Paperback 1124: The Removers / Donald Hamilton (Gold Medal s1082)

Paperback 1124: Gold Medal s1082 (PBO, 1961)

Title: The Removers

Author: Donald Hamilton

Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 6/10 (crease down the middle of the cover)

Value: $6-10

Best things about this cover: 

• Another day, another Barye Phillips Gold Medal cover that is disappointingly sketchy. Why is this there so much unused space? Why is the woman so small? Bah!
• Also: another day, another implausible color of "red" on the "red"head. That's like Ronald McDonald "red," come on.
• On the other hand, love what the cover is doing with the "V" motif here—extending it up to provide space for the tagline, but also using it as a visual representation of the (imagined) gunshot. The whole "V" is like a speech bubble for the gun. A blast bubble.
• I also dig this groovy sixties font.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Interesting continuation of the "V" motif onto the back cover, extending and transforming it here into the top part of an exclamation point, with Helm himself as the emphatic dot!
• Gold Medal mostly didn't bother with the blurbs from "legitimate" press—you sell these books with Great Girl Art (GGA) and author reputation, not critic blurbs—but I guess if the critics love you, you can try to appeal to the eggheads who would otherwise be embarrassed to be seen reading 35c books.
• "A Creature of Sweetness and Havoc" would, I must admit, be a great crime novel title.

Page 123~

I put the phone down. I was looking at Beth, but for some reason I was seeing a long, low, green car—the color is known as British Racing Green—hurtling across the Arizona desert with that fine, wicked sound that you get only from high-class machinery that's really carrying the mail. Barring the true racing cars, the Jaguar is possibly, along with its American counterpart the Corvette, the most ridiculous vehicle made, from the viewpoint of efficient and economical transportation. You've got power enough to move a ten-ton truck attached to a loadspace barely adequate for two men and a small toothbrush. But it's an ego-satisfying machine in every respect [...]

OK, I've never read a Donald Hamilton novel before (that I can recall), but this stretch of prose actually makes me want to. I love an author who'll just do a funny little plot-irrelevant aside like this. Chandler was at his best when he'd let Marlowe do this sort of thing. Gonna throw a Hamilton novel onto the "summer vacation reading" list (already in danger of getting too long)

~RP

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Paperback 1121: A Place To Meet / Mary Orr (Perma Books M-4257)

Paperback 1121: Perma Books M-4257 (1st ptg., 1962)

Title: A Place to Meet

Author: Mary Orr

Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5-8

[from Stomping Grounds bookstore, Geneva, NY (6/24/25)]

Best things about this cover: 

• Excellent title design motif. Really evokes an affair by evoking a hotel room of a bygone era (i.e. before key cards). But if I were Mary Orr, I'd be mad that they did not have a similarly eye-popping design for My Damned Name. I keep looking at this cover like [squinting] "who the hell wrote this?" They really bury her name in an avalanche of white text.
• Barye Phillips has not generally been among my favorite cover artists (there's something slightly sloppy / sketchy / incomplete / messy about his work, esp. for Gold Medal), but I kinda like this one. Their embrace—her ecstasy in particular—is really ... radiating. "When they came together ... it was nuclear!" (it's 1962, after all, so I thought a little Cuban Missile Crisis energy was in order)
• I did not know All About Eve was based on a book. Once again, the popularizers and adapters get the title right. Last time (Paperback 1120), it was the paperback changing the hardcover original title from The Long Chance to Long Shot (so much better), and here we see the movie-makers made the wise decision to ditch The Wisdom of Eve in favor of the much snappier title. Would that movie be the classic it is if it were titled The Wisdom of Eve?Honestly, I doubt it.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Wow, the key is much more menacing back here. Bigger, more skull-like, and with prominent jagged teeth. Perhaps this is a sign that the affair between ... what's her name and ... Miguel? Really? ... anyway, perhaps the key is a sign that the affair spells Danger!
• I like how she talks like a casting agent: "I've got this role that you might be perfect for..."
• Miguel: Filler of Voids
• It's kind of funny to describe your prospective affair as "The One." Like, wasn't your husband supposed to be "The One?"

