Paperback 1078: Showdown / Lee Stevens (DimeNovels #1) (DN 0010)

Paperback 1078: DimeNovels 1 (PBO, 1990)

Title: Showdown

Author: Lee Stevens

Cover artist: J. Wayne Anderson

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5

Best things about this cover:

• I love how much this guy hates cards. Or maybe this is some kind of shooting trick. I'm really impressed that he got such even distribution of cards (and chips!), all in the air at once. 
• It's like he's using the table for a shield, but shooting at ... what, the chandelier? 
• This is a dumb little book! Seriously, it's literally ... little. 3 x 4.5 in. Here it is next to some grown-up-sized books:

• I got this book at one of the used bookstores in Longmont, CO (I forget which ... Barbed Wire, maybe?). Lots and lots (and lots) of vintage westerns there. And then this novelty book. 
• I wonder about DimeNovels. This is literally #1. "DMN 0010" it says on the copyright page. Let's do some googling and Holy Moly, jackpot! Not numbered consecutively—numbered by the genre (!?!?!). Such good info here:

And now the back cover ...

Best things about this back cover:

• Text! I mean ... this must be like a quarter of the book, right here on the cover. Leave us *something* to discover inside!
• This sounds like every western ever written / filmed / conceived
• Yup, I was right: Barbed Wire Books. There's their address and everything, in case you're ever out that way.
• The logo's kinda sweet...

• ... Would wear that on a t-shirt, for sure.

Page 123~ (LOL, jk, this book is only 91 (small!) pages long, so here's Page 23)

But there weren't no clay anywhere else at that point of the trail.

Shouldn't that be "there weren't no clay nowhere else" ... I'm no dialect expert, but it sounds better, plus the triple negative kinda takes you back to a single negative situation, which is what you wanted, grammatically, in the first place. But I'm sure the publisher knows what he's doing, Now let's just flip to the last page of the book for no particular reason and ... whoa:

Randy L. Byrd's 1980 album "Byrd Dog" sold in excess of a dozen copies, though the lead single, "Geez's! (I Say to Myself)," sadly never charted.

~RP

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Paperback 1064: The Big Four / Agatha Christie (Dell 0562)

Paperback 1064: Dell 0562 (1st New Dell Edition, 1972)

Title: The Big Four

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Uncredited

Condition: 9/10

Value: ~$10

Best things about this cover:

• These objects-only covers are fairly common for Christie paperbacks of the '60s and '70s. I think (William) Teason is the name of the artist I know who has done several like this. Maybe this cover is Teason's work too, dunno. Anyway, it's very evocative ... of a certain ... criminal ... milieu ... but it's not terribly exciting.
• The pearl-handled gun is gorgeous, as is the ornamental key. The noose is awfully, uh, circular. It's all so artfully arranged, like evidence that you just know is planted.
• I'm curious about this font. And about the weird colors ... beige / yellow / beige ... that's one way to make sure the yellow doesn't pop. Then again, publishers have clearly learned to value marketing over art at this point, as Christie's name is big feature, and everything else merely decorative.
• I want all the people in the photographs to be Doing Something! Making out, killing each other, something! To this cover's credit, I am curious to know how all this detritus fits into narrative form.

Best things about this back cover:

• Back Cover Copy in C[heap pun] Minor
• Wait, four men? I thought the photos on the cover were the Big Four, but one of those was a woman, so ... now I'm *really* intrigued (I've only ever read a few Christie titles in my life, if I'm being honest)
• Bizarre to make such a superhero out of Poirot and yet depict him Nowhere on your cover. 

Page 123~

"Ernest Luttrell. Son of a North Country parson. Always had a kink of some kind in his moral make-up"

I am quite sure that what Christie means by "kink" and what I mean by "kink" are somewhat if not quite different from one another, and yet ... one can hope.

~RP

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Paperback 850: Famous Sheriffs and Western Outlaws / William MacLeod Raine (Perma Books P18)

Paperback 850: Perma Books P18 (1st ptg, circa 1948)

Title: Famous Sheriffs and Western Outlaws
Author: William MacLeod Raine
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $15-20


Best things about this cover:

• What are "Things you'd find in the most cliché depiction of a saloon"?
• Hardbound paperback. Because "Perma"nence. Permabooks is retrospectively adorable.
• So the guy shoots his gun then lays it gently down on the table and walks away. Seems … implausible.
• I like the aural juxtaposition (!) of "cloud" and "rain" in this dude's name.

Best things about this back cover:

• "BOOKS*TO*KEEP." It kills me that your core concept is that paperbacks should come in a hardbound version for preservation purposes … and then several years later, you still have the same name, but the hardbound versions: gone.
• This company is dedicated to stretching the meaning of "permanent" as far as possible before it snaps.
• The problem with the PERMAgloss, as any paperback collector knows, is that "perma" part is a damn lie. Shit peels off like crazy. Here, it's just pulling from the surface slightly, creating weird puddle-like patterns that I'm not sure you can even see on the scans.

Page 123~

But they did not leave wholly unavenged.

~RP

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Paperback 796: Stacked Deck / Frank Kane (Dell First Edition B197)

Paperback 796: Dell First Edition B197 (PBO, 1961)

Title: Stacked Deck
Author: Frank Kane
Cover artist: Bob McGinnis

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• I see why she is drawn as a reflection of herself—the whole playing card angle—but dear god this cover would be 10x better if the top half of the painting just Continued. Down. I feel slightly ripped off. Let's just say that McGinnis had a knack for the lower half.
• The upper half is, however, is exquisite.
• Black hearts = nice touch.
• Ooh, short stories. That's cool. You don't see that very often in single-author paperbacks.

