Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Paperback 1078: Showdown / Lee Stevens (DimeNovels #1) (DN 0010)

Paperback 1078: DimeNovels 1 (PBO, 1990)

Title: Showdown
Author: Lee Stevens
Cover artist: J. Wayne Anderson

Condition: 7/10
Value: $5


Best things about this cover:
  • I love how much this guy hates cards. Or maybe this is some kind of shooting trick. I'm really impressed that he got such even distribution of cards (and chips!), all in the air at once. 
  • It's like he's using the table for a shield, but shooting at ... what, the chandelier? 
  • This is a dumb little book! Seriously, it's literally ... little. 3 x 4.5 in. Here it is next to some grown-up-sized books:
  • I got this book at one of the used bookstores in Longmont, CO (I forget which ... Barbed Wire, maybe?). Lots and lots (and lots) of vintage westerns there. And then this novelty book. 
  • I wonder about DimeNovels. This is literally #1. "DMN 0010" it says on the copyright page. Let's do some googling and Holy Moly, jackpot! Not numbered consecutively—numbered by the genre (!?!?!). Such good info here:

And now the back cover ...


Best things about this back cover:
  • Text! I mean ... this must be like a quarter of the book, right here on the cover. Leave us *something* to discover inside!
  • This sounds like every western ever written / filmed / conceived
  • Yup, I was right: Barbed Wire Books. There's their address and everything, in case you're ever out that way.
  • The logo's kinda sweet...
  • ... Would wear that on a t-shirt, for sure.
Page 123~ (LOL, jk, this book is only 91 (small!) pages long, so here's Page 23)
But there weren't no clay anywhere else at that point of the trail.
Shouldn't that be "there weren't no clay nowhere else" ... I'm no dialect expert, but it sounds better, plus the triple negative kinda takes you back to a single negative situation, which is what you wanted, grammatically, in the first place. But I'm sure the publisher knows what he's doing, Now let's just flip to the last page of the book for no particular reason and ... whoa:


Randy L. Byrd's 1980 album "Byrd Dog" sold in excess of a dozen copies, though the lead single, "Geez's! (I Say to Myself)," sadly never charted.

~RP

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1 comment:

DemetriosX said...

I'm not too sure about this one. The guy has obviously just knocked the table to the floor, since even the chips are still flying, but he's already got his guns out and is shooting. Did somebody knock him down after he'd already drawn? Did the recoil from his pistol knock him over? Also, he appears to be trying to daintily extend his pinkie on his left hand.

Publisher Randy is the most late 80s/early 90s thing I've seen in 30 years.