Page 123~

And then, like a crash in the dark, the volcano of discontent had suddenly erupted the way it always had in past Vanzadorian history.

Now is the volcano of our discontent made glorious crashing by this son of ... Vanzador? That's your fictional Latin American country, Vanzador? I guess if the only two words you can think of are "Venezuela" and "matador," then sure, Vanzador. Anyway, I now that there is an actual place called Vanadzor—not a country in Latin America, but a city in Armenia. Don't say this blog never taught you anything.

~RP

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Paperback 1039: The Bridge Over the River Kwai / Pierre Boulle (Bantam HP4391)

Paperback 1039: Bantam HP4391 (35th ptg, 1970)

Title: The Bridge Over the River Kwai
Author: Pierre Boulle
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 8/10
Estimated value: $5

Best things about this cover:

• My wife actually spotted this one on the $1 cart outside the bookstore. My initial immediate response was "meh" but then I held it and noticed a. the condition (excellent) and b. the quality of the art, which really is exquisite. 
• I love how Bantam has let the cover breathe. You can see how they might've used the painting differently, maybe cropping it differently and putting text (title / author) in or on top of the red sky. But this way, the painting really feels like a painting, and that sky is allowed to take up space and create its mood. The composition is also arresting.
• Me: "I know this artist ... Kalin? ... Hooks? ... [looks very closely at painting] oh, man, it's Barye Phillips!" Phillips signs simply "Barye," which you can see just to the left (your left) of the Japanese soldier's hand. I'm used to seeing girl art / crime fiction scenes from him, so this was cool and unexpected. 

Best things about this back cover:

• Again: rooooom for my eyes to breeeeeathe. I like.
• No need to waste time (i.e. words) when dealing with a book this well known (from the 1957 movie). Both front and back covers really do go in for more of a museum treatment than a typical book promo treatment.

Page 123~

Never before had he been conscious of that feeling of power and conquest which absolute isolation affords, whether on a mountaintop or in the bowels of the earth.

~RP

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Paperback 992: The Tents of Wickedness / Peter De Vries (Signet D1827)

Paperback 992: Signet D1827 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: The Tents of Wickedness
Author: Peter De Vries
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 7/10 (crisp and bright, but binding's a bit wonky)
Estimated value: $8-10

Best things about this cover:

• I think she's supposed to be sitting on that branch (?), but I like to think she's working the door at the Tents of Wickedness: "Look, you wanna get in, you're gonna have to lose the clothes. Get naked or scram, I ain't got all day!"
• Seriously, I love her, her defiant attitude, and all her convenient foliage.
• "... a fancy-free girl who believes in free expression, free verse and free love"—I'm 2/3 with you, sweetheart!

Best things about this back cover:

• Bah, rehash!
• "... and wild for to hold, though I seem tame."—Wyatt
• Cover copy makes author sound irreverent and saucy, whereas author photo makes him look like someone who would burn Sears catalogues to save the world from masturbatory thoughts.

Page 123~

She sat on her side of the bed, with a book of her own in which she was underlining passages heavily with a pencil. I drew her skirt up and pressed a cheek to her thighs, murmuring a declaration in her favor.

"A declaration in her favor" is beautiful and merciful in its openness. Let us imagine (or refuse to imagine). It's better than whatever specific utterance could possibly go there.

~RP

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Paperback 973: The Road's End / Albert Conroy (Gold Medal 231)

Paperback 973: Gold Medal 231 (PBO, 1952)

Title: The Road's End
Author: Albert Conroy
Cover artist: [Barye Phillips]

Estimated value: $17-22
Condition: 8/10

Best things about this cover:

• No joke, this dude looks eerily like 22-year-old me. Leering ladies in my doorway, not so much.
• "There were too many women in his life"—you'd think at least one of them would help him clean that sty.
• This appears to be some post-apocalyptic tale of drought, where water is money so you keep it close at hand and never wash anything.
• Where ... did his fingers go? Fear claw!

