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

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/8/2024 at 11:13 AM, Darwination said:

Pretty sure these are same publisher as the Uni-books.  Weird little digests - I've only had that second Army Romances, but the production values were not high

 

These are long before the Universal Digests started but are also cheap paper covers. And they are all about the cover art, not the stories, which are short MAM type fantasies. They do have Warren King in common with Uni, as Uni hired King for a bunch of covers in the 1950's.

The first issue with the Schomburg war cover is exceedingly rare, much rarer than his comic covers. The four other issues are all scarce to rare and all have King covers with leggy good girls.

I think they were meant to be breezy stories for the troops as the horror of the war wore down in late '45, early 46

[Darwination]

My take was the are linked through the Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (I believe a perennial player in the newsstand rackets since maybe the 30s?).  Bern Williams who edited the Army/Navy Romances later edited a lot of Hot Rod types of mags for UPD in the late 50s, and my guess is that King maintained a working relationship he could go back to (King did work for St. John c.1950 somewhere in between and gets a cool chapter in John Benson's Confessions, Romances, Secrets and Temptations: Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Comics).

I scanned the Army Romances I had (edited by McCoy), and have it up at the IA if anybody wants to take a look.  A unique line for sure, the interior art borders on horrid:

https://archive.org/details/army-romances-v-02n-01-1946-d-m-ia

 

Edited June 8 by Darwination

[Darwination]

I had another pb I was gonna post first, but I thought I'd let this one that I just got out of the mailbox hop the line.  I wonder if my mailman likes not having to come to the front door as often with magazines and comics, as the pbs fit in the mailbox (lord knows he'll try and fit a comic or a magazine in the mailbox, too, if a seller doesn't stop him with a cardboard backer).  I love my mailman in spite of but didn't go meet him today cuz he'd want to talk Dodgers baseball and would ask me what happened to the Vols this morning

I ordered this one when I finally took the hint on Richard Powers after Jimbo posted Deals with the Devil and I looked up a bunch of his covers.  I don't know if I'd go as far as Jimbo in saying he never had a bad idea, but he sure had a lot of different ideas and a very distinctive vibe.  I'm not exactly a sci-fi guy (might have overdosed as a juvenile), but I can see myself hunting some of his covers down.  This one may be an outlier - I like it cuz it's cute

[Darwination]

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams (1958.Dell B114) cover Ernest Darcy Chiriacka PBO

The yellow is gonna make this a tough one to find a really pretty copy of, but in the meantime I'm reading Williams, so I was happy to get a deal on a reader.

 

[Surfing Alien]

On 2/28/2024 at 2:02 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Definitely not the writer. I think it looks a lot like Ernest Chiriaka's work, seen here (as his pseudonym "Darcy") on Charles Williams' superb "Girl Out Back" from the same time frame. I see my pal Steve Wallace on Flickr hasn't put a credit on but I bet he'd agree the semi-loose brushwork and composition style is very similar. Chiriaka did a TON of cover paintings in the 50's & early 60's, many for Dell. If not him, someone in the style for sure.

This pretty undercopy may appear in another thread around here this weekend

 

"Girl Out Back" is great, and a real nice Chiriaka cover as well. When I posted my undercopy a couple of months ago I was going to sell it but put it back on the shelf. There's some books I just really like to have more than one nice copy of

 

[Surfing Alien]

Robert Maguire original artwork for "Summer Street" by Hal Ellson, Ballantine No. 27, 1952.

It's very early for him, before he started with the large good girls. Still a cool JD piece and both front and back paintings 

It's in need of a fair amount of restoration and framing, both of which I'm happy to do to preserve his legacy 

Original art is so rewarding to handle.

 

 

[Darwination]

Kind of a touchy feely back cover blurb   I think I may like the back cover more than the front, a quick little dockfront waterscape

[jimjum12]

On 6/9/2024 at 1:01 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Robert Maguire original artwork for "Summer Street" by Hal Ellson, Ballantine No. 27, 1952.

It's very early for him, before he started with the large good girls. Still a cool JD piece and both front and back paintings 

It's in need of a fair amount of restoration and framing, both of which I'm happy to do to preserve his legacy 

Original art is so rewarding to handle.

