Monday, September 3, 2007

Paperback 10: Brandon House 1090

Paperback 10: Brandon House 1090 (PBO, 1967)

Title: Wayward Nude
Author: Jamison Bruce
Cover artist: Unknown

Yours for: $15

Best things about this cover:
  • There aren't many - the title promises so much, but the cover ... meh.
  • The title is delightfully absurd - not sexy as much as comical; if you came across an actual "Wayward Nude," you would not be excited. You would be scared for her (if not yourself), and you would call the authorities.
  • The "art" world is a frequent setting of paperback sex fantasies. Those bohemian artist-types will do Anything...
  • OK, I haven't read this book, but I'm willing to bet that the "Nude" in question eventually gets involved sexually with other women - at least one. The phrase "half-world" is very suggestive of a homosexual underworld, although the more telling phrase would be "twilight world."
  • Worst "Nude" cover ever - we get, what, like a millimeter of naked right hip? Pathetic. This cover would have been way hotter, needless to say, if that embrace had been "shot" from the other side. Instead, we get to thrill to the scintillating visual of ... a brown nightstand! Complete with pull-out drawer! And who could forget the white coffee cup!? Ugh.

This book is from late in my collection - 1967 - so the era of great cover painting and design is certainly behind us, but still, most sex paperbacks from this era are way, way more interesting than this neutered, puke-red disaster.

RP

3 comments:

Orange said...

Silly, the nightstand is where the Wayward Nude stores her sex toys and handcuffs for use in the half-world.

Michael5000 said...

This cover made me laugh out loud, hard. The title is just so dumb and surreal. And the blurb is priceless: "Love hunger"? And what the hell is a "half world"?

I like the guys posture -- it seems more resigned than hot 'n' bothered. Plus he's still holding his brush and palette. Dialog: "Please, miss, couldn't we just get back to the painting? No?"

Anonymous said...

Nightstand! Pah! Unless I miss my guess, that object is what we in the half world of art call a "taboret" -- a side table to keep our coffee cups and brushes and other art junk on.

And judging from my art school experience, our hunky painter friend probably doesn't like girls much.