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

[BitterOldMan]

Added three more paperbacks to my ever growing hoard, including “Who goes there?” by John Campbell.  Had to get the dynamic McGinnis Zelda cover.

[pmpknface]

On 7/3/2024 at 11:24 PM, BitterOldMan said:

Added three more paperbacks to my ever growing hoard, including “Who goes there?” by John Campbell.  Had to get the dynamic McGinnis Zelda cover.

Cool!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216244/?ref_=ext_shr

 

[Sarg]

On 7/2/2024 at 7:11 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Pretty psyched that I think I've figured out who did the cover for Novel Library No. 39 "No Bed Of Her Own" by Val Lewton. Been wondering about this one forever since it's a famous "one hit wonder" by a highly noted film maker. 

My original copy had a hint of an initial in the lower right corner so I always wondered if there were offset copies that would reveal the sig. However it doesn't come up for sale often.

I recently got another copy and it show TWO initials clearly, "J" and "A", then I found a copy on ebay that shows the top only of THREE initials, that, combined with my clear TWO makes out the initials "JAE"

 

Going on Saunders pulp artists page,

https://www.pulpartists.com/Ernst.html

 

there's an artist named James A. Earnst, who mostly did Blue Book interiors, who used the three initials as shown in Saunders third example.

 

 

Nice detective work. And since Novel Library appears to have used the same graphic design firm as Avon, that makes it likely that James Earnst illustrated some Avon covers from the period, as well. 

Edited Thursday at 06:43 PM by Sarg
typo

[Sarg]

Another entry in the beguiling category of "American paperbacks with dust jackets."

Alfred A. Knopf launched a short-lived paperback series in 1935, presumably inspired by Penguin UK, which started the same year. Like Penguin, they were issued with dust jackets. Both the wrap and jacket had the same design -- typographical only. 

The series must have been a failure, but should be noted as the first attempt by an American publisher to launch a Penguin-style paperback line, four years before Pocket Books. The Knopf paperbacks go unmentioned in Piet Schreuders' Paperbacks, U.S.A. (1981) and Jon Warren's Official Price Guide to Paperbacks (1991).

[Surfing Alien]

On 7/4/2024 at 11:42 AM, Sarg said:

Another entry in the beguiling category of "American paperbacks with dust jackets."

Alfred A. Knopf launched a short-lived paperback series in 1935, presumably inspired by Penguin UK, which started the same year. Like Penguin, they were issued with dust jackets. Both the wrap and jacket had the same design -- typographical only. 

The series must have been a failure, but should be noted as the first attempt by an American publisher to launch a Penguin-style paperback line, four years before Pocket Books. The Knopf paperbacks go unmentioned in Piet Schreuders' Paperbacks, U.S.A. (1981) and Jon Warren's Official Price Guide to Paperbacks (1991).

Nice. I don't know if I ever knew that but now I do. Thanks 

[Surfing Alien]

On 7/4/2024 at 11:16 AM, Sarg said:

 

Nice detective work. And since Novel Library appears to have used the same graphic design firm as Avon, that makes it likely that James Earnst illustrated some von covers from the period, as well. 

Novel Library was a subsidiary or sister of Avon and definitely used the same stable. I'm going to look around for any suspects in both lines.

[jimjum12]

On 6/9/2023 at 1:16 AM, OtherEric said:

So, for the VCC last weekend, @GACollectibles listed a lot of paperbacks.  I may have gone a little overboard on the D-Series Mystery Doubles.

