Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values? 25 25

[Hepcat]

On the basis of the covers i like The Virgin and the Gypsy the best.

[Hepcat]

There's an article about me in this one:

 (Not mine.)

[Surfing Alien]

3 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

And Kelly Freas' cover for Man of Many Minds by E. Everett Evans (1959) is just  

 

Great variety in that post

My favorite Freas PB cover by far 

Lovely Maguires as always. I assume you are salting Ray Johnson covers like Pop 642 into your posts to see if i'm awake

[Randall Dowling]

2 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Great variety in that post

My favorite Freas PB cover by far 

Lovely Maguires as always. I assume you are salting Ray Johnson covers like Pop 642 into your posts to see if i'm awake

I was a little curious to see if you'd call that out.  Very nice.  

[Pat Calhoun]

As we ponder the glories of RD's latest pile I'd like to offer some words of praise for the towering Masterpiece that is 'War with the Newts'. Not just a great novel: Capek's voice is so wise and warm: there is no better guide into the labyrinth of human folly - viewed with enough compassion that one can almost bear it. We had my mother-in-law living here a few years back when she needed minor assistance: she was quite a reader - and after loaning her a copy I watched her experience a weekend of joy - she would emerge every so often starry-eyed and smiling. In another important work, RUR, Capek invented the word 'robot'...

[Surfing Alien]

3 hours ago, Pat Calhoun said:

after loaning her a copy I watched her experience a weekend of joy - she would emerge every so often starry-eyed and smiling.

That's an eloquent example of what a good book can do. Consider it on my reading list.

[Surfing Alien]

Quite a few books have arrived over the holiday (some ordered weeks ago!) but i'll post 2 that really wag the tail.

The first can be found for sale anytime if you're willing to pay the freight. It was just a matter of finding the right copy at the right price because I used to have a very pretty copy and a lesser one wouldn't do. My core collection is/was JD/Drug books and this one checks all the boxes starting with that haunting Bill Fleming cover

The second one is never for sale anywhere, literally never, and i've never owned or held a copy so when this came up I contacted the seller and negotiated until it was mine. It's the third in the trio of classic "_____ Girl" JD/Drug books along with Reform School Girl and Marijuana Girl but way more elusive in my experience. It checks all the boxes including that moody Rudy Nappi cover of Reefer Girl toking up in her seedy skid row flat.

 

[Pat Calhoun]

Hooray for Marihuana! (I do have the story in Six Times Death)

Edited December 30, 2020 by Pat Calhoun

[Pat Calhoun]

&, not as exciting as #11, but here's the other Woolrich Dell Dimer

Edited December 30, 2020 by Pat Calhoun

[frozentundraguy]

The holidays were slower for me as far as acquiring more books, but I did add these two recently.

First up is City of No Return, a 1954 novel by Tubb, From what I see on Abe, Ebay and Amazon this book is pretty tough to locate.

 

Next up is The Manatee. This is the first Pyramid Books printing from October 1950. One wonders when looking at the cover how this book could have possibly sold only 250,000 copies.

Edited December 30, 2020 by frozentundraguy

[Surfing Alien]

4 hours ago, frozentundraguy said:

The holidays were slower for me as far as acquiring more books, but I did add these two recently.

First up is City of No Return, a 1954 novel by Tubb, From what I see on Abe, Ebay and Amazon this book is pretty tough to locate.

 

Next up is The Manatee. This is the first Pyramid Books printing from October 1950. One wonders when looking at the cover how this book could have possibly sold only 250,000 copies.

Those cover quotes usually referred to how many copies were sold in hardcover before the pb release. That said... this is one of those rare occasions where the mass market pb might tamer than the hardcover  (not mine) You never see that much skin on a USA hardcover!

 

[Surfing Alien]

The mail has been crazy so stuff I bought or bid weeks ago still trickling in. Here's some of the pile for December, a little of this a little of that

Working on the Whittingtons...

segue to another Graphic with a great camera angle

Graphics were considered junk back in the '80's but they have aged really well

A couple of nice "earlies"

Red Circle was Martin Goodman before Lion

A nice copy of this early Pyramid 

A couple digests...

Some hillbilly romance...

