustrated by Maquire’s brush. Often, but not always, his pieces reveal a moment frozen in time and as such they have a sense of immediacy and urgency, or menace or sensuality depending on the type of image he was creating.
(Cover for Pyramid Girl by Wenzel Brown)
The art of painting is one which I admire deeply. The ability to render an image of this quality with paints is certainly beyond my ability to comprehend, but I do know that I view it with an appreciative eye. One of the things I enjoy about Maquire’s work is that an image can be ‘finished’ without actually being fully rendered (for example Pyramid Girl and the cover for Wild Town pictured above). The eye is drawn to the more complete image while the incomplete, more sketchy portions of the image add to rather than detract from the overall composition. In the case of Pyramid Girl above, the eye is drawn to the face, the arm, the more detailed parts of the image. While the eye might the continue down the chest to the far end of the bed as the image becomes less concrete and more abstract, it is then drawn back to the face, the most compelling part of the image. Amazing. And check out that paint texture on Pyramid Girl. Isn’t that fantastic?!?!
(Click on image for bigger version)
The “Maguire Method” as outlined in Dames, describes his process thus:
“After making four or five penciled roughs of cover ideas, he’d get one approved by the art director, then carefully select his models and photograph them. He’d then make a color rough approximately the size of an actual paperback cover. From that he would make his final painting. ‘The hardest part is the color rough,’ he recalled. ‘That’s the planning. Then when you execute the actual painting, all your problems are solved.'”
Dames, Dolls and Gun Molls thankfully includes several actual photographs of the models used and the covers that Robert A. Maguire created from these images that he took. Here are a couple of examples of the models posed and photographed by Maquire and the paintings that resulted from these sessions:
became:
(Cover image for The Damed Lovely by Jack Webb)
This image of Robert’s first wife, Janet S. Maguire,
became this:
Dames, Dolls, and Gun Molls is a steal at $24.95 ($16.47 now at Amazon). Jim Silke, and amazing ‘good girl’ artist in his own right, has designed a wonderful volume, filled with gorgeous full page paintings, images of Maquire’s art as they appear on the paperback covers, photographs of posed models used for reference, examples of penciled and colored roughs, and insightful commentary on the man and on his process. Books of this quality showcasing the works of this incredible generation of illustrators are hard to come by, and this felt like finding buried treasure because it was so economical and so darned cool!
But wait, there’s more! Last night at the comic shop another surprise awaited me, a reprint of Issue Number Three of Illustration magazine featuring the work of…Robert A. Maguire!
I only had to see the cover image to remember why I ordered this. Maguire’s red heads stand with the best of them. This cover for Dead, Man, Dead by David Alexander is wonderful. The full painting and cover image can be found inside.
(Cover image for To Find a Killer by Lionel White)
Again, Maquire’s use of space and color and the way he paints detail vs. rough outlines is just fantastic. I love the way the characters just pop off this very menacing and telling background of red.
One of my favorite Robert A. Maquire images, from long before I even knew who he was, is the cover (pictured above) for Man Bait by Jack Liston. If you click on that image above you can see the full cover image. There is nothing revealing or overtly seductive about the cover and yet Maguire has captured a beautiful, inviting image that plays so entertainingly against the book’s title. I have a postcard somewhere that I picked up of this book cover long ago.
(Cover image for The Room Upstairs, Click image to see a larger version)
Illustrators of Robert A. Maguire’s talent can easily be relegated to a certain genre if one doesn’t look deeper. I have mostly featured images from pulp/noir/crime paperback covers because that is where my passion for these illustrators lies, but Maquire did even more fine detailed work on romance covers, images of landscapes, and this amazing portrait of his young daugther.
