Surfing Alien

The Queen's Awards Fifth Series Ed. by Ellery Queen. Ace D-293 1961 $35 Taken per PM Sweet breezy Maguire blonde highlights this top flight mystery collection. About as high grade as I've seen. Very Fine Minus. Square bright and glossy. Hair of a reader crease and very little wear.

"I'll Get Mine" by Thurston Scott Popular Library #1452 2nd Print 1952 $25 SOLD to Norrin's Lawyer Iconic "pop culture" drug vintage paperback. Great A. Leslie Ross GGA cover of a drug ho leaning on a street corner lamppost. A really decent read as well. VG a displayable basic copy with the main image clear. Tape at top and bottom of the spine.

The Case of the Crumpled Knave by Anthony Boucher Popular Library 154 1948 $25 SOLD to mstrange Early Belarksi nipple cover, just classic. I'll call it Fine. Really a qualified VF. Bottom of the front and spine is dulled compared to the upper section. Overall square, glossy and bright. Great spine, virtually no creases, slight wear. Pages lightly toning but supple and tight.

Dwellers in the Mirage by A. Merritt Avon 413 1952 $50 SOLD to goldust40 Another stone cold classic Golden Age Avon. This one fantasy with a Raymond Johnson nude Good Girl in the monster's clutches Fine Plus/Very Fine minus. Square, glossy and tight with great colors. No creasing, just some very light edgewear, tiny color chip on back spine. Store stamp and marker price on title page

The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers Avon 344 1st PB 1951 $35 SOLD to mstrange A stone cold classic as our pal PopKulture would say. Raymond Johnson GGA cover on Charlie Chan Fine. Super glossy with fantastic colors. Spine has some slant and the cover has slight pullback at the right edge from glue shrinkage. Light creasing. Still quite a pretty thing.

Back Alley by Frank Smith Beacon Books B 181 1958 $40 SOLD to goldust40 Sweet copy of a great hard boiled title with George Geygan GGA cover Very Fine. Square, glossy and bright with almost no wear. Tough to find early Beacons this nice.

The last of this round of killer copies of the late run Shadows The Shadow #14 The Creeping Death Pyramid Books V4206 May 1977 $45 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko Skeleton/Death cover. The first of the "New Look" Pyramid Shadow's with the banner logo. Another NM book Unread and nearly perfect in every way.

The Shadow #15 Gray Fist Pyramid Books V4207 June 1977 $45 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko Yellow Peril cover NM. Unread and nearly perfect in every way. Nothing much else to say

The Shadow #16 The Shadow's Shadow Jove Books V4278 July 1977 $35 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko Headlights/Nipples GGA cover. The first of the GGA covers in the series. VF minus. Unread and gorgeous like the others, has some light finger bending at the upper right corner of the front cover.

The Shadow #17 Fingers of Death Jove Books V4279 September 1977 $45 SOLD to goldust40 Such a killer headlights cover, tied for my fave with the test tube girl VF/NM. Super glossy, unread and nearly perfect. A tiny ding at top left corner.. Has an original receipt from 1977 laid inside the front. I like to leave stuff like that in the book.

The Shadow #19 Zemba Jove Books V4285 November 1977 $45 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko cover art NM Unread and nearly perfect in every way. I'm afraid to open it

The Shadow #20 Charg, Monster Jove Books V4284 December 1977 $30 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko Robot GGA cover VF minus. Looks super fresh and unread like the others but either not printed or stored as well. Has a stress on the back cover spine and light stress with a small color chip at the bottom.

The Shadow #21 The Wealth Seeker Jove Books V4283 February 1978 $45 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko garters/leg art GGA cover VF/NM. Unread and nearly perfect in every way. A touch of color wear at the base of spine, likely from the factory considering the rest of the book.

These are killer pulp like covers and un-improvable in my estimation.

The Shadow #22 The Silent Death Jove Books V4281 March 1978 $50 SOLD to goldust40 Steranko Bondage Girl in the test tube GGA cover, maybe the most iconic in the run Another killer VF/NM + Unread and nearly perfect in every way.

The Shadow #23 The Death Giver Jove Books V4282 April 1978 $50 SOLD to goldust40 Killer Steranko GGA cover. Near perfect copy of the last of the Jove Shadow books and probably the toughest. I'm convinced the editors had him paint Good Girls into these later numbers to boost sales. VF/NM + Unread and nearly perfect in every way. Just don't see them like these.

W.H.O.R.E. by Carter Brown. Signet T4798 1st Printing October 1971 $25 SOLD to N e r V Long leggy cover art by Robert McGinnis. An Al Wheeler mystery. One of the most outrageous 1960's/70's paperback cover/stories ever. Very Fine Minus. Sharp and square. Hair of a reader crease. Light edgewear. Great pages. A very pretty copy of a classic vintage PB.

House Of Sorcery by Carter Brown Signet D3218 First Edition First Printing. August 1967 $25 SOLD to crassus Smokin' cover.. literally imho. Very Fine minus. Super glossy and tight. Very light crease front cover, light surface and edgewear. A very nice copy of one of McGinnis' best Carter Brown covers.

Love Peddler by Joe Weiss Beacon BB141 1957 $20 SOLD to goldust40 Owen Kampen Red Headed GGA Fine minus.. Tight and supple, slight spine slant, a bunch of spine stress, mostly on the back. Front cover is pretty nice with light creasing.

I never thought of Carny books as a sub-set, but now that I've seen more, I must have them all

This Dark Desire by John Conway Monarch 148 February 1960 $15 SOLD to goldust40 Bargain copy of a great Maguire Good Girl cover VG plus. Tight and bright, spine has some slant, small split, small pen on cover, surface wear

Gonna get this going again. Never Kill a Client by Brett Halliday Dell 6300 1st Print November 1963 $15 SOLD to Norrin's Lawyer Cool McGinnis GGA cover Fine Plus/VF minus - Square and tight, has small bend on rear, light wear to extremities. Small shadow inside front cover, probably a tiny name sticker that fell off long ago.

Nice... both on the never ending want list now

I think I have six out of seven of those. It's interesting to me that 3 out of those 7 are Raymond Johnson covers, "I Killed Stalin", "Three Comrades" and "When the Gods are Silent". Just nobody knew who he was back then. I also own the original art for "I Killed Stalin", which I first posted here almost exactly two years ago and which I don't tire of re-posting

I did cut those. I've made the decision, that since most of my better books are now stored vertically in cabinets, rather than stacked in tubs, that it's wise to put backing boards on them. If there's any space on the shelf the books can lean and get out of square, and then there's the corners. Even stacked in tubs, it's so easy for a high grade book to get a dinged corner from just moving around and "poof" there's goes that perfect book you searched for years to find with sharp corners So I am sacrificing the instant gratification of looking at the back cover, but for the greater health of the book and my peace of mind. Plus they look very neat with a nice custom board