Surfing Alien

I've never collected westerns per se, but I always run across some that just hit me and I put them on my keep pile and love looking at, especially if they are early Ace or Popular Library

Everybody wants some

That is quite a few places noted. With about 500 mapbacks it's a tough thing to know! Most only have one location but then there's First Men In The Moon which has the entire moon map

There's nothing quite like a minty fresh 1950's Avon, except perhaps a minty fresh 1950's Popular Library

Most of the Bantams from this time period had a blurb about the artist inside the cover or second page - at least from the 300's through the 700's

A "Stone Cold Classic" - albeit a relatively common one because it was so popular and went through multiple printings

Ouch! Hypodermic needle cover. August 15, 1937 The Boiled Bride? Look below... Double ouch!! - some of the interiors on these 1930's true crime's are pretty awesome.

Some Friday fun... After Erich posting those nice Ballantines I happened to pick up this cool one. Cover by John Blanchard in the vein of all the prior pulp covers with famous New York landmarks imperiled by nature and/or aliens. I know Schomburg did a Statute of Liberty one earlier for Amazing. In a related note, a Sturgeon 1st with Powers art And finally, a gorgeous Good Girl by the amazing Jerzy Zielezinski. I love everything about this one, the vaguery of the background makes the figures stand out.

For sure, aside from Noir, Science Fiction, GGA and Peanuts, I also love to buy and sell favorite movie and tv tie-ins and/or the underlying pbs for them. I don't always post them here but undercopies have landed in sale threads

Here's one I just upgraded to after several years of looking. Definitely one you have to be willing to "settle" for a decent copy (if any) This is a high grade copy, one of the best I've seen. Every collector of Bond wants one and they don't exist in high grade because the cover inks are so poor and the glue on the thin spine so brittle. Usually found separated from the spine and the covers heavily scratched. Only one printing as well because Fleming's agent fired Popular Library for changing the title (and Bond's name to "Jimmy") Top it off with a sweet Raymond Johnson Good Girl cover (for which Bond looks more like Raymond Johnson than James Bond, and his drink neither shaken nor stirred ) and you have a tough, tough book. Fleming's first in the USA.

Been a while since I added to my Planet pile but these were steals so they made their way to me right quick Fall 1954 Kelly Freas "bare breast" cover Winter 1954/55 Cover by Algis Budrys. Not a bad cover for a writer!

High grade first PB, it's relatively new but pretty well sought after because it is PKD and an early DAW, which has collectors of their own

That's a pretty tough early Midwood with no number. Nice copy. I appreciate your high grade snobbishness. It is tough not to love high grade vintage pb's but I've also learned that some books, you just have to be happy to have a decent looking copy at all.

Actually, true smut knows no boundaries such as these I don't know who did this cover but it was so bizarre, I had to have it, even if it doesn't fit into my "I'm ok if my daughter discovers this in my things when I die" limitations

Yup, Earthman on Venus (No. 285) was supposed to be the 4th but they dropped the Fantasy Novels logo for it

I loved this book, one of the few Science Fiction books actually introduced to me by my youngest sister long after I was into it. I had an older sister who introduced me to the Heinlein juveniles when I was about 11, which was the death knell.

Barye Phillips cover, quite evocative of The Road - such a brilliant artist. He could and did paint in every style, prolifically for almost every publisher. No one comes close to his volume/per year of painting.

Possibly my favorite Johnson cover, I mean, I know what he's hoping is in it for him. They're hard to miss

She could poke you in the eye with those things

5 Raymond Johnson's and a George Erickson cover. The Golden Age of Avon The "round circle" period is so packed with great covers and a nice uniform look

I have a pretty nice copy of this that's not perfect that will probably serve as a decent reader. I'm putting it on the TBR pile as well.

Alongside the gloss issue, is the lamination issue, many pb's. early 50's Avons, notably, have lamination, which, when fully intact, imbues a new looking gloss that is tough to beat, perception-wise. It is very hit or miss, the periods when different publishers employed it. Most of them only doing it for limited lengths of their runs.

Nurses' Quarters, Cameo Books No. 332 1953 Cover art by Rudolph Belarski. Can't ever get enough nurse pbs around these parts. The one in the foreground just needs a highball with that cigarette and nylons to be the paragon of virtue

Sojarr of Titan by Manly Wade Wellman Prize Science Fiction No. 11 1949. Cover art by Herman Vestal. I always considered this a classic Sci Fi cover image Vestal did the cover for the September 1952 Planet Stories but otherwise looks like he did mostly interiors in the pulps.

$5 Bok cover, what's not to love