Friday, July 8, 2011

Paperback 435: Pushover / Orrie Hitt (Beacon Books 139)

Paperback 435: Beacon Books 139 (PBO, 1957)

Title: Pushover
Author: Orrie Hitt
Cover artist: George Geygan

Yours for: $20

Beac139.Pushover

Best things about this cover:
  • So is Easy Pickin the name of the guy mashing the blow-up doll with his face? Because that apostrophe-S is confusing me.
  • Giant Keyhole!
  • Can you really call her a "pushover" if tied her hands behind her back to force compliance?
  • I'm guessing the tops of heads are really hard to draw because that guy's ... let's call it "hair" ... is a mess.
  • I would call this "Great Girl Art" if she didn't look like a corpse from the neck up.

Beac139bc.Pushover

Best things about this back cover:
  • I honest-to-god laughed when I first looked at this. "FELL, I say! FELLLLLLLLL!"
  • Love how the final word stands out so strongly because a. it's in all-caps b. it's the only word set completely against a white background, and c. it's right on her tits—the tits of the girl who has apparently (happily) been Pushed Over. They even used three long dashes to make sure it showed up on her torso! Design work: A+.
  • "Sweet Sucker Game" = a long-forgotten blaxploitation film.

Page 123~

"Peoples," he greeted us, waving at nobody in particular. He got out of his chair, stumbled over a rug and almost fell down. "Have a drink! Have a damn drink, why doncha?"

I'm considering making "Have a drink! Have a damn drink, why doncha?" the next tagline for the header of this blog. That's good dialogue! Damn good!

~RP

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4 comments:

Random White Guy said...

That is the most unerotic, uncomfortable kiss I've seen lately. As to the back images, the one of the man - that mark on his torso. Is that a slash, indicating the fate of Danny in the book? Or is it supposed to represent something else? His six pack? The height of his pants? What?

capewood said...

I realize that his right arm is obscured by the edge of the keyhole, but I wonder what he's doing with that hand.

DemetriosX said...

I figure the apostrophe is to represent the missing g. One pickin', two pickin's. Mind you, that's Grammar Nazi level copyediting, but not atypical for the period.

Deb said...

Orrie Hitt was one of the great pulp writers, so (Susan Hayward's corpse cover aside) this is probably a pretty good read.