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

[moonpool]

[OtherEric]

Today’s find at the local book store:

[moonpool]

3 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Today’s find at the local book store:

Always fun to find a book at a store.

[Surfing Alien]

Not much store fun around here so unboxing will have to do.

Didn't think i'd be able to snag such a nice copy of this old favorite since "The Queens Gambit" Netflix success ran his prices way up

Another Schomburg in the fold, more than half way home on his pb production now

And another "Girl of the Slums", this one by Albert L. Quandt and maybe tougher to find than the Carnival classic. Cover by Nappi on this one as well, which makes him the definitive slum girl artist

 

[Surfing Alien]

Because page 2 is not an option 

Been picking nice copies of these up when I can because I suspect someday I won't be able to anymore. Pardon my camera shadows on the tops.

[Surfing Alien]

And some minty fresh Ace singles that can literally stand on their own (edge that is) 

[Randall Dowling]

I've gotten a few titles in but this little gem is on it's way to me.  I've been looking for this particular magazine since I first saw it and finally found a very nice looking copy.  Just an absolute classic cover and I figured you guys are the crowd to appreciate it.  For your viewing pleasure, I give you, Underworld Detective!

[Arkadin]

Nominations for worst publisher for condition!

My nomination: Lancer.  

What say you all?

[OtherEric]

3 minutes ago, Arkadin said:

Nominations for worst publisher for condition!

My nomination: Lancer.  

What say you all?

Not sure who I would pick, but I'm sure it's not Lancer.  Unless the books have laminate to peel they're not a candidate for the worst.

[Surfing Alien]

12 minutes ago, Arkadin said:

Nominations for worst publisher for condition!

My nomination: Lancer.  

What say you all?

Not the worst by far imho but I have to say the cardboard on the 60's Marvel Lancers seems to want to crack rather than bend

[Surfing Alien]

9 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

Not sure who I would pick, but I'm sure it's not Lancer.  Unless the books have laminate to peel they're not a candidate for the worst.

Lamination is a whole separate world of hurt in collecting and grading early Pockets, Avons and some of the Popular Library's that have them, including even knowing when then came with lamination and when they were without.

That said, my candidates for worst condition are still Croydon Digests and Unibook Digests. The paper was such thin garbage and they had much lower print runs than the big publishers so you can find pretty nice copies of most laminated PBs but many of the Croydons and Uni's you can't find copies at all and when you do, they're creased to death. Harlequins are very tough as well because of the lower print runs and the cheap ink they used gets rubbed. Un-rubbed copies are very tough to find.

[Surfing Alien]

1 hour ago, Randall Dowling said:

I've gotten a few titles in but this little gem is on it's way to me.  I've been looking for this particular magazine since I first saw it and finally found a very nice looking copy.  Just an absolute classic cover and I figured you guys are the crowd to appreciate it.  For your viewing pleasure, I give you, Underworld Detective!

Just gorgeous. Wish it didn't have the blurb stamped right over her... Any lead on the artist? Looks like one of the PB artists but can't put my finger on it

[OtherEric]

I will agree that Lancers tend to be more well loved than other 60’s books.  I just don’t think they compare to earlier books.

[OtherEric]

1 minute ago, Surfing Alien said:

Just gorgeous. Wish it didn't have the blurb stamped right over her... Any lead on the artist? Looks like one of the PB artists but can't put my finger on it

The blurb has to be deliberate.  The question is, is it there to hide art that was too risqué or to make buyers think it was more risqué than it really was?

[Surfing Alien]

3 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

The blurb has to be deliberate.  The question is, is it there to hide art that was too risqué or to make buyers think it was more risqué than it really was?

It may depend on the date of publication. I've been researching a lot of old Publishers Weeklys and there was a huge concern in the mid 50's that publishers were going to get raided, shut down or enjoined by the courts for the same reasons as comic books were being attacked. It's fairly incredible how many local courts enjoined the sale and distribution of books in those years.

[Randall Dowling]

17 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

It may depend on the date of publication. I've been researching a lot of old Publishers Weeklys and there was a huge concern in the mid 50's that publishers were going to get raided, shut down or enjoined by the courts for the same reasons as comic books were being attacked. It's fairly incredible how many local courts enjoined the sale and distribution of books in those years.

I can't place the artist exactly.  It's from 1951.  I can eliminate a lot of cover artists but I can't pin it down.  Whoever it is, I want more!

[Surfing Alien]

16 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

I can't place the artist exactly.  It's from 1951.  I can eliminate a lot of cover artists but I can't pin it down.  Whoever it is, I want more!

Interestingly, that Underworld Detective series was edited and then published by one of my current favorite vintage PB authors, Lionel White, who went from being a True Crime reporter/editor/pubisher to writer of classic "Big Caper" pbo's, some of which I've posted here and quite a few which were made into movies. I'll dig a little more and see if I can find who the artist stable was as that series had a lot of nice GGA.

https://what-when-how.com/pulp-fiction-writers/white-lionel-pulp-fiction-writer/

[Surfing Alien]

Nice little influx today

Chester Himes' 1st paperback of his 1st book with the haunting Avati cover. Very tough to find. I'm almost complete with his early paperbacks.

 

A strippers tale from Pyramid with beautiful Victor Olson cover art. Got it dirt cheap but still bummed to see it was hit with marker on a few spots. WHY?

 

 

Finally the most gruesome Pocket Book cover by far, by Walter Baumgartner. If it was a comic book I could never afford it.

 

 

[PopKulture]

I was digging through some boxes of “thick books,” which are often lumped in with dime novels. In any sense, they’re terrific precursors of the pulps and everything after. 

 

[PopKulture]

Some Buffalo Bill novels: