Monday 9 April 2012

The Detective Tales cover for April

This month's Detective Tales cover was really difficult to find. Because I already uploaded two a few years ago, here and here, and I find both these covers the best ones of April, and in the second case maybe the best cover of Detective Tales I saw. So I was kind of stuck. After a lot of hesitation, I settled for the 1936 cover, even though it is not the best one. Not that it has no qualities. There is a lot of action going on, too much to handle for the guy who drew it maybe. We have the fierce redhead and the hero taking a young child from a bed. He is still asleep, or very sleepy, even though a lot is happening around him and it must be a noisy environment: two gangsters are barging in, gun blazing and one is already shooting. I presume the child has been kidnapped, from his clothes he must comes from a wealthy family. I can bet he was kidnapped by some mobsters and held for ransom and the detective and the redhead have come to rescue him. The two goons are idiots: if a lost bullet kills the child, what are they going to do?

That said, I do love the action and the characters. For once, there is no fancy dressed villains like last month or in December. Just some regular thugs, dressed soberly and quick to use guns, no cane-sword. The danger is immediate, obvious. And I love the contrast between the threat, the violence, the brutality of the combat that is starting and the delicate appearance of the child's direct environment. So there you have it, another pulp fiction cover.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The artist did a darn fine job considering the scope of the thing. Really great cover.