Best things about this back cover:

• "Curved feminine flesh" is less sexy-sounding than this book seems to think it is. More meat cut than sexpot.
• "Who are you?" he asked. "And who am I?"—finally, a sleaze paperback that reflects the then-current trends in existentialist philosophy.
• "I found a pasty man and put him in the shed. Can we keep him, mom? Can we!?"

Page 123~

My knee came up automatically and sank into his groin. And again. And again.

OK, I'm out.

~RP

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Paperback 894: Death Has Many Doors / Fredric Brown (Bantam 1567)

Paperback 894: Bantam 1567 (3rd ptg, 1st thus, 1957)

Title: Death Has Many Doors
Author: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated Value: $20-25

Best things about this cover:

• Gah, stupid late-'50s covers with their newfangled love of "text," crowding out the good stuff. Painting is great, but more of a smudge-sketch than a fully realized painting. I like covers that give the art Real Estate.
• She's like a suggestion of a sexy backlit lingerie lady. Like, I get it, but I don't feel it. His pasty enigmatic leering face is wonderful, but that tower of Fuchsia Letters is crowding him.
• Fredric Brown could Wrrrite. He has bouts of hackneyed sucking, but when he's on, he's sharp and dark and hilarious.

Best things about this back cover:

• HA ha. Arrows! That gave me a genuine laugh. When in doubt--->arrows.
• So … it's warm then?
• I read "The Screaming Mimi" this past winter. Recommended.

Page 123~

I said, "This is John Smith. I want Charlie's address." "You mean my brother-in-law? I don't know where he is, Mr. Smith." I said, "Fine. I'll send a couple of the boys out some evening to see you. I won't mention which evening. We wouldn't want coppers around." He said, "Huh?" and sounded properly scared and excited.

See. Good.

~RP

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Paperback 878: The Girl in the Gold Leather Dress / Victoria Kelrich Morhaim (Signet S1894)

Paperback 878: Signet S1894 (PBO, 1961)

Title: The Girl in the Gold Leather Dress
Author: Victoria Kelrich Morhaim
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated value: $15-20

Best things about this cover:

• The girl who hated books and sandals and so moped on the couch.
• It's rare that the stars of a front cover are pillows.
• "Stupid pillows, upstaging me … I wanna go get ice cream. All this leather is making me hot."
• "The story of a beat coed." I assume this means she is super-tired and has to sit down for a bit.

Best things about this back cover:

• Oh, *that* kind of "beat." Gotcha.
• You gotta love when history makes cover copy laughable. "Ginsberg! Kerouac! MORHAIM! Names that will live through the ages!"
• Seriously, though, this is a cool, unusual (and nearly flawless) paperback original, written about the beat generation During the beat generation—and by a woman. Screw your gray flannel suit. It's Gold Leather Dress time!

Page 123~

"And I don't think we'll have any more discussions about propriety and my Ph.D., will we?"

Pretty sure I said these exact words a lot in the '90s.

~RP

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Paperback 876: Lie Down, Killer / Richard Prather (Gold Medal s1166)

Paperback 876: Gold Medal s1166 (5th ptg, 1962)

Title: Lie Down, Killer
Author: Richard S. Prather
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated value: $6-10

Best things about this cover:

• Good boy. Stay.
• Dude's "Down Dog" sucks.
• She has awesome Disappointment Face.
• We've seen this book before, under different cover.

Best things about this back cover:

• Aw, man, it's even got the same back cover copy as the last version
• Apparently this is the story of a man who got a police badge tattooed on his penis, which then got infected. Edgy.
• This book should've been called "Ask Margo" or "That Woman Gag."

