A BORIS APPETIZER

A friend questioned why I would want to do a post on the cover art of Boris Vallejo. "Isn't his stuff all over the net as it is? And besides, you usually highlight lesser known illustrators, so who would benefit?"

Yes, indeed, his stuff is all over the net and in numerous art books and featured calendars, some of which I own. And yes, I do try to highlight lesser known 20th century illustrators, or strive to at least, but the truth is I love Boris's art and doing a post on him would give me time to browse my own collection of his covers and showcase some of his 'not so well known covers' (assuming that that is even possible in this day and age). But assembling the kind of lengthy posts I do is time consuming, plus I've become a terribly slow writer and researcher of late, so until I can get over my current slump here's a small dish from Boris to quickly whet our appetites, with ingredients derived from British writer Jane Gaskell.

Jane Gaskell was born in 1941 in Lancaster, England. She wrote her first novel, Strange Evil, at the age of fourteen. It was published two years later in 1957 and has been described by Scottish SFF editor John Grant as "a major work of the fantastic imagination." I'm in the midst of reading it now for the first time and I would thus far argue against it being a "major" of anything besides being the publication acceptance of a ridiculously young author. However, it did mark Gaskell as a phenom, which she was clearly was. To date she has written fourteen novels (which coincidentally matches the age she was when she wrote her first), seven of which are fantasy or horror related, in addition to numerous articles and columns she penned as a journalist for the Daily Mail, a British tabloid.

I read Gaskell's Atlan fantasy saga series in 1970. It is comprised of four novels, five if you include the much later issued The Dragon, the second half of volume one's The Serpent, issued as such by Pocket Books in 1979 in order to stretch the series and split the first volume.  They are as follows: The Serpent (1963), Atlan (1965), The City (1966), and Some Summer Lands (1977).  I was a teen then and on the rebound after reading The Lord of the Rings, eager to find more epic fantasy in the same vein. The Atlan's certainly seemed to fit the bill, but upon completion they were in no way like LOTR, nor was anything else being written at that time until The Sword of Shannara appeared in 1977, an obvious if not blatant homage to Tolkien's great trilogy. But I remember really liking the Atlan's, just not necessarily loving them. However, their being vastly different than LOTR also made them that much more fascinating to read. 

Those three Atlan volumes I read initially were all published by Paperback Library in 1970, with covers produced by British artist Michael Leonard. They were sufficiently different looking than their earlier first editions (1967-68), whose covers were emboldened by both Frank Frazetta and Jeff Jones. Those covers spoke of sword & sorcery--Leonard's covers spoke of epic high fantasy. 

Boris Vallejo created his Gaskell cover art for Pocket Books in 1978 and 1979. By degrees they are the most attractive Gaskell's to date, a lush mixture of sword & sorcery, high fantasy, and sensuality, but there are those that might argue otherwise. In addition to Vallejo, Leonard, Frazetta and Jones, seven other artists have produced cover art for the Gaskell fantasy novels that were published in English, and any one of them could be preferred over Boris. They are as follows: Denvil (full name unknown), Bill Botten, Bob Fowke, Dave Pether, Laurel Marx, Mick van Houten, and James Gurney.

For my money though it was Boris who set the bar the highest.

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Atlan 1, The Serpent was published in paperback by Pocket in November, 1978.   'For seventeen years she has lived in the Tower, imprisoned by her family under an ancient curse. Now, at last, Princess Cija is free-- only to marry as her mother, the Dictatress, decrees. She must marry the vile half-serpent Zerd, head of the conquering hordes.  She must travel with his army as its hostage, camp follower, scullion, slave-- or empress-- or supreme warrior. At her mother's command, she mjust entice and destroy the repulsive Zerd. But she is only seventeen, naive in the sensuous ways of a seductress... '

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Atlan 2, The Dragon was published in paperback by Pocket in January, 1979.   'In her quest to save the fabled Atlan, young Cija and her handsome lover, Smahil, flee the clutches of Zerd, the evil half-serpent who has conquered half the world. But, too late, they find there is no escape from their enemy-- Zerd's army covers the land from hill to valley; all beings are swept along or destroyed; all cities are laid open to the plunder of his warriors.  Now Cija must do the impossible. She must thwart Zerd's ravenous scheme of conquest-- and it is the gods' decree that she must do it alone!'

