Paperback Collection: What is your favorite publisher? Books from the 40's to the 70's 1 1

[OtherEric]

On 7/5/2024 at 11:30 AM, Sarg said:

Anyone know why there were no mass market paperbacks of Clark Ashton Smith until the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series in the 1970s? I mean as a single-author book, not appearances in anthologies. 

It seems a bit strange, since HPL and most of his circle were published in mass market PBs from the '40s onward. 

Then again, AFAIK there were no Seabury Quinn mass market PBs until the '70s either...

Remember, HPL was something of an exception in that he did get several mass market PB's in the 40's.  But other than a retitled reprint of "The Lurking Fear", there weren't any HLP paperbacks in the 50's.  I don't think Robert E. Howard got any paperbacks until the 60's, either. Robert Bloch's first paperback collection in the US was half of an Ace Double in 1958.  (One I still need...).

I'm not totally disagreeing that it's weird that CAS didn't get any mass market paperbacks until the 70's, I would have expected something in the 60's.  But other than those HPL outliers, there wasn't much of anybody until the late 50's that I know of.

A few covers just for color:

[Sarg]

On 7/5/2024 at 2:22 PM, Darwination said:

It's very possible that only the paintings came from the art agencies and the lettering was done in-house by Avon?  They've got great lettering on their comics, too...

 

 

 

 

Yep. I think it was the same person doing the lettering for all Avon publications. 

[Surfing Alien]

On 7/5/2024 at 5:35 PM, Sarg said:

Yep. I think it was the same person doing the lettering for all Avon publications. 

Yeah, I just looked back and Avon pbs were hand lettered all the way back to the first one in 1941. I never really focused on that aspect of them but you're right, they make them quite unique looking and fully integrated with the cover art.

[jimjum12]

On 7/5/2024 at 2:32 PM, Sarg said:

Bingo, that's the info I was seeking. Now if we can only discover who did the lettering for those agencies ... truly, the most unsung artist of the paperback era. 

Back in those days, a proper art training involved Logo design and hand lettering. That is a very good question though. It could also be a production artist at the publisher. A LOT of people made livings as artists in those days ... not at all the path to starvation that it is today. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Robot Man]

On 7/6/2024 at 6:49 AM, jimjum12 said:

Back in those days, a proper art training involved Logo design and hand lettering. That is a very good question though. It could also be a production artist at the publisher. A LOT of people made livings as artists in those days ... not at all the path to starvation that it is today. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

I was required to take typography, hand lettering and calligraphy in art school. Although I really liked it, my teacher was extremely tough and disciplined. If you showed up in class without your assignment he would literally throw you out. If you used white out or scraped off an over drawn line, he would rip it off the wall. Hated him then but respect him now. 

[Darwination]

Todd Klein's blog has always been a great source for information/appreciation of title lettering in the comics and pulps.  Absolutely one of the top artist's blogs out there in terms of dropping historical knowledge.

For example

https://kleinletters.com/Blog/logo-design-for-comics/

[jimjum12]

On 7/6/2024 at 10:26 AM, Robot Man said:

I was required to take typography, hand lettering and calligraphy in art school. Although I really liked it, my teacher was extremely tough and disciplined. If you showed up in class without your assignment he would literally throw you out. If you used white out or scraped off an over drawn line, he would rip it off the wall. Hated him then but respect him now. 

I went to the Kubert School and wanted to be a funny book fellow, and while my work was exceptional when time was no issue, I never could keep a deadline from highlighting my inner mediocrity. I wanted to be Frank Frazetta, not the guy who did a lousy fill in issue when the top gun was sick. I moved on to printing, Sign Painting, and Murals. We had some tough teachers too. Milt Kahl. one of Disney's 9 Old Men, was one. Jose Delbo was another.Tex Blaisdell, an inker of Hal Foster, also. I didn't have Joe K., but he was still teaching full time. One of the best periods of my life, but I eventually moved to manufacturing and warehousing. Money was better. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

I actually had one comic make it to some shops, "Ruck Bud Webster, and his Screeching Commandos" that was painfully mediocre. When I saw it in print, I realized the truth, bittersweet.

