Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Paperback 242: Kid Galahad / Francis Wallace (Bantam 133)

Paperback 242: Bantam 133 (1st ptg, 1947)

Title: Kid Galahad
Author: Francis Wallace
Cover artist: Charles Andres

Yours for: $17


Best things about this cover:
  • Unlike most Good and Bad Angels, Kid Galahad's Good and Bad Angels chose to reside in his armpits, not on his shoulders.
  • Love how heads are crammed into every crevice of the painting. My favorite is the sweaty, neck-wiping Tintin lookalike (under the Kid's right glove, which appears to have been fashioned from the remains of an old football).
  • This Kid has apparently been waxed within an inch of his life. "Behold my glistening torso!"

Best things about this back cover:

  • LOVE the numbers of the ref's count on the ropes. Dramatic.
  • Check out how lame the cover of the Little, Brown edition was!
  • Jeez, first line of copy makes this novel sound like a slasher film. Or a tale of surgery.

Page 123~

She looked at him coldly. "Don't flatter yourself. I don't care whether you burn or freeze."


~RP

5 comments:

Christa Faust said...

I have to comment on the eye-line of the guy in Kid G's right armpit. Checking the fit of his protective cup, maybe?

JamiSings said...

Is it just me or does the armpit devil look a little bit like Rowan Atkinson - particularly during his Warm Welcome bit....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC6UrMTC73A

Ms Avery said...

Wow, the audience member right at the front seems to have been struck by sudden, severe depression.

Dirt Diggler said...

* "Good-natured kid" still looks like good-natured kid in this cover image. He looks annoyed rather than murderous. Perhaps he's perturbed by Rowan Atkinson's jabbing finger and Mickey Goldmill's ass wiping? ---They are definitely fixated on the champ's backside.

* "A bantam book" for a "giant of the ring".

* The legs and tail of that rooster look more like those of a fox ... an unsettling image.

* According to the p. 123 text, it sounds like he is regarded much LESS than " ... putty before women ...".

* Ah,yes, "the gravy train to glory" is a wonderful place to sit in coach.

Nicole "Gidget" Kalstein said...

Call me a weirdo (after all, I am one), but his nipples seem abnormally far apart. Yes, I did look at him that closely. Don't judge. :P