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Atlan 2, Atlan was published in paperback by Pocket in March, 1979.   'In the bloody war over the continent of Atlan, Princess Cija has been forced to wed the invader, the evil man-serpent, Zerd. When Zerd's enemies attack, Cija flees his imprisoning castle, only to be discovered by her archrival, Sedili, Zerd's former wife.   Forced into captive isolation, Cija must now await her fate at the hands of this jealous, vindictive woman who will regain everything she had lost to Cija-- only by the Princess' death!'

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Atlan 4, The City was published in paperback by Pocket in May, 1979.   'Rescued by a bold sailor, held in the confines of a lascivious brothel, Cija faces yet another life-and-death ordeal.   She escapes but her respite is short-lived. Treachery and betrayal sweep her into the temple of her hated father, beyond a terrifying, sensual interlude in the Arena of Apes.  With the seed of her ape-man lover growing within her she is carried to her ultimate destiny inside the monstrous walls of Atlan...'

Atlan 5, Some Summer Lands was published in paperback by Pocket in June, 1979.   'Cija, daughter of peril, plaything of destiny... is once again off on an adventure of endless wonder... carried off to a distant land where Zerd, the dragon general, girds himself for battle with the King of the North... thrust into a journey of mystery and magic with her daughter, Seka... struggling to escape the dangerous people of Soursere, finally to set out upon the floating Isles for the enchanted shores of Atlan...'

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King's Daughter was published in paperback by Pocket in August, 1979.   'Long ago, when the world had no moon... Atlantis and Mu ruled the earth, and a brilliant light shone in the heart of Bulinga, Princess of Grood.  Beautiful and wild, Bulinga yearned to be free from her warlord father. One night, with the help of a group of traders, she escaped disguised as a boy.  But her freedom was cut short. Soon she was betrayed by fellow travelers and entrusted to the cunning fanatic, Carpen. Captured and bound, she was brought to Nipsiric as a slave, and bestowed as a gift upon the Temple of Reverence and the Holy One himself. A terrifying fate for a... king's daughter.'

Strange Evil was published in paperback by Pocket in July, 1979.   'On the banks of the Magical Mountain... was a land of flying Satyrs and humanlike fairies-- a battleground, where the two tribes of the Mountain fought for power. Brought here by her cousin, the Earthling Judith lived in the tranquility of the fantasy world.  But, as an Other-worldly being caught between warring peoples, Judith was destined to die... until she discovered the Evil driving her cousin's enemies to fight to regain their power, now and forever!'

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I've never actually read my copies of Boris's Atlan's for fear of damaging them and my original Leonard's have gone missing, victims, no doubt, of previous book purges, but I've a mind to re-read the series now and re-purchase those Leonard's too, especially after putting together this post and reading a fairly awesome article about Jane Gaskell and her literary achievements by Rob Latham in the Los Angeles Review of Books. It can be accessed here, and I highly recommend giving it a go, a mere 15 minutes of your time at most. By the same token are reviews of the Atlan series itself by Tony Den at Black Gate, which the first of his four parts can be accessed here.

 

 [© February, 2025, Jeffersen]

PRESIDENTS, PUPPETS, PARODIES, AND PLAYBOYS

FOR the first time in the 249 year history of the United States of America a criminal has been sworn in as President.

POTUS number 45 was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on May 30, 2024. Prior to that his parent business company was found guilty of 17 criminal charges. He was also convicted in separate civil trials of sexual abuse and defamation.

Number 45 is also a person who in 2020 had spearheaded the "Big Lie," the biggest deception in American electoral history, which led to a violent insurrection at our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021. Instigating an insurrection is supposed to be a treasonous crime, but number 45 has yet to be charged. Go figure.

A major clause in the 14th Amendment would have prevented 45's eligibility for re-election, but Congress and our Judiciary chose to purposely ignore and or dismiss it. Shame on them. And shame on the Democratic Party itself for being so incredibly clueless, stupid and inept in their attempts to contest this criminal from seizing power during the 2024 election campaign.

