An entertaining blog of vintage paperbacks — of the seedy variety that once allowed commuters and housewives to safely dive into the racier parts of mid-20th century Americana. Adhering to the dictum that one should not judge a book by its cover, blogger Rex Parker provides details on the plot, tone and unintentionally hilarious details of the book — he even posts back covers.

Part of the blog’s purpose seems to be to create a sales catalog for Parker’s collection of these paperbacks, as he lists prices with each post. The net effect, though, is that Pop Sensation is a rich trove of specimens from the tradition of truly commercial art. This is not high-minded design or illustration; this is down and dirty commercial work intended to titillate and rack up sales. Nevertheless, lots of these samples are fantastic works.

On a sideways note, the paperback featured here in the upper right is an early edition of what eventually became one of the strangest — and best — film noirs of all time, “Kiss Me Deadly,” which was recently re-released by Criterion. It’s a cynical and surprisingly satirical take on the detective genre, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring a captivatingly vain Ralph Meeker. Its ending, which had been mysteriously hacked by unknown hands, also inadvertently served as a critical bit of inspiration for a very different school of filmmaking. Read more about that here, or peruse the rich Pop Sensation archives here.

Jump to this link