Surfing Alien

Graphics don't get enough love here or anywhere for that matter. A cool run with quite a few nice covers.

Almost every pb artist changed or tried different styles in the late 50's, early 60's as art directors prominently chased sales with what different pb houses were trying out, art wise. The technique of having a main image fully painted, suspended over a sketch was widely experimented with pb and magazine digest artists at this time. Convention Queen is a definite Johnson, the model looks like Diana Dors, who he used several times, probably from tear sheets rather than live model.

2 out of 3 Raymond Johnson covers there 🤔 Seems like he fixed you just like he did millions of pb consumers in the Golden Age 😍🍻

I've got the bug baaaad, like I need constant fixes Whip Hand by W. Franklin Sanders (Charles Willeford) Gold Medal s1087. 1961. A classic Willeford noir and probably Robert Abbett's most iconic cover art.

Those are nice looking copies. If I was you I'd be marching right back to that store and getting them in hand at that price, for all the reasons PopKulture just pointed out Unless, of course, you were afraid of "the bug"

A couple of scarce Golden Age Harlequin Books...

You should hear what my wife calls this 🤣

George Ziel cover art on that one. Raymond Johnson on "Convention Queen" Robert Maguire on "The Deadly September" Robert Stanley on "The Wicked, Wicked Women" Not sure who did the 2 sleaze titles but better artists than usual for sure.

Duplicates make a nice display

Some Friday Fun: Classic Beacon title. I'll buy any vintage pb with trailer trash women on them Uncredited art but looks familiar Midwood Maguire sleaze: Midwood Rader sleaze. I've lost count of how many "Girl" title books I have but one day I might try to write an article on them... Couple of cool Lion Books for the pile. I've picked up quite a few Lions lately including some nice keys Julian Paul cover art M. Singer cover art Harry Schaare cover art Michel cover art Uncredited, but I like it

A great cover. A Veronica Lake look for sure. One of a bunch of covers credited in the copyright office to Ann Cantor, but likely painted by a hired hand for her art studio.

Such a great tribute. I love these family sites as well. There's no one who can add the color to the artists life like family can. Kalin was quite versatile. Although this Kane cover was done, i'm sure intentionally, in the McGinnis style, he did a lot of stylized covers with other looks.

A Woman A Day by Philip Jose Farmer. Beacon Books No. 291. Cover art by Gerald McConnell. I love getting a real nice copy of a classic pb in and finding an unadvertised signature inside 🥰 A few more recent pickups... Finally got a nice copy of this one. Just need the last one to complete the mini set. Killer upgrade of the hardest hard boiled title ever Tokey Wedge baybeeee... a great campy, sexy title Classic Monarch JD with Rafael DeSoto art Minty Belarski classic cover

It is quite a confection ain't it

Picked up this Pyramid edition of "Hungry Men" by Edward Anderson, (on the far right in the pic) this week. Cover art by Mort Kunstler. It got me to thinking so I dug around and pulled out my other two editions. This book is one of those rare ones to get three covers by three different outstanding Golden Age artists, Harry Schaare on the Lion Books first PB edition, Charles Copeland on the Lion Library second edition, and Kunstler on the third edition. Hungry men indeed!

Sinners' Game by Linton Baldwin. Lion Books No. 227 1954 Some Lion's are so tough and I really like reading many of them when I can get them. Started this yesterday and finished it this morning. If you like boxing and fast, hard boiled excellence, read this book (if you can find a copy, it was reprinted in the 1990's as The Big Round) A real page turner that took some nice unexpected twists (probably because I'm noir-jaded and always figure the spiral goes one way only, down lol) I did not want to put it down. From what I read afterwards, Baldwin was an accomplished sportsman and sports writer so it figures he had the chops to make the bouts that pepper the story come alive, but his characters and the seedy New York backdrop hit the bag just right for me. It's too bad he only wrote this one book, but like another Lion one-hit wonder The Sin Pit by Paul Meskil, well worth digging up and reading. The fantastic cover art is the icing on the cake, it is uncredited but looks a lot like Lou Marchetti's or Clark Hulings folks to me

I bought several others to spread the cost out. Pretty much the only strategy that works on international except if it's a crazy deal

Yeah, that looks real nice, classic Paul Stahr Today's book here is one I've lost out on a couple of times over the years but finally reeled one in. Not high grade but high demand in any condition and this one's quite presentable. The last 3 MMM's are just tough to find at all (and give me a red-headed dame with a pistol any day of the week )

My copy of the 1st Edition, with the gorgeous George Ziel cover and a much more appropriate blurb

I'm sure you have, he was a prolific true crime writer who appeared in many slicks as well as the top selling Crime mags like True Police Cases, and a bunch of pbs, including the first numbered Gold Medal book

She's worried about what the bullwhip over the mantelpiece is for Yes, I read the book

Classic Raymond Johnson cover, and a tough one to find that nice. Sweet pickup James

I did finally upgrade my copy of Five Sinister Characters recently

That's a real nice High Sierra, one of the best I've seen, of the front cover at least