Dorm room decor is always changing. Why not change a small space in it with our Vintage Pin up Girls calendars. We have created 6 calendars 2 months each. See sample. You can download from sidebar on right. And best of all. IT’S FREE!!!!!

Temporary Tattoo

If you ever were thinking about a tattoo but were too afraid to get one. Here is a possible solution.

Dating from the 1940s, this temporary tattoo allows you to wear this fantastic femme fatale for just a few days before breaking off the relationship.

Their tattoo transfers are designed to look very realistic on the skin and feature authentic tattoo ink colors.

Click to Enlarge

This girl will look as if you’ve had her on your arm forever but she’ll wear off in around 3-5 days.

• 14cm tall and 4cm wide.
• Not suitable for sensitive skin.
• Not to be applied near eyes.
• Easily removed with baby oil.

Also available:
Forces Sweetheart, Vintage Tattoo Sleeves cover your arms in reusable vintage tattoos, Amy Winehouse Cynthia Pin-Up Girl Tattoo

Pinup as we know it today is radically different to its humble origins which can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century, a time when sexuality was both scrutinized and suppressed. For instance a woman showing a bare ankle was considered risqué and the word “sex” itself was not even used publicly.

As ever people find a way round even the most stringent of rules and the desire for images of an erotic nature was overcome by the birth of portraying scantily clad ladies as an art form.

As art such images were deemed acceptable by the society of the time and many of these early drawings and illustrations that are considered the roots of the pinup genre used imagery of the burlesque striptease routines as their starting point.

Additionally magazines such as ‘The Police Gazette’ illustrated stories of murder and mayhem by showing the leading ladies in various states of undress, which was considered to be completely legitimate by the general populous as they were considered newsworthy.

During the 1920′s society began to rebel against the repression of the previous decades with the energetic dancing, partying and fashions such as flap skirts that showed more leg than ever before.

It was at this time that underground ‘pulp’ detective magazines appeared using drawings and paintings of bondage and nudity to illustrate their stories of murder and kidnap.

Meanwhile a new genre of nudist publications also surfaced linking sex and humor again using drawings to illustrate their stories and jokes. It was from such publications that what we think of as pinup art began to evolve during the early 1930′s.

Artists such as George Petty and Alberto Vargas created calendar girls that very soon adorned the walls of garages and workshops everywhere.

Additionally Esquire magazine was initially published in this decade and very soon it was regularly carrying pinup art and illustrations from many different artists.

However it was the 1940′s and World War II that really saw pinup art explode into the phenomenon we know today.

There wasn’t a G.I. who didn’t have a painting of his favorite movie star such as Rita Hayworth or Bettie Grable on his locker door or stuffed somewhere in his kitbag so that he could be reminded of home during the long hours spent away from his family and loved ones.

Add to that the girls so painstakingly painted on to the side of military aircraft in order to bring them luck on their numerous missions and it was easy to see that pinup art had found a footing in mainstream society.

Post WWII artists such as Elvgren emerged as failing magazines and publishers tried to woo the public with risqué imagery. By this time the original artwork from the more popular artists was becoming much sought after by certain collectors and it was finally accepted that pinup had a place in the art world which was somewhat ironic considering it’s origins.

During the late 1950′s and early 1960′s pinup began to surface in the form of photography as well as the now traditional art. Magazines such as the famous Playboy were published blending pinup style photography with well written lifestyle articles and the response was huge.

The magazines ripped through any remaining repression gaining acceptability in most parts of society in a matter of a few years.

At this time different models and artists began to mutate pinup across and into different genres such as fetish and even bondage, the most famous of these being the partnership between Bettie Page and Irving Claws.

Although some of this imagery could be considered much darker in style than that of the early pinup artists it was still invariably done with a sense of fun, tease and innocence that typifies the pinup genre.

During the 1960′s Playboy and other magazines gained a huge circulation all the while moving pinup style imagery into the psyche of mainstream America.

Unfortunately by the 1970′s photography had just about taken over from art and most of the original pinup artists had retired from the genre they had so lovingly created.

With the advent of video the demand for adult material began to move towards far more lewd and graphic imagery depicting all manner of sex acts and it seemed that the playful innocence of pinup was lost forever.

However during the 1980′s new artists such as Dave Stevens kept the genre going and with the arrival of the Internet in the late 1990′s it soon became apparent that interest in classic pinup art and photography was still very much alive.

