Sunday, November 9, 2008

"Sappho" Enoch Bolles original painting 1933


This may be the only surviving cover painting of the 'under-the-counter' title, Tattle Tales, which was one of the most notorious of the smoosh mags targeted by the vice cops under New York mayor La Guardia. Bolles would have been lucky to make a hundred bucks from this cover (the great Hugh Ward got even less and he complained about how difficult it was to collect). And any association with the magazine presented the risk of jail time, a fate suffered by several staffers and more than a few hapless newsstand sellers. The big question is why Bolles knocked himself out on these covers as they rank among his best. I'll be featuring several other unseen originals in some upcoming posts.

6 comments:

Li-An said...

I'm waiting for them ! Thank you...

Jack R said...

Hi li-an,
Great! I'll put some others up soon.
Jack

marco said...

hello Jack!
these last images are great... thanks for sharing them!

Anonymous said...

Breathtaking! Thanks bunches Jack.

coz said...

There is at one other original "Tattle Tales" cover painting.
About 1990, I bought an H.J. Ward Tattle Tales cover from Canadian comic book dealer Ferd Bernjack at the Chicago Comic con. The painting featured a garter clad beauty at her typewriter. Since I wasn't collecting pulp art at the time, I (foolishly) traded the painting to well-known collector Roger Hill for a bounty of art. I believe Roger may have sold the painting to Charles Martignette, so this may come up in one of the Heritage Auctions, if it hasn't been skimmed already.

Jack R said...

Oh I know what painting you're talking about and it's a beauty. Too bad and I hope it shows up, at least so we can take a look at it.