Paperback 685: Swapping Society / Jack Woods (Corsair Books 216)

Paperback 685: Corsair Books 216 (PBO, 1968)

Title: Swapping Society
Author: Jack Woods
Cover artist: Uncredited. Feels like somebody famous, but I can't remember his name... [possibly Bill Ward or Gene Bilbrew or Eric Stanton]

Yours for: Not for Sale [part of the Doug Peterson Collection]


Best things about this cover:

• Glenda will not have her magnificent buttcheeks upstaged by some young hippie's perky rack. Back to the dorms with you and your left boob, Missy.
• How is this vampire different from all other vampires? Well, Missy, she's about to show you.
• Not sure how this cover can be so sexed-up and yet feel so dull. It's like people dressed for an orgy but decided to reenact a routine medical exam instead.
• Behold this imprint! I'd never even heard of Corsair until Doug handed me this book last weekend. Skull & crossbones = righteous.

Best things about this back cover:

• A lesbian dominatrix who's into BDSM? That's what's called hitting the alt.sex jackpot, paperbackwise.
• Ha ha, "You." Gotta love second-person cover copy. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure (which ... would be ... the greatest thing ever ...).
• "Plunge Into the Aberrant Happenings" should be some state's motto. Nebraska? I'm looking at you...
• And the winner of all typos is .... [drum roll] ... UNCERTAINTLY! Pick up your check at the door, buddy. You earned it!

Page 123~

"They let's go, darling," Linda whispered, smearing her wet lips over his cheek. "I need a real man to take care of me—as hot as I am right now. And I'm sure you can do the job with flying colors."

Sorry, Linda, you lost me at "smearing."

~RP

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Paperback 684: Hired Nympho / Big Bob Tralins (Novel Book 5077)

Paperback 684: Novel Book 5077 (PBO, 1962)

Title: Hired Nympho
Author: Big Bob Tralins (best, author, name, ever)
Cover artist: photo cover + beta version of PhotoShop?

Yours for: Not for Sale [part of the Doug Peterson Collection]


Best things about this cover:

• Can't get past the hair. Just can't. Hideous.
• I do like the fact that I have, multiple times, misread Big Bob Tralins' other titles, e.g. "Seduction Salmon," "Passion Position," etc
• Big. Bob. Tralins. That was someone's name.
• Arrow, haha. "Read this next," says the redundant arrow.

Best things about this back cover:

• Simple and to the point. Elegant. Being honest when I say this is one of my very favorite back covers. Of all time.

Page 123~

I grinned. They were both compacts, the low-slung, economy size, one blonde, the other redhead. Miniature five-footers, but stacked!

I can really picture these women. Sadly, what I'm picturing looks like a cross between a car and a sub sandwich.

~RP

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Paperback 683: Big Heat / Unknown (All Star Books AS 531)

Paperback 683: All Star Books AS 531 (PBO, 1963)

Title: Big Heat
Author: No author credit? Seriously? Not even on the title page or anywhere?
Cover artist: too sad to think about

Yours for: Not for Sale [Part of the Doug Peterson Collection]


Best things about this cover:

• Several things. First: peach?
• Second: the most offensive thing about this cover—his shirt. Actually, probably all of him, but especially his shirt.
• I am enjoying her stockings.
• I like (seriously, like) how they start her off at "Twice."

Best things about this back cover:

• BIG HEAT! Comin' atcha! 3 times!
• In what universe is the phrase "giant breasts falling free of her halter" erotic or titillating? It makes me want to shout "Run!" to all the endangered villagers.
• Hmm. If you're looking to find a man who could release you from the tortured lust of being a lesbian, I'm not sure reckless affairs with other women is the way to go about it. "I keep having reckless affairs with other women, but so far, no luck on the man front. What am I doing wrong!?"
• Ah, "unnatural" and "twisted," my favorite code words. How you guys doin'? Good to see you again.

