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

[Surfing Alien]

10 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

I've always wanted a clean copy of this book and finally found one.  Simple but awesome!

Score The stuff of nightmares & looks better than clean to me, especially with that all-black cover. 

[OtherEric]

In today:

[moonpool]

So many amazing styles in vintage paperback art.

[Randall Dowling]

8 minutes ago, moonpool said:

So many amazing styles in vintage paperback art.

I know!  It's kind of a revelation after 40 years of collecting comics to find the amazing styles employed on paperbacks.  It's a different thing, but cover illustrations for paperbacks is definitely where the big boys were playing.  Matt Baker is an awesome comic artist with his depiction of women, but he doesn't even come close to Robert Maguire in terms of quality, IMO.  

[Surfing Alien]

In today:

My appreciation for the later Avons has grown since the old days.

Avon from the 400's on got much grittier 

 

 

[Westy Steve]

On 5/7/2020 at 12:30 AM, Randall Dowling said:

I've always wanted a clean copy of this book and finally found one.  Simple but awesome!

Dammit, you guys keep pulling me back into this quagmire! I’m trying to work on my OTHER collections!  That’s another one for my “must have” list.  Very nice!  

FWIW, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can spot the “cool AND uncommon “ books.  This one ticks a lot of boxes for me. You’ve got sexy lady in distress, horror, period science fiction and H-bomb references.   Truth is, I’ve made an offer on a cute scruffy copy of this one. 

[Surfing Alien]

Maguire time again ... These show how broadly Maguire could achieve excellence

[Westy Steve]

On ‎5‎/‎9‎/‎2020 at 4:19 PM, Westy Steve said:

Dammit, you guys keep pulling me back into this quagmire! I’m trying to work on my OTHER collections!  That’s another one for my “must have” list.  Very nice!  

FWIW, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can spot the “cool AND uncommon “ books.  This one ticks a lot of boxes for me. You’ve got sexy lady in distress, horror, period science fiction and H-bomb references.   Truth is, I’ve made an offer on a cute scruffy copy of this one. 

Hey, I found this article about the Coming of the Rats book.  Thought you guys might be interested.

https://www.blackgate.com/2013/11/28/vintage-treasures-the-coming-of-the-rats-by-george-h-smith/

Steve

[Hap Hazard]

3 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Hey, I found this article about the Coming of the Rats book.  Thought you guys might be interested.

https://www.blackgate.com/2013/11/28/vintage-treasures-the-coming-of-the-rats-by-george-h-smith/

Steve

Thanks for posting that article, here's my Rats book.

[Westy Steve]

26 minutes ago, Hap Hazard said:

Thanks for posting that article, here's my Rats book.

Wow, it's so thin!  Is the binding stapled like a comic book?  I have a low-grade copy on the way now, myself.  I saw the posting here, and I just had to get one!  I love a book like this that combines a cool cover with genuine rarity (...which brings up my next post topic).

[Westy Steve]

Hey guys,

I don't identify myself as a freshman collector anymore.  I'd like to think I've been doing this long enough, and studying hard enough, to be afforded the privilege of asking this question.  First let me preface it:

What really floats my boat are book covers that are iconic or "fridge magnet-worthy".  Examples are The Coming of the Rats, Marihuana, Black Opium, etc.

The second (and very important) thing that floats my boat are books that are "internet rare"...books that may only have a few available (or none available) on the internet at any given time.  My feeling is that I can always come back later and get the more common stuff, so I should focus on the more difficult stuff now.

The third thing that floats my boat are books that aren't incredibly expensive.  I'll pay up to...say...$200 for something amazing like Marihuana, but after that, I can't justify it (such as William Lee's/Burrough's Ace Double, "Junkie")

So the items on my (slowly shrinking) want list fit in the three-way intersection of all these criteria.  Must be iconic or worthy of a fridge magnet, must be internet rare, and must be within my financial reach.

So my question is, (assuming you already have yours and I'm not competition for you), what would you recommend for my want list?  What books meet the three-way intersection of these criteria?

HUGE thanks in advance for any recommendations and helping out a (now) sophomore collector.

Steve 

 

[Randall Dowling]

1 hour ago, Westy Steve said:

Wow, it's so thin!  Is the binding stapled like a comic book?  I have a low-grade copy on the way now, myself.  I saw the posting here, and I just had to get one!  I love a book like this that combines a cool cover with genuine rarity (...which brings up my next post topic).

It's actually a typical paperback binding but it is thinner (I think that photo makes it look a little thinner than it is).  But it's not like some short novels that are stitched (staple bound).  

