Paperback 1004: The Dark Chase / David Goodis (Lion 133)

Paperback 1004: Lion 133 (PBO, 1953)

Title: The Dark Chase (Nightfall)
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: [Julian Paul]

Condition: 4/10
Estimated value: let's say $50

Best things about this cover:

• My god her radiant disappointment is glorious! He was supposed to take her someplace swell tonight, I bet.
• Fantastic contrast between the tagline and the picture: "100 Savage Hours ... of Johnny Cleancut Polishing His Gun"
• "Ed Harris and Audrey Totter are ... Bored in Peoria!"
• She has what Christa Faust calls "Bitch Eyebrows"—great ones—and I don't know what you call that 1/2 akimbo hipcock of exasperation, but it's working. Truly GGA (Great Girl Art)
• This is the third cover in my collection (so far) with the "Paul" signature. The first one was ... the very first paperback I ever wrote about.

Best things about this back cover:

• Yeah. *That's* the part of the front cover we all want to look at again.
• My name is Jim Vanning / I'm way into canning / You all won't believe / The great ketchup I'm planning.
• I have a gun ... I will use it on them, on the whole gang of them ... and I will use it in a box ... and I will use it on a fox ...
• Real talk: David Goodis is one of the titans of paperback noir and this book is a treasure. It's beat to fuck, but in the most aesthetically perfect and readable way. Quintessential, this one.

Page 123~

He splurged on a brocaded robe.

Ew.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 601: Ace Double D-347 (1st ptg / PBO)

Title: Play For Keeps / The Corpse Without a Country
Authors: Harry Whittington / Louis Trimble
Cover artists: Uncredited / Uncredited

Yours for: $25


Best things about this cover:

• Perspective!
• Other shoe!?
• Come on, Vogue!
• Garters!?!?! Even in imminent-death, sexy as hell.
• I am very, very, very distracted by the placement of his pinky finger / left side of his hand.
• Is that Fear Hand or Buh-Bye Hand?
• "GOOD"!!! LOL x a million.

Best things about this other cover:

• Death Is A Sexy Southern Belle Raining Fuchsia Death From Above.
• The Corpse Had Womanly Hips.
• Actually, that looks like me coming out of savasana at the end of yoga class.

Page 123~

"I should have killed you. I knew. When you came in. You'd figured it. I knew. I saw it in your face."

"Too bad, Tony. It's all too bad."

Too Bad Tony would be a great nickname. Also, "It's all too bad, Tony" would be the closing aria if this were a musical / opera.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 479: The Torrid Teens / Orrie Hitt (Beacon B294)

Paperback 479: Beacon B294 (PBO, 1960)

Title: The Torrid Teens
Author: Orrie Hitt
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $50

Best things about this cover:

• Home. Run.
• Too many great things to list. The title! The garters! The menacing shadow men! I mean, I realize that this painting depicts what appears to be a sexual assault in progress, and obviously sexual assault is bad, but as sensational covers go, this one is gold. 
• This book should be called "Everyone's Hands Were Awesome." A triad of terrifically expressive hands.
• "You told ma you'd be home for dinner at 6, and as you can clearly see from my visible watch face, it's almost 6:30. Why must you succumb to vileness and the twisted desire to stay out past dinner time?"

Best things about this back cover: 

• One of the ugliest line drawings I've ever seen on a paperback cover. Reeks of Dickensian squalor. 
• I think he's trying to do this trick where he lights a match using only his teeth and her breast.
• Why does honesty always have to be so brutal? What did we ever do to honesty?

Page 123~

"The kids in the gang were pretty good to you," he said. "They could have told the cops you were with them on the rumble, but they didn't. That could have hurt you a lot and I don't think it would have made your mother very happy."

Little did he know that her mother was actually a long-time subscriber to "Rumble Fancier" magazine.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]