Surfing Alien

Yes, it was a short lived sister imprint around 1952, mostly in the taller format like the Signet Books

Revelations In Black by Carl Jacobi. Arkham House 1947. Jacket art by Ronald Clyne. This one is much nicer than the one I had back in the day. Minty fresh 💕

We're getting ready to head out to NYC for the holiday so won't have time right now but consider them yours if the condition is good enough when I get time to take good pics when I get back.

Some Friday Fun in today... Surf's wife: "Honey, you already have every single one of these books, why did you need these?" Surf: "Because they're Ace Doubles and my bid finger couldn't resist a whole pile of them all at once. The attraction was too strong" Surf's wife: I really am powerless to resist them

You the man Andy I'll PM you to work out shipping

So sorry to hear this. I would have grabbed Mark's paperback lot and recycled some of those if PovertyRow hadn't so instead I'll offer up this lot of 5 Fine/VF Robert McGinnis good girls @$75 shipped if it's ok that I ship them after January 2nd, when I get back in front of my books. I know James was getting quite into the vintage pb Good Girls lately and hope they catch someone else's eye enough to take them into the fold for him. SOLD As it looks like this will be ongoing, I'll see what else I have around to donate when I get back.

One I still need to re-acquire. Here's his second Signet, also with Tony Varady cover art.

All of the major publishers experimented with it at one point or another and they all ended up giving it up. I can't think of any that were still doing it by the late 1950's. It really looks fantastic with such high gloss when it is fully intact but when it goes it can get fugly quick.

James, to me, there's nothing in the vintage bookmaking world, quite as infectious as a high grade early 1950's Avon paperback with a large striking cover subject and full lamination & gloss

"Witch House" by Evangeline Walton. Arkham House, 1945. Jacket art by Ronald Clyne. Another re-acquisition of one I had back in the 1980's. Started a re-read now that I finished re-reading "Slan" and find I still like this weird *stuff*. From online reviews, this is one people either love the wordcraft or hate the lack of action. I like the wordcraft and just take it for what it is, a weird tale.

"Blood Money" by Dashiell Hammett. Dell Books No. 53. 1944. Hammett's 1st Mass Market small pb. Iconic Tommy Guns n Gold cover art by Gerald Gregg. A pretty vibrant copy. Colors and gloss on this book are usually washed out and dulled.

Been sharing this post around so figured this thread needs a bump... "The Doll and One Other" by Algernon Blackwood. Arkham House, 1947. Jacket by Ronald Clyne. I'm slowly working on the Arkham collection. Since obtaining copies of my all time grails, "The Outsider and Others", by H. P. Lovecraft, and "Out of Space and Time" by Clark Ashton Smith, a while back, I've decided to chip away at the other titles I had or wanted to have years ago. I never thought I'd have a chance at the ones I always wanted, but getting the two big books has given some impetus to get all the ones I really connect with.

Beautiful. This reminds me of early New Fun/More Fun comics.

Instead of Friday fun, I'm gonna post a throwback to a convo we had on here 3 or 4 years ago about early Avons & lamination, because I have recently come into copies of Avon nn#1 & nn#2 with intact lamination Yeah, the lam is scruffy (and the copies aren't minty), but it's there on these first prints and should pretty much put to rest the question whether 1st prints were laminated. They were, but it was just such terrible, paper thin lamination that it has shredded off most copies entirely, leaving lamination-less copies out there, looking good, but not in their original state. They're not GGA or highly collected titles but historically important as the first major competitor to the Pocket Books line in 1941. I imagine there are pristine copies out there somewhere with perfect lamination but I haven't seen any. Odd to value, because in todays market, only geeks like us are probably even interested at all in them

