Sarg

On 5/27/2024 at 9:18 AM, Robot Man said:

"Soviet Russia Today."  What is this communist garbage doing among pulps? 

On 5/26/2024 at 3:44 PM, OtherEric said:

From Borderlands Books in SF today.  I let a friend have my copies of Illuminatus back in the 90’s, figuring they were common back then.  But I just never see the 3 volume version anymore.  It’s only been the last few years I’ve been looking in particular, though.

 

The hand drawn lettering on Compliments of a Fiend is superb!

On 5/25/2024 at 6:37 AM, comicjack said:

Underrated cover with no good girl but a creepy cover came back a little better than my thinking.Not bad for a pulp from 1939 and a cover that stirs the mind looking at it

Finally a truly classic cover accurately designated by CGC.

On 5/23/2024 at 9:04 PM, Darwination said:

The title/Logo design on these last three issues is outstanding.  

J. Allen St. John logo design. He redesigned the Weird Tales logo around this time as well.

Only about 10 to 20 pulp covers should be considered classic. Anything above that renders the term meaningless. 

On 5/22/2024 at 10:08 AM, PopKulture said:

I think they’re going to the well too often with the “classic cover” designation. If every cover that has a skull on it, or a woman in bondage, gets the “classic” designation, collecting a subset of pulps CGC doesn’t consider classic will eventually be more challenging! 

A nice group of submissions, by the way! 

Yes. This cover is not a "classic." 

On 5/16/2024 at 4:54 PM, Surfing Alien said:

I sold my later print of this last sale since I finally found a nice copy of the first print. All I can say is that it's the Dickens trying to find the first print of this unforgettable fantasy in nice shape.

Bill Teason's cover art on this captures such a strange creature with eerie detail. It fits the story so well - is she or isn't she a witch? Shapeshifter? You'll have to read it for yourself, sometimes she seems like a very ordinary wise azz child-teen.

I had long discussions with several dealers at the L.A. Vintage paperback about how compelling a little book it is (and how no one at that show had a copy - it was one I was looking for there.)

I have one. Had no idea it was hard to find. I bought if off ABE around 2018...

On 8/7/2021 at 6:49 PM, Sarg said:

Collier's 9 November 1929

 

A copy of this issue is up for auction on eBay if anyone's interested. One of Flanagan's best IMO.

On 5/12/2024 at 9:05 PM, Surfing Alien said:

When I got back into collecting vintage paperbacks 7 years ago, a distant, yet seemingly unreasonable goal was getting back the 3 rarities I most regretted selling back in the 90's 😪

Well, with the recent addition of the Studio Pocket Edition of Jim Thompson's "Sins of the Fathers", the trio is back in the fold. All three of my original copies were pulled out of the ceiling-high stacked boxes in the  "store" of Mike, the Greenwich Village beatnik who sold his collection out of his basement apartment, many to me, in the early 1980's when I roamed West 4th Street in search of paper treasure.

These 3 are the "Top Of The Bill" as far as I'm concerned in the vintage paperback world as far as the combo of rarity and desirability. YMMV

 

On 5/11/2024 at 9:38 PM, Darwination said:

Hotel Wife - Ruth Lyons (1949.Lev Gleason Library 101) cover

The first entry in the very small Lev Gleason Library from 1949.  I picked it up as the price was right, and it was mentioned a couple of times in American Daredevil, a recent and most interesting read on golden age publisher Lev Gleason  (Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay, Friday, Picture Scoop, Reader's Scope).  Apparently the book sold well at the time, but I can find little about it except that the hardcover was published in 1933 and banned in Australia.  I looked up the other six books in the series - they look O.K.. but nothing really jumped out at me, and the most interesting was a reprint of Marjorie Hillis' Live Alone and Like it.  A pity, as the format is very cool, 132 pages and squarebound with glue, a little skinnier than most digests and with a very thick and very glossy cover.  The back cover doesn't help matters - this is not how you sell a paperback:

"Lev Gleason Library"? You learn something new every day...

On 5/4/2024 at 9:10 AM, Surfing Alien said:

This is actually the latest Heritage Sale, and a much more comparable copy. The Ebay one actually has less creases and marring but a bit more missing. Still the point is that this is the Marvel Comics #1 of Marvel pulps and a fairly presentable copy can't pull $300. That says to me that all the comics guys aren't going running to buy pulps. Even if this is considered somewhat common, it would only take a fraction of a fraction of GA collectors to wipe out the supply.

 

"VG minus"? Is this a Promise book? That looks G at best...