Page 123~

They both laughed loudly and then Gross said to Steve, "Doesn't that convince you, jerk?"
Steve said nothing.

Then Steve retorted, "Yeah? Well, you're gross! hahahahahaha…" Then they shot Steve in the face The End.

~RP

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Paperback 845: Uncle Good's Week-End Party / John Faulkner (Gold Medal 1031)

Paperback 845: Gold Medal 1031 (PBO, 1960)

Title: Uncle Good's Week-End Party
Author: John Faulkner
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated value: $20-25


Best things about this cover:

• Try to find a creepier title/cover art pairing. Go ahead. I'll wait.
• Uncle Good likes to watch. And smoke. And hunch. And not tuck his shirt in.
• The funniest thing on this cover is "Faulkner."
• MTV canceled this after one season.
• What is "NOOT?"

Best things about this back cover:

• I like how this cover starts, anyway.
• Let me get this straight: I'll laugh at the side-splitting antics of an old man who rents out his own daughters? An old man who is his daughters' pimp? Or does he rent them out as clowns for children's birthday parties? Please say "B."
• ORTA. That is all.

Page 123~

Orta June and Jewel Mae had stood up as the husbands came stumbling and crawling across the porch. Soon the husbands were thick around them.

This is like a zombie movie. But with husbands.

~RP

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Paperback 841: The Bombshell / Carter Brown (Signet 1767)

Paperback 841: Signet 1767 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: The Bombshell
Author: Carter Brown
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated value: $8-10


Best things about this cover:

• One of the few crime novels to take place entirely inside a circus tent.
• Either that is a letter-perfect come-hither look or the rabid dog on her head has burrowed deep into her skull and now has full mind-control capabilities.
• That is one hell of a negligee. So … negligible.
• You can tell police dude is confused. "Shoot the thing on her head … or ask her out? Damn it, this job's hard!"
• Title font victory! Total A+.

Best things about this back cover:

• I think I found my new look for 2015. I am only 1/4 kidding. (The 1/4 that contains the cigarette)
• Anagrams to LIE TALLY, which I'm sure is high, 'cause she's a blonde dame, know what I'm sayin'? Also LIT ALLEY, where she buys all her books, and TILE ALLY, as she's known in the bathroom flooring industry.
• carter brown sold 25.5 million books without capital letters in his name so he's not about to start now.

Page 123~

 "Al!" She jumped up and down gleefully. "That thing's a microphone, isn't it?"

"It's whatever you want it to be, baby."

~RP

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Paperback 771: Moonraker / Ian Fleming (Signet S1850)

Paperback 771: Signet S1850 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: Moonraker
Author: Ian Fleming
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $25


Best things about this cover:

• The long-awaited Moonmower prequel!
• Remember when NASA designed its launch towers to looks like giant lady spies? Man, the '60s were awesome!
• I choose to read only the text to the right of her head, thus: "a luscious lady spy that can blow the…" Now *that's* suspense!
• This came out in 1960, when Janet Leigh's haircut from "Psycho" was apparently very popular.

Best things about this back cover:

• Here's rocket in your eye!
• Let he who is without a rocket in his eye cast the mote verily from within thine own talent … is how the bible verse goes, I believe.
• You had me at "Flamboyant!"
• DRAX is an occasional crossword answer. Just FYI.

Page 123~

"I'm terribly sorry, Sir Hugo. But could you possibly stop for just a moment? I want, I mean, I'm terribly sorry but I'd like to powder my nose. It's terribly stupid of me. I'm so sorry."

Hugo Drax then wondered angrily why Gala didn't go back at McDonald's, when she had the chance. I mean, she drank all that soda, what did she think was going to happen? God! Now we're never gonna get to uncle Bob's by dinner! Gimme your Walkman, Gala! Stupid girls don't get Walkmen!

