Paperback 1089: Ace F-112 (1st ptg / PBO, 1961)
Title: Fashions for Carol / Barbara Ames, Private Secretary
Author: Nell Marr Dean / Jeanne Judson
Cover artist: [Rudy Nappi] / Uncredited
Condition: 7/10
Value: $10
- See, the cover *wants* you to believe she's sizing him up as a romantic prospect, but I know she's really plotting how to take his job, or kill him. Or both. Enjoy your three-martini lunch, Steve. It may be your last.
- I love how Rudy Nappi was like "OK, if I you're not gonna let me do full-body art, I'm giving Everything I Got to this girl's hair!" The results are astonishing. Massive, swirling, architecturally impeccable.
- Again, I say, to no one in particular, that there's No Way she can actually see him from this angle. Artists get away with this physics-defying over-the-shoulder glance All The Time and I hate that it works. Even my brain is like "yes, she is giving him a sly sidelong glance" when I know that it is Physically Impossible unless there is a mirror somewhere off-screen. Stupid gullible brain.
- Steve's mad that he has to work somewhere so pink. "It's not manly is all I'm sayin'..." he mumbled
Best things about this back cover:
- "'Just a small town girl ... living in a big time job' —nah, that doesn't rhyme. How 'bout "Just a small town girl ... brunette hair refused to curl'? No. '... runnin' from some guy named Earl'? Dammit, words are hard!" [Steve Perry writing "Don't Stop Believin'," probably]
- The art is much worse on this side of the book, but I want to live in this blue world of mid-century office furniture.
- I like Barbara. She's like "I refuse to pose sexy for you or the undertaker behind me or anyone. Now if you're quite through ogling me, I have work to do." Respect.
- What is that guy doing with his hand!? Flashing gang signs? Holding a sack of potatoes to his sternum? I wouldn't look at him either, Barbara.
Page 123~ (from Fashions for Carol]
He pretended toughness. "But when we're married, you've got to come to every game. And you've got to be a good Texas Democrat."She quivered with a happiness she had never known before.
Wow, the orgasmic power of the phrase "Texas Democrat," who knew?
~RP