@GACollectibles

That may have been the thread that finally reeled me all the way into the realm of PB collecting.  I believe I got close to a dozen, for not much more than a hundred... and I kept pulling them out to look at them, and thinking how cool they were. I had gotten to where I sometimes forgot to even open packages of comics. I wondered who scarfed up so many before I got to that thread. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[OtherEric]

On 7/5/2024 at 9:27 AM, jimjum12 said:

@GACollectibles

That may have been the thread that finally reeled me all the way into the realm of PB collecting.  I believe I got close to a dozen, for not much more than a hundred... and I kept pulling them out to look at them, and thinking how cool they were. I had gotten to where I sometimes forgot to even open packages of comics. I wondered who scarfed up so many before I got to that thread. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Sorry, but I'm not sorry I beat you to the punch on so many of those.  That was an insanely fun box to open.

[Darwination]

Anybody have any insight into who this artist might be, Cadino??  Not my copy, at the IA
Venus on the Half-Shell - Philip Jose Farmer (as Kilgore Trout) (1975.Dell) cover Cadino 

Farmer's nod to Vonnegut, but I didn't realize that Trout was a nod to Sturgeon (fishes!)

[waaaghboss]

In decent shape but I think someone laminated the cover 😆 

[MattTheDuck]

On the road last week and snooping in used book stores and etc.  Picked up these 3 in independence MO in a bookstore that looked like the kind of place you’d want to dig.  These were protected in bags and had these descriptors.  Ironic that “Drunkard’s Walk” was discussed just after this purchase - I got it for Pohl.

 

[Surfing Alien]

On 7/5/2024 at 5:41 PM, waaaghboss said:

In decent shape but I think someone laminated the cover 😆 

This book was printed with lamination. Are you thinking someone hand laminated it on top of that? or that the original lamination came off and it was re-laminated?

[waaaghboss]

On 7/5/2024 at 3:48 PM, Surfing Alien said:

This book was printed with lamination. Are you thinking someone hand laminated it on top of that? or that the original lamination came off and it was re-laminated?

At first I thought hand laminated due to how thick it is, but comparing it to other similar avons maybe not.   It was a decent price so I'm not too bothered either way.  Just glad to have it, one of my favorite covers.

[Sarg]

It would be pretty hard to re-laminate a cover. The original was laminated flat, then bent around the text block, I think. 

[Surfing Alien]

I try to save my Thompson reading for when I get a decent reader of his 1st editions and this Lion Books 155 is just the right copy for the purpose. There's just something about reading noir in the original paperbacks that sets the mood right for me that even the best Black Lizard can't do, even though I've read plenty of those.  "Savage Night" is just savage, period. I think I like it better than "The Killer Inside Me" and "A Hell Of A Woman" as far as twists and twistedness of the protagonist, contract Killer Carl Bigelowe and the cast of townsfolk he encounters on his hit.

I'm pretty sure Maguire painted this cover (and "A Hell Of A Woman") although it remains uncredited.

 

 

 

[Darwination]

I've been hunting Thompsons.  It's a very interesting case where the demand and supply (since people have been collecting them for decades) are both high enough to keep prices high (and super high on scarcer and fave books).  Something about the pulp/grit factor keep fans after the originals, too, a modern printing is too sanitary and the old pbs are more in line with his outsider status (though BL and UK pressings don't exactly scream mainstream acceptance, either).

Savage Night is usually considered one of Thompson's grisliest 😬

[Darwination]

SpineTic posted this UK stand on the newsstand thread.  I wonder if the pb hawks can pick out what I'm assuming are Janson/Heades at the far right?

We've all got the things we can pick out first on these stands and sadly the image resolution makes pbs trickier than mags and comics - I see Flirt April 1950 and Beauty Parade March 1950 for a time marker.

[Surfing Alien]

On 7/6/2024 at 10:27 AM, Darwination said:

SpineTic posted this UK stand on the newsstand thread.  I wonder if the pb hawks can pick out what I'm assuming are Janson/Heades at the far right?

We've all got the things we can pick out first on these stands and sadly the image resolution makes pbs trickier than mags and comics - I see Flirt April 1950 and Beauty Parade March 1950 for a time marker.

Super grainy but Dames Are No Dice stands out

[Darwination]

Lol, Slim Vincent, what a name