Paperback 8 - Bantam 302

Paperback 8 - Bantam 302 (1st ptg, 1948)

Title: The Fabulous Clipjoint
Author: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Ed Grant

Yours for: $27


Best things about this cover:

• Her dress
• Her attitude ("What the hell do you want?") - she doesn't look that surprised or threatened, one arm akimbo, the other delicately cradling a lit cigarette. This guy should be menacing, but the whole scenario just makes him seem impotent. The chain stretches across her waist like a metaphorical chastity belt - none for you, young man.
• Good example of cover art convention: keep man in the shadows, nondescript and gray / make the woman pop. Even though the man dominates the frame, all eyes are on the woman (peek through the locked door almost as good as a peek through a keyhole, which was a common paperback cover convention, actually - we'll see several peephole covers in the coming months)
• Guy looks like the "gunsel" from the movie "The Maltese Falcon"

Fredric Brown was a great crime fiction and sci-fi writer of the fifties, well known for his taut writing and penchant for humor. Not nearly as famous as he deserves to be. His stuff is highly collectible, especially early paperbacks like this one. The Fabulous Clipjoint is probably his best known work.

RP