Paperback 1174: Superdoll / Leo August (Award Books A427X)

Paperback 1174: Award Books A427X (PBO, 1969)

Title: Superdoll

Author: Leo August

Cover artist: Uncredited [Ron Lesser]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $18

[Encinitas, August 2026]

Best things about this cover: 

• The first thing you gotta consider with a spy jumpsuit is practicality. You gotta be able to pull it right over your high-heeled boots, the belly must be cut out, and under absolutely no circumstances is there to be any significant breast support
• Superdoll liked to wear the hair of her victims on top of her own hair, like a trophy. 
• That scientist banter leaves something to be desired. It's not sexy or funny or clever. It doesn't even have any bad puns. It may as well read: 1st scientist: "Does she have a vagina?" 2nd scientist: "If not, that makes me sad."
• "A hilarious plunge," on the other hand, isi funny, in that it seems to describe the neckline on her jumpsuit, which somehow "plunges" below her bellybutton. 

Best things about this back cover: 

• Love a skimpy dagger. A must-have for summer espionaging.
• OK, "I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S." is genius. The perfect skewering of the '60s spy trend toward clever organizational acronyms, following (among others) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (see, for instance, Ted Mark's The Man from O.R.G.Y. series). Since I know you want to know, I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S stands for "International Neutral Intelligence Team Insuring Against Lawless Sectors."
• "Sheila was invincible, until she clashed with Number One"—well now they're just stealing from better material (namely, the landmark television program The Prisoner).

Page 123~

Inside Number One's hidden hangar, the grim convoy of culprits boarded their luxuriously-appointed craft. Each of the unsmiling men settled into a wide, comfortable, velvet-covered seat. A white-jacketed houseboy appeared with a tray of tall drinks.

Pure midcentury bad-guy luxury. I assume all these guys die. 

~RP

P.S. Ron Lesser is not credited as the artist of this cover painting, but I stumbled on a credit in, of all places, the comments section of a cover art blog. The comment ... was by Lesser himself:

[Superdoll is also credited to him now on Lesser's own wikipedia page]

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Paperbacks 1172 and 1173: The Big Broad Jump and The Cockeyed Cuties / Troy Conway (Paperback Library 63-240 & 64-834)

Paperback 1172 & 1173: Paperback Library 63-240 / 64-834 (PBO/PBO, 1969/1972)

Title: The Big Broad Jump (Coxeman #17) / The Cockeyed Cuties (Coxeman #31)

Author: Troy Conway (alias of Don Segall, writer for many TV shows, including The Love Boat (!), and father of actress Pamela Adlon (!!))

Cover artist: photos 

Condition: 7/8

Value: $15 / $20

[dug out of the back of a little bookshop in Encinitas, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• Coxeman. It's a pun. You'll be saying "it's a pun" a lot if you read these books, trust me.
• The Big Broad Jump. It's a pun. Although I don't know if it's a big deal that he jumps on broads or if he just jumps on big broads. Maybe I'll read and find out. Maybe not.
• Here we see the Coxeman demonstrating the one skill at which he is unrivaled: removing earwax from a lady's ear with his tongue. Sadly, he is somewhat less skilled at Couples Hammocking.

Best things about this back cover: 

• "Is the Coxeman Hung?" I mean, probably. That is, definitely (I have read a little—he "suffers" from "priapism," a "fact" he tells you right away, and often)
• "A mob of sex-crazed foreign beauties"—it's never the sex-crazed foreign uglies, is it?
• "Rod penetrates deep." It's a pun. (I told you)

Best things about this cover: 

• I read only prime-numbered Coxemen. Everyone has their eccentricities and this is mine.
• Here we see the Coxeman practicing "hugging." Someday he hopes to be able to hug in a very humanlike way. Keep at it, Rod! I believe in you!
• "OK, Mr. Damon, so, the first thing you're gonna want to do when hugging a woman is put down the gun." "I don't understand"
• I love how he's looking right at us, like "... pretty French, right? I mean, you'd buy that I'm a frog, right? What? Oh her? [shrugs] I have no idea, women just do this."
• "Rod Damon ... takes a leaf from the Kamasutra—and finds it won't cover his problem." It's a p- ... well, you get the idea.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Rod Damon—captain of the Cornell marksmanship team!
• "Big Rod" IT'S A PUN
• "Kamasutra Country"—how is this not already the title of a horrible reality show?
• "Or he'll never be able to straighten up again"—weirdly, this is not a pun; he has chronic back pain (one of the hazards of being ... The Coxeman!)

Page 123~

Through the years, these novels appear to get more, uh ... well, here, you be the judge. This is 1969 (The Big Broad Jump): 

The sun warmed our bodies and we began our love games. Slowly, gently and with great tenderness, untile the savage beast claimed us both and we became a whirlwind of rotating rumps and churning thighs. I laid her good.

And this is 1972 (The Cockeyed Cuties):

I inserted my finger into her vagina, exploringly at first and then pistoning it. She moaned softly and began squeezing with her sphincter muscles.

The anatomical specificity of 1972 kinda makes you miss the clumsy vagueness of 1969. Although "I laid her good" and "pistoning it" ... that's kind of an "ew!" toss-up.

~RP

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