During the last several years of looking for film-related material, I’ve stumbled across a lot 0f other stuff that I felt compelled to save. When I was going through it the other day — in a successful effort to avoid doing anything actually productive — it occurred to me that you might like to see some of these. There’s no particular rhyme or reason to this collection of covers and illustrations, other than they all got my attention in one way or another. Some, such as  the Edgar Rice Burroughs book covers, are beautiful. Others are dynamic, dramatic and kinetic. Some are simply weird and bizarre, possibly offensive. So, with no apologies, here goes.

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The current blockbuster film notwithstanding, the original Captain Marvel was a guy! As well as being the source for the forthcoming Shazam! movie, which opens on April 5. The lineage is a bit tangled.

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British paperback editions of early James Bond novels.

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Note: I’ve been unsuccessful so far in finding out the meaning of the reverse swastikas on two of the covers above. I doubt that they have a Nazi connection, but it’s curious.

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I have no idea what the story is here.

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The following panel is by Wally Wood, probably for an EC science-fiction comic. The comment “Not exactly, but close enough” is what put it on another level for me. Below that are two of Wood’s greatest EC covers.

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First publication in 1953 of William Burroughs’ Junkie, with Burroughs using the pseudonym William Lee.

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“Departure of the Witches,” aka “Witches on the Sabbath” or “Witches Going to Their Sabbath.” Painted in 1878 by Luis Ricardo Falero. This looks very modern to me, and quite realistic, aside from the fact that the witches are airborne in the midst of bats and assorted demons.

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I have no idea what the hell this is.

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There’s more, but this is probably enough for now. — Ted Hicks

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