Now, is having a convicted felon in the White House going to be a bad thing? Does it portend of dark, chaotic days ahead?  I would say yes--it is. And yes--it does. But only 50 percent of the voting public probably believes like I do, the other 50 percent are seemingly supportive of criminal behavior, bigotry, and serial lying (a portion of them are evangelicals too. Go figure). 
 
What this means for the future, besides a stain on America that can never be erased, is that even a murderer could make a legitimate run at our nation's highest office. Of course I can think of one alleged murderer, currently awaiting prosecution in a jail cell in Brooklyn, New York, whose sudden folk hero status might just make him the popular choice in 2028. Now wouldn't that be something? And it's not hard to figure out what his campaign slogan would be.

Yes, unfortunately, Pandora's box has been officially opened here in the United States. And a certain somebody in Russia is laughing his ass off right now. 

Having a felon in the White House for the first time in history reminded me of this republican. His name was Richard Nixon, and he was the 37th POTUS.

During the third year of Nixon's first term in office he became mired in something we now refer to as the "Watergate Scandal." It began on June 17, 1972, with a simple break-in at the office of the Democratic National Committee, which was located inside the Watergate Building in Washington D.C., by members of a group associated with Nixon's re-election campaign. Their intent was to plant listening devices. Why exactly they wanted to do this has never been fully explained, only theorized. The burglars were caught that same night and arrested. Later of course Nixon tried to hide his administration's involvement in the whole sordid affair, publicly dismissing the accusations against him as political smears. And America being America, folks believed him, re-electing him in November to a second term. But the Watergate investigation had only just begun and would last for two more long years.

Finally, on February 1, 1974, a federal Grand Jury prepared a draft presentment that stated that Nixon "unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly" conspired to commit offenses against the United States. The charges were to include bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. But then, as Congress prepared to impeach him, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. A month later President Gerald Ford (formerly the Vice President) pardoned him, protecting him from criminal prosecution.

This of course was America's biggest political scandal of the 20th century and its greatest political embarrassment.

The above illustration, from 1976, shows Nixon as someone's puppet.

But who was the puppet master?

And did they have anything to do with Watergate?

Enter Howard Hughes, one of America's richest industrialists, and the alleged puppet master. 

Hughes personified the deep state: he was famous for his secrecy, his back-room manipulation of politicians and government agencies, and for making billions of dollars from his work for the Pentagon and intelligence community as their budgets soared through the Cold War and Vietnam era.

Allegedly Watergate was in part the product of secret payoffs by Hughes to Nixon to protect his business empire. Allegedly Nixon feared that their relationship was going to be exposed, eliminating every chance he had at re-election. Allegedly that's the reason behind the break-in. Or so the theory goes. 

Now let's move to the present day.

Our 45th POTUS, otherwise known as a convicted felon, appears to be under the influence of one of the world's richest men, a South African businessman known for his arrogance, and expressed, polarizing views. A businessman whose wealth makes 45's wealth look like that of a hot dog vendor. A businessman who allegedly contributed vast sums of money to ensure 45's re-election. Some have even begun calling this person the Prime Minister of America, or the Shadow President.

You know who I am talking about; I don't need to spell his name out. It's just too bad that the artist who painted this absolutely perfect parody of Nixon and Hughes as puppets isn't alive today, or we could ask him to update his illustration to reflect our current presidential situation. Now wouldn't that be something. Ha!

But I know what your next question is: Who does the green hand belong to that controls Howard Hughes? Some might say the "Snake People," an underground species of advanced reptilian beings who are covertly controlling the levers of power in the US. But that sounds crazy, like something Robert E. Howard would dream up for one of his pulp yarns. In essence though, the Snake People are merely a metaphor for large corporations and their 1-percenter CEO's. Howard Hughes was a 1-percenter, but that doesn't mean he wasn't controlled by even larger corporations than himself. 
 
Now, on to your next question: 

Who painted this classic illustration?

Well, before I reveal the artist's name, let me to show you how I first discovered him, or rediscovered him, as it were.

'From Kummersdorf West-- a Nazi concentration camp staffed with some of the Third Reich's most talented and monstrous medical men... to Kummersdorf East-- a Siberian enclave where 100,000 Soviet Jews have been quietly transferred for some top-secret experiments. What was the Kummersdorf Connection?'

