Can You Judge a Podcast by Its Cover?
It’s a podcast! An audio based medium. Do you really need fancy artwork? Most people are going to see it on their phone and it’s going to be a microscopic 1 inch x 1 inch square and they’re not going to listen to it based on the artwork.
Nay I say! We here at The Crime Is Up Podcast are creating stories that are the modern day continuation of the pulpy tradition of hard-boiled crime fiction. It follows that our cover art must also harken back to those glory days.
Cover for Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert E McGinnis seen here as the cover of his Titan Books release
What better way to do that than to reach out to the master of the painted paperback cover himself, Robert E. McGinnis. When I contacted Mr. McGinnis out of the blue from the ‘Contact Us’ section on his website, I admit, I did not expect to hear back. He is a living legend who has painted everything from your favorite James Bond movie posters to Audrey Hepburn’s immortal Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster as well as the covers of over 1000 paperback novels (see the incredible coffee table volume The Art of Robert E. McGinnis from Titan Books for more on his body of work).
So would this man, who had done covers for giants of the genre like Jim Thompson, Erle Stanley Gardner, Richard Stark, Carter Brown, and Brett Halliday be willing to paint a cover for my little crime fiction podcast?
No. Of course not. Mr. McGinnis, at age 96 as of this writing, is still working and putting out covers for everything from books like Hard Case Crime releases of Max Allan Collins’s excellent Quarry novels to posters and book covers for Hollywood movies like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. I was politely told via email that Mr. McGinnis had a full schedule and did not have time to paint a new cover for my podcast. I figured this would be the case, but I asked a follow up question. Could I possibly license a cover?
Conan the Avenger by Frank Frazetta
Yes. Yes I could. In a move of immense kindness, Mr. McGinnis’s camp saw fit to assist me in my quest to obtain a cover of the same caliber as the crime fiction I’d grown up loving. Long before I started reading crime fiction, I would sneak peaks at the covers of pulp paperback books down at the basement book shelves of my father’s house and marvel at the women on the covers. The action poses of Frank Frazetta’s Conan covers were a favorite, but the McGinnis covers always struck a chord.
Nobody paints women like Robert E. McGinnis. The sexuality, in both the body and eyes of his subjects, is always so raw and yet lazy. His women have a dignity, a kind of poise and confidence as if they’re saying to you, “I don’t give a damn if you’re looking. Go ahead.” Like they were just reclining in these compromised positions for themselves.
The fabled McGinnis Woman, and her long limbed, graceful poses graced the covers of all my favorite authors. Everyone from John D. MacDonald to Jim Thompson, Richard Stark, Mickey Spillane, Max Allen Collins, and now, The Crime Is Up Podcast. I count us lucky to be found in that tradition. It is an honor to help add ‘podcast’ to the list of varied media Mr. McGinnis has painted covers for, even if most people only see it as a 1 inch square on their phone.
The details are there. If you don’t look closely, you could easily miss the best part of the painting. Especially if you’re only looking at it on your phone. Take it in with me:
A woman leans on a rail. The rail of a ship, her location betrayed only by the life preserver below her and the reflection of the blue light from the unseen water below. She stands illuminated in an almost green glow from the ship. Shadows are cast on the pink nightgown, darkness creeping into the impossible twisting fringes of the frock.
Why would she be standing in such a garment at night, hair still done up in an eternally fashionable beehive hairdo? What brings her there to the edge of the ship? Existential crisis? Trouble with a man? Look closely or the answer might elude you. There on her leg is the shadow of the gun held at her side in resolute stillness. Smoke issues from the barrel.
The writer with his copy of The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife in his living room.
Holy smokes! Did she just shoot someone? Or was it just target practice? Are her eyes closed? I have so many questions! Good. You should. Like the best covers, The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife invites you into a mystery within. It compels you to read the book, and is one more reason why it is one of McGinnis's best covers. If I saw it on a bookshelf, I’d be compelled to buy it (and I did - see the photo to your right).
And if you were swiping through podcasts on your Spotify homepage and saw this image, I’d like to think you’d pause long enough for the invitation of mystery and pulp fiction to settle in your psyche. And I hope you’d click on that 1 inch by 1 inch artwork and have a listen.
Christopher Affonco Bradley is the co-host and co-creator of The Crime Is Up Podcast.