Edited July 7 by jimjum12

[jimjum12]

On 7/6/2024 at 10:41 AM, Darwination said:

Todd Klein's blog has always been a great source for information/appreciation of title lettering in the comics and pulps.  Absolutely one of the top artist's blogs out there in terms of dropping historical knowledge.

For example

https://kleinletters.com/Blog/logo-design-for-comics/

Darwination

Fountainhead of wisdom. 

GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Darwination]

My wife would laugh for a week, maybe two, if I told her I was a fountainhead of wisdom

[Hap Hazard]

Dug into some smaller Misc. boxes

 

[Sarg]

Finally found a pic of Avon's owner Joseph Meyers courtesy David Saunders' site, who also provides a capsule bio of the man, whose real family name was Yaroslavsky. Like Donenfield and many of the other charming, upstanding crooks who comprised the publishing racket, Meyers started out in 1922 selling "erotic books," in this case for J.S. Ogilvie, which was actually owned by American News (Hearst, Annenberg, and the North Side Gang). The NYT obit from 1957 adds that Meyers, hilariously, set up the "Avon Books Charitable Foundation" -- not out of the kindness of his heart, I would add, but to provide cover for his softcore sleaze business, aka Avon Books. What amazing con artists these guys were. 

Avon was just another shell company in American News's gigantic racket. It's misleading to treat these as sole proprietorships. There were really only two periodical publishers, American News and Independent News. 

[Sarg]

Avon, like Pocket Books, also was into the book vending business. I found this amazing photo at David Saunders' site.

[Hap Hazard]

For you DELL paperback collectors found this in a book years ago, DELL promo book mark, anyone seen this before?

from around 1956

Edited July 8 by Hap Hazard

[OtherEric]

On 7/7/2024 at 10:34 AM, Sarg said:

Avon, like Pocket Books, also was into the book vending business. I found this amazing photo at David Saunders' site.

I've got three of the visible ones.  I should have four, but Finger Man got lost in the mail on the way to me. I've also got an earlier version of The Big Four.

[Randall Dowling]

On 7/7/2024 at 12:34 PM, Sarg said:

Avon, like Pocket Books, also was into the book vending business. I found this amazing photo at David Saunders' site.

I need one of those machines.  I would remodel my house around it.

[Darwination]

The look on the model's face

[Darwination]

On 7/7/2024 at 12:28 PM, Sarg said:

Finally found a pic of Avon's owner Joseph Meyers courtesy David Saunders' site, who also provides a capsule bio of the man, whose real family name was Yaroslavsky. Like Donenfield and many of the other charming, upstanding crooks who comprised the publishing racket, Meyers started out in 1922 selling "erotic books," in this case for J.S. Ogilvie, which was actually owned by American News (Hearst, Annenberg, and the North Side Gang). The NYT obit from 1957 adds that Meyers, hilariously, set up the "Avon Books Charitable Foundation" -- not out of the kindness of his heart, I would add, but to provide cover for his softcore sleaze business, aka Avon Books. What amazing con artists these guys were. 

Avon was just another shell company in American News's gigantic racket. It's misleading to treat these as sole proprietorships. There were really only two periodical publishers, American News and Independent News. 

Great links!  I hadn't heard Woodford's Avons were picked out for banning in Philly or that there was legal trouble for Avon involving abridgement.

It's been fun figuring out which of the paperback lines are associated with which publishers (and I resist putting that in quotes heh heh).   It doesn't take long studying comics or pulps or magazines or paperbacks to figure out it's all the same big ball of wax.

Edited July 8 by Darwination

[jimjum12]

On 7/8/2024 at 1:43 PM, Darwination said:

"publishers"

Fixed for you. 

GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

"When I was caught with the 480 Keys, Your Honor, I was simply trying to buy a Hospital in the Bahamas for my poor, sick, Mom." ' Richard Pryor

[Hap Hazard]

I'm working on organizing my Misc. boxes, so many small publishers in the forties and fifties.

blurry pic of books trying to organize.

[Sarg]

On 7/8/2024 at 9:22 AM, Randall Dowling said:

I need one of those machines.  I would remodel my house around it.

According to Paperbacks, USA (1981), there was a "VendAvon" in LaGuardia Airport.