Showing posts with label Lester Dent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lester Dent. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2019

Paperbacks 1047, 1048, and 1049: A Doc Savage trio (Bantam, 1969 (2) and 1976 (1))

Paperbacks 1047-49: Doc Savage 35, 38, and 83 (1969, 1969, 1976)

Titles: The Squeaking Goblin, Red Snow, The Red Terrors
Author: Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent, Lester Dent, Harold A. Davis)
Cover artists: James Bama, James Bama, Boris Vallejo

Condition: 7/10
Estimated value: $20 for the lot

[Gift to the collection from a Western NY Reader]

BantamF4362
Best things about this cover:
  • "It ain't me what's squeakin', it's me musket!" squeaked Goblin Davy Crockett

BantamH4065
Best thing about this cover:
  • It's like if Hawkman and Hulk had a pin-headed monster baby

Bantam06486X
Best thing about this cover:
  • Doc Savage tried to start his life over as a crossing guard at Mystical Orb High School for Avian Cosplay, but it didn't take
Page 123~
One of the hired men pointed. "Red was a-meanderin' over thot way, last I seed a' him."
These books are all of astonishingly uniform length (~130pp.) and not at all badly written (at least on a basic grammatical level). They were originally published in the Doc Savage pulp magazine (in the '30s) and then were reprinted by Bantam roughly 30-40 years later, which puts them just before and toward the tail end of / just after the main time frame of my paperback collection (1939-69). Lester Dent (how wrote a ton of the "Kenneth Robeson" Doc Savage stories) was an accomplished crime fiction writer from the heydey of hardboild crime fiction. I covered one of his books back at Paperback 741.

Anyway, thanks to the lovely human who sent me these books in the mail today—individually wrapped! So thoughtful.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Paperback 741: Lady in Peril / Lester Dent // Wired for Scandal / Floyd Wallace (Ace Double D-357)

Paperback 741: Ace D-357 (PBO /PBO?)

Title: Lady in Peril / Wired for Scandal
Author: Lester Dent / Floyd Wallace
Cover artist: Uncredited / Uncredited

Yours for: $18

AceD357

Best things about this cover:
  • Nice, ominous, off-kilter, killer-POV shot. 
  • She has incredibly good posture for someone about to be brutally murdered. Style points for erect bearing and dramatic hand placement.
  • This painting is like a giant metaphor for "No Means No"—What part of "Do Not Enter" do you not understand!?
  • Lester Dent helped create the pulp hero Doc Savage.

AceD357.2

Best things about this other cover:
  • LOVE the design on this one. Strategic bursts of red against a semi-abstract green/white background. Nice variation on the floating head motif. Green rectangle with the tagline "Tune In And Die" brings balance and drama. 
  • Those guys are amazing dancers. Shake those hips, boys!
  • I kind of dress like the victim but I secretly aspire to dress like the killer.

Page 123~

"Can I look around?"
"Look, but keep your prints to yourself."
"I left some last night."

"If you know what I mean…"

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]