Page 123~

"Christ, what's the matter with me?" he said. "Blowing my stack over some dumb kid in hick fishing camp!"

Wow. Did not see those last three words coming.

Here's some bonus footage, which I tweeted last night—from the preview page inside the front cover:

Her breasts were enormous bombs of powdered white flesh, tipped with crimson tidbits the size of plums.

The Crimson Tidbits were also a moderately successful doo-wop group from the late-50s.

~RP

P.S. this book appears to be ... short stories. But with no table of contents and no author credit and no apparent dignity, who's to say?

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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 681: Sweet and Deadly / Verne Chute (Popular Library 443)

Paperback 681: Popular Library 443 (PBO, 1952)

Title: Sweet and Deadly
Author: Verne Chute
Cover artist: [A. Leslie Ross]

Yours for: $12


Best things about this cover:

• So Many Great Things that I'm kind of paralyzed. I saw this last weekend at a bookshop in Ithaca and snapped it up without even looking at the price. I think this is one of my 20 favorite covers of all time.
• So Much Action. The cover would be worth it for her alone—the baddest-looking Girl With a Gun in my collection—but we get Smashed Face McTireIron thrown into the bargain as well. How many ways were they planning on killing that poor blond guy?
• Suicide doors!
• Double Fear Hand! Or is he just dancing because she said so?
• The art here balances pure hard-boiled action with a soft, luminous delicacy. Love.

Best things about this back cover:

• That's what they all say.
• Wow, that's some pretty overt gropiness there at the beginning.
• "What did you say your name was? 'Methane?'" "It's MEL Thane, doll. Don't you forget it." "I already have."
• If that blond guy is Mel, I am *super* glad she shot him.

Page 123~

Mel's match lighting a cigarette made a harsh sound. "I've got a sort of client who's being blackmailed. He managed to steal a few things out of a blackmail mob's file . . ."

Ew, Mel is the *detective* in this story? Oh well, my desire that he get shot stands.

~RP

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Paperback 680: The Lady Regrets / James M. Fox (Dell 338)

Paperback 680: Dell 338 (1st ptg, 1949)

Title: The Lady Regrets
Author: James M. Fox
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $11


Best things about this cover:

• Unexpected dog attack! I imagine these are actors on a movie set and the dog has *nothing* to do with the picture. Which would explain ... everything.
• The rarely seen Male Fear Hand!
• Her boobs are upset that they have been so dramatically upstaged.
• This cover has done the impossible, which is to offer me bondage and have me barely even notice said bondage. Angry dog trumps all.
• That dog is highly opposed to the copping of feels.
• "Black Room Murder" sounds made-up. If you google it (in quotes) you get several references to this book.

Best things about this back cover:

• Los Angeles!
• Possibly the most satellite-like Mapback I've ever seen. It's just ... lines. I (still) love it.
• "A Grim Game of Find-The-Girl" = awesome description of half of all hard-boiled crime stories.

Page 123~

"So now you know, Jackson," I said, stepping on the cigarette butt to kill it.

If I focus on just this sentence, I can persuasively argue that this book is exceedingly well written.

~RP

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Paperback 679: Murder and the Married Virgin / Brett Halliday (Dell 323)

Paperback 679: Dell 323 (1st ptg, 1949)

Title: Murder and the Married Virgin (a Michael Shayne Story)
Author: Brett Halliday
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $12


Best things about this cover:

• So ... I'm guessing he's "The Married Virgin"
• I like how she is wearing an snow leopard-fringed cape and how it magically adheres to her back in defiance of all the laws of physics.
• This is an oddly romantic / sweet / slicks-type illustration. Where is my Sleaze!?
• I would not willingly live in the '40s but people did dress awesomer.

Best things about this back cover:

• Mapback!
• Barbie Dream House!
• That library is impressive.
• This illustration raises the question—does anything at all happen on the left side of the house?

Page 123~

"You're after something" Shane reasoned bitterly.

Wow, that is some unfortunate verb+adverb action.

~RP

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