Monday, August 15, 2011

Paperback 448: Takeoff / C.M. Kornbluth (Pennant P15)

Paperback 448: Pennant Books P15 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Takeoff
Author: C.M. Kornbluth
Cover artist: Charles Binger

Yours for: Not For Sale — special donation to the collection from Michael and Sue Handley

Penn15.Takeoff

Best things about this cover:
  • "Bomber jackets half-price at Macy's!? But I paid full price last weekend! Bastards! Vengeance will be mine!"
  • That's quite the phallic object.
  • I just found out that it pays to check my campus mailbox every once in a while—I just found this book waiting for me (it had been waiting for nearly 2 months) with the following note attached:

M5000note.Takeoff

Supercool notepad.

And now the back cover:

Penn15bc.Takeoff

Best things about this back cover:

  • Ugh, just a bunch of blurbs, though now I know where my benefactors got their purple prose from.

Page 123~

Suddenly his voice blazed with passion and the words came like a torrent. "What was I to do? Go ahead and do it the wrong way? [...]"

This selection would be much more evocative and engaging if this were a sex novel.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

9 comments:

Sean Brodrick said...

How'd they get Michael Keaton to pose for the cover?

John Flanagan said...

If that's the lid of the secret he's holding, it doesn't look like it was too difficult to tear off.

borky said...

The guy on the cover looks like he's saying, "Goddamn it, Ma, you wrapped my sandwiches in newsprint again instead o' pages of Playboy which - as we DISCUSSED! - is due to their superior grease proof properties and not the tits and minges all over'em!"

Going by the cover, though, masturbation must o' been called Taking Off or Moon Rocketing back in the day because this guy's fist clearly seems to think it's worn itself out from trying to strangle the Steel Dolphin; and to go by the expression on his face, he seems to be thinking, "What do I have to do? I followed these instructions to the letter and I've still to finally carve my name in cheese on the Moon!"

Michael5000 said...
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Michael5000 said...

We pride ourselves on our notepads. Glad the book made the grade. Fist-clenching fury!!!

Needless correction leading to gratuitous plug: Sue's last name is Collard, as in susancollard.com.

DemetriosX said...

Yeah, Michael Keaton. I was thinking Joe Piscopo, but it's definitely Keaton.

I'm not familiar with this one, but Kornbluth was pretty good. I'm willing to bet this is worth reading. The only question is whether the artist read the review in the SF Chronicle or if the Chronicle's reviewer had seen the cover art.

Deb said...

I'm assuming "C.M. Kornbluth" is not the same Charlie Kornbluth who ran Paramount, I think it was, during the 1960s and was a mentor for Bob Evans. I suppose I could google or wiki that, but I'm too damn lazy...

DemetriosX said...

@Deb. No, C.M. Kornbluth is Cyril Kornbluth, one of the premier SF writers of the 40s and 50s. He's best known for "The Marching Morons" (which was basically ripped off in Idiocracy) and his collaborations with Fred Pohl.

Random White Guy said...
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