Girls that appeared on risque pulps throughout the Depression and in science fiction scenarios from World War II. Bergey's science fiction covers, sometimes described as "Bim, BEM, Bum," usually featured a woman being menaced by a Bug-Eyed Monster, alien, or robot, with an heroic male astronaut coming to her assistance. The bikini-tops he painted often resembled coppery metal, giving rise to the phrase "the girl in the brass bra," used in reference to this sort of art. Visionaries in TV and film have been influenced by Bergey's work. Gene Roddenberry, for example, provided his production designer for Star Trek with examples of Bergey's futuristic pulp covers. The artist's illustrations of scantily-clad women surviving in outer space served as an inspiration for Princess Leia's slave-girl outfit in Return of the Jedi, and Madonna's conical brass brassiere. Paperbacks In 1948, Bergey made the transition to the rapidly expanding paperback book industry along with skilled pulp artists like Rudolph Belarski, whose work is often confused with Bergey's. While continuing to paint pulp covers until his death, Bergey sold illustrations to at least four leading paperback publishing houses, including Popular Library and Pocket Books. His art graced the covers of dozens of novels and helped to sell millions of volumes. His paperback cover illustrations were as diverse as his work for the pulps. In addition to his work on the 1948 Popular Library edition of Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bergey painted cover art for well-known authors from Émile Zola to the Western master, Zane Grey, whose 1951 Pocket Books edition cover painting for The Spirit of the Border is a Bergey classic. Many of his paperbacks are now cult classics, some featuring hidden self-portraits. See also Good girl art List of pinup artists Paperback Pin-up girl Princess Leia's metal bikini Thrilling Publications References Bergey, Joshua David (2019). "[Pulp] Art is Not a Mirror: When the Male Gaze Determines the Defining Narrative of American Pulp Fiction Art." National Conference of the Popular Culture Association: Washington, DC. Bergey, Joshua David (2014). "Doubling in Murder: American Pulp Art and the Visual Legacy of Earle K. Bergey." Maine College of Art, Department of Illustration: Portland, ME. Di Fate, Vincent. Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art, with Foreword by Ray Bradbury. New York, NY: Penguin Studio, 1997. . . . Scott, Alison M (1997). "They Came from the Newsstand." Primary Sources and Original Works. 4:1-2: