The Modern Pin-up: A Collection of Photographs

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then The Modern Pin-Up (Flo Publishing) is the Encyclopedia Britannica of 21st century cheesecake, expertly exposing a thriving subculture of sensuous sirens that excel at exuding eroticism without coming off as sleazy or salacious.

This piping hot coffee table tome presents an eye-popping plethora of photographic pulchritude with almost no text other than artistic credits and the forward by Granny Panty, a modern burlesque/pin-up icon in her own right, but with all those beautiful bodies sporting stunning sartorial styles on delectable display, who needs extraneous exposition? Just open this bountiful book to any pulsating page and your sensory-overloaded brain will flood with voluptuous verbiage that probably wouldn’t be fit for print, anyway.

Many of these magnificent models strike seductive poses deliberately reminiscent of or paying direct tribute to shapely legends like Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page, or artists like Alberto Varga and Gil Elvgren, while others adopt the fetishistic fantasies of foot- freak Elmer Batters, or the dominatrix satire of filmmaker Russ Meyer and cartoonist Eric Stanton. While all of the sexy subjects resonate with ribald reinvention, the aesthetic creativity of each individual portrait is the single quality that will impress appreciative audiences the most.

Refreshingly retro yet timelessly titillating, these gorgeous gals strip to the beat of a distant jazz/rockabilly drummer, eschewing contemporary waif-like standards and boldly showing off their finely-tuned flesh and fashions with finesse and fortitude. The Modern Pin-up proves that this sort of iconic imagery is not just a thing of the past, but also a present that is well worth unwrapping.

Will "The Thrill" Viharo is a freelance writer, host of the film series “Forbidden Thrills” at Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge, and creator of the long running cult movie cabaret “Thrillville.” He lives in Alameda, CA with his wife Monica “Tiki Goddess” Cortes and their two cats. His pulp novels “A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge,” “Lavender Blonde,” “Chumpy Walnut,” “Down a Dark Alley," and the "Vic Valentine, Private Eye" series are now available at http://www.thrillville.net/fiction/index.html