Paperback 129: Negative Minus / R. L. Fanthorpe (Badger Books SF88)

Paperback 129: Badge Books SF88 (PBO?, ca. late '50s)

Title: Negative Minus
Author: R.L. Fanthorpe
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $15


Best things about this cover:

• Is "Negative Minus" a thing? I need a math ruling.
• Shouldn't this book just be called "plus?" That, or "The Night I Went Trick-or-Treating Dressed as an Owl and Those Hippies Put LSD in the Candy Corn and The Great Uncle of The Great Gazoo Coaxed Me Into Killing People By Scratching My Nose and Promising Me More Candy Corn..."

Best things about this back cover:

• I believe this write-up was written under the influence of the aforementioned Gazoo juice. It's really vague ... and features a character with the most improbable name of "Stelgen"
• Alpha Centauri?! It's always Alpha Centauri with these people! Pick a new place!
• If "Stelgen" was "born" from a "star," I'm going to barf.
• New title for the book: "Stelgen Was Not a Genius." It would explain a lot about the cover (whichever one of those two folks "Stelgen" is...)

Page 123~

"I've never wanted anything so much," answered Suessydo. "I'm a normal, healthy, red-blooded male, but I've never met any attraction anywhere to equal the power, the pull of that voice. By the eight purple stars of Qoink, I've never heard such melody and such sweetness. By the seven blue dragons of Bfup, there was never such a melody before."

"You are using some strong oaths," returned Suhcolyrue.

"I use them as an expression of strong thoughts," replied the Captain.

I swear to you that none of that is made up. I'm just not that good. And now, inspired by the "Captain's" fantastic name, I leave you with Phil Collins.



Good day.

~RP

Paperback 126: Plan for Conquest / A.A. Glynn (Badger Books SF90)

Paperback 126: Badger Books SF90 (PBO [?], 1963 [?])
Title: Plan for Conquest
Author: A. A. Glynn
Cover artist: My Hero

Yours for: $14


Best things about this cover:

• Robot head doubles as coffee pot.
• He's like a walking tamale - those are corn husks, right?
• Love the midnight background scene!: "Everybody was kung fu fightin'!"
• This book is clearly the beta version of "Battlestar Galactica" - just with Far Less Frightening robots
• Multiple choice quiz!: This robot is sad because:

1. he killed his owner lady
2. he is not programmed to "love"
3. his girlfriend robot rejected his Valentine's Day gift: tasty human corpse

Best things about this back cover:

• His arms are in the same position as on the cover ... but Where Is The Lady!? It looks like he's playing charades and the answer he's going for is "Gondolier"
• "Bath the baby?"
• "Aunt Edie"
• I used to belong to the New (Chaucer) Society

Page 123:

So they made their cautious way through the moorland, ever watchful for the glint of dawn-light on domed metal heads which would betray the presence of the brain's robot warriors.

I would like to announce that my next album will be titled "Dawn-Light on Domed Metal!"

~RP

Paperback 124: Mark of the Beast / John E. Muller (Badger Books SF 105)

Paperback 124: Badger Books SF 105 (ed. unknown, ca. late 1950s)

Title: Mark of the Beast
Author: John E. Muller
Cover artist: Are you kidding? These damned British imprints give you Zero info - see (missing) publication info, above. You really think they're going to bother telling you the cover artist? Hah. Or maybe the cover artist deliberately had his name withheld so that he could avoid the shame of having to account for such a (literal) monstrosity of a painting. [update: Lionel Fanthorpe; see PS, below]

Yours for: $18


Best things about this cover:

• Note: if you are going to cave in and give the gorilla chocolate, do not, I repeat, do not give him that cheap Toblerone crap from the Duty-Free shop.
• Oh my God that cackling rhombus-headed simian is going to haunt my dreams for Months!
• This book seems to be some kind of cross between Frankenstein and King Kong - but the monster design seems to have serious Coneheads influence
• Check out the teeny "N.Z." sticker. I normally hate price stickers on my books, but this one is Adorable.
• That's one convincing badger.

Best thing about this back cover:

• The monster returns, and though he appears to be electrified / radioactive, the pink background really softens his overall image: "The Mark of the Beast ... for Ladies"

Page 123:

Sprinting as though he were Britain's last hope in the Olympics, the Security man threw everything he had into reaching a doorway on the far side of the ape.

RP

PS it's April 2018 and I just got the following email:

Re Mark of the Beast - Badger Books 105 and your entry 124 [Aug 7 2008]:  The cover artist is Lionel Fanthorpe — aka R.L. Fanthorpe, who also wrote some of the Badger titles.  In fact, this is one of his titles — John E. Muller was one of his pseudonyms.  
I recently obtained a printer’s proof of the cover, signed by Fanthorpe.
You may now sleep easier.
Nice blog by the way.
Scott