Paperback 124: Mark of the Beast / John E. Muller (Badger Books SF 105)

Paperback 124: Badger Books SF 105 (ed. unknown, ca. late 1950s)

Title: Mark of the Beast
Author: John E. Muller
Cover artist: Are you kidding? These damned British imprints give you Zero info - see (missing) publication info, above. You really think they're going to bother telling you the cover artist? Hah. Or maybe the cover artist deliberately had his name withheld so that he could avoid the shame of having to account for such a (literal) monstrosity of a painting. [update: Lionel Fanthorpe; see PS, below]

Yours for: $18


Best things about this cover:

• Note: if you are going to cave in and give the gorilla chocolate, do not, I repeat, do not give him that cheap Toblerone crap from the Duty-Free shop.
• Oh my God that cackling rhombus-headed simian is going to haunt my dreams for Months!
• This book seems to be some kind of cross between Frankenstein and King Kong - but the monster design seems to have serious Coneheads influence
• Check out the teeny "N.Z." sticker. I normally hate price stickers on my books, but this one is Adorable.
• That's one convincing badger.

Best thing about this back cover:

• The monster returns, and though he appears to be electrified / radioactive, the pink background really softens his overall image: "The Mark of the Beast ... for Ladies"

Page 123:

Sprinting as though he were Britain's last hope in the Olympics, the Security man threw everything he had into reaching a doorway on the far side of the ape.

RP

PS it's April 2018 and I just got the following email:

Re Mark of the Beast - Badger Books 105 and your entry 124 [Aug 7 2008]:  The cover artist is Lionel Fanthorpe — aka R.L. Fanthorpe, who also wrote some of the Badger titles.  In fact, this is one of his titles — John E. Muller was one of his pseudonyms.  
I recently obtained a printer’s proof of the cover, signed by Fanthorpe.
You may now sleep easier.
Nice blog by the way.
Scott