Robert Lesser began collecting pulp paintings, comic books and comic-character toys in the 1950s. In 1975 he wrote A Celebration of Comic Art and Memorabilia, an informational collectors guide; in 1997 he published Pulp Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines, a full-color collection of pulp paintings and history that includes expert interpretation.

Pulp Art flaunted unsettling images of violence, racism, sex and crime. The images weren’t suitable for display in homes or museums so artists and auctioneers deemed them worthless. Tens of thousands of pulp paintings were created, out of which only a small number survive today.

The 90 works on display at the Museum of American Illustration are now a part of the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art, a promised gift of Robert Lesser.