I CAME across this nightmarish paperback cover and stepback illustration during a recent bookstore jaunt. The Kummersdorf Connection by Eric Ramsey was published by Playboy Press Paperbacks, a book division of Playboy magazine, in 1978. The cover and stepback art were credited inside to Eraldo Carugati.

The name Carugati sounded familiar to me, but not necessarily with paperbacks. So I sat down and performed a process of elimination: Besides books, what was I reading back in the 1970s? Well, magazines for one-- Time, Newsweek, Locus, Sports Illustrated, Penthouse and Playboy. Hmm? Playboy-- sure, that was it-- I remembered now. I collected Playboys back then, had at least four years worth stacked up. Carugati was one of their regulars contributors. And when I got home and started researching I learned I was right.

Eraldo Carugati was born in 1921 in Milan, Italy. After the fall of Mussolini in 1943, Carugati was captured by the Nazis and placed in the Dortmund Concentration Camp. He survived there by painting portraits of German soldiers and creating and trading forged Nazi rations stamps. In 1945 he escaped, and joined the US Army as an interpreter (he was fluid in Italian, English, French and German). After the war he accepted a longstanding invitation from his friend Captain Jack Hart to move to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. It was to be a six-month visa. Carugati immediately began painting formal portraits upon arrival. One of his first commissions was from Senator Robert S. Kerr, who was so pleased with the artist that he lobbied for him to receive asylum, along with his wife and child. Carugati, forever grateful, then journeyed to Chicago, where he was hired by the firm of Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco, Inc., one of the country's leading graphic design, photography and commercial art studios. It was there that he began producing illustrations for some of the leading magazines in the country, including National Lampoon, Time, Weekend, The Rotarian, and of course Playboy, among others. He also produced iconic album covers for the rock band's Kiss and Rush, and at least one movie poster that I know of (all three are shown further below). Carugati died in 1997 at the age of 76.


Many of Carugati's illustrations were surreal, or darkly humorous in nature, such as the 1980 parody of George Washington, based on his dollar bill image, and of course those featured puppet parodies of Nixon and Hughes, which appeared first in Playboy magazine back in 1976.

Even with all of his commercial success, Carugati never stopped painting portraits; the Smithsonian Institute owns five of his originals. One is them is of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (created for the cover of Time magazine), and another is of Alexander Haig, who was chief of staff under Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford and Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan.

You would think that paperback covers might have taken up more of Carugati's attention, it being a relatively good paying gig, but for all my searching I came up with only one additional paperback that was officially credited to him, and one that wasn't but should be. Or could be. Both were published by Playboy Press, and are seen below.  

This horrific looking cover and stepback art was officially credited to Carugati on the copyright page. The novel it promoted was Shadow of the Knife by Kenneth R. McKay. It was published, as I said, by Playboy Press in 1978. Carugati definitely had a dark side to his imagination, although here he is merely adhering to the novel's actual content, like any good commercial illustrator does.

'He was the NASSAU SLASHER-- a bitter, perverted psychopath who picked his female victims with a surgeon's care, and killed them with a butcher's savagery. Even after a dozen murders he still eluded a huge law enforcement network that was powerless to stop him-- until he happened to pick the wrong victim-- a woman whose husband had the nerve to step outside the law, the brains to track the psycho, and the guts to inflict a brutal, overdue punishment.'

This 1980 cover was not credited, but compare it to The Kummersdorf Connection and the August, 1980 issue of National Lampoon, shown immediately below. See what I mean? It could easily have been produced by Carugati. The Wanting Factor by Gene DeWeese was also published by Playboy Press, another telling factor in my defense. 

'When are the dead not dead? For a terrified Evanne, the answer is very important. Her dormant psychic ability has surfaced, and now she has accused Charlie Bridges of being a dead man. Only Charlie is alive and well-- or is he? Charlie has a few hours missing from his life, with nothing to show for it but a strange scar on his wrist. And lots of other people in the small college town--perfectly ordinary people--have the same odd scar. Unfortunately for them and for Evanne, they are not ordinary anymore. And the town soon will be a blood-soaked hell on earth.'