[Randall Dowling]

48 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

Hey guys,

I don't identify myself as a freshman collector anymore.  I'd like to think I've been doing this long enough, and studying hard enough, to be afforded the privilege of asking this question.  First let me preface it:

What really floats my boat are book covers that are iconic or "fridge magnet-worthy".  Examples are The Coming of the Rats, Marihuana, Black Opium, etc.

The second (and very important) thing that floats my boat are books that are "internet rare"...books that may only have a few available (or none available) on the internet at any given time.  My feeling is that I can always come back later and get the more common stuff, so I should focus on the more difficult stuff now.

The third thing that floats my boat are books that aren't incredibly expensive.  I'll pay up to...say...$200 for something amazing like Marihuana, but after that, I can't justify it (such as William Lee's/Burrough's Ace Double, "Junkie")

So the items on my (slowly shrinking) want list fit in the three-way intersection of all these criteria.  Must be iconic or worthy of a fridge magnet, must be internet rare, and must be within my financial reach.

So my question is, (assuming you already have yours and I'm not competition for you), what would you recommend for my want list?  What books meet the three-way intersection of these criteria?

HUGE thanks in advance for any recommendations and helping out a (now) sophomore collector.

Steve 

 

This is a job for @Surfing Alien and @Pat Calhoun.  I'm still learning.  

[Pat Calhoun]

Well there's a lot out there, and finding what you want via personal quest is much of the fun. That said, two useful 'filters' would be genres and publishers. The mystery-suspense-noir genre is quite fruitful with many fine offerings from most of the publishers. To focus on a couple of companies that came into being in the crucial 'early fifties' time frame when PBs were taking over from pulps (and to some extent comics) makes sense as the 'hot' market produced a number of 'classics'. The companies I'm choosing, Lion and Graphic both faded with the fifties as well, making them nice exemplars of the 'peak'. Lion gets extra cool points for being part of the 'Atlas' empire, and Graphic lived up to its name by aiming for superior cover art. So here's two of each.

[Pat Calhoun]

The 'filter' I employ most for myself is 'authors' with emphasis on a good story with a good cover. Here's one of Whit's first and best, followed by my fave Thompson (more kudos to Lion for publishing most of his PBOs).

[Pat Calhoun]

Since I'm a big sfantasy fan and a short story-novelette-novella fan I think anthologies are awesome...

[Surfing Alien]

3 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

This is a job for @Surfing Alien and @Pat Calhoun.  I'm still learning.  

I think you're being a little humble here - it sure seems like you know what's good

[Surfing Alien]

 

4 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Must be iconic or worthy of a fridge magnet, must be internet rare, and must be within my financial reach.

All 3 criteria are actually within your own current knowledge. You know what your financial reach is, You know how to check if there are a lot of copies on the web. It really comes down to what you consider iconic or just fall in love with.

There are so many iconic covers, way beyond the most cited ones. I still come across covers that i've never seen before that speak to me and I have to have them. I post a lot of finds here so you have a sense of what I look for (a little bit of everything it turns out )

Pat's method is great because if you love an author or a story, you never regret a purchase. I'm always looking to upgrade my Heinlein's, even though they are relatively inexpensive, they're still tough to find really crisp. Lion & Graphic are both cool titles with lots of keep-worthy covers. The Graphics are much cheaper in general but there's still plenty that are very hard to find in top shape. Lion's run all the way to near the top of the hobby price point with the Thompson books in there but there are many lesser titles that are worthy of love.

If you're picky about condition, that narrows the field down because you can find a beat up copy of most paperbacks but finding a crisp one might be a real challenge. Things i'm paying up for, for my personal collection, is mostly digests. I'm on record plenty on this page that I think they're the best bet as far as scarcity in top condition + I like the larger format art. But move along, there's nothing to see here (seriously people...please don't start collecting digests!)

Crisp copies of Falcon Digests, for instance are tough as nails and I'd love to get them all eventually, but they might not be your cup of tea.

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Surfing Alien

[Surfing Alien]

Here's another JD related title you never see a crisp copy of...

 

 

 

 

[ThothAmon]

4 hours ago, Pat Calhoun said:

peak

Just guessing, the 'My Flesh is Sweet' book has a Phantom lady story?  Seriously though, it makes sense that comic book buyers of the 1940's were moving on to the more "adult" PBs.  Funny how paperbacks and magazines were exempted from the strictures of the comics code.  Must have been simply the perception by policy makers that comics were being marketed to kids.