Best things about this back cover:

• Love the description of the Hollywood swimming pool as "well-stocked." 
• "Debonair" is one of those words that can cut both ways—teeters on the wall between "cool" and "repulsively slick."
• Last line there is a super-weak attempt to drum up some Marlovian mystique. Face it: you're never going to get more succinct and bad ass than "Trouble Is My Business," so don't even try.

Page 123~

He stared glumly at the coffee, pulled himself out of the chair and spilled the coffee into the sink. He lifted the Scotch bottle from the closet, spilled three fingers into a glass.
"What a waste of good material," he groaned.
He lifted the glass to his lips, drained it, shook his head sadly. "What a waste!" [end of story]

This after a woman left his apartment, telling him that she was going to turn herself in to the police. I can only assume that that last line is an aural pun that is utterly lost in print.

~RP

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Paperback 365: Drawn to Evil / Harry Whittington & The Scarlet Spade / Eaton K. Goldthwaite (Ace D-5)

Paperback 365: Ace Double D-5 (PBO / 1st ptg)

Title: Drawn to Evil / The Scarlet Spade
Author: Harry Whittington / Eaton K. Goldthwaite
Cover artist: Norman Saunders / Norman Saunders??? (Uncredited)

Yours for: $65


Best things about this cover:

• "Hey, tiger, whaddya think of this cami-" "Aw, shut yer yap, you loony dame!"
• Hazel was afraid to tell Bill that his Vulcan salute still needed a lot of practice.
• "Hey, babe, I just found a buyer for this stolen VHS tape I've got in my coat pocket! Gimme a high five! ... Up top? ... Aw, c'mon, don't leave me hangin', babe!"
• "I will karate chop your ass, so help me God, woman!"
• Norman Saunders was a cover painter in the great days of pulp fiction. His flair for the sensational and overdramatic is strongly in evidence here.

Best things about this back cover:

• In my head, she is making the worst, whiniest, most horrible noise in her throat.
• "Can someone please inflate the blow-up doll the rest of the way! Tom's gonna be here any second ..."
• Are those gigantic ice cubes in the background?
• "Nope, the spade's still black, sweetheart. Try again."

Page 123 (from The Scarlet Spade)~

Denver Calhoun's eyes smoldered in his broad, white face as he watched the full progress of O'Moriarty's exit.

So, some fat-faced white guy named Denver has the hots for some super-Irish guy. So what's new?

~RP

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Paperback 306: High Sierra / W.R. Burnett (Bantam 826)

Paperback 306: Bantam 826 (1st ptg, 1950) (ex-lib)

Title: High Sierra
Author: W.R. Burnett
Cover artist: Harry Schaare

Yours for: $15


Best things about this cover

• "Yeah, so, I like to grab the shaft real tight with one hand, like so, and then rub the tip back and forth with the other hand, real slow, like so, you see? And then ... what? What're you mugs starin' at? Ain't you never seen a guy polish his gun before?"
• I *love* the expression on her face. It's like she's saying, quietly, out of the side of her mouth: "Uh ... are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Clearly the dude with the cards is as stunned as she is ... staring intently ... clawing the chair arm ...
• In other news about the guy stroking his rod: those are some high pants. Tie-swallowing pants. And the girliest suspenders imaginable.

Best thing about this back cover:

• Only the Cincinnati Times Star really appears to be tapping into what I'm seeing on the cover.

Page 123~

Roy was appalled at the change in Big Mac's appearance and sat studying him covertly. Mac had lost a lot of weight and the skin under his chin hung in pale folds. His hands shook and he kept drinking glass after glass of straight whisky.

I can't help but picture a haggard, embittered, world-weary, alcoholic Mayor McCheese.

~RP

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57 Books from the University Book Sale: Book 16

Title: The Education of a Poker Player (Cardinal, 1961)
Author: Herbert O. Yardley
Cover artist: N/A

Yours for: SOLD (11/21/09)

• I love this book. Design is impeccable. Vegas/neon-style font = total WIN.
• All poker players should look like this guy. Those douchebags on ESPN2 make me want to stay as far away from the game as possible, but I would sit next to Fred Mertz here.
• "Lusty!?" — not a word I would have associated with this guy, but OK. Good for him.

• OMG it's an interactive quiz cover!
• "One Big Pair" — see "Lusty," front cover.

Page 142 (page 123 is a buncha technical poker stuff) ~

The only kibitzers were Maria, Bing, who spied on foreigners, and a Polish girl who broadcast Chinese propaganda — for what reason I could never understand, but then most foreigners managed to get on the Chinese payroll.

~RP

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Paperback 175: Murder After Hours / Agatha Christie (Dell 5922)

Paperback 175: Dell 5922 (1st ptg, 1965)

Title: Murder After Hours
Author: Agatha Christie
Cover artist: William Teason

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• Worst Weapon-Hiding Place Ever
• "Hey, watch me make the horse shoot bullets out his butt!"
• This cover was painted using primarily leftover "Exorcist" vomit
• Teason specializes in these odd little still lifes featuring unlikely groupings of objects. There appears to be, in addition to the horse sculpture/gun, a riding crop, a rag, a tabloid story about someone who was "MURDERED," and a bent playing card (King of Hearts)

Best things about this back cover:

• They always suck me in with their geometry teasers: "It looked like an ordinary triangle ... but it was scalene!"
• Apparently the "triangle" is a sculpture of human flesh
• "Sculptress"! Remember when the idea of a woman's doing anything of note outside the home, especially anything creative, was so unusual that it required flagging with a suffix? Why they don't call Christie an "authoress," I don't know.

Page 123~

Oh no, thought Midge, it can't be true. It's a dream I've been having. John Christow, murdered, shot - lying there by the pool. Blood and blue water - like the jacket of a detective story. Fantastic, unreal ...

~RP