Carugati produced this cover art for the August, 1980, National Lampoon magazine, depicting the human emotion anxiety, an emotion that millions of Americans are grappling with right now. I'm sure Carugati produced additional covers for NL, but I've been unable to identify which ones are his, beyond guessing that is. The internet is still lacking in so many ways when it comes to recognizing illustrators.

This Carugati illustration, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for many different things, was spread across two pages in Playboy magazine in 1976. The article, Terror, Inc., was written by David B. Tinnin.  Tinnin was a journalist whose work regularly appeared in Sports Illustrated, as well as other magazines of the era. He also published two books: Just About Everybody vs Howard Hughes: The Inside Story of The TWA - Howard Hughes Trial (Doubleday, 1973), and The Hit Team (Little, Brown, 1976).

Now, finally, we see a different side of Carugati. A more pleasant side, full of smartly dressed, upwardly mobile young people. The caption for these two illustrations reads: "Check the writing on the wall--black is a bright new fashion idea." They accompanied an article in Playboy magazine titled, Good Guys Wear Black, which was published in November, 1974. It was written by Robert L. Green, who was Playboy's fashion director from the 1950s through the 1970s. Green also wrote articles for other publications, including Architectural Digest, and authored one book, Live with Style (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1978). Green cut quite a smart figure himself too: he was Vanity Fair magazine's best dressed man of the year in 1972.

 

I imagine that working for a large commercial art studio would scare up some movie poster commissions, but all I could find that were credited to Carugati was this one poster for Sorceress, a notoriously low-budget, 1982 fantasy film from Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Two of the film's actors, if you can call them that, were former Playboy playmates and twin sisters Leigh Harris and Lynette Harris (again, that Playboy connection!). 

Sorceress, Blu-Ray disc release:  '...When an evil wizard, Traigon, makes a pact with the dark forces to sacrifice his first born to his God Caligara in order to gain the highest degree of power, he wasn't prepared to have his wife give birth to twins. The twins then escape and grow up to be two beautiful warriors, and they vow to avenge their mother's death, as well as their adopted family's death from Traigon and his army! With the twins blessed with the forces of light and strength of warriors given to them by the magical warrior Krona, and with the help of Valdar the Viking and Erlick the Barbarian, the "two who are as one" take on all sorts of Traigon's minions. From an army of ape men to undead zombies, the twins must overcome one horrific foe after another, climaxing in an all out battle between good and evil!'

If you google Carugati and Kiss together you will come up with 5 or 6 pages worth of hits. In 1978 the artist was commissioned to paint four album covers for the rock band Kiss, representing four solo albums from each member of the band. This led to additional artwork for the band as well. More than anything else, these paintings have endured, guaranteeing Carugati's legacy as one of the 20th century's most influential album cover artists.

My wife and I had a friend and colleague named Danny O'Hara who was a huge Kiss fan. He was also a huge sports fan. His ticket stubs for the events he attended filled several scrapbooks. In the 1990s we used to watch the Colorado High School basketball playoffs together down at the old McNichols Arena in Denver. Those were great games. And great times. Rest in peace, Danny, you and your distinctive laugh will always be remembered by us.

Carugati produced this beautiful painting in 1975 for the cover of Fly by Night (Mercury Records), a vinyl record album by the band Rush. I have plenty of books in my collection whose contents I dislike, but I keep them because I love their cover art. That would be the same situation here, that is if I actually owned this album. 

These three lovely paintings by Carugati were produced in 1961, or at least that's when they were issued for sale in print format. They are in descending order: A Blue Quail; a Mockingbird; and a Roadrunner.

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AS A commercial illustrator, Eraldo Carugati obviously produced a variety of art for different mediums, but searching online didn't produce many examples, and far fewer than I expected. I once owned ten years worth of Playboy magazines, which would have yielded dozens of great Carugati illustrations, but during one of my moves I decided to toss them out because each box weighed about as much a bag of cement. Ugh! But before I did that I called every used bookstore in town, and was shocked to find that nobody wanted them, even as donations. And yes, I still feel guilty about throwing them out. But not nearly as guilty as the Democratic Party should feel after their historically feeble attempt at trying to win America's 2024 vote. As I said, shame on them, but shame on me too, for trashing ten years worth of centerfolds.

[© Copyright January, 2025, Jeffersen]