Sunday, October 21, 2012

Paperback 574: The Innocent Mrs. Duff and The Virgin Huntress / Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (Ace Double G-509)

Paperback 574: Ace Double G-509 (1st thus / 1st thus, 1963)

Title: The Innocent Mrs. Duff / The Virgin Huntress
Author: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
Cover artist: Uncredited / Uncredited

Yours for: $11

AceD509.MrsDuff

Best things about this cover:
  • Singularly ugly. The only thing I can really get behind here is her hair, cutting its epic, destructive path across the lower Great Lakes.
  • Cat: "Meow, why am I in this picture. Meow."
  • Why has the lady incompletely painted her face like the Italian flag?
  • That insane Puritan-looking doll is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen on a cover. At least I  hope that's a doll. . .
  • Somewhere, a magician mourns his exclusion from this painting.

AceD509.VirgHunt

Best things about this other cover:
  • More phenomenal, outsized hair. Also, she appears to be mowing the lawn with her chin.
  • She reminds me of Kim Novak in "Vertigo," only with a disembodied head and scary psychokinetic powers.
  • Seriously, the cover painting C-team must've got this book assignment. Blocky, ugly, head-y. Junk.

Page 123~
He was choking; he could not draw any air into his lungs. His neck swelled; there was a frightful pressure in the back of his head. O God ... This is it ...
Holding bravely tackles the issue of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Way ahead of her time.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

Dave Stern said...

Perhaps you meant:

Kim Novack or "North by Northwest."

Gratuitious and Erroneous Corrections said...

@Dave Stern.

Perhaps did in fact mean Kim Novack. That is, if he meant some Kim Novack unknown to any of us. If he meant the actress in "Vertigo", he meant Kim Novak. If he meant the actress in "North by Northwest", he meant Eva Marie Saint. If he meant the actress in "Anna and the King of Siam", he meant Deborah Kerr.

Stoutcat said...

Actually, if you're looking for Kim Novak with scary psychokinetic powers, you're looking for Bell, Book, & Candle.

Anonymous said...

So, was she a huntress after virgins, or a virgin who was also a huntress?