biblio: you're dead-on about the resemblance to pulp fiction paperback covers. Most of these posters were created by wage-earning, working class artists who made the transition from the New Deal work programs (responsible for some of the most compelling graphic design in American history) to the War effort and then on to the publishing industry as the War came to a close. It was assembly line work (the kind of work that vexed and later fascinated the young Andy Warhol), done free-lance. Therefore much of the anonymous commercial art done post-1945 is the handiwork of a relatively small group of working professionals, mostly based out of New York. Pulp novels, movie posters, text-books, Boy Scout manuals, magazines, ads...the list goes on.