Book Guy

On 1/24/2022 at 11:58 AM, sfcityduck said:

I've been suspicious as well.  But, I've heard second hand that Heritage has been talking about how Promise has brought in "new money."  The last year seems to have been stupid money.  So I'm thinking that we are seeing a new kinda cat, not the type of traditional collectors who have dominated the hobby (who seem to be increasingly priced out of the market).  But, I'm open to theories and evidence.  

Watch the Documentary SAVIOR FOR SALE about the supposed Leonardo Da Vinci painting for some possibilities. Russian 'Oligarchs'; Saudi Royalty, Mafiosos... I had never heard of 'Free Ports' before. High Security warehouses in foreign countries that exist in a Tax and Legal no man's land. Apparently filled with Old Masters (and presumably lots more) bought to launder money and hide from the taxman. A copy of Action # 1 is a lot smaller than an Old Master Painting!

On 1/22/2022 at 3:54 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Since most of Avati's pb work was for Signet, you should go to the Bookscans website and click through the Signet covers there as that is probably your highest % avenue of pursuit to find it if it was published 

It's from LOUISVILLE SATURDAY by Margaret Long as per a response in the Original Art Thread. A Bantam 35 cent Giant. Thank you 1,000 Headed Man!

On 1/22/2022 at 6:00 PM, ThousandHeadedMan said:

Thank you!

These images are posted in the Paperback thread as well.

This is a James Avati preliminary. Anybody know if there was a finished piece and if so what Book/Magazine it was used for?

I knew Gary, though not well and was shocked to hear he had died. There has been very little posted about his collection being sold off. Does anybody know much about him? What he died from? What he did for a living? etc./ I used to send Catalogs to him and would see him when I exhibited at Book Fairs. We always had a chat about Bookish subjects, but I realized I didn't know much ABOUT him (and probably the same for him about me!.

What follows is another Original Art question. Below is an original James Avati preliminary painting. Any idea what book this image was used for when fully developed (if it was used)?

On 1/11/2022 at 6:29 PM, CGC Mike said:

It has been brought to my attention that there has been talk about whether or not this thread should get moved to the pulp section.  What do you guys think?

Fine with me.

On 1/8/2022 at 9:06 AM, Robot Man said:

And if you want a fun read, grab this. Amazing stories of great finds and the very secretative and most obsessive group of collectors in most any hobby. These people are unreal. 

A real fun read!

147 is one of the best covers in the series. 165 is maybe the creepiest!

On 12/29/2021 at 11:11 AM, frozentundraguy said:

Picked up two more sci-fi books recently. I also found that A. E. Van Vogt ignited a lengthy discussion on his ability to "fix up" short stories and meld them into novels. PKD turned out to be one of his biggest supporters.

Literary critic Fredric Jameson has asserted that “[v]an Vogt’s work clearly prepares the way for that of the greatest of all science fiction writers, Philip K. , whose extraordinary novels and stories are inconceivable without the opening onto that play of unconscious materials and fantasy dynamics released by van Vogt.” frequently gave credit to van Vogt, as did Harlan Ellison, and his acknowledged or apparent influence shows up in other odd places — the socio-psychological speculations of Colin Wilson, for example, or Stan Lee’s X-Men.

Link to the full article for those interested.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/fix-up-artist-the-chaotic-sf-of-a-e-van-vogt/

 

Both covers by Ricard Powers, I believe.

On 12/25/2021 at 8:00 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Think you're 99% right, Pulps became digests then became paperbacks... @Bookery can confirm. Those 2 formats killed pulps, which was mostly teen to adult audience,  the comics didn't do it. The comics ran off a seperate trail but surely pulled off younger readers from the pulps but not enough to kill them, just another place for a kids dime to go to in a zero sum game imho.

Comics in the old day always had a larger-than-we-think adult audience. Think Soldiers etc. Horror and Crime Comics were mostly aimed at adults IMHO. However I agree Comics were aimed primarily at kids and Pulps at adults. I think that paperbacks were the killing blow to pulps. They sure took up less rack space for the same price (more-or-less)! Also unmentioned so far is the fact that Television came up in the world at the same time Pulps started to fail. Not completely a coincidence, I'm sure. Interesting discussion.

On 12/22/2021 at 6:37 AM, Timely said:

I was told he did it to prove the books were his in case they were ever stolen. I assume he only coded the more valuable books. 
 

There were actually 2 different types of codes he did. There was the long code he did near the spine of an interior page and a --script “GO” that was on the bottom of the last page.

Thanks. I'll look again.

On 12/21/2021 at 7:24 AM, Timely said:

I believe there was a value cutoff to the coding. He would not have coded a $5 comic, but would have a $500 one.

I don't know as I only have the copies I bought from him. I think I paid $250 for Tales To Astonish # 1. Maybe it was less. At any rate, it might have been a $5 comic when he bought it. Though he did all the Marvel Checklists, I got the impression that his main love was the older, esp Timely Books. Maybe there was a date cut off?

On 12/17/2021 at 3:21 PM, Timely said:

Sad to hear of his passing. I’ve owned many of his books (he coded them all in a very specific and unique way) and saw him at SD several years back. 

He didn't mark all of them. I bought a number of Pre-Hero Monster Comics from him from a catalog he put out sometime in the 1980's. I think he was selling off his Atlas collection, or at least they made up the bulk of his catalog as I recall. I told John Verzl (sp) about buying from him at one SDCC and he told me about the code, (which I think I still remember). I looked at a number of the ones I had bought, but none had the Code. I didn't look at them all though. I've been meaning to post pics of them in the Silver Age section as I bought only really nice copies. There wasn't much demand for those then, so Most were still available when I got the catalog.

On 12/18/2021 at 2:53 PM, The Black Hand ® said:

This is the one with the inserted comic with the CONAN pastiche. I have it, but not the other which I've never seen before. How many have inserted comics?

On 11/19/2021 at 4:54 PM, OtherEric said:

Big Sleep is the only one from that era I have.  I swear, I'm going to sit down and start reading these some day very soon now...

That version of PLAYBACK is great! Maybe the best Chandler cover? Prove me wrong! There's a lot of great ones. If you read him AND YOU SHOULD! I would start with THE LONG GOODBYE which is his best IMHO. There's no need to read them in order of publication. They are pretty much stand-alone Novels.

Here are some Raymond Chandlers. Covers by Tom Adams who also did a ton of covers of Agatha Christie Books. Chandler has lots of great cover interpretations, but this series might be my favorites. Inside one of these 10 titles are listed, but these are all that I have. I'm not sure if all 10 had Adams covers. These are from the early 1970's, hardly Vintage to some people but they are now 50 years old. When I started collecting in the mid-late 1970's 50 years prior was certainly 'Vintage'! Post any others from this series if you got them.

I hope the N word doesn't get this banned. It was published by Dial Press a Mainstream New York publisher. Trade paperback. 2nd printing. The title was almost certainly cribbed from the 60's Horror Film Die Monster Die! IMHO