Paperback 181: Guns Roaring West / Peter Field (Pocket Books 6212)

Paperback 181: Pocket Books 6212 (1st ptg, 1963)
Title: Guns Roaring West
Author: Peter Field
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• "Guns Roaring West ... I said 'West' ... 'WEST!' ... aw hell, just leave it."
• That is an arrow, right? Not some malformed cactus or a duck footprint?
• "Powder Valley" sounds like the setting for a saga about babysitting cheerleaders
• This main dude is quite elegant and suave in his erect bearing and mysterious, darkened eyes. His lime green neckerchief with white polka dots kinda undercuts the whole evil vibe.

Best things about this back cover:

• From the looks of that boot, I'd have to say this is a story about the Western fashion industry. I expect some kind of fabulous dance-off at the end.
• "His words rustled dryly in the heavy quiet" - I wish I had audio files of you all uttering "What yuh after here?" in such a fashion. I just can't imagine anyone Making Those Words Rustle Dryly in a Heavy Quiet! I'm trying to do it now, at my desk, and I sound like a combination of Clint Eastwood and pervert on the subway.
• This is like a menu of the writer's choicest phrases - "Let's see ... I'll take the Rattlesnake Blur, with a side of Gun Roaring Hollowly"

Page 123~

Sloan's ordinarily vacuous countenance went wooden.

OK, I am beginning to fall in love with the daring, loopy, teenage prose of your average vintage paperback. I want to set up some kind of story project where I challenge people to write Very Short stories (under 500 words) using sentences culled from these books as the first line. I need to know more about Sloan. Any Sloan.

~RP

Paperback 16: Pocket Books 567

Paperback 16: Pocket Books 567 (1st ptg, 1949)

Title: Outlaws Three
Author: Peter Field
Cover artist: Harvey Kidder

Yours for: $7


Best things about this cover:

• PINK! - Either this represents Cowboys Against Breast Cancer, or ... "It's raining men," boys! And one of them is sporting a jaunty yellow ascot. Ooh la la.
• Floating heads - I love the floating head concept. I have a whole subset of my collection dedicated to floating heads. This cover does not hold the record for most floating heads on a single cover, but it makes a valiant effort.
• Cliché western mugs - each of these guys looks very familiar; there's One-Eyed McGee, the wise-cracking town drunk; Squarejaw Heroson, who always gets his man (and lady!); and lastly, of course, Hoss.

• Spooky Halloween tree - unless they are planning on hanging a small child, or possibly a gopher, there's no way that branch is going to hold.

RP