Paperback 156: Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, Nov. 1958

Paperback 156: Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, Nov. 1958

• Includes: "Seed of Violence" by Jay Williams and "Operation Cassandra" by Miriam Allen de Ford
• Other authors: Christopher Anvil, Lee Correy, Frank Herbert (!), and Robert F. Young
• Cover artist: Norman Siegel

Yours for: SOLD 1/9/11


Best things about this cover:

• I have this incredible urge to fill this guy up with unleaded.
• His helmet and sleeves ZIP ON - yeah, I'm sure that's up to outer-space code. "Due to budgetary restrictions, we will be using recycled Levi's zippers in all our spacesuits."
• "Novelet" is a very ridiculous word
• Another "seed" story!? Enough is enough.
• One of the pieces in this magazine is written collectively by "Civilian Saucer Intelligence," or (you guessed it) CSI. It's all about why aliens are prone to reveal themselves to animals first, instead of to humans. No, I'm not kidding.
  

Best things about this back cover:

• Advertising! Yay!
• I think I saw this in my 1930s "Dick Tracy" collection. Or else ... no, maybe it was in the apartment of Mike Hammer in "Kiss Me Deadly." Or the police station in "White Heat." Whatever - if you love dated futuristic gadgetry, you have to love this.
• "Even a child of five can operate it!" - suck it, four-year-olds!
• "Filnor Products" is not a believable name. Clearly a front for an Islamofascist group or some other group that might be less than fully capable of inventing a plausible Anglo-sounding name.

Page 123~

It's at a weird place in the magazine, so I'll just scan it:


Q: What is Mr. Scoliosis Globehead holding? A slightly miniaturized replica of his own head? A Piggy Bank? A bowling ball with a cigarette stuck in one of the finger holes?

~RP

Paperback 151: The Day the Machines Stopped / Christopher Anvil (Monarch Books 478)

Paperback 151: Monarch Books 478 (PBO, 1964)

Title: The Day the Machines Stopped
Author: Christopher Anvil
Cover artist: Ralph Brillhart

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• Rockets explode! Planes disintegrate into patterns roughly resembling autumn leaves! And ... Wes and Earl have engine trouble.

Wes: "Gee, Earl, I'm stumped."
Earl, wagging finger at car: "Bad car! Bad, naughty car! Oh, why did I buy a used taxi!?"

• If "Nature Reversed Its Laws," shouldn't Wes and Earl and everything else be flying up into space? Either that, or Wes and Earl should be making out.

Best things about this back cover:

• It's all very amusing, but that third paragraph ... it's a little too close-to-home, frankly. All sounds eerily relevant / plausible.
• I hate it when people malign the Dark Ages - they were perfectly serviceable Ages.

Page 123~

"Excuse me a minute." Brian's fists tingled. He was thinking of the last crack on the head, of all the insults and underhanded blows he'd experienced from Carl.

~RP