Covers for Titan re-issue of Matt Helm books revealed

The cover for Titan Books’s re-issue of Death of a Citizen

The first covers for Titan Books’s re-issue of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm novels have been revealed. Amazon.com has pages for the first two Helm novels, Death Of a Citizen and The Wrecking Crew, being republished by Titan.

It appears Titan is going with a standardized format, featuring a shadowy Helm ready to fire a semi-automatic pistol. Just below the image it says “A Matt Helm Novel,” with the character’s name in large type. Below that is the name of the novel and Hamilton’s name. At the top is an illustration based on the novel’s plot.

While it’s a different look, Titan indirectly is paying homage to the 1960s Fawcett paperbacks. With the publication of the sixth Helm novel, 1963’s The Silencers, Fawcett devised a standard format: a “portrait” of Matt Helm at the top of the cover, the title and Hamilton’s name below that, and an illustration based on that particular story.

A 1963 re-issue of Death Of a Citizen

Fawcett tweaked the format in the 1970s (the Matt Helm portrait changed at least twice), but the basic idea remained. By the 1980s, the standard Matt Helm portrait disappeared and each cover just had an illustration.

The Titan re-issues will be available in February. You can CLICK HERE to see Amazon.com’s page for the Titan edition of Death of a Citizen, the first Helm adventure, originally published in 1960. You can CLICK HERE to see Amazon’s page for the second novel, The Wrecking Crew, also published in 1960.

Hamilton wrote 27 published Helm novels, the last appearing in 1993. He also wrote a 28th unpublished Helm story, The Dominators, around 2001 that isn’t part of the Titan Books deal. Hamilton died in 2006.

Thanks to Paul Bishop for the point out.