Love @Randall Dowling style 

Lionel White is my new favorite suspense/mystery author. This one is very hard to find nice. This is the best i've found yet

and finally one with Pat in mind.

It is the 1st pb of this collection that Popular reprinted as "Six Times Death" and makes a perfect reading copy of "Marihuana" since I don't want to crack that spine open 

 

[Randall Dowling]

What an awesome set of books, SA!!  Do I like nurses?  Sure.  Who doesn't??  It's not weird.  

[Surfing Alien]

40 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

What an awesome set of books, SA!!  Do I like nurses?  Sure.  Who doesn't??  It's not weird.  

Thanks... and lol... not at all... It's just ever since you said it could be a collecting focus I always think of you when they come up. You could fill a room with all the scandalous Nurse and Doctor pb's and digests  

[Randall Dowling]

31 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

Thanks... and lol... not at all... It's just ever since you said it could be a collecting focus I always think of you when they come up. You could fill a room with all the scandalous Nurse and Doctor pb's and digests  

Oh yeah, lots and lots of drama in the hospital setting!  And... I'm still buying them.  

I normally wouldn't post books before I have them in hand but I'm so excited about these gems I can't resist.  Some here will know that I have a huge interest in all vintage illustration art.  Leyendecker on SEP, Men's Adventure mags, Various early 50s digests, etc. are a few of my recent pursuits.  On the fringes of these is another group of magazines that I've been aware of but only over the last year have I been really looking for these.  And they are tough!  You often find them in poor to good condition, covers detached, etc.  Extremely difficult to find in higher grades (better than VG).  

Here, I submit for your viewing pleasure, 4 examples of Detective magazines from the early 50s.  All have cover art by George Gross (one of my all time favorites).  Only one that I had seen before, the other 3 were new to me.  And they're all on their way to me.  

I'm guessing both SA and Pat are familiar and would love to see anymore of these if anyone else has them.

[Surfing Alien]

45 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

Oh yeah, lots and lots of drama in the hospital setting!  And... I'm still buying them.  

I normally wouldn't post books before I have them in hand but I'm so excited about these gems I can't resist.  Some here will know that I have a huge interest in all vintage illustration art.  Leyendecker on SEP, Men's Adventure mags, Various early 50s digests, etc. are a few of my recent pursuits.  On the fringes of these is another group of magazines that I've been aware of but only over the last year have I been really looking for these.  And they are tough!  You often find them in poor to good condition, covers detached, etc.  Extremely difficult to find in higher grades (better than VG).  

Here, I submit for your viewing pleasure, 4 examples of Detective magazines from the early 50s.  All have cover art by George Gross (one of my all time favorites).  Only one that I had seen before, the other 3 were new to me.  And they're all on their way to me.  

I'm guessing both SA and Pat are familiar and would love to see anymore of these if anyone else has them.

They're awesome... definitely have always  seemed linked to the Ecstasy and Exotic Monthly Novels with  those Nappi and Gross covers. 

[Hepcat]

Three by the legendary Norm Saunders (not mine sadly):

[Randall Dowling]

@Hepcat I have at least one of those in high grade.  If you want to lose a few hours, you should check out the Men's Adventure mags thread in the magazine forum.  @lbcolefan has posted his stunning collection of incredibly high grade examples of all the big boy books.  Ironically, he started that thread because we were discussing them here!  

 

[Hepcat]

Will do!

 

[Surfing Alien]

3 books in today, the first of 2021. Fittingly, all with Ray Johnson covers. 

A couple of lively Monarch tail-light covers

He painted almost all of Popular Library's top covers in the mid '50's but they were darker and smaller format figures for the most part. You can palpably feel that he enjoyed the run at Monarch in the early 60's where he was allowed to return to his original shaded pulp style with large lush female figures.

He also painted an unknown quantity of covers for Ace in the 60's, including this signed classic Bad Girl JD cover. (Think RD may have posted this one in the past?)

Surprisingly, this wasn't on the list of over 300 RJ covers veteran pb collector Bruce Brenner shared with me for this project. There are a lot of covers currently attributed to Johnson that aren't on his list because he had very strict criteria for it so i'm not going to venture a total on his output until further along in this little project.