Paperback 1166: Pocket Books 1132 (1st ptg, 1956)
Title: Asking For Trouble
Author: Joe Rayter
Cover artist: James Meese
Condition: 6/10
Value: $6
- "I call this dance The Karate Robot! Hey, where are you going? Come back here!"
- I know there's a lot happening in the foreground, but I can't stop staring at the ghost waiter, wtf? "I have come to steal souls and serve drinks ... looks like we're about out of drinks."
- James Meese is probably a Mount Rushmore-level cover artist, but I take him for granted. I don't think of him as having a distinctive style, but man every one of his paintings just look like "yep, that is gold-standard '50s action pulp action." The woman in particular is a work of kinetic beauty, with the double Fear Hand™ and everything. The dude ... well, you can't say he's not unique.
Best things about this back cover:
- Someone decided to pull the price tag off with something less than care.
- Kinsey Report reference, mwah! A+ topicality. The one on male sexuality came out in '48, the one on women in '53, and they gave people a way to talk more openly about the whole range of human sexual behavior (beyond procreative sex). And man did they talk. I used to specifically collect pbs that referenced the Kinsey Report on their covers, or that featured sex studies à la Kinsey—most of those books were, uh, not put out by mainstream publishers.
- By brining up Kinsey, the book kinda sorta vaguely hints that Christy might've had female lovers. Or queer friends. Or both. I'm adding a "Lesbian" tag to this write-up. I'm never gonna read the book, so the tag may be wishful thinking, but so be it. You tell me she's "wild," I feel like I got license.
- This cover copy tells me nothing except I hope to god the author doesn't actually write this way
Page 123~
I passed a saloon that had a big oil painting of a heavy-breasted nude reclining on a red couch over the bar and decided that it looked like a good place to have breakfast.
I've made breakfast decisions for worse reasons.
~RP
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Does ghost waiter's head look to be not really attached to his body, or is it just me?
ReplyDeleteAnd exactly how many drinks is said ghost waiter carrying?
ReplyDeleteThe guy looks too much like Jimmy Stewart to feel threatening. And I can't for the life of me figure out what he's doing with his left hand. Winding up for a backhanded slap once she turns around?
ReplyDeleteApparently Joe Rayter was actually sculptor and art historian Mary Fuller McChesney. Wikipedia says she also wrote as Melissa Franklin, including "Murder in Her Thighs," which sounds right up your alley if you can ever find it.