I’ve posted in the past on Joseph Lovece‘s Dime Novel Cover series, which reprint samples of stories from the pre-1900 dime novels and similar fiction works of that period. So far we have 15 volumes in that series.
As a kind of companion to that series is the “Dime Novel Cover Special Edition” series, of which there are three so far. I was presented a copy of one of them: Fantastic, Amazing, and Beautiful Dime Novel Art. This slim volume, a little over 50 pages, reprints a variety of cover artwork, one per page, from various dime novel series — and they are in full color.
We get a wild set of covers of various adventures in the wild west and wild lands, with weird airships and situations. An arctic explorer finds a frontiersman frozen in ice! Buffalo Bill goes up against a spider the size of a sheep! The police are baffled by a head frozen in ice!
Covers feature an array of dime novel characters such as Buffalo Bill, Diamond Dick, Nick Carter, Jack Wright, Franke Reade Jr., Fred Fearnot, and more. There is even the “Boy in the Iron Mask” (is he a good guy or bad?). Some of these I know of, others I don’t.
It’s a great volume.
The other two volumes in the series are Ripping and Cracking British Penny Dreadful, Story Paper and Boys’ Weekly Art, and European Dime Novel Art. As with this volume, about 50 covers are reprinted in color. If you enjoyed this volume, you should like these as well.
