Paperback 915: Murder in Room 13 / Albert Conroy (Gold Medal 806)

Paperback 915: Gold Medal 806 (PBO, 1958)

Title: Murder in Room 13
Author: Albert Conroy
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $6-8

Best things about this cover:

• Women Falling Backwards Over Beds Or Couches should really be a "Tag" on this blog. Happens all the time, or at least, let's say, six times.
• This looks like Barye Phillips, but there's no art credit, so ... Uncredited.
• I think the figure departing via the door is supposed to look sinister, but instead he looks cartoonishly cornball. Like some combination of Peter Lorre and Boris Badinov and a badger.
• I think the giant "13" is where it is because the artist kind of screwed up her middle section. Foreshortening of the body is all wrong and her boobs are just ... odd ... somehow.

Best things about this back cover:

• The evidence! Now in dramatic yellow!
• This reads like the most generic crime story pitch of all time. It's got all the elements. Ex-pug. Alcoholic haze. Motel. Raincoat. I mean, I'd be *in* if you gave me even the *slightest* reason to care.
• Murderer! Now in dramatic italics!

Page 123~

"What the hell do you want?" She sounded surly-drunk.

This novel probably sucks, but I'd say this guy's compound adjective skills are at least promising.

~RP

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Paperback 517: The best of ROCKY and the complete ROCKY II / Fotonovel Publications (nn)

Paperback 517: Fotonovel nn (1st ptg, 1979)

Title: The Best of 'Rocky' and the Complete 'Rocky II' 
Author: Uncredited
Cover artist: Movie still

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• Here we see Rocky moments before he is eaten alive by a hungry pack of extras from "Free to Be You and Me"
• You can pay in Pounds Sterling or American Dollars. "Special Edition!"
• I like the Rocky figure inside the "Y" of Rocky II, though it looks less like a boxer than a guy wearing oven mitts being held up at gunpoint.

Best things about this back cover:

• "At last!"—something no one ever said about a Fotonovel.
• "ROCKY II picks up where ROCKY leaves us"—what a novel concept in sequelry!
• How does he get his right-bottom lip to do that!? It's freaky. Stroke-ish.

Page 123~ (there are no page #s, so I'm just guessing here)

I don't think Adrian is frightened so much as ashamed. It's one thing to get knocked down, and quite another to cower and present your junk to the camera in such a self-abasing fashion.

~RP

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Paperback 424: K.O. Technique / Peter Randa (Editions Fleuve Noir 424)

Paperback 424: Editions "Fleuve Noir" 424 (PBO? 1964?)

Title: K.O. Technique
Author: Peter Randa
Cover artist: [Michel Gourdon]

Yours for: $12


Best things about this cover:

• "My K.O. Technique, c'est Magnifique!"
• Took me a while to realize "technique" here was "technical," as in "TKO"
• Randa was an exceedingly prolific French crime and sci-fi writer of the mid-20th century. There is apparently an illustrated edition of this book out there ... somewhere.
• Despite its lack of boobs and guns, I kinda like this cover. Unusually soft tones. Old-timey boxing glove and old-timey money. It's pretty, dark, and retro all at the same time.
• "Fleuve Noir" = "black river"

Best things about this back cover:

• I can't believe that by the mid-60s, the French weren't better at back-cover come-ons than this. It's so ... polite. And formal. Why In The World Should I Read "Pascaline," Frenchy? What's it about!? Try harder!

Page 123~

Je comprends maintenant pourquoi on a tiré sur toi.

[Now I understand why they shot at you.]

"I mean, I've only known you two minutes and I already want to strangle you a little."

~RP

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Paperback 352: Me An' You / Jay Thomas Caldwell (Lion 220)

Paperback 352: Lion 220 (PBO, 1954)

Title: Me An' You
Author: Jay Thomas Caldwell
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $30


Best things about this front cover:

• "Grrr, Hulk hate ordinary kitchen chair. Prefer mid-century modern aesthetic. Grrrrrr... Hulk crush chair!"
• They promise a "two-fisted Negro," but I can see just the one fist. Rip-off.
• I think the white t-shirt was a late decision. Pretty sure he was originally depicted shirtless, but then censors were like "Dude, we're already pushing the interracial envelope on this one—put some clothes on the guy." Anyway, late-add would explain somewhat the remarkable definition visible even through the shirt.
• I love her bored expression: "What's shaking my chair? Oh, it's you ... I don't suppose you're a big shot yet?"
• Lots of telling details in this one—the liquor, the news headline, the pile of dirty dishes, and of course, the pervading aura of grime.
• I think I remember Robert Polito saying (in his Thompson bio) that Jay Thomas Caldwell was a black writer who died young, possibly in a bank hold-up. But I could be misremembering my details.

Best things about this back cover:

• Why in the world would you even get *on* "the long ladder of bitterness and bleak despair?" I imagine any direction on that thing is a bad one.
• I am a little worried about Irma.

Page 123~ (four pages from end of book)

"People I used to know in the fight game stop me on the street an' say, 'Tommy, I hear you're a preacher now.' Yes, I tell them. I'm workin' for the Lord now."

"AAAAmen!"

"Praise the LOOOrd!"

Well, I did not see that coming.

~RP

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Donations to the Collection: Ringside Sex (PEC N122)

Several times since I started writing about vintage paperbacks, people have offered to send me books. Not just scans of covers, but actual books. For free. Just ... because. And the cover-loving world rejoices. Allow me to share my latest acquisitions with you. Actually, I'll give you one today, and one this weekend. These books come to me courtesy of a generous reader, Gabrielle Bucci. Hey, the former mayor of Binghamton is named Bucci. Any relation? No. Oh well.

Title: Ringside Sex (PBO, 1966)

Author: Ray Wilde

Cover artist: Hasty McCreeperson

• "You put your right boob in, you keep your left boob out ..."
• This title is pretty blunt. "Are you the RINGSIDE SEX I ordered ...?"
• Something about her position is phenomenally unsexy. Boxer man, however, is one hunky slab of man meat. My favorite part of this cover = his shoes.

• This is from the "Lull Them Into a False Sense of Calm With Ellipses and then SHOUT AT THEM WITH ALL CAPS" School of cover copy writing
• "Lady Fight Promoter" = Prince's never-released follow-up to "Lady Cab Driver"

Page 123~

I sat for about a half hour, sunk in thought, trying to untangle my thoughts and emotions [though mostly trying to think of another word for "thought"]. There was little Gay, back in Los Angeles ... and I suddenly realized that Gay didn't have a chance.

That's too bad, because I'm pretty sure Gay would love a chance at Captain ManMeat there.

~RP

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Paperback 242: Kid Galahad / Francis Wallace (Bantam 133)

Paperback 242: Bantam 133 (1st ptg, 1947)

Title: Kid Galahad
Author: Francis Wallace
Cover artist: Charles Andres

Yours for: $17


Best things about this cover:

• Unlike most Good and Bad Angels, Kid Galahad's Good and Bad Angels chose to reside in his armpits, not on his shoulders.
• Love how heads are crammed into every crevice of the painting. My favorite is the sweaty, neck-wiping Tintin lookalike (under the Kid's right glove, which appears to have been fashioned from the remains of an old football).
• This Kid has apparently been waxed within an inch of his life. "Behold my glistening torso!"

Best things about this back cover:

• LOVE the numbers of the ref's count on the ropes. Dramatic.
• Check out how lame the cover of the Little, Brown edition was!
• Jeez, first line of copy makes this novel sound like a slasher film. Or a tale of surgery.

Page 123~

She looked at him coldly. "Don't flatter yourself. I don't care whether you burn or freeze."

~RP