Sunday, August 9, 2009

Paperback 275: Lovers Are Losers / Howard Hunt (Gold Medal 297)

Paperback 275: Gold Medal 297 (PBO, 1953)

Title: Lovers Are Losers
Author: Howard Hunt
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: I forget — I'm blogging from CO and forgot to record the $$$ information before I left



Best things about this cover:

  • Steve wondered why he'd ever agreed to marry the Bride of Frankenstein.
  • Steve became despondent when his new magician's assistant-bride refused to let him have his favorite pillow. "You have to earn it, Steve. Pillows are for closers."
  • Sucker Slouch (TM)!
  • Her dress is hot from the bow up. From the thighs down, I have no idea what the hell is going on.


Best things about this back cover:

  • The head of the monstrous she-bandit bobbed menacingly in the brook.
  • That's your "fog of evil?" Really? Looks like a poorly rendered tree trunk.
  • The back cover appears to have nothing to do with the front cover, and neither cover appears to want to tell you what the book is really about. Marketing!

Page 123~

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Acapulco, I suppose. Doesn't everyone?"


~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

10 comments:

JamiSings said...

The back cover image reminds me of that fairy tale where the girl finds three singing, disembodied heads bobbing up and down in a well, she takes them out, combs their hair, and gets a great reward. Then later her evil step-sister abuses the heads and gets viciously punished.

I'm not good at the snarky stuff. Just thinking about what the covers remind me of.

Eunice said...

Maybe the back cover goes with 207's Green Light for Death's naked banshee. No! I got it! It's her random claw on Danger in Paradise!

He's upset because he just found out his suspenders were twisted. How embarrassing!

She's definitely thinking he's a loser.

That's some weird perspective going on with the legs, making them look a little off. That thing below the bow is either supposed to be her other knee or a stump. My problem is with the non-footed shoe. Either 1) it's just kinda hanging there or 2) someone forgot to paint in her foot.

Alix said...

Front cover:
Sucker Slouch in Suspenders: strike three!
Paging Miss Clairol! This chick too young to embrace the gray.
Kleenex pompoms at the crotch do nothing to enhance a dress.

Back cover:
She seems to be in a foggy tanning booth, offering someone an invisible drink.

I'm getting a whiff of "twilight world" here...

Alix said...

@ JamiSings:

Sounds like a fairy tale from the twisted mind of Vidal Sassoon. Do you remember the name of it?

JamiSings said...

Alix - I believe it's "Three Heads In A Well" - at least that's what my google search turned up that looked the most like it.

Here's a synopsis from Wikipedia.

DemetriosX said...

That fairy tale sounds Irish or some other flavor of Celtic.

The name Howard Hunt sounded really familiar and not as an author. After a couple of seconds I remembered there was a Howard Hunt among the Watergate conspirators. Quick check at Wikipedia and hey! It's the same guy! Weirder still, he was apparently CIA Station Chief in Mexico and supervising William F. Buckley while he wrote this book. It's all left me rather too baffled to comment on the art (apart from the fact that her legs are in a completely unnatural position that appears to be an attempt to satisfy the Hays Code).

Patrick Murtha said...

Love his braces! Another Menswear Moment. (I don't think they're "twisted.")

Eunice said...

No they're not twisted.

Frank said...

I'm going to start saying, "Acapulco, I suppose. Doesn't everyone?" any time anyone ever asks me where I'm going.

Elaine said...

I was wondering, Rex, why you did not mention that this author was OUR Howard Hunt, Watergate spook on the CREEP payroll! Thanks to DemetriosX for adding it to the comments!

But NObody mentioned that this guy's ass is....wasted, or something. I mean, is he simply emaciated, or does he have a serious lower-body dystrophy problem? Isn't anyone going to help this poor man???