Various Approaches to the Problem of Sherlock Holmes

Recent approaches to a much-covered subject...

Michael Kirkham for White's Books (see also here):


Coralie Bickford-Smith for Penguin (see also here):


Unknown for Vintage Classics UK:


Unknown for Atlantic Crime Classics (see also here):


And finally, Glen Orbik for Hard Case Crime (see also here):


UPDATE: Karen Horton, no mean designer herself, points me towards two more recent Holmesian covers.

The first is by Jen Wang, for Penguin US:


The second is by Rob Grom, for Thomas Dunne Books:


UPDATE 2: Regarding the Hard Case Crime cover, the ever-wise Tulkinghorn points out this extensive discussion of it with the publisher here, which also refers to this Orwell cover.

Hard Case Crime Revisited

Here's a quick follow-up to the look at Glen Orbik's covers for Hard Case Crime.


Another artist Hard Case use a lot, and who does sterling work, is Gregory Manchess. I've read the two John Lange rediscoveries Manchess has provided the covers for.


Lange was an early pseudonym for Michael Crichton, and he should have stuck with the fast, funny pulp crime rather than the portentous climate-change-denial rubbish he seems more interested in these days.


A close look at the cover of Zero Cool revealed something interesting (besides the bikini babe). What is she reading?

Glen Orbik: New Pulp Art Done Right

A while ago I talked about the problem of trying to do new art for old pulp books, and how easily it is to do it wrong. Well, here's an example of an artist who does it exactly right.

Glen Orbik has done a lot of work for DC Comics (like Phil Hale) and has also recently become one of the most prolific cover artists for Hard Case Crime. This is a relatively small, new publisher specialising in reprints of excellent old pulp novels, and new books in a similar style.

Here are some of Orbik's covers for Hard Case. You'll want to click for a bigger version to get the full glory.


The only criticism that can be made here is that, unlike pulp cover artists of the past, Orbik has obviously actually read the books he's illustrating, as the scenes on the cover do actually match events inside the books. It should also be said that the Axelrod, Miller, Faust and Goodis books in particular are great.

Another great recent work by Orbik is this cover for a new pulp novel called, wonderfully, Space Vulture. It so matches the old science-fiction pulp covers that I at first thought someone had merely repurposed an old cover from the 1930s or 1940s.


This book, which I have not yet read, should be well worth seeking out. First of all, the great Gene Wolfe likes it. Secondly, how often do you see pulp science-fiction co-written by a genuine Catholic archbishop? His other publications (such as Ecclesial Ministries Within the Diocese: Development and Integration and An Examination of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body) are for a very different audience.