(Click on image for a more detailed version)
Examples of all these can be found in this issue of Illustration Magazine, and thankfully half of the issue is filled with wonderful examples of Maquire’s work. Also included in this magazine is an invaluable checklist of over 600 of Maguire’s paperback covers, a must have for paperback book collectors.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the merest taste of what is an enormous feast of color and movement and energy captured by the brush of one of the truly great illustrators of the twentieth century. For many more examples of his work, please visit the site maintained by his daughter, Lynn Maguire, here. Affordable prints, postcards, t-shirts and other items can be found via this site.
And if you are interested in more work of a similar nature, check out my previous posts on:
Thomas Allen (who uses Maguire’s and other artists book covers in new, amazing ways)
If you’ve never seen these posts, or if it has been a long time since you’ve viewed them, I recommend checking them out again. Not because I wrote them, but because they are filled with gorgeous works of art.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
thanks for sharing these great paintings
I’ve never explored pulp/noir/crime fiction, but I am of the generation that never, ever missed an episode of “I Led Three Lives”, “Dragnet”, “Ellery Queen” or “The Untouchables”. Needless to say, the lovelies shown in your wonderful selection of Maguire’s art are as representative of what appeared on the small screen as they are of a certain genre of literature. I love the memories they evoke.
I have a photo of my own dad leaning against the brick wall of his hometown school, his hat cocked down over his eyes as he stretches his arm above a woman who looks very much like these gals – I wish I could have that photo turned into such art. Seeing the photos and paintings together makes me think of the writing process – we take the whole tumble of details, the whole picture, and then select this and that to form our related, but not identical images. Very interesting.
I’m also glad I read the entire entry, just for the picture of Maguire’s daughter at the end. It’s so real, so full of life – wonderful work. But my favorite is the redhead in the blue dress with the mysterious male shadow emanating from her own. That’s an illustration that makes reading the story seem a flat necessity!
This is why your blog is so wonderful. It puts me in the middle of something I never knew existed, or really didn’t care about, and then makes my new knowledge seem important and worth expanding. Thanks for all your hard work!
Shoreacres: Thanks so much Linda, that is certainly one of the chief aims of my blog, to expose folks to stuff they might not have looked at themselves.
I would love to see that picture of your father, it sounds great. There are images in my posts featuring Frank Frazetta that sound like this image of your father. Frank and his wife looked every bit the part of images like these when they were younger. It is so fun to see those pictures, to realize our parents were cool!
And I agree about the picture of the redhead in the blue dress. That is definitely one of the paperbacks I want to track down.
Mel: It is my pleasure, thanks for coming over to check them out.
What a great website you’ve got going on here! God wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to draw like Maguire!
The art is incredible, and I especially enjoy seeing the photos he took and then used to create the paintings. I also love seeing the little details he added – like the mock seam on the nylons in the first picture to painting image. I’d have to say my favorite is the cover for Pyramid Girl because, like you, the vague background adds to the impact of the woman’s gorgeous face. This was a fantastic post!
There have been a number of artists I have “followed” for some years now, but since getting into reading again and into the blogs we’ve just found so many more terrific artists to enjoy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could afford to some of each of their works of art!
Wow. Some of those are just fantastic. They’re all great though 🙂
I’d be tempted to buy the book and chop it up for decorations so I could see the art all the time
Fence: They really are nice! I can understand the temptation. The full page images would look great framed.
Deslily: Yes it would, Pat, yes it would! I’d love to just see some of these originals in person, let alone be able to own one. One of my dreams is to be able to visit the Frank Frazetta museum and see the originals!
Chelle: I love seeing the artist’s photo references as well. Often the photos this generation used for reference are as much works of art as are the images themselves.
Chrisy: Yes it would be!
As you can imagine – I find his work incredible – and you are right, doing this with paint is – well there are no words – Maguire’s gift is beyond words…
The cover for glitter and the greed sends shivers up my spine!
