{"id":19784,"date":"2025-06-10T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=19784"},"modified":"2025-05-14T09:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T13:29:31","slug":"steve-holland-paperback-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2025\/06\/10\/steve-holland-paperback-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Steve Holland: Paperback Hero’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we have Michael Stradford<\/a><\/strong>‘s third book on the cover artwork using Steve Holland<\/a><\/strong> (1925-1997) as the model: Steve Holland: Paperback Hero<\/em>, which came out in 2023 from Gizmoe Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>It follows Steve Holland: The Torn Shirt Sessions<\/em> and Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model<\/em>, both of which I have reviewed, and followed by Steve Holland: Cowboy<\/em>, which I don’t yet have. As the title indicates, this book focuses on his modelling for various paperback covers. I’ll focus on the pulp and pulp-adjacent ones.<\/p>\n

We get 10 chapters, most of which are by genre, like Spy, War, Adventure, Western, and Cop\/Detective. As I thumbed through the chapters, I recognized many covers that I had run across in used bookstores, never realizing that many used Holland as the model.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the notable chapters.<\/p>\n

In Spy, we get several pages of Nick Carter<\/a><\/strong> covers that he posed for. Of course, these are the post-pulp “Killmaster” series, not the dime novel and pulp magazine version of the character. In Adventure, it seems he posed for one of the covers for the paperback Phantom<\/strong> novel series, based on the comic-strip character. Did he pose for other covers in the series? In the Cops, Robbers, and Dicks chapter, it appears he posed for some of the Shell Scott<\/strong> covers.\u00a0 Some folks claim a connection between that character and Doc Savage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I was hoping the Western chapter would have covers for Nevada Jim<\/strong> that James Bama<\/a><\/strong> did, using Holland. Maybe those are in the Cowboy<\/em> volume?<\/p>\n

The Sci-Fi chapter was fun. I didn’t know so many Conan<\/a><\/strong> covers used him as a model. And that he posed for several Richard Blade<\/strong> and Gor<\/em> covers. The Tough Guys chapter shows that he posed for a lot<\/em> of numbered men’s adventure novel series.<\/p>\n

The Spider<\/a><\/strong> chapter focuses on his work for both the Berkeley covers, as well as the later Pocket Book that turned the Spider into a blonde, turtleneck sweater wearing hero.<\/p>\n

And the last chapter, Odds and Ends, wraps it up.<\/p>\n

This is an excellent book and will go on my shelf with the rest. If there is only thing I still look for, its a good overview of his work on the covers for The Avenger<\/a><\/strong> done by Peter Caras<\/a><\/strong> and George Gross<\/a><\/strong>, as well as the Operator #5<\/a><\/strong> covers at Freeway, that would also delve into who came up with the art direction on those series.<\/p>\n

Since this came out, a Kickstarter campaign just ended for a deluxe hardcover edition of the Torn Shirt Sessions<\/em>. I need to pull out my original edition and do a comparison review.<\/p>\n

And plans are in place for a deluxe edition of The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model<\/em>, which will also include material from this volume. This will also be done as a Kickstarter campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we have Michael Stradford‘s third book on the cover artwork using Steve Holland (1925-1997) as the model: Steve Holland: Paperback Hero, which came out in 2023 from Gizmoe Press. It follows Steve Holland: The Torn Shirt Sessions and Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model, both of which I have reviewed, and followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at 'Steve Holland: Paperback Hero.'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[857,14],"tags":[998,549,860,2187,858,992,300,55,993,566,226,229],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-19784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artwork","category-review","tag-conan","tag-flash-gordon","tag-george-gross","tag-gizmoe-press","tag-james-bama","tag-michael-stradford","tag-nick-carter","tag-operator-5","tag-peter-caras","tag-steve-holland","tag-the-avenger","tag-the-spider"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2025\/07\/steve-holland-paperback-hero-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-596","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19784"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20595,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784\/revisions\/20595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19784"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=19784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}