Sunday, September 7, 2014

Paperback 811: Vengeance Is Mine / Mickey Spillane (Signet D2116)

Paperback 811: Signet D2116 (44th ptg, undated [1962])

Title: Vengeance Is Mine
Author: Mickey Spillane
Cover artist: Uh … I doubt it.

Yours for: $6

Sig2116

Best things about this cover:

  • It's pretty icky all around. Not sure why this hasn't been relegated to some dank cardboard box of "extras" in my basement. That said, I'm kind of fascinated by how ugly it is.
  • It's like someone was noodling with a prehistoric version of Photoshop, and then realized "no one's going to care anyway," and then just sent this weird silhouette thing into the editor. Neither the silhouette nor the naked lady is large enough to be compelling. Maybe if she were doing something more than blandly standing there as if waiting for a director to shout "Action!" 
  • Purple font for some reason!


Sig2116bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • Without the lady inside him, he looks like he *just* got bit on his left hip by some kind of flying insect. Insect-swatting hand!
  • "How many different font sizes can we squeeze in here?" "Shouldn't there be some rationale to the varied font sizes?" "[Blank stare]" …
  • Copywriter is perversely fond of compound adjectives. "Action-tough" and "bullet-sparked" are meaningless. I'll give him "lead-riddled" as slightly apt, but "forty-million-copy bestselling" is an ungainly beast. 

Page 123~
My fingers were hurting her and I couldn't help it. "I want you to say it, Mike. You've played games with so many women I won't be sure until I hear you say it yourself. Tell me."
That first sentence is very telling. Mike's love and Mike's violence have a disconcerting resemblance.

~RP

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3 comments:

Random White Guy said...

I've heard of men being in touch with their feminine side but this is a little ridiculous.

John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur said...

What happened to her legs? I guess she isn't a foot model.
Back cover copy says the book "packs some brutal clinches," whatever that means, but is sure sounds like banal cliches would have been more apt.

Karl said...

I always like to pack some brutal clinches whenever I travel.

Also, is this lead-riddled hunt riddled with long-e leads (as in clues), or short-e lead (as in bullets)?