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Frank Vatel

@frankvatel312.bsky.social

1.2K followers 540 following 1.3K posts

Reader, watcher, and scribbler of noir. Also, book-cover illustrator and designer. Published @ Punk Noir Magazine, All Due Respect, Bristol Noir, and Reckon Review.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · Mar 17

Finally got to combine my day job—illustration and design—with my love of crime fiction. That’s right, I’m officially a pulp-cover artist. DM me, writers and publishers. I work for reasonable rates!

And buy BOP CITY SWING by M.E. Proctor & Russell Thayer. It’s an amazing hardboiled novel!

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 3h

If you’re going to pay tribute to that bastard Otto Preminger, at least put ANGEL FACE in prime time. DAISY KENYON doesn’t have enough psychotic women or vehicular homicides for my taste. #TCMParty

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5h

In my neighborhood, ICE officers have been spotted pissing in alleys because store and restaurant owners won't let them dine or use their restrooms.

"Don't help the enemy!" lives on.

IdleTalk12 @idletalk12.bsky.social · 5h

This sign caught my attention the first time I saw the film.
This is London during The Blitz and the sign says "Don't help the enemy."
#filmnoirclub

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5h

You have physical porn lying around in 2025?

Damn. I salute your commitment to vintage, Gayer.

#TCMParty

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5h

Ha!!!

Seamus Hindsight @gitrithm.bsky.social · 5h

Laura’s bedroom looks like the Oval Office does now. #TCMParty

Reposted by Frank Vatel

𝖂𝖆𝖍𝖗𝖍𝖆𝖋𝖙𝖎𝖌 @wahrhaftig.bsky.social · 5h

📚✍️

Grahame Greene is one of my favorite #NoirLit writers, not only did he write the novel on which

MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944)

Is based he wrote so many more novels that were adapted into Film Noir, e.g., THIS GUN FOR HIRE & BRIGHTON ROCK!

#FilmNoirClub 🗝️ #FilmNoir 🕵️
#MinistryOfFear 😱 #BookSky 📖

📚✍️

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5h

#TCMParty #Laura

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5h

Coy’s anthologies are simply brilliant. And what a title!

Coy Hall @coyhall.bsky.social · 9h

In an age lit by fire, only the most curious and driven souls turned a flame to the unknown. The least fortunate peered beyond the veil.

This World of Vile Wonder: Horror Tales of the Scientific Revolution releases October 20. Ebook preorder up now on Amazon & Kobo ⬇️

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 6h

“Madeleine!” he shouted.
She answered with a shrill cry and a shadow passed across the opening in the wall. Biting his knuckles he counted, as, when a boy, he had counted between the lightning and the thunder. And the thunder came—a horrid thud from below.

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 7h

Don’t know what’s wrong with the Dunkins in Joe-ville, but their coffee has a pretty big reputation nationwide.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 8h

Legendary coffee. Above-average donuts. We’re talking mainstream-brand standards here—a low bar.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 10h

Yes!

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 10h

A short, definitive list of mainstream brands that are boring and ubiquitous but still put out a good product:

Coca-Cola, New Balance, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin’ Donuts, Apple, Popeyes, Taylor Swift.

That is all.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 20h

Down & Out, the crime-fiction publisher, is folding. So that's sad thing number one.

The second depressing thing: they have informed their writers that no more payments will be forthcoming.

Don't know much else about the situation.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

Nah. Too bougie.

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

The Palmer House has the best breakfast buffet in the world, but something tells me the Guard won’t foot the bill for that. The U.S. armed forces don’t have ICE money, after all.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

😂😂

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

“We will root out domestic terrorism wherever we find it—Portillo’s, Malnati’s, Wiener’s Circle, it doesn’t matter. No fast-food establishment can withstand the coming storm.”

Reposted by Frank Vatel

Curtis Ippolito @curtisippolito.bsky.social · 1d

Agree. They owe me as well and have yet to answer my emails. They said back in April that they would get back to us in June w/ an accounting. Never did. Do they owe much in royalties from Stealing Paradise? Likely not, but it’s the principle that matters. Always pay your authors. Pretty simple.

Beau Johnson 🇨🇦 🪓 @beaujohnson44.bsky.social · 1d

Do not buy my books from Amazon or Down and Out Books directly. I will not get paid. I should get paid, as per my contract, but in an email from D&O I’ve been told ‘no further payments will be issued.’
It absolutely blows it is ending this way, but man, pay your authors what they are owed.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

Depressing on every level.

Beau Johnson 🇨🇦 🪓 @beaujohnson44.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Frank Vatel

JT Lindroos @oivas.com · 2d

I hear Down & Out Books has gone under. Publishing is a tough racket and I reckon exponentially moreso with AI. But I expect writers will keep writing, musicians will keep playing and artists will keep doodling, for money or not. I was happy to design over 200 (!!) books for them. Sláinte! #booksky

Cover for In Loco Parentis by Nigel Bird, with a photo of a knife and an apple

Pink cover for Angel Luis Colon's Hell Chose Me, with a little pig in the bottom corner

Strangers in a Strange Land, Immigrant Stories cover with a torn american flag

Charles Salzberg's Second Story Man cover, abstract, teal colored image

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

Farewell, D&O. 😔

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t know about you, but I’m sick of these woke hotel companies trying to pass off Chicago as a thriving hub of culture and sophistication when we all know it’s a blight upon the world that requires immediate military occupation.

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Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5d

Oh my God—did not see that. And they would have been direct rivals at that time, in line for all the same roles.

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5d

Yawn. Nice try. Release the Epstein files.

Frank Vatel @frankvatel312.bsky.social · 5d

Where I grew up, the newsstand had old men, cigars, and Hustler. This is why nobody stays in Ohio.

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