I need a friendly neighborhood Fedex man that gives me that kind of stuff! I love it, it looks great!

well thanks thomas, much appreciated. it took years of constant searching (and buying when i could afford stuff) so it wasn't overnnight. there's never any end to collecting illustration art until your own end! it's very addictive. and i love the history behond it all. i've seen your CAF page several times before and you have some really cool stuff as well so you're definitely on the road! good luck with your searches...

This series first started when Willie published them in his digest sized magazine called Bizarre in the early fifties. Two consecutive issues had four pages of the serial and then the following issue had two pages of the story. He stopped publishing it in Bizarre and was then going to release the continuing story four pages at a time to subscribers probably printed on separate pages, but there was not enough interest and he was always working on a tiny budget, so it sat unfinished for many years until he tried to revive it but budget restraints once again put an end to it and it was never finished. It appears that two finished original pages of the story are not known to exist anymore and there are twenty one unfinished story pages known in existence.

Funny, I never saw it that way. His eyes are so black and beady that he could almost be looking at her, but also he's trying to keep her quiet and looking out to make sure no one is coming. I have certain things that bother me in artwork as well and if I see it that certain way, it kind of spoils it for me. It's such a nice piece in person and it's framed up and hanging in the bedroom. Maybe he's looking at me sleeping and hoping he doesn't wake me while he does his thing... 

I guess you did decide to contribute, but maybe next time you could just donate!

The art is still so bright. I really love this piece.

Thanks Victor! You're welcome to see my collection any time. Although it's not all hung up just quite yet...

well, we'll probably never know for sure who it is like so many of these covers. it's not that important to me as long as i like the artwork. and i like the mystique of not knowing who it is. it gives each one a life that keeps going wondering if some new information will crop up...

Only in that room! The room will all the illustrations of naked women will have to have different music...

Haha!

It keeps the guests away!

It's plaster with brown paint. Oh, The art! Thanks! You and Glynn are welcome to stop by to see my collection whenever you're in the area!

Thanks Glynn! You're welcome to visit whenever you're in the area!

Thanks Matt!

Probably from Craig? That's who I got it from about that long ago as well. I was just on the phone with him today talking about some of these unsigned early Ace covers. He doesn't have a real guess on this one but my first guess is Marchetti based off the other ones he did for Ace around this timeframe. If you look at the original art for The Hired Target Ace D-241 in Heritage's archives, the skin detail is the same as well as the hair highlights and her facial style the way he did his women. Also Ace D-189 cover (DOA) by Marchetti is in the same vein. 

haha, of course! and it's right next to my side of the bed...

yeah, the artwork is so clean, detailed and large! the paperback looks like crap!

I actually wish she would become a tramp again!

i have not seen the back of it in five years so i forgot. it's large and not easy to just pull off. it never had glass and i have always wanted to get museum glass put on it but really like the frame it came in so don't think i can do that with this frame. that's great that you in-laws appreciate your art. some people don't get it or more that they don't understand that it's the original painting for something published and not a poster.

The tame version of them, maybe!

Maybe he painted a very light wash on the board first and through the years the board has changed underneath giving it those textures?

Thanks, I really love this one too. It was the first thing I hung up when we moved into the new house. Even when my wife's parent's came to visit from Japan her dad pointed it and said that it was his perfect woman (in japanese...). I have a feeling that the board has browned through the years. It's nothing like that on the paperback cover. I've looked with a magnafier and it's hard to say. It's spotty all through the brown so hard to tell if it was done on purpose. It doesn't look bad and it makes the colors pop out even more.

i was actually going to paint over the couple on the ground and just keep the peeping tom!

Thanks Glynn! Hope you're doing ok!

ok, then leo could have sold it for the person you sold it to. i have had it for almost twenty years myself.

mike shayne did reuse a lot of these covers for sure.  there's a great feature about balcourt in an earlier issue of illustration magazine that i recently dug out to reread. i wish he were still around to answer more of my questions...

was it through leo by any chance that you sold it? it looked like this was slated for a paperback based on the info on the back but then never used for that. it was then later repurposed for mike shayne. i had asked ed balcourt about it and he said that was common. it doesn't make much sense as a mike shayne cover and the art was older than that era of issue it was used on.

i know the story! you told me! dr. suess was involved as well, right? the digests i'm listing are from that same IH batch.

i was always so bummed when martignette had this listed in his ads way back when i was working at illustration house. i was so happy when it came back up for auction. another time i yelled out loud!

c'mon, you have great stuff! and weiner does too.

i bought these thirty years ago. i have many i've never listed. they were in frames that needed a new overhaul and now i'm finally able to scan them properly. although i have let go quite a few digest covers to leo many ears back that never got scanned.

who is joe rainone?

i agree, and i yelled out loud when that came up for auction.

I know, I KNOW!

He did a lot of paperback covers! Some of his covers are really well done. I'll be posting a couple others when i get the time.

i made sure it was secure!

Yeah, background gang is what feels really Belarski to me. Something about the colors as well. When I worked at IH I saw a lot of these digest covers in the flesh and this one just felt Belarski to me for quite some time. I should hold up a black light on it it see if there's a signature that got painted over. 

Glad you enjoy them! I knew you would. I knew you would be the first to respond!

I'll keep posting stuff as time permits.

I'll leave you all the Robert Crumbs. I can't afford those!

This art is not his best, but it is important for the Matheson history. And I'm a huge Matheson fan. I even had a band with his son RC for years.

when i first started collecting vintage paperbacks "kiss my fist" was high up there as one of my favorites. i still fantasize about getting that artwork.

i just responded about this in the other comments...

I was just going to say that i think it's the same artist as swamp kill and probably married to murder. but who is it??? has to be one of the guys from that line of related digest imprints. i was wondering if the "beach party" digest i just posted was done by belarski.

Who do you think painted it? 

Sorry! Back before I worked at Illustration House and was buying digest art from them, I had heard that Martignette owned this. Actually I saw it in an Illustration magazine ad so I knew he owned it. I was always bummed for years because I knew IH had sold it but I never they had it before it sold. Then years later I heard that John Cosgriff was the one who bought it from IH and then later traded it to Martignette for a Dr. Seuss drawing. So when it came up in auction at HA, nothing was going to stop me from winning it!

It's one of my favorite interiors of his of the ones I've seen in magazines so was glad to finally get it. I missed out on the first sale on Ebay because I didn't want to pay that much. And as a matter of fact, the second piece of original art I ever bought was by Rader and it was an interior as well for only $90!

my guess was raymond johnson so glad you agreed. i was hoping you would say those exact words!

i picked it up on ebay two weeks ago for $400! just kidding. i bought it from a friend eight years ago and i can't remember if he had told me when/where he had acquired it. i know he had it for quite a while before i bought it.

his mystery digest covers are my favorites. i want more!!

My nightmares are from the fear it will fall on my head while sleeping...

thanks, but i do have the picture of it before joe cleaned off the art directors white lines for that later cropped edition which i also have an image of. i forgot the joe had done that. mitch told me years ago when he resold it for him and i bought it.

It's my wife's favorite painting out of everything I own. It's hanging over our bed!

I agree. It's more about the title and subject matter. King did some really good stuff, but not all the time!

Really looks like gouache to me. Very different than the oils I have of his.