Friday, July 22, 2011

Paperback 441: Strange Ones / Ben Travis (Beacon B226)

Paperback 441: Beacon B 226 (PBO, 1959)

Title: Strange Ones
Author: Ben Travis
Cover artist: Darcy

Yours for: $25

StrangeOnes.Gay

Best things about this cover:
  • That is indeed the look of a man who "tried to love a woman" ... and then discovered she had a penis. "Why does this keep happening to me!?"
  • "I don't understand why we keep playing hide-and-seek. There's just this one room and there's nowhere to hide." "Shut up, hide your eyes, and start counting!" "[Sigh] 1, 2, 3 ..."
  • "Look at my armpit. She is sexy, no? You like ..."
  • Sideboob! Two books in a row!

StrangeOnesBC.Gay

Best things about this back cover:
  • Arrows say he had "warped desires," but then text says he was poor and hungry and turned tricks so he could eat. That hardly seems fair.
  • "To prove his manhood, Ray raped a girl." Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned "Boy Rapes Girl To Become Ungay" story?
  • For all the stupidity of this back cover, I love the arrows. Nice design element.

Page 123~

"The conclusion seems rather obvious to me. Either I have too vivid an imagination, or you're living with Luther now and he's keeping you for your only talent."

Somewhat anti-climactically, that "talent" turns out to be "making hand shadow puppets."

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
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10 comments:

  1. KatieJuly 22, 2011 at 7:21 AM

    But is it frank?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 22, 2011 at 9:22 AM

    Is she wearing a dry cleaning bag?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brian BusbyJuly 22, 2011 at 12:23 PM

    Half the arrows have their tips cut off. Clearly a none-to-subtle allusion to male circumcision.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lisa in OzJuly 22, 2011 at 11:48 PM

    I just can't get over how amazing her anti-gravity boobs are. She must coat them in superglue to get her clothes to stay on like that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DemetriosXJuly 23, 2011 at 4:13 AM

    I love the placement of the Beacon icon. Very subtle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. andysJuly 24, 2011 at 1:50 PM

    Also, how the hell is her lingerie staying up? Body glue? "A frank novel about double stick tape."

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 25, 2011 at 6:56 AM

    I hate to be That Person, but it's actually The Strange Ones. The first word's printed so small it gets lost.

    ReplyDelete
  8. LarryJuly 26, 2011 at 3:22 PM

    Just had to do a search on "Sideboob" and nothing but the present two came into view. Of course, being at work I had plenty of time to trawl through the collection. Paperback 354 should be in the dictionary as an illustration of textbook Sideboob.

    While on the subject I read an interview with Mila Kunis who said that in the upcoming Romcom with Justin Timberlake she showed Sideboob.

    ReplyDelete
  9. LarryJuly 26, 2011 at 3:25 PM

    Er, 437 and 420 also.

    ReplyDelete
  10. borkyJuly 31, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    Cover:

    Brunette: "Aren't my armpits the most ravishing thing imaginable?"

    Guy: "I know with Alopecia you don't need to shave them any more, but you're still supposed to wash them! Look at me over here - I'm blacking out from onion gas fumes, and the sheer toxicity's peeling the skin off your body!"

    ReplyDelete