Title: One-Way Ticket
Author: Bert and Dolores Hitchens
Cover artist: James Meese
Yours for: $7
Best things about this cover:
- "Railroad detective" - my favorite kind!
- The swirling green vortex of nausea and despair
- The distractingly child-like drawing of the upper half of a candle
- Cool stenciled font on the title
- That furniture - the proportions seem off and there are legs that appear to come from / go to nowhere, but in general, it's cool; spare, stark, mid-century modern in the very best way
- If only she hadn't cut her hair by herself in the dark with a bread knife, she would easily be one of the hottest women in my collection - understated yet stunning black dress (that's a dress, right, not a negligee?), fierce black slip-ons, and a perversely casual way with money. What's not to love?
Best things about this back cover:
- I love when back covers function like movie teasers: " ... MURDER! Featuring ... Boots! David Bryant! Some other B movie character actors whose names you don't know. And starring Jerry Mathers, as The Beav"
- Which of these names doesn't belong? A: "David Bryant" - what a dud. That last name really ruins the whole vibe of the back cover. Everyone else gets one colorful name, and he gets the full name of some guy from middle management.
- Wait, Rock dies? Uh, SPOILER ALERT!
- This all makes sense except for Boots. I mean, I could write the plot of this book, but I would have no idea what to do with Boots. David Bryant already has two women. Is Boots a cat?
Page 123~
This was a joke on Boots by Boots. They were all expected to enjoy it. They chuckled in chorus and Vic felt a fool.
I'm guessing it was a familiar feeling.
~RP
9 comments:
I think her shoes are called either mules or slides, but not pumps. We wouldn't want to offend the fetishists out there.
Weird. I actually looked it up before posting and the definitions were all super-vague and certainly would have included these shoes. I look at pics now, and see that "pumps" appear to have a back of some kind (strap or full heel cover). "mules" are too ugly-sounding to describe these. Never heard of "slides."
Can you define "pump?" (the shoe kind, I mean, duh)
I'll look for a new word now.
rp
Hmmm, just read somewhere that "if the back is open, they are considered mules." I can't bring myself to call them that. So I'll just go to something generic like "shoes."
rp
"Slip ons" or slip on heels work.
Oh, Eunice! Leave it to someone with a delightfully old-fashioned name to come up with the sexy substitute word. Thank you!
rp
Concur! She's one good-looking, uh, cover illustration.
Also, "One was his wife!" is not a line with a real shock value wallop, I think.
Also, how many fonts ARE there on this cover? I didn't know they'd invented so many fonts by the 50s. And again with the pink!
Boots is obviously the lush on the cover. Probably called that cause she's got a shoe fetish.
Carolyn Jones! (pre-Morticia Addams)
I think the childishly drawn thingee in the background may be a decanter (source of the cheap, sour chianti she's swilling). Actually, I really like it, because it makes the chair legs look exactly like. . . lines on a piece of paper! Which they are!
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