Book Guy

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

Digest size. Public Opinion Publishers which was distributed by Poor Richards Bookshop in Hollywood! Skull cover! I like the title.

Wisdom House. NYC. 1961. A lot of this political literature is just sitting there unnoticed by Vintage Paperback Collectors. Some with striking covers, though they are usually pretty heavy on text.

Classic Frazetta and Keel! You've all seen this before, but I like the cover and the Author.

Thanks!

Thanks to pulpvault the spaceman cover has been identified as Robert Gibson Jones and the Fantastic cover of the skeleton on a flying carpet as possibly by Vernon Kramer.

The ADVENTURE 'cover' was as I thought-not a piece of cover art.

Thanks for the help!

GK

Thanks. Does he read these boards? GK

Thanks. GK

Thanks for the info. Too much sentimental value to sell. Plus I like looking at it every time I pass it by!

GK