Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Paperback 369: Just For Kicks / Donna Powell (Satan Press 111)

Paperback 369: Satan Press 111 (PBO, 1965)

Title: Just For Kicks
Author: Donna Powell
Cover artist: [Gene Bilbrew]

Yours for: $50

Satan111.JustKicks

Best things about this cover:
  • His eyes! His teeth! His lopsided ribcage!! His ankle!!! Dear lord make it stop!
  • Those women are fantastically grotesque. A disquieting combo of hot & weird & malproportioned
  • I can't tell if they are flirting with him or about to kill him. Veronica seems only seconds from bringing that drink smashing down on the mummy's head...

Satan111bc.JustKicks

Best things about this back cover:

  • A drug-fueled, sex-soaked road trip to Mexico sounds fun. The "indignities and perversions they are subjected to" while "prisoners" ... that could go either way.
  • "Ironic"—HA ha. Yes, when I looked at the front cover, my first thought was, "O. Henry!"
  • The condition of this book is &*^%ing unreal.
Page 123~ (pleasebeawesomepleasebeawesomepleasebeawesome)

"This place gives me the willies," she glanced toward the stage where the Shetland was still lunging away at the diminutive red-head. And she still looked bored.

Uh ... oh. Oh my. That's ... something. Yet somehow the comma splice in first sentence is bothering me at least as much as the horse-on-girl action.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

9 comments:

panavia999 said...

That's my new desktop wallpaper! shetland lunging at a redhead? Oh my....I always heard it was donkeys ...and thought it was an urban legend.

libwitch said...

..and she still looked bored. (That just had me. Oh my.)

That cover is amazing. It looks like a bad casting of Rocky Horror trying re-create Weekend at Bernies.

Ben said...

"Satan Press", huh?

Between that, the freaky cover illustration, stronger-than-you'd-expect-for-1965 sexual content and the general focus on ugliness and perversion... am I alone in thinking this one has a kinda underground/counter-culture vibe to it, moreso than yr average smut..?

Deb said...

You know you're in for a quality read when the publisher is...Satan Press!

Spam Filter: Barlyco. I'm going to need some barleycorn to get that cover image out of my head.

Anonymous said...

OMG where did you ever find this gem?? The cover, the Satan Press (just how many books did Satan's Press put out). This one is awesome!

Deniz Bevan said...

Egads, what is that??? I can't believe they actually published this in 1965 - what, did they just have it lying around at drugstores next to the gum?
And, again in 1965, how would one explain buying it? I'm picturing an insurance salesman type on his evening commute... "Oh, just a little light reading I picked up. Pressures of the office, you know."

Anonymous said...

The author had some specific artistic [typo of the day: "artitsic"] influences, and I can't quite put my finger on them. Matisse's "Dance", maybe?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Matissedance.jpg

Anyway, he probably visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and it shows in his work.

-Sandy B.

Tulse said...

"This place gives me the willies..."

"That's what she said!"

And holy cow, that cover -- why are the giant oddly-muscled women sucking the life out of that midget?

Marla said...

OK wait, has NO ONE noticed the similarity to Dr. Kevorkian? That's just too good to pass by. Someone more clever than I needs to make something of it.