Product Description

A beautifully designed and produced book of the best of Robert McGinnis, one of America's foremost illustrators and a member of the American Illustration Hall of Fame. Since 1958, he has painted over 1,000 paperback covers in all genres, including mystery, romance, and western. In addition to a definitive list of his paperback work, the book provides over 200 full color illustrations, not just of the book covers, but of McGinnis' model photos, sketches, roughs and finished art. The book will provide indispensable to collectors of his works, as well as a visual treat for lovers of fine illustration.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1201217 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Art Scott is a retired chemist and writer who has been collecting McGinnis' paperback books for thirty years. He has contributed to the reference works Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers and 1001 Midnights.

Customer Reviews

(Not Enough) Paperbacks Covers of Robert mcGinnis
Well, right off the bat let me just say that if you are a Robert McGinnis fan, you must have this book. The production standards are terrific and the reproductions of paintings, from the originals, are as crisp and eye-popping as you always hope for in an art book. The book is also a valuable companion volume to "Tapestry" released. last year and covers completey new ground in terms of illustrations reproduced. All this said, I do have a quibble with the thought that went into the layout. Fine coated art paper is used throughout and what did the authors do? They filled up huge portions of this gorgeous paper with a complete checklist of McGinnis paperback covers, rather than the illustrations us fans were looking for. The checklist is a valuable tool for those who wish to compile a complete library of McGinnis paperbacks, (say, 5% of the people who love the work of McGinnis), but it could easily have fit at the back of the book on cheaper stock, which would have left room for dozens (if not hundreds) of color McGinnis covers. Oh well! Still good, but it was "this close" to being great!

A Book of Narrow Focus
Robert McGinnis is one of America's most gifted illustrators and the breadth of his talent was well-documented in his art book, TAPESTRY. Pin-ups, Westerns, movie posters--the guy could paint it all. THE PAPERBACK COVERS OF ROBERT MCGINNIS, though featuring several paintings as well as pencil roughs and a couple of photo references, is not an art book, but rather is a rather pricey checklist geared toward paperback collectors. The majority of the color works are small reproductions of the actual covers as they originally appeared--and the focus is firmly on McGinnis' detective covers with the other genre's he's worked in getting barely a nod. Even so, I would have preferred to see large reproductions of the artist's trademark femme fatales unmarred by titles instead of the plethora of tiny second-generation reproductions found in this volume: the format and content is geared SO much toward the hardcore collector mentality that the editors/authors seemed to have lost track of the ART and the ARTIST they supposedly revere. A disappointment.

great McGinnis documentary also released
If you would like to check more McGinnis art images that will a companion to Art Scott's outstanding book check out the Robert McGinnis documentary DVD titled ROBERT McGINNIS PAINTING THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER it contains interviews with McGinnis and Art Scott as well. McGinnis demostrates his entire painting process.