The cover illustrations of the drugstore paperback pulp novel have become a lost art. But for the first several decades of the 20th century, many commercial artists created striking images using minimalist art, all for the kind of books you’d buy to read on a lazy day at the beach. But an artist by the name of Matt Stevens is making sure that long-gone art form is remembered with a new series of illustrations, as we’ve learned about via the folks at Laughing Squid.
Stevens decided to pay tribute to the style of those long ago dime store days, by taking the titles of beloved films and reimagining them as paperbacks. The designer has created a line of prints which he calls Good Movies as Old Books. For this project, Stevens has taken 100 of his favorite films and given them as old school paperback book covers, complete with wear-and-tear and price tags.
For this project, Stevens took the title of each film as the name of the book (naturally), but then listed the book’s author using each respective film’s director. You’ll find tons of your favorite movies as part of the 100 titles, with titles like Fight Club, Fargo, and Robocop, all mixed in with more recent blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Stevens has also launched a Kickstarter, in the hopes of getting funds to produce an actual book of his covers, as well as prints.
Each of these pieces is worthy of being framed and placed on your wall. But if some of your favorite movies aren’t included, remember these are all for movies based on original screenplays only. So no Godfather or Exorcist or Gone with the Wind. There are already pulpy book covers for those classics, since they were based on novels in the first place. You can check out some of our favorites down below:
To see even more of Stevens’ paperback art, be sure to head on over to his Instagram, as well his Good Movies as Old Books Kickstarter page.
Featured Image: Nerdwriter