~RP

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Paperback 735: The Wanton / Carter Brown (Signet 1713)

Paperback 735: Signet 1713 (1st ptg, 1959)

Title: The Wanton

Author: Carter Brown

Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $8

Best things about this cover:

• "Emerging from the giant green space womb on her ornate hovercraft, Suzie began putting her magnetic hands to work..."
• Spangle tights!
• Wantons sure sit funny.

Best things about this back cover:

• Carter Brown, Private Accountant
• "Mom says I'm not supposed to smoke around the typewriter, but … I'm kind of a rebel."
• "…with death" — just add it to anything you happen to be saying for more drama.
• Who is Mavis Seidlitz and how do I get my hands on one of her (her?) mysteries?

Page 123~

Late the following afternoon, I sat in the visitor's chair—the one with springs—and watched the beaming smile on the Sheriff's face.

Because visitors like to *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* ….

~RP

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Paperback 712: The Fair and the Bold / Donn O'Hara (Graphic Giant G-222)

Paperback 712: Graphic Giant G-222 (PBO, 1957)

Title: The Fair and the Bold
Author: Donn O'Hara
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• I  buy her as The Fair, but aside from his choice to wear burning ships as footwear, I don't really see him as The Bold. 
• "The Fair and the Dude We Saw at RenFest '12 Last Summer"
• I am 99% certain that dancing lady is a near-perfect reproduction of some Rita Hayworth picture I've seen ... somewhere.

Best things about this back cover:

• Here, the sword takes on its full phallic implications.
• "... his blazing cannon, his murderous sword—and his penis, for which the first two things were pretty obvious metaphors."
• I love how happy she is. It's very sweet, if not terribly sexy.
• I also like guard dude who is going to get to hear it all. 
• You know what's fun to say? "La Cacafuego!"

Page 123~

The movement dislodged the blanket, which slithered off Bakkerzeel's knees to the floor. Fletcher saw that the man had no feet—only blobs of bandage at the ends of his ankles.

Well that took an unexpected and horrific turn. Poor Baker's Eel.

~RP

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Paperback 696: Assignment—Lili Lamaris / Edward S. Aarons (Gold Medal s911)

Paperback 696: Gold Medal s911 (PBO, 1959)

Title: Assignment—Lili Lamaris
Author: Edward S. Aarons
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $7


Best things about this cover:

• Cover would be So Hot if it were less smudgy and closer-up. PAN IN!
• This is somewhere between super-sexy and "help me, I've fallen."
• She appears to be wearing ... mist. How convenient.
• I like how she just jams her right leg into the text, like "Don't look at those stupid words! Why are you looking down there when I'm up here!?"

Best things about this back cover:

• I like the attitude suggested by his face, i.e. "whatever, sketch me or don't sketch me, I don't give a fuck."
• Since "the enemy" is unnamed, I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's "lizard people."
• "Tenth book"?! He wrote 42 novels in this series! (This has been your "holy crap" literary moment of the day.)

Page 123~

He paused, listening to the silence here that was not quite a silence, but like the deep, patient breathing of a waiting animal. 

That's just Lili. She breathes funny when she's naked-crawling.

~RP

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Paperback 682: The Temptress / Carter Brown (Signet S1817)

Paperback 682: Signet S1817 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: The Temptress
Author: Carter Brown
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• That is some spectacular cleavage. The "the" looks like it wants to go hide in there.
• This "standing woman / dead man" cover is a type. I feel the need to go back and tag all the others "SWDM"—it says everything about the ambivalent erotics of vintage paperback cover art.
• That font is sassy. It doesn't scare me, though. Looks like the opening credits of a '60s sitcom.

Best things about this back cover:

• I'm confused by "just." It assumes a baseline opinion that "murder" is a pretty word. It's a horrendously ugly word.
• So Chandler writes "Trouble Is My Business" and then for decades other writers / copyeditors copy, parody, and generally dead-horse the hell out of that phrase.
• LOVE that we can see here what important cultural touchstones "Peyton Place" and "Lolita" were for the late '50s/early '60s world. 
• "An August Signet Paper Edition"—"August" ... like, the adjective? That is unexpected. In fact, just plain weird. Also, likely, not true.

