When it comes to the cover artwork used for various pulp-hero reprints, one name comes up more often than others: Steve Holland (1925-1997).
He’s not an artist, but an actor and model. (The only acting role I am aware of was the 1950s Flash Gordon TV show.)
For many pulp fans, it was his modeling for James Bama and other paperback cover artists for Doc Savage, and then also for the covers for The Avenger (artists Peter Caras and George Gross), The Spider (Peter Caras and Robert MacGuire), Operator #5 (George Gross), and others. Other iconic characters he modeled for included Nevada Jim (James Bama), Tarzan, The Phantom, Conan, Matt Helm, and Magnus Robot Fighter.
Over the years, I’ve seen a few of the photos from his modeling sessions, always the ones for Doc Savage. But I’ve never seen them all. Until now.
Thanks to a long-time project by Michael Stradford, this has been addressed. He has released a book on just Holland’s Doc Savage work: Steve Holland: The Torn Shirt Sessions. It’s organized by the artists: James Bama, Bob Larkin, and Joe DeVito. Clearly, a big part of it is the torn shirt(s) used for the photos.
Probably the best part are the large photos used for the specific paperback covers, and in several cases the cover artwork is included on the opposite page. Sadly, not all covers were available, so those pages are blank. But one could make color prints/photocopies and drop them in place.
While the bulk of the book is taken up by photos and artwork, there are several nice intros and background pieces.
A good pair of companions to this work would be the James Bama and Bob Larkin art books with their Doc covers.
For me, as Doc Savage was the reason I got into the pulp heroes, and it was the iconic covers that drew me originally, knowing more about how they came about was important. Thus I had to have a copy of Stradford’s book.
I encourage others to check it out. There is a website and Facebook page devoted to this. Visit and get your own copy.
Stradford’s next book will be Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model, which I hope will expand on all the other covers and characters he posed for.
Thanks for the very kind review! I’m hopeful that more original illustrations by Bama and reference photos and art by Bob Larkin will start to surface with the release of this book to justify a more complete, updated edition in the future.
Steve Holland actually illustrated a few paperback book covers himself. So he was also a visual artist.
Ok, tho not sure how that’s relavent here. The book was only on his work as a model for the Doc Savage covers, not a bio of his life. The upcoming book from Stradford will expand on his cover model work.
Hi,
In the late 70’s, I started read the Blish Star Trek Paperbacks, Heinlein Sci-Fci and the Bantam Doc Savage Paperbacks. The Doc Savage books pushed me in to pulps. I’ve been collecting Doc Savage, Shadow, Avenger, and Sci-Fi pulps that had Heinlein, Asimov, Piper, etc. stories. I enjoyed Bama Covers and didn’t realize there was a model and a name. I’ll have to find this book. Thx for sharing!