Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values? 25 25

[Surfing Alien]

On 8/4/2021 at 10:51 AM, moonpool said:

Heade got 13 pounds plus 2 pounds more if he did the lettering.

 

At $4.80 USD to the Pound back then that's pretty awful - but I'm sure their over all budgets were much lower because the print runs were much smaller than here in the US on anything other than the Hank Janson books. Having done a lot of researching of the late 40's and early 50's in paperback publishing in the "Publisher's Weekly" archives, I can tell you the artists were less than nothing to the literary folk - there is virtually nothing on any of them, even the biggest names like Saunders, McGinnis and Avati, in the publishers announcements and articles. It was all about the authors all the time. I guess it's a bit of poetic justice that so many of those authors are read by no one now and their books collected solely for the cover art

[frozentundraguy]

I had a couple of books arrived this week that I bought on the net. Recently I bought "Jailbait Street" by Ellson, so I decided to add an earlier book (Duke pub. 1949) from Popular Library, and one that was given a positive review by Frederic Wertham in the American Journal of Psychotherapy.

 

I also acquired a copy of "When Worlds Collide", a book I have long considered adding to my collection.

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by frozentundraguy

[Surfing Alien]

On 8/7/2021 at 9:39 PM, frozentundraguy said:

I also acquired a copy of "When Worlds Collide", a book I have long considered adding to my collection.

Both great covers, "When Worlds Collide" is one of the ones I've always kept a copy of. So classic.

[Surfing Alien]

Some recent Beacon pickups with their usual nice GGA covers. Warren King on "The Sucker" Howell Dodd on "Night of Shame" Bob Stanley on "Pagan Passions". "Convention Girl" looks a bit like Harry Barton but i'm not laying bets yet.

[Hap Hazard]

I like the Convention Queen.

[Surfing Alien]

On 8/11/2021 at 5:57 PM, Hap Hazard said:

I like the Convention Queen.

Me too. Classic late Ray Johnson cover where he integrated some line art similar to what Mitchell Hooks was doing at the time. Johnson definitely used the same model as he did on "Jailbait Street" over at Monarch (borrowing frozentundraguy's scan from above so I don't have to dig mine out )

[OtherEric]

I need to dig my other d-series doubles out of storage.  But it still makes a nice looking shelf with the half I’ve got handy:

[Westy Steve]

On 8/14/2021 at 5:52 PM, OtherEric said:

I need to dig my other d-series doubles out of storage.  But it still makes a nice looking shelf with the half I’ve got handy:

That’s beautiful 

[Westy Steve]

Pick this up because it was cheap and I’ve never seen it before. The other cover is pretty sexy but this one has its own fantasy elements.  Makes me wonder what other giant women covers are out there. 
 

 

[Surfing Alien]

 

 

On 8/15/2021 at 6:48 PM, Westy Steve said:

Pick this up because it was cheap and I’ve never seen it before. The other cover is pretty sexy but this one has its own fantasy elements.  Makes me wonder what other giant women covers are out there. 
 

 

There's some other Big Women out there...  

[frozentundraguy]

I might add there are some little women out there as well.

 

[OtherEric]

Not sure on some of these if the women are giant, the other figures are small, the image is symbolic, or the perspective is wonky.  But I'll show them so you can make your own calls:

[Surfing Alien]

No matter how focused I try to stay, I can still never resist picking up early Avons. 

Avon nn#24 "Ashenden" might be the earliest wraparound cover i've seen at any publisher? Artist uncredited but looks like William Forrest who did a few others around this time

nn#40, classic mystery with a nice skull cover. Close enough to Paul Stahr's other skull covers on 38 and 68 that i'd say it's likely his hand.

nn#41, the last of the "no numbers" - some mo' Maugham. Art by A. Gonzales

[Pat Calhoun]

[moonpool]

[Surfing Alien]

On 8/21/2021 at 12:33 PM, moonpool said:

Those are superior copies as usual moonpool You don't see "Sinner's Club" looking like that every day.

[Surfing Alien]

So when I was researching Victor Olson for the cover credit for the "Waltz Into Darkness" Ace D-40 cover a page back, I came across a set of his original paintings, of "Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo", European discoverer of California, and ended up buying them It's really delightful to see how skillful these paperback painters were up close. I'm waiting for the second painting to be retrieved from storage. These originally came from his estate. I could see this becoming a disease

 

[moonpool]

[Surfing Alien]

Just got a copy of #1 to round out the set of Avon Science Fiction Readers. All 3 have amazing GGA covers and contents well selected by Donald A. Wollheim, including many that originally appeared in "Weird Tales". A beautiful short set to collect, the sexy space babe covers scream classic Avon.

#1 was the first Avon Digest I ever came across back in the 1980's and It has always been a favorite cover of mine. I never knew back then who the artist was but it's Robert Crowl, an artist little known to the collecting world but who did quite a few covers in the Ray Johnson/Bob Randall pin-up style for Avon in the early 50's and is probably my #3 favorite Avon artist after those two. Like the stapled Avon Fantasy Readers, they always seem to have bindery tears.

I don't always sacrifice, but when I do, I Sacrifice to the Lust Queen of the Flame Rite!  #2's cover is not credited anywhere but I think it has to be Crowl as well, based on all the stylistic similarities and proximity in time.

#3 has a killer Earle Bergey Robot/GGA cover and the 1st mass market paperback/anthology appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "In the Walls of Eryx"

 

[Pat Calhoun]

Just reread PN40 (some decades in between) and I imagine that while Fowler Wright was pounding this out on his typewriter Dean Swift was smiling in the clouds.