Today is the 93rd birthday for Robert McGinnis. Robert McGinnis is one of the great American paperback book cover artists during the heyday of paperbacks in the 1960s and 70s.
If you have any interest in vintage paperbacks, you have probably seen his art. He is possibly best known for his work on the James Bond series. He produced magazine illustrations and movies posters during the Bon craze of the 1960s.
He produced many hard-boiled covers for crime novels for Dell and Gold Medal at this time.
He also did some work including a few historicals, gothics, and romance book covers.
If Frank Frazetta was known for the muscular he-man in primal conflict, McGinnis’ specialty was the femme fatale in a sumptuous pose. You know she is bad news but she is going to entrap the man with weak resistance.
McGinnis has produced some western art. He has done very little in the science fiction and fantasy field. He came back when Hard Case Crime got started producing some retro-covers for some of the paperbacks.
The Art of Robert McGinnis is available in hardback. The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis is out of print though there are used copies for sale.
The great era of paperback book cover art is decades behind us now. Artists such as Robert McGinnis, Frank Frazetta, Carl Hantman, and Frank McCarthy produced iconic images for this form of popular culture entertainment.
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