On 4/30/2024 at 7:52 PM, Darwination said:

Last one, SPACE CLOWNS WITH RAYGUNS. Leo Morey

 

Space clowns with ray guns. The pulps had the craziest ideas.

On 4/25/2024 at 5:08 PM, johnenock said:

A few new ones. Not as happy with the grades stated vs. actual but they were reasonably priced. Maybe once people stop with the CGC markup, it might be worth buying a few.

Love this cover

 

Is that the ghost of Abdul Alhazred?

On 4/25/2024 at 5:12 PM, detective35 said:

Adventure #1 (1910)

 

I was just thinking "Nobody ever posts early issues of Adventure in this forum. Do they exist?" And then this pops up. Must be some sort of pulp telepathy!

On 4/23/2024 at 10:56 PM, AnkurJ said:

Nice! What grade?

Not mine! I meant, I anticipate a lucky owner will soon have it slabbed, and hopefully will post it here. 

On 4/21/2024 at 8:59 AM, ThothAmon said:

To me he is the true Father of fantasy artists. Have a couple prints of his paintings hanging in the boudoir. 
 

St. John is great, but most of his best work was done for books, not pulps. Some of his pulp covers look a little rushed or not very well thought out. "Golden Blood" is a masterpiece, however. 

On 4/20/2024 at 11:46 AM, OtherEric said:

August 1928 Amazing Stories... even if it isn't actually Buck Rogers on the cover, it's the Skylark of Space.

Yes. A classic, though a cover that is a lot less visually striking than many other Amazing Stories covers from the period. Its "classic" status derives from it being reproduced so many times over the decades, plus also, I believe it is the first sci-fi cover to portray a man flying. So a precursor to comic super-heroes. 

On 4/20/2024 at 3:13 PM, waaaghboss said:

You guys corrupted me with all the pretty pictures, just found these at a bookstore 😠 

The see-through blouse that launched a thousand ships.

On 4/20/2024 at 12:57 PM, detective35 said:

I'm not going to  get into what individual collectors think is a classic cover,  but more of the collecting community of pulps over long period of time.

I think discerning classic covers by chatting with hundreds of collectors and coming to a common understanding of what multiple people think are classic covers in each title, or what covers are high demand in each run consistently overall long period of time. 

I disagree with the point that there are no classic covered spiders, I think March 34, October 37 and June 1938 are all classic covers for the spider and there could be more,  operator 5 from December 1934 is certainly a classic cover

No one knows the shadow better than I do, and certainly January 1 1933 Shadow millions is a classic cover. The ultimate cover is January 15, 1933 the creeping death. The ultimate shadow image on the cover is the partners of peril from 1936.   Many people like the golden master from 1939 and you can throw in the book of death from the 1940s .  I have missed a few more classic covers (voodoo Master, etc. ). 

However, that goes without saying that one person might think a cover is classic and then another person doesn't which is fine, to each his own.

Fair enough, but where's the evidence that, e.g., Startling Stories #64 was regarded as classic by collectors "over (a) long period of time"? Covers like this and others so designated by CGC seem very trendy and recent -- unlike Batwoman or Creeping Death, which have been coveted and reproduced many, many times over the past 40 to 50 years. 

Makes you wonder, what are considered the "classic" covers by the connoisseurs of this forum? It should be a very short list, otherwise the word "classic" loses any meaning. Needless to say, Startling Stories #64 should not be on the list. Not even close. Covers that especially gory, weird, or sexy should not automatically qualify. No Spider or Operator #5 covers are "classic," IMO, though all of them are striking to behold today. A classic has to do more than simply arrest one's vision with lurid action. 

A few off the top of my head:

Shadow - skeleton coming out of curtain - Rozen

WT - Batwoman - Brundage

WT - giant tiger (Golden Blood) - St. John

Shadow - Book of Death with skeleton - Rozen

WT - Skeleton Writing Book - Bok

FFM - Green hooded Skeleton holding people - Finlay

bump

Anticipating a slabbed All Story Tarzan.

On 4/16/2024 at 6:45 PM, Darwination said:

I'm still a little confused by the term digest.  We started a thread for em with some discussion, and I thought I had a grasp of it, but it seems like it's used a little differently in the paperbacks.  I was thinking digest means saddle-stitched, but these unibooks aren't quite that.  Is it cause they are still bound in signatures (thick though they may be) and not perfectly squarebound? I know I've been confused when Eric calls some of the Avon's digests...

some randomish auction images -

 

"Digest" has two applications, I think:

1. Size: digests are wider than typical paperbacks (4.25" x 6.375"). Digests are 5" wide or more. 

2. Publication Status. "Digest" most commonly refers to periodicals, whereas "paperbacks" are books, not periodicals.