Reginald Heade is renowned amongst vintage paperback fans and collectors as the pre-eminent British pulp fiction cover artist of the 1940s and 1950s. His beautifully-rendered, erotically-charged depictions of a parade of sexy, scantily-clad young virgins and vixens – the so-called ‘Heade women’ – are near-legendary amongst lovers of classic pin-up art; and the original books on which they appeared are now highly-sought-after rarities – in some cases, only a handful of copies are known still to survive.
In the lavishly-illustrated The Art of Reginald Heade, packed with hundreds of superb colour and black-and-white images, noted researcher Stephen James Walker presents the most comprehensive overview ever published of Heade’s life and work. This encompasses not only all of his iconic paintings for the famous Hank Janson range, but also dozens of other outstanding pulp fiction covers, plus his less-well-known but equally exceptional work for adult hardback fiction dustjackets, children’s books and periodicals, and even the pieces he produced at the end of his life under the alternative name Cy Webb.
This deluxe special edition of the book is extensively revised and greatly expanded. With almost double the page-count of the standard edition, it features over 400 additional, ultra-rare Heade artwork images, and presents many others in larger size than before.
The Art of Reginald Heade is a glorious celebration of the artist’s work, and an absolutely essential addition to the bookshelves of anyone with a taste for classic pin-up and book cover artwork.
320pp. Large format 22cm x 28cm hardback. Fully illustrated in full colour throughout.
ISBN 978-1-84583-116-5
First Published 24 August 2018
NEW EDITION Published November 2020
The Hank Janson name, logo and silhouette device are registered trademarks of Telos Publishing Ltd.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen James Walker has authored or co-authored an average of one book per year over the past 25 years, many of them about the BBC’s acclaimed Doctor Who series. The Art of Reginald Heade – Special Edition is his twenty-eighth title. He has a BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Physics from University College London, and his many other interests include cult TV, film noir, vintage crime fiction, Laurel and Hardy and an eclectic mix of soul, jazz, R&B and other popular music. Between July 1983 and March 2005 he acted as an adviser to successive Governments, latterly at senior assistant director level, responsible for policy on a range of issues relating mainly to individual employment rights. His working time is now taken up by his writing projects and by his role as co-owner and director of Telos Publishing. He lives in Kent with his wife and family.
Steve Holland –
“Add a bonus gallery at the end, and the additional 150 pages offer almost a new book’s worth of Heade’s fantastic artwork. I said in my original review that “To have all these rare book covers in one place fulfills a collector’s dream.” That now goes (almost) double for the Special Edition.”
https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-art-of-reginald-heade-special.html
C J Bunce –
‘A celebration of the artist, a resource for modern designers for his use of figure, color, and style, and a must for pin-up and pulp cover art collectors.’ C J Bunce
https://borg.com/2018/09/15/pulp-cover-artist-reginald-heade-collection-gets-an-upgrade-with-double-sized-expanded-hardcover-edition/