Paperback 1089: Ace F-112 (1st ptg / PBO, 1961)
Title: Fashions for Carol / Barbara Ames, Private Secretary
Author: Nell Marr Dean / Jeanne Judson
Cover artist: [Rudy Nappi] / Uncredited
Condition: 7/10
Value: $10
- See, the cover *wants* you to believe she's sizing him up as a romantic prospect, but I know she's really plotting how to take his job, or kill him. Or both. Enjoy your three-martini lunch, Steve. It may be your last.
- I love how Rudy Nappi was like "OK, if I you're not gonna let me do full-body art, I'm giving Everything I Got to this girl's hair!" The results are astonishing. Massive, swirling, architecturally impeccable.
- Again, I say, to no one in particular, that there's No Way she can actually see him from this angle. Artists get away with this physics-defying over-the-shoulder glance All The Time and I hate that it works. Even my brain is like "yes, she is giving him a sly sidelong glance" when I know that it is Physically Impossible unless there is a mirror somewhere off-screen. Stupid gullible brain.
- Steve's mad that he has to work somewhere so pink. "It's not manly is all I'm sayin'..." he mumbled
Best things about this back cover:
- "'Just a small town girl ... living in a big time job' —nah, that doesn't rhyme. How 'bout "Just a small town girl ... brunette hair refused to curl'? No. '... runnin' from some guy named Earl'? Dammit, words are hard!" [Steve Perry writing "Don't Stop Believin'," probably]
- The art is much worse on this side of the book, but I want to live in this blue world of mid-century office furniture.
- I like Barbara. She's like "I refuse to pose sexy for you or the undertaker behind me or anyone. Now if you're quite through ogling me, I have work to do." Respect.
- What is that guy doing with his hand!? Flashing gang signs? Holding a sack of potatoes to his sternum? I wouldn't look at him either, Barbara.
Page 123~ (from Fashions for Carol]
He pretended toughness. "But when we're married, you've got to come to every game. And you've got to be a good Texas Democrat."She quivered with a happiness she had never known before.
Wow, the orgasmic power of the phrase "Texas Democrat," who knew?
~RP
3 comments:
You've outdone yourself on this one
Ha!
I always have this moment of bogglement when I'm reminded that Ace published more than science fiction. I guess I keep forgetting because I only see their non-SF books when Rex posts one.
Steve there on the first cover is deeply skeptical of Carol. Maybe he knows she's plotting, maybe he wonders how she can side-eye him when he's behind her. I'd suggest she has great peripheral vision, but there's no way she could see past her hair. Did the early 60s just smell of hairspray all the time?
Barbara, meanwhile, looks a lot like the dark-haired one from "Three's Company." The guy behind her has a sort of Peter Capaldi thing going on.
🙏🙏🙏 ~RP
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