Monday, April 7, 2014

Paperback 760: Slan / A.E. Van Vogt (Dell 696)

Paperback 760: Dell 696 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Slan
Author: A.E. Van Vogt
Cover artist: [Richard Powers, per William H. Lyles, Dell Paperbacks, 1942—Mid-1962]

Yours for: $20

Dell696

Best things about this cover:
  • "I Was a 22nd-Century Gun Moll!"
  • Her mouth! Is she talking? Hissing? Shouting "Slan!"?
  • I have seen the future. It is full of 8th graders' atom diagrams.
  • Pretty bold to paint right on top of a well-used bandage.
  • Quintessential mid-century sci-fi cover art. Iconic. Beautiful. Perfect.

Dell696bc

Best things about this back cover.
  • Why aren't people named "Groff" any more? Or "Jommy"?
  • Idea: Western / Scifi epic with a hero named "Slim Tendrils"…
  • I'm guessing that's not "Jommy" on the cover. But who knows what the future holds…

Page 123~

The impression smashed into fragments. Granny.

That has to be the weirdest two-sentence sequence in literary history.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

8 comments:

Daniel said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Groff

DemetriosX said...

The artist might be Robert Stanley, but that is by no means sure. ISFDB says that one AbeBooks seller suggests he is the artist.

Rex Parker said...

Silly question: What is ISFDB? … I'm guessing it's a scifi database (??) Maybe I can google it myself … :)

Rex Parker said...

Aha!

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?30775

Thx

RP

DemetriosX said...

@Rex
I figured you knew about ISFDB. You've had a couple of SF covers with uncredited artists where you seemed to know who it was. Enjoy your new tool.

ukemon said...

According to William H. Lyles - "Dell Paperbacks, 1942 - to Mid-1962", the cover art is by Richard Powers.

Rex Parker said...

Wow. I don't think of him as doing human figures like this—so big. Thanks!

ukemon said...

True. He's better known for his "spacescapes". He did several portraits of English poets for the Dell Laurel series. You can see more in my Powers Flickr set:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/sets/72157628792438893/