In the last few years there has been a real rekindling of mainstream interest in the genre with new art appearing from modern artists such as Olivia and many of the original Playboy pinup models using the Internet to sell their classic prints and images.

From this a new breed of Internet pinup models has emerged and although many of them cross over into other genres they owe at least part of their style to the classic pinup era.

Amongst them are several models who have attempted to solely recreate the classic pinup look with varying degrees of success.

All in all it seems strange that it should be something as modern as the Internet that will help ensure that classic pinup will be with us long into the 21st century.

Fortunately it seems that at least some people out there still enjoy the beauty and tease of the pinup genre over the much stronger and more explicit material that is now so freely available.

This is somewhat ironic when you consider that the latter in part way only exists due to pinup art and photography helping to make images with an erotic leaning more and more acceptable to American culture throughout the 20th century.

The main thing is that pinup lives …

Long may it continue …

Reprint from Wally Adams

Pulp fiction magazines were the main source of everyday entertainment for the masses during the first half of the 20th Century. These magazines delivered action and heroes that were some of the most creative in literary history. Pulp heroes and their authors have influenced every medium including comics, movies, and television.

The Pulps delivered stories for every possible genre, including detective, western, adventure, spicy, spy/military, as well many other, smaller niche genres. The Pulps were also responsible for the creation of the hardboiled detective story as well as the sci-fi genre.

The pulps emerged out of the cheap “dime novels” of the late 19th century. From 1900 to 1920, the newspaper like dime novels evolved into the well known magazine format. Magazines such as Argosy, All-Story Weekly, and Blue Book dominated the field with general fiction stories. Tarzan and Zorro are two classics from this era come to mind qucikly.

The 1920s saw the transformation from general fiction to genre fiction. The general fiction magazine Black Mask evolved away from standard fiction and cozy style mysteries into the home of Dashiell Hammet and the Hard Boiled Detective. Meanwhile, Weird Tales the Unique Magazine provided an outlet for weird and fantastical writings which launched the fantasy and horror genres for writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and many others. Soon came along Astounding Stories and Astonishing Stories which launched the Golden Age science fiction and speculative fiction.

The 1930s saw an explosion in terms of number of magazines and genres. This decade was the prime period producing some of the best (and worst) pulp fiction that impacted American entertainment then and continues to reverberate today with derivative works. The writing careers of Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and many others began in the pulps.

With the 1940s and World War II, paper shortages and changing readers the pulps began their decline. The paperback industry was begining to take hold. The Radio and Movie industry had been tempting away talent and competing for audiences for some time.

But the end for the pulps came in about 1952. Television was in its infancy and about to captivate a nation. But a collapsing newstand distribution network effectively end the pulp fiction era.

Although the pulps were incredibly popular during its day most were destined to be forgotten quickly. Much of the innovation and creativity that occurred in the pulps has been forgotten or attibuted to later mediums, authors and characters.

On the verge of extinction something incredible occurred. A band of fans during the 1950s and into the 1960s began to slowly organize through fanzines and conventions. The fanzines recorded pulp history and the conventions provided a means for the fans to get together, collect and perserve pulps, and to continue the hobby.

The late 1960s and 1970s saw a number pulps reissued as paperback reprints including the Doc Savage paperback run bringing in a new generation of fans. During the 1980s, the pulp community continued to grow in both numbers of fans as well as the start of a small press publishing network for pulp reprints.

The 1990s and the internet generation allowed the pulp community to move online. During late 1995 we approached Joel Frieman and Bob Weinberg at Argosy Communications who owns the rights to a number of the Popular Publications magazines. We obtained a license to begin reprinting their hero pulp stories online in electronic format.

On May 10, 1996, the Vintage Library opened its doors for business. We currently have over 150 stories available for immediate download. But the power of the internet has gone much farther than just electronic downloads. Its brought together a fan base and created a market where we’ve encouraged a number of small press publishers to create a regular stream of pulp reprints and to constantly improve quality. The result…

Today we are experiencing a pulp fiction revivial where new fans are coming into the hobby in large numbers and we have more and more books, magazines, reprints and replicas available than ever before. Adventure House, Girasol Collectables, and Wildside Press are some of today’s top publishers keeping us awash in pulp fiction.