So I'm always a bit jealous/nostalgic when OtherEric and some others post their bookstore finds so I decided to give a "paperback exchange" type place near me a shot, even though from the outside it looks like a strip mall warren of "Goosebumps" and James Patterson young adult trade books. Well I was pleasantly surprised to find at least a few pre 1980's pbs in there and took home this pretty decent Bantam, Fredric Browns "Space on My Hands" with the classic Charles Binger cover. Not rare but it was well worth it just to browse and smell some pulp. I guess I'll have to make it a stop in the future as they had some areas I didn't get to but ran out of time. Also received my purchase from JimJum's mixed sale. This book was so esoteric, and the cover striking enough, it just appealed to me. It reminds me of the Monarch Human Behavior series in that it strives to look like a more legitimate literary effort than the regular sleaze the publisher put out. It's really a kind of wacky beatnik fantasy about the "Good Old" beatnik days in Malibu California lol. Also in, I re-acquired a copy of one of my favorite books I used to have, the Arkham 1st of A.E. Van Vogt's "Slan". I loved the story of Jommy Cross as a teenager. I started reading the first chapter again and remembered why, you just get thrown into his terrible struggle head first... Finally, I got my buddy who restores furniture to come over and work a little with his magical restoration pens on the frame of the Adams painting. You'd never know those wear spots were there and she looks 100% better now and ready to go on a wall Sorry about the angle but this is the only way I could photograph it without my big mug reflecting in the glare

Love the LBJ cover The paint condition is bright and bold. I actually think I may have the frame touched if it works. None of the color changes in the pics are actual chips, just spots where the finish is worn. It has the period look and is definitely the original frame from a pro framer in NY only a short distance from the Associated Artists studio he was repped by.

Every once in a while you take a gamble on something no one knows what it is and it pays off. Just got in this exquisite piece of Gothic PB original art. It's the cover art to "Shadow Of Polperro" by Frances Cowen, Ace Books No. 760181 published in 1973. I've figured out that the artist is Norman Adams, who I had never heard of because he is in a later period of pb artists than I usually collected, however his Trompe L'oeil techniques are incredible. He was a commercial Illustrator in New York starting around 1959 through the mid-70's when he left commercial art (and New York) to become a highly respected wild life painter. Here's a link to a bio about him: http://www.normanadams.org/ He had covers on many major magazines, including the moon landing cover for Reader's Digest in July 1969, which I thought was incredibly cool. Here's a nice Flickr page with a whole bunch of his stuff: https://www.flickr.com/photos/illustrator_normanadams/ The picture can't do justice to his work, the details are so fine, it's mind boggling. There is almost no depth to the brush strokes so this is either watercolor or gouache applied in many super thin layers and likely the reason it wasn't thought to be a painting, the surface appears to look like a print. It is a painting on illustration board with all the usual commercial illustration tags and scribbles on the back of the board. I was struck by the image itself anyway because I love good gothic covers and this one has all the elements, including an excellent portrait, far larger and more detailed than you usually see, as well as a great castle-like manse and gates (noticeably cut down in publication) It probably wouldn't fetch big money but I love it and the whole journey of discovery Here's a pic of the PB, not something I'd usually pick up but now I gotta get one.

One of the things that hurts Graphic in my opinion is the horrible practice of numbering reissues or subsequent printings as a new number. I mean, how many numbers of Tough Cop alone are there?? That, and the lack of a number one to kick off the run… Still, there's so many cool covers and they have a simplicity of design that really lets the art stand out. The re-numberings are mostly a pain if you're religious about having the first print, which is understandable, I'd always rather have the first but they're still cheap enough to get them all

Some more key Harlequins...

Nah, that's the twist in the story, it's actually a dude who killed her (I actually haven't read it but that's usually how the noir twist goes )

Maguire 💞

And some Friday fun. A couple of pulps this time. The Jungles are still attainable, and, I think, like the Jungle and Jumbo comic books, will probably be the last really fun affordable gga of their type to collect after normal people can't afford any of their menace and mystery brothers. Spring 1944 George Gross cover Summer 1946, cover not signed like the other but pretty sure this is Gross as well.

Love the early history, largely because my father had full sets of Amazing and Astounding compiled in his teen years in the early 1930's. Here's a pre-historic prize I don't think I've shown before, notable for the New York sci-fi cover on top of the seminal story installment inside: