Surfing Alien

The Other One by Catherine Turney Dell 695 1953 $12 SOLD to mstrange Black magic and sorcery, tough to find in nice condition. Gorgeous Bob Hilbert cover art Fine. Solid square binding, light spine and edgewear. Hair of a reader crease on front NCB crease on back.

Suspense Stories selected by Alfred Hitchcock Mapback Dell 367 1950 $12 Last of the great Dell Hitchcock Horror/Suspense collections. About the time Dell moved heavily towards more realistic cover art in response to all the GGA crowding the stands Very Good/Very Good Plus. Looks better but has glue shrinkage at spine which makes spine wrinkled. Still a nice looking copy. This is after they ended lamination and started glossing the cover paper. Solid square binding, despite the waviness, pages tight and supple. Very glossy. Spine has light wear, light readers crease. Perfect reader copy that still displays well.

Hammett Homicides by Dashiell Hammett Mapback Dell #223 1948 $30 A pretty stellar copy of this hard boiled pulp collection with a great Art Deco airbrush cover by Gerald Gregg. Fine Plus. About as good as you can usually hope for with a laminated Dell. Solid square binding, pages tight and supple. Covers are nice with some surface creasing in the lamination. If you collect Dells from this period you know what I'm talking about, it's like ripples on the surface of the lamination, not through the covers and they don't break any color. Light edge and cornerwear. Lamination is intact with tiny flaws and very slight lifting to the corners. Small, light stain on the spine lamination. A superior copy of an all time classic vintage paperback.

Bar The Doors Selected by Alfred Hitchcock Mapback! Dell #143 1946 $40 Classic Gerald Gregg Horror cover. An astonishingly fresh and nice copy of one of the best Dell Hitchcock Horror books. From the High Grade collection I bought many books out of last year. Very Fine Minus. A killer copy with only a couple of very light lamination creases. Looks fresh and new. Bold colors and super glossy lamination. Solid square binding, pages tight and supple. Lamination is completely intact with only the tiniest flaws. A superior copy of an all time classic vintage paperback.

Death In Five Boxes by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) Mapback Dell #108 1946 $12 SOLD to popkulture A very nice copy of a tough early Dell by one of the foremost mystery writers. Great cover art. Fine Minus. An above average copy with one long crease down cover that doesn't break color but does bend the cardboard cover. A couple of white stains inside front cover. Looks fresh and new. Bold colors and super glossy lamination. Solid binding has slight slant, pages tight and supple. Lamination is completely intact with only minor flaws.

The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes Mapback Dell #100 1946 $8 Gorgeous blue coloring on this pretty Dell mystery cover. Very Good. A nice appearing copy with some light lamination creasing. Bold colors and super glossy lamination. Solid binding has slight slant, pages tight and supple. Lamination is intact with only minor flaws. Pages are heavily toned so I have downgraded it. Would call it Fine or Fine Plus otherwise. Still a great looking copy and priced accordingly.

Maybe tonight. I have a few lined up that will make your eyeballs smoke

I do have a couple nice Dell Sci Fi books I may throw in the mix later

Suspense Stories collected by Alfred Hitchcock Mapback Dell #92 1945 $18 SOLD to conan09279 Classic Alfred Hitchcock Spiderweb cover. The first Hitchcock Horror/Suspense collection. Very Good/Very Good Plus. Another one from before Dell used lamination or gloss on covers. Great color. Solid square binding, pages tight and supple. Spine has some wear, has a readers crease and some small bends and creases associated with the grade. A pretty nice copy of a classic Dell that is usually found as a rag.

Not this morning but probably this evening

Crime Hound by Mary Semple Scott Early Mapback. Dell #34 1944 $15 Another great Gerald Gregg cover with shotgun shells in a handprint. A thing of beauty. This cover also has the "giant eyeball keyhole" colophon, which was on some of the early Dells, this is one of the last of them. It's about twice the size of the smaller colophon. Very Good Plus. Great color. Solid binding has slight slant, pages tight and supple. Light readers creasing and a few minor creases. Nice copy of a tough book.

Speak No Evil by Mignon G. Eberhart Early Mapback. Dell #25 1944 $20 Great Gerald Gregg airbrushed Jade Monkeys cover. An Art Deco classic from the early Dell period. There's something magical about early Dells that you just have to hold them to appreciate (it just might be the Eye in the Keyhole colophon!) Near Fine/Fine. Very nice for an early Dell. Great color. Solid binding has slight twist, pages tight and supple. Very little spine or edgewear and only miniscule creases. A couple of indents to the covers.

I've kind of made it my business to make sure I offer up a wide variety of material on these threads, not just Frazetta and GGA, even though those are pretty dern good sellers. Fellow Boardies can attest I can get pretty gabby about vintage pb's but it's a sincere appreciation of all the different publishers and their impact on society. There can't be any doubt that the "Greatest Generation" became the most widely literate generation in history at the time due to the democratization of books brought on by cheap mass market pbs in the 1940's - 50's. I have some work to do today but I'm going to try to get on here and there and post more cool stuff, starting with a stack of nice Dells for your enjoyment and education. In 1943, Dell became the third "Big" publisher of a long running series (after Pocket in 1939 and Avon in 1941). Popular Library followed suit soon after. Early Dell's were strong on Mystery titles and featured map back covers starting at #5 and throughout the first 500 or so numbers. The airbrushed Art Deco cover art is eerie and symbolic and gives the early numbers a unique look of their own. Dell's from the early 40's have a stiff cardboard cover paper and they are extremely hard to find without the covers having hard creases that break the color and torn up lamination if they are laminated issues.

I read mostly science fiction as a kid but have read a ton of the mystery/noir books since getting back into collecting pbs six or seven years ago. I started getting them for the aforementioned good girl covers but started reading them and got hooked. (It didn't hurt that I started with Cornell Woolrich) I do chuckle whenever these guys and dolls worry about using pay phones and other dated tech and think they'd never make it as crooks today with all the cameras and cell phones around!

Well, she is on the cover!

That's going to be it until this evening perhaps. I have a ton of stuff to list this week so stay tuned, the getting keeps getting good! Thanks for the takes, you are a sharp eyed group!

Queen of Sheba by Gardner F. Fox Gold Medal Giant S549 1st Print January 1956 Classic cover. $20 SOLD to mstrange Historical adventure by the famous comic book writer. Great wraparound cover of bare breasted women by MAM painter John Floherty Jr. Near Fine/Fine, has edgewear, mostly to spine edges, a small chip in spine and light creasing to lower right corner, otherwise cover is bright, smooth and glossy. The price sticker is factory.

Moran's Woman by Day Keene. Zenith Books ZB-24 July 1959. A PBO. Incredible Betty Page painted cover art. $35 SOLD to mstrange A rare and sought after book in any condition. Zenith Books was Martin Goodman's continuation of the Lion Books line, publishing original novels with cover art by his stable of artists from the Men's Magazines. They are all pretty tough to find. This art is uncredited to date but the subject is clear and cross collected by non book collectors. Very Good Plus. Spine has some slant but is tight and complete, book somewhat cocked due to the spine. Fairly light reader crease in the black and and light long crease to the lower right. A few light creases and color flecks on rear. Looks like there could be a trace of marker in the black on front but I don't have a black light. Cover colors are bold though and inside covers only lightly toned. Pages toned. Despite the mentioned issues, a nice bright, collectible copy of a very tough book. I'd be asking double if not for the uncertainty about the reader crease.

Take Great take. Sad to see her go but glad to see her going to a good home (I think she's a home wrecker tho!)

The Best Of Planet Stories Edited by Leigh Brackett. Ballantine 24334 1st Printing, January 1975 $22 SOLD to N e r V Fantastic cover art by Frank Kelly Freas Stories by Brackett & Bradbury, Frederic Brown et al A great and beautiful anthology. Tough to find these this new looking. Very Fine minus. Killer spine and gloss. Has only a touch of edgewear here and there, tiny ink mark on top and bottom page edges and an owners stamp on the inside cover for which I'm downgrading. Looks like a new book otherwise.

Swords and Sorcery. Stories by the Weird Tales circle - Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, and others. Pyramid R-950 December 1963 Edited by L. Sprague DeCamp and signed by him on the title page. $40 SOLD to goldust40 Killer cover art and interior illos by Virgil Finlay Fine Plus - looks very lightly read. Has a light reader crease in the white of the spine, otherwise smooth and sharp with light wear and light toning. Tough to find signed and a real nice copy to boot.

Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau Lancer 74-840 Published in 1965 $45 SOLD to goldust40 One of the rarest Frazetta Paperback covers in my experience. You just never see it and it's a fragile Lancer to boot so they're usually wrecked when you do see them. I'll call this Near Fine - it would be Fine plus but for some staining to the right page edges - Square with a nice spine - small corner fold - virtually no cover creases. I barely upgraded this one recently after long looking so (probably regretfully) going to offer this one up. Such a great image. She's a killer beyotch!

I don't like it Can't we go back to the good old days Gosh i'm getting old - soon i'll be telling kids to get off my lawn!

Thanks! - my second response to your "sounds great" post above was back in the editor the second time around lol. It's just frustrating when you typed something detailed and it goes "poof" - I'll be making sure to copy my text before I hit send each time around today!

The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs Ace 49293 Second "Tall" Ace printing December 1973 (Says Third Ace Printing, March 1973 inside but this is actually the 4th overall per isfdb) $10 SOLD to N e r V Gorgeous Frank Frazetta Lost City cover. Not sure how to grade. Looks incredible from the front. Would be Very Fine minus but has some light color transfer on the back cover only. Priced accordingly. Glossy, square, unread copy. Tiny break on the spine. Only has very mild toning to the interiors. Looks super fresh