[go: up one dir, main page]

Showing posts with label Novelty Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novelty Design. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

57 Books from the University Book Sale: Book 56

Actually, I have no idea what the last two books are from the Book Sale. They appear to have sort of blended in with the rest of the collection. So the last two books will just be ones I can't place, not yet officially in The Collection — stuff that *could* have come from the Book Sale. Enjoy.

Title: Some Slips Don't Show (Pocket Books 6095, 1st ptg, 1961)
Author: A.A. Fair (aka Erle Stanley Gardner)
Cover artist: Harry Bennett

Yours for: $8

  • Expression on that guy's face is Nightmarish. That chair, however, is pure '60s gold, as is the Jackie-O style of Miss Primping there. I love the mysterious inscription over Dean Martin's ugly cousin's head: "Amy." It's as if he's thinking, "Amy, I'm sorry I barfed on your other dress."
  • I believe this painting represents the seated drunk green guy's perspective. He's so sloshed that the objects of his ogling have huge, sickly, sweeping motion lines. Throwing back her hair creates a Pollockesque swoosh. Kind of looks like the number "9."
  • On second, or third, glance, I believe that that is not a chair he's sitting in, but a hovercraft. He's reminding more and more of that Martian from the "Flintstones" every time I look at him.
  • Seriously? You decide to reprise an image from the front cover and you choose *him*!? "Hey, [hic!], look at me! I'm flying through your doorways! Lady!"
  • I'm not sure I get the joke? Is she naked under clothes? Is her slip really showing? Is there a pun on "slip," so that I'm supposed to understand that she's made an error of some sort. Is "slip" some horrible anatomical code word? Only the racially ambiguous drunk alien knows.

Page 123~

"And furthermore," I told her, "don't hand me that line about what I owe you. I don't owe you a damned thing!"

He's short, but Donald Lam can talk down to the ladies like nobody's business (I actually really like the Cool + Lam books by "Fair")

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Monday, November 5, 2007

Paperback 40: Best Seller Classics (nn)

Paperback 40: Best Seller Classics (nn) (1st ptg? No date given)

Title: Call of the Wild
Author: Jack London
Cover artist: N/A


There is only one reason I own this book: the texture. Can you see? Can you see the lizardy surface? It's just So Weird. I don't know when this edition was published, or why, but here it is. I believe I once saw one of these books in red. Same book ... just red. I may have dreamed that, but I'm pretty sure I didn't. There is literally No text on the back of this book. It's just ... blue. Apparently this textured cover thing was supposed to be fancy; a note on the publishing info page reads: "Specially selected immortal literature, handsomely designed with luxurious, leatherette finish covers." I will now assess the validity of this statement on a word-by-word basis:

  • "Specially selected..." - if they say so. I can't dispute this.
  • "... immortal..." - it's literature, not a vampire.
  • " ... literature, ..." - sure, go on ...
  • "... handsomely designed ..." - stretching it...
  • "with luxurious..." - I challenge
  • "leatherette finish covers" - so that's what you call that texture. "Leatherette." This must be one of those rare instances where the "-ette" suffix means "not."

RP
best counter