 

 

What is the substrate for those two? GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[jimjum12]

On 6/8/2024 at 6:00 PM, Darwination said:

I ordered this one when I finally took the hint on Richard Powers after Jimbo posted Deals with the Devil and I looked up a bunch of his covers.  I don't know if I'd go as far as Jimbo in saying he never had a bad idea, but he sure had a lot of different ideas and a very distinctive vibe.  I'm not exactly a sci-fi guy (might have overdosed as a juvenile), but I can see myself hunting some of his covers down.  This one may be an outlier - I like it cuz it's cute

Not everyone digs Powers. He sought an original approach where many contented themselves with a "house" style. That being said, the market was so compepetitive that the true duds were few, from every studio. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

Edited June 9 by jimjum12

[Pat Calhoun]

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/9/2024 at 1:58 PM, jimjum12 said:

Not everyone digs Powers. He sought an original approach where many contented themselves with a "house" style. That being said, the market was so compepetitive that the true duds were few, from every studio. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

I like Powers a lot, I love this one, a favorite. Of course, this has the surrealist cohesiveness of the background, which I associate with Dali.

My comments of indifference are in reference to his covers that are mostly just squiggly lines or lines and shapes, of which there are plenty, that leave me cold, as much of the Pollack splatter type modern art does. I wouldn't spend anyone's millions on that, but I'd buy the Hell's Pavement OA in a second 

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/9/2024 at 1:21 PM, jimjum12 said:

What is the substrate for those two? GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

The standard Bainbridge Board. They are large though

[jimjum12]

On 6/9/2024 at 2:08 PM, Surfing Alien said:

My comments of indifference are in reference to his covers that are mostly just squiggly lines or lines and shapes, of which there are plenty, that leave me cold, as much of the Pollack splatter type modern art does. I wouldn't spend anyone's millions on that, but I'd buy the Hell's Pavement OA in a second 

He had an ability to provide a true "alien" quality to a work. He did become a little too "minimalist" for even my" everybody get's a trophy " pandering. Unlike Mae West. when Powers was good he was good, but when he was bad, he was definitely NOT better.  GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

[jimjum12]

On 6/9/2024 at 2:10 PM, Surfing Alien said:

The standard Bainbridge Board. They are large though

Not to continue pestering, but was he oil, guache, acrylic, or watercolor? Last question today, I promise. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[OtherEric]

I think this is Powers, but very minimalist even for him. 

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/9/2024 at 2:23 PM, OtherEric said:

I think this is Powers, but very minimalist even for him. 

I like this one. It has the minimum required perspective field to keep my attention and look like a picture.

Actually like a nice b/w interior turned into a cover

Edited June 9 by Surfing Alien

[Surfing Alien]

On 6/9/2024 at 2:22 PM, jimjum12 said:

Not to continue pestering, but was he oil, guache, acrylic, or watercolor? Last question today, I promise. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Oil, applied in many layers of thickness from a wisp to globs. He definitely was experimenting a lot on this early painting.

Likely because of such a wide angle city/sea scape view, maybe the earliest I've seen like this of his. So many of his paintings are relatively close up, this has a sketchy, impressionistic feel. I'm sure getting a Ballantine cover in 1952 was a big deal for him.

[Pat Calhoun]

After Surf's monumental Maguire acquisition (yer hangin' twelve, Alien!) I felt like posting this just-in Berkley beauty...

[frozentundraguy]

On 6/9/2024 at 12:58 PM, jimjum12 said:

Not everyone digs Powers. He sought an original approach where many contented themselves with a "house" style. That being said, the market was so compepetitive that the true duds were few, from every studio. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

When I saw this cover I was sure I had one, but for a different title. Turns out it was close but no cigar, but was a Powers cover.

 

[Randall Dowling]

On 6/9/2024 at 4:11 PM, Pat Calhoun said:

After Surf's monumental Maguire acquisition (yer hangin' twelve, Alien!) I felt like posting this just-in Berkley beauty...

Love it.  One of my favorites.