@Gymkata Those two covers are good - I’m presuming they’re recent editions, but they retain the look of the sleaze covers so popular in the 50’s-70’s era.
@The Red Kind / @Napoleon Plural / @caractacus potts Only the 1960’s James Bond Annuals are strictly considered to be ‘annuals’, the others were one-off ‘special editions’. There was one for Octopussy as well. The first double bill I saw was DN/FRWL, in 1965 (I think), and there were many more after that. There was a time when a Bond film doubled with a Clint Eastwood film, I remember seeing FRWL/HANG ‘EM HIGH in the early 70’s. I also remember seeing LALD/TMWTGG during the hitherto unheard gap of three years (74-77) between Bond films ( how we would pray for 3 year gaps, now being the norm!!!!).
The complete James Bond Annuals are here. Also below are three books published before the producers used the titles for Bond movies. (
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
there was a newly published book from James Cain a few years back (2012) called Cocktail Waitress, that looks to be part of the same retro-pulp series @Gymkata showed examples from: i think the logo says Hard Case Books (EDIT: Jellyfish corrects me below, its Hard Case Crime)
Cain died in 1977, and somehow this completed novel was never published before, I'm not sure why. I read some of his later novels, and they were more character studies than crime thrillers, this one's a lot closer to those great Lets-you-and-me-kill-my-husband plots, but updated to what we now call MadMen era. And good use of the Unreliable Narrator and an implied shock ending you have to be paying attention to catch!
EDIT: is Retro-Pulp the right word? Pulp fiction was the magazine format popular mostly before and during WWII. These Hard Case books are in the style of the sordid pocket book covers of the 1950s, a different publishing format and slightly different aesthetic. But i dont know a name for that sort of 1950s pocketbook style so concise as the word Pulp.
@caractacus potts Those 60’s Bond annuals had articles about the movies but all the fiction was about other spies - a bit of a con, really. I had signage in my shop which covered most of subjects - westerns, thrillers etc. One whole wall was devoted to what I called Pulp and then some of that was broken down into more specialised terms such as lesbiana, gangs, bad girls etc. Whether retro-pulp is a term used nowadays I’m not sure but it sounds good to me.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I want to cover a publisher called Greenleaf over the next few days (some Greenleaf covers have already been posted in earlier posts). This was an American company that published lurid pulp paperbacks covering a multitude of subjects. They were prosecuted many times for issuing ‘obscenity’,’ and many booksellers refused to sell them, but they were extremely successful. At their peak they were publishing over 400 titles per year.
One thing that has always puzzled me is that the great Jack Cassidy starred as publisher Riley Greenleaf in the Columbo episode Publish Or Perish. Greenleaf murders a hack writer (played by real life pulp author Mickey Spillane) when he was going to move to another publisher. Whether this was a knowing nod to the real Greenleaf publisher or just one of those amazing coincidences, I have never been able to find out.
Today I’m covering those titles that were a play on already famous publications or films - these are all real - no fake covers here, I promise you. Greenleaf published under their own name and several imprints, so the Greenleaf name will not be on all the covers but they were actually published by them.
Whether Eon ever sued, I do not know.
Some more are below.
Another batch of Greenleaf covers will be posted tomorrow - this time covering some of their ‘series’.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Hard Case Crime is a publisher which reprints older, out-of-print crime thrillers as well as publishing new books, including a few by Stephen King. I've collected all of them and have over a hundred, which should keep me occupied for a few years. They did one a few years ago called 'Forever and a Death', which was originally intended to be a James Bond film plot but instead ended up as a book:
I had signage in my shop which covered most of subjects - westerns, thrillers etc. One whole wall was devoted to what I called Pulp and then some of that was broken down into more specialised terms such as lesbiana, gangs, bad girls etc.
@CoolHandBond do you have any photos of your shop? it just sounds better and better every time you describe it
I hope I'm a character in this exciting adventure! but the ones that made me laff most of the more highly esteemed literary classics like Catch Her in the Raw
@Jellyfish I didnt know about Donald Westlake recycling an unused Bond script, I should look for that one.
Lets post the artwork properly since thats what the threads about and Forever and a Death follows the other Hard Case Crime covers. Folks who dont know how, should be able to do that by copying any image you find (rightclick and Copy) and pasting it directly into the post as you write. (but i think rightclick isnt a thing if you're using a Mac)
@Jellyfish "I didnt know about Donald Westlake recycling an unused Bond script, I should look for that one.
Lets post the artwork properly since thats what the threads about and Forever and a Death follows the other Hard Case Crime covers. Folks who dont know how, should be able to do that by copying any image you find (rightclick and Copy) and pasting it directly into the post as you write. (but i think rightclick isnt a thing if you're using a Mac)"
Thank you for posting the picture, Caractacus. All the Hard Case Crime books have painted covers, with a number of them by Robert E. McGinnis, who also painted James Bond film posters.
All the Hard Case Crime books have painted covers, with a number of them by Robert E. McGinnis, who also painted James Bond film