Page 123~

"Yeah," he nodded. "She had the pictures and we burned 'em. We didn't know there was more of them—figured they were the only ones he had!"

Incriminating photos / blackmail schemes are the topic of 59.8% of all hard-boiled stories. Give or take.

~RP

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Paperback 673: A Taste For Blood / John B. West (Signet S1800)

Paperback 673: Signet S1800 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: A Taste for Blood
Author: John B. West
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• Jeez, that's a Lot of blood. Hard to admire the naked lady with slasher movie-level gore on the wall.
• "Rocky Steele" is a name that one might call "over-compensating." It's a hair's breadth away from "Cock McJohnson."
• I have this theory that the P.I. novel essentially died in 1954 with "The Long Goodbye"; it devolves into self-parody after that (though there had been elements of self-parody almost immediately after the P.I. novel became a thing). This book is a minor but perfect example of what I'm talking about. Toughness, hardness—it's a formula, a pose. I know there are many fine practitioners of the P.I. novel who have written since and write now, but it usually feels like the author is wearing old clothes—might make 'em look good, but they're still a costume. A form of nostalgia. Signifiers standing in for substance. [I hope it's clear that I'm speaking narrowly of the traditional P.I. novel here—the crime fiction genre more broadly is clearly thriving—though Sturgeon's Law, as always, applies]  

Best things about this back cover:

• Wait, my accountant wrote a crime novel?
• Ha ha, he's a physician! So let me start over: "Wait, my doctor wrote a crime novel!?"
• These fake little back-cover bios, where authors are made to seem like men's magazine adventure heroes, always slay me. 

Page 123~

He thanked the operator and laid the phone down like it was a hand grenade and then turned back to me.

I'm no munitions expert, but is that what one does with a hand grenade? I'm having a hard time not picturing Rocky Steele just hurling the phone across the room then hitting the ground and covering his head.

~RP

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Paperback 610: Morocco Jones in The Case of the Golden Angel / Jack Baynes (Crest 325)

Paperback 610: Crest Books 325 (PBO, 1959)

Title: Morocco Jones in The Case of the Golden Angel
Author: Jack Baynes
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $11


Best things about this cover:

• Hey look, it's Robert Mitchum's slow, pin-headed cousin ... Morocco.
• What are you, a pirate? Button your blouse, Morocco.
• LOVE her pose / expression. It's like she's upset that no one's paying attention to her: "Oh, my, there's a rip in the back of my dress, boys. Look. Boys? Boys!!!"
• The boys are developing their patented angry secret handshake.
• And Morocco floated like a besotted wine-colored god in the heavens ... 

Best things about this back cover:

• This back cover was made with some early, horrid version of Photoshop. "Crop! Ok, now ... blue-ify!"
• Oh, *that* Kansas City.
• Of course nobody told Morocco that the "S.O.S." stood for "Sad Old Spy." It would've hurt his feelings.

Page 123~

Dave tossed Morocco a taut grin. "What honest labor union leader could afford a perch like this one?"

You have to make your grin taut before you toss it, otherwise it just sort of dies in mid-air.

~RP

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Paperback 540: Meet Morocco Jones / Jack Baynes (Crest 1957)

Paperback 540: Crest 195 (PBO, 1957)

Title: Meet Morocco Jones (in the Case of the Syndicate Hoods)
Author: Jack Baynes
Cover artist: maaaaaybe Barye Phillips (uncredited)

Yours for: $15


Best things about this cover:

• Who's the private dick who takes advice from the half-naked lady on his shoulder? "Morocco Jones!" Ya damn right.
• "Morocco, I'm hungry" "Shut up, Shoulder Girl. Can't you see I'm stalking syndicate hoods?"
• There is so much Fail happening here. Title fail (the putative title is actually just a lead-in/tagline, whereas the actual title is represented as a weak little subtitle). Art fail (where's the rest of my painting, Captain Stingy McWatercolor?!). Hyperbole fail ("The best book that's ever been written or will ever be written!").

