Sunday, July 29, 2012

Paperback 546: Trail of the Restless Gun / Will Hickok (Signet 1675)

Paperback 546: Signet 1675 (1st ptg, 1959)

Title: Trail of the Restless Gun
Author: Will Hickok
Cover artist: Robert Schulz

Yours for: $10

Sig1675.RestlessGun
Best things about this cover:
  • "We need a really heroic name. How about ... a first name that will make everyone go 'What?' and a last name that kinda sounds like 'boner'?!" "I like it!"
  • I love the look of crushing existential angst in this guy's face. "Why? Why do I use this? Futility. All roads lead to death. Does it even matter if I turn around and fire?"
  • Or else he's turned his gun into a thermometer and is confirming that it is, indeed, hot out there.
  • "Hickok" looks wrong. Like it's missing a second "c." "I'm a HICK ... OK?"


Sig1675bc.RestGun,
Best things about this back cover:
  • This family sounds unequivocally awesome. 
  • Are "dancehall teasers" (great phrase) notoriously "curious?" About ... what? Science? I think of a "tease" as being knowing and at least somewhat jaded—wanting to deceive or toy with someone, not wanting to learn. 
  • J.C. Penney is proud to feature—The Paxton Brand.

Page 123~

Something seemed to push Rasher forward in his saddle. Then all at once his legs rammed straight and he reared up to his full height, his back arching and a look of spasmed agony and shocked wonderment.

The sex scenes in this book are much hotter than I'd anticipated.

~RP

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6 comments:

Keir said...

I'm sure the cover was inspired by Dean MArtin's role in Rio Bravo...

Arion said...

I'd say Keir has a point.

I like the cover.

By the way, I just wanted to say that this is a great blog, and something tells me you might want to visit mine:

www.artbyarion.blogspot.com

Tulse said...

"Will Hickok"? Was that what he went by before he became "wild" and started hanging out with Calamity Jane? Does the publisher have other Westerns by William De Kidd and Jess E. James?

DemetriosX said...

I was thinking the guy looked totally puzzled by his gun, maybe a Shakespearean "Is this a pistol I see before me?", but Keir is probably right.

Also Hickok is, as Tulse obliquely points out, the way Wild Bill spelled it.

Rex Parker said...

I had an "Alas, poor gun, I knew him well, Horatio" joke all loaded up ... but couldn't bring myself to ... (wait for it) ... pull the trigger.

rp

Twb76 said...

The guy on the cover is actually John Payne who starred in the series the restless gun on tv from 1957-1959.He did bear a slight resemblance to Dean Martin but he was minor movie star himself before the series began appearing in a string of b-movies.This book was one of two tie ins both written by Will Hickock based on the show.