Funny… I have both Frazetta’s books and Boris Vallejos books. Both did the same type paintings. Both went to the same school and same teachers.. many can’t tell their work apart.. but for whatever reason, i lean towards Boris a bit more lol.. What I really can’t grasp in my head is that Frazetta’s son (who i was introduced to once by Ken Kelly) can paint just like his father. It too has been said you cant tell the sons work from the fathers.. and yet he says he doesn’t like to paint and rarely does. what a waste of talent!
Deslily: I remember you mentioning that before about his son. That is so terribly sad.
If I remember right, I read in this book that artist James Bama, another talented illustrator, went to school with Robert Maguire.
Fanciful Twist: That image is amazing, isn’t it? It is so laden with emotion.
Wow, those are such arresting images. I was not familiar with the artist by name, but I recognized several of them. I’m off to check out your previous posts…
Thanks!
Darla: Great, I hope you enjoy those as well! I wasn’t too familiar with him either, especially not when I had done my review on Thomas Allen, but in researching the books he uses I discovered Robert A. Maguire. One of the many things I love about the internet is how researching things like this leads one to discover even more.
great article, as usual 🙂
carl, i tried to answer to your last e-mail, but it seems you changed it. could you give me your new address please ?
thank you,
sophie.
What a fantastic collection, Carl, thanks for sharing them with us, and bringing Maguire’s gift to, well, at least my attention. You forget how well the artists of the day did this kind of cover. Classic in that the reflect the times and perceptions of their day. Fantastic, what a great trip into the past. Not only do I have an urge to go order me some classic pulp/noir, but also, to take a look at the retrospective book on the artist’s work.
Thanks again.
Alexandria: You’re very welcome, I appreciate the visit and your thoughts! They really are a reflection of an era and it is that sense of history and nostalgia that is a part of why I enjoy the work of many of these ‘classic’ illustrators.
Sophie: So great to hear from you, I have sent you my new email address.
ah… you know i love this stuff! feed me more! 😀
Glad to be of service JP!
Thanks for posting this art, Carl. My father wrote Man Bait, I found this blog on a search for the title. He actually named the book “A Horrible Place To Die” (referring to NYC), but unable to sell the book to a respectable publisher, his agent found a pulp mill, and my dad used his uncle’s name as a pseudonym. It has always been by far my favorite cover of his 5 novels.
Hi There,
I know this is coming a few years after the fact, but as a fan and researcher of Robert Maguire’s work, I thought it was important enough to get in touch to let you know that the book was riddled with errors, and because of that there are people who have unknowingly passed on erroneous information online and that tends to spread. So I want to advise you of two errors which you’ve copied onto your website. First, the picture you posted that claims to be his wife is actually of Chic James, a model who posed for paperback cover artists and who also danced at the Copacabana back in the day. The second error is with the title “Pyramid Girl”. The book is actually titled ‘Prison Girl’, and was published by Pyramid. Just one of several clumsy mistakes allowed by the writer and editor, despite being corrected multiple times by the artist’s own daughter. By the way, these 2 mistakes were corrected in the 2nd printing of the book which is currently available.
The 2nd print still carried over some of the errors from the 1st printing, such as paperback covers which Maguire had nothing to do with but which were still credited to him, but I wanted to at least mention these 2 in hopes that you would take a few minutes to make the necessary corrections to your article. The reason I came across your site is because I was having a conversation about Maguire on Facebook and someone began posting photos from the book claiming that they were of Maguire’s wife. When I corrected him and asked him where he got his information, he said he got it from the Maguire book (The 1st print of which I never got a copy of.) and then also told me that you had also spread the errors in your book review here. A fine review by the way!
At any rate, misinformation spreads quickly online and then perceptions take forever to change. So again, I’d appreciate it greatly if you could just make the necessary corrections so that any future visitors to your site come away with the correct info and don’t go around the internet spreading the wrong stuff.
Cheers!
Ruben
Thanks so much for sharing this Evan, that is fascinating. Man Bait is definitely a more pulpy title than the one your uncle had for the ‘respectable’ publishers. It is a great, great cover. One of my favorite McGuire covers. Very, very cool.