Best things about this back cover:

• "Helluva" is simply a great "word."
• Morocco Jones "takes his place among the heroes of tough-guy fiction." Notice they don't say which place. Kind of backing off from that front-cover braggadocio, aren't you, copywriters?
• Is there such a thing as "the edge of lightning?" If so, can it be said to be "sharp?" If the answer to either of these is 'no,' can Morocco Jones' mind be said to really 'exist' at all? (philosophers will come to know this as the "Morocco Jones Dilemma")
• "And whose morals ... well, he liked to masturbate in public so ... yeah, the less said the better."

Page 123~

"Who are they, Carson?" Thurm asked gently.
"Skull Kronsky, Duke White, and Solly Cogen."
"Bad, bad boys," Thurm said softly. As bad as some of the Syndicate killers. Lije is not going to like this, Carson."

Jack Baynes, fresh off a correspondence course in "Naming Your Fictional Characters," goes berserk. P.S. I call dibs on the pseudonym 'Skull Kronsky.'

~RP

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Paperback 521: The Man With the Golden Gun / Ian Fleming (Signet P2735)

Paperback 521: Signet P2735 (1st ptg, 1966)

Title: The Man with the Golden Gun
Author: Ian Fleming
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• James Bond subdues the 50-Foot Woman ... with sexy results.
• Damn the '60s, with their "words" crowding out all the luscious artistry. I can't believe the great Barye Phillips' work has been reduced (literally and metaphorically) to this. It's like his art is being chewed by the bloody fangs of the words, while also being attacked by a golden word-buzzsaw.
• Her ass is so hot it's literally steaming.

Best things about this back cover:

• NOTHING!
• Ah, "bordello," you seldom-used, beautiful word.
• "Aided by his sex-galore confederate" is a brilliant phrase, I'll give the copy writer that.

Page 123~

Amused by his thoughts, Bond's right hand came out of his pocket and lit a cigarette for him, quietly and obediently. It had stopped going off chasing rabbits on its own.

I'm kind of stuck on how a "hand" gets "amused."

~RP

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Paperback 467: Women's Barracks / Tereska Torres (Gold Medal 132)

Paperback 467: Gold Medal 132 (PBO, 1950)

Title: Women's Barracks
Author: Tereska Torres
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $20

Best things about this cover:

• Ah, the standard military-issue pink bra. Classic.
• Hell yeah "FRANK!"
• This book is pretty famous. Per wikipedia: "The first paperback to address a lesbian relationship was published as early as 1950 with Women's Barracks by Tereska Torres, published by Gold Medal Books. The story was fictionalized account of Torres' experiences in the Free French Forces in London during World War II. Women's Barracks sold 4 million copies and was selected in 1952 to become an example of how paperback books were promoting moral degeneracy, by the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials."
• I'm kind of in love with the blonde in the dead center background. She looks tough as hell. Doesn't even bother taking the cigarette out of her mouth to put her clothes on. No time for googly eyes in the locker room — those Krauts aren't going to kill themselves, ladies!
• I also love the lady in uniform, sizing up her prey: "I'm gonna eat you like an after-dinner mint, sweetheart."

Best things about this back cover:

• "Where are the *normal* emotional outlets? All I see are these weird European jobs. Anybody got a converter?"
• "Revealment" is a real word, but it still hurts.

Page 123~

Mickey tried to give the men the eye, as though to reassure them that she was a real woman; but Petit had installed herself directly in front of us, at a little table, so there could be no side flirtation.

"Eyes front, bitches!"

~RP

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