Credits

Most of the text in Hooker Heroes is new and copyrighted material authored entirely by me, Blake Linton Wilfong. A few items, however, are selected from the public domain. These are:

• "The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy, 1901
• "The False Gems" by Guy de Maupassant, circa 1885
• "The miners came in '49", anonymous, late 1800s
• excerpts from "The History of Prostitution" by William W. Sanger, 1897 reprint

All music featured in Hooker Heroes is selected from the public domain. These works are:

• "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, 1902
• "Pretty Baby" by Tony Jackson, 1916
• "12th Street Rag" by Euday Louis, 1914, WAV file courtesy Library of Congress
• "La Bella Argentina" by Carlos Roberto, 1912

Most photographs and artwork in Hooker Heroes are my own original creations, or come from royalty-free stock image sources or the public domain. The exceptions are a few drawings by Susan Wilfong, used with her permission, and two images reproduced under the "fair use" clause of U.S. copyright law in conjunction with reviews. Here are mini-reviews of the stock image sources, followed by detailed credits for every image in Hooker Heroes.

Consisting of 1,000+ fonts, 50,000+ vector clipart images, and 60,000 photographs from the fabulous Corel Professional Photos collection, Corel MEGA GALLERY was already an indispensable aid for WebMasters. Its successor, Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000, contains most of the same material, plus 20,000 more photos and enough additional clipart and Web art to reach the staggering 200,000 mark. Almost every conceivable topic is covered, from fashion models to demons. The photos are low-resolution and overcompressed--but at a street price of just $50 for the newer version, who cares? One of the best deals around has gotten even better.

The license agreement for Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000 requires me to state the following: the images from Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000 on this Web site may not be saved or downloaded and are only to be used for viewing purposes.

MasterClips 150,000 consists of 14 CD-ROMs packed with about 2,000 fonts, 54,000 vector clipart drawings, 47,000 engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive Series in TIFF format, 41,800 low-res JPEG photos, 5,200 hi-res JPEG photos, and more.

Ignore the buggy, clumsy search engine. (You can browse images with the included printed catalogs or your own software.) Ignore the poorer quality photos that look like video captures. Ignore the photos of recognizable private individuals since they are not model released. What's left? A cornucopia of useful material--and a bargain at $70 street. After all, 150,000 is a lot!

The usage guidelines require me to state the following: The images used herein were obtained from IMSI's Master Photos Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA.

For decades, Dover Publications has been rescuing superb public domain illustrations from oblivion and making them available as graphic resources in inexpensive clip art books--as well as publishing fresh new clip art by contemporary artists. The five large-format paperback books listed here range in price from $2.95 to $10.95 (list) and provide a combined total of over 2,000 royalty-free engravings and drawings by the artists of yesteryear and today. Yes, you have to scan the images yourself and the cost per image is much higher than in CD-ROM collections, but Dover's clip art books often cover subject matter not found anywhere else. And you can go to a bookstore or library before you buy and actually look at the pictures to see if there are any you need. A single useful image can easily be worth the low price of one of these books.

ClickArt 200,000 Image Pak is collection of 14 CD-ROMs with a total of 200,000 vector and low-to-medium resolution raster images covering a broad range of topics. ClickArt Fine Art is a single CD-ROM with 8,500 additional JPEG paintings, drawings, and photos. A major hurdle is their complete lack of a search engine or any other identification of the images; it is entirely up to the user to find and recognize them. Also, the licensing agreements place strict limits on the number of images that can be used, and the maximum resolution in which those images may be reproduced without annoying intellectual property notices and links to the ClickArt Web site. On the upside: the included Graphics Reference Books contain color thumbnails; the images are grouped by categories and are conveniently stored in standard JPEG (and, in the case of the 200,000 Image Pak, also WMFand TIFF) format; a viewer is included; and both collections are very strong in reproductions of truly high-quality artwork, both famous and unknown, from the public domain. Overall, ClickArt 200,000 Image Pak is a good buy at the list price of $50--and terrific at the $20 I paid for it after a discount and rebate. ClickArt Fine Art's limited range of subject matter and small number of images make it a poor choice for starting a clipart collection, but it is a horizon-broadening addition to the experienced Webmaster's ever-expanding library. Its street price is on the order of $20 after rebate.

I wish all stock photo libraries were such a joy to use as Photo-Objects. This two CD-ROM set contains over 10,000 photos--most of which are already removed from their backgrounds for your editing convenience! Everything about this package is done right: thumbnails and keyword indices for the entire collection are stored on both discs to minimize swapping; the search engine is powerful and lightning-fast; the export utility is versatile and user-friendly; the images are stored in glorious high resolution; and a glossy color catalog is included. Best of all, I found this gem on sale for just $40.

One of many clip art collections by this publisher, Western Women features 65 "new, fresh, camera-ready" images of greatly varying quality and style. Most of the works are too cartoonish for serious use, and some seem hastily drawn. But a single great one can make the whole set a bargain. The image on the left is an example: I happily paid the $5 price of the book for it. (Note that the original image was black and white only. Susan Wilfong colored the version you see here.) I recommend examining Sun Country Publications' books at a store to see for yourself if they contain any pictures you need.

This impressive Web site hosts a huge collection of stock photos (and other products) along with an excellent search engine. Thumbnails and high resolution watermarked images are FREE, but it takes major ingenuity to find uses for them. The site's primary purpose is, of course, to sell its 50,000+ images. Each is available in several resolutions priced from about $9 to $40. For those who can afford to buy stock photos piecemeal at these prices, Corel Studio is a treasure-trove.

The usage guidelines for the photos require me to state the following: The images from Corel Galleria on this Web site may not be saved or downloaded and are only to be used for viewing purposes.

This large format paperback book contains more than 1,000 copyright-free engravings of yesteryear's famous people. The images vary in quality due to the wide range of public domain source materials from which they were taken, but most are superb. Stock images of famous people are surprisingly rare, so at just $12.50 this collection is a steal.

The following listings document the source of every component of each image in Hooker Heroes. Descriptions of the modifications I made to these components are included. I also scanned my own photographs and color-corrected, cropped, resized, sharpened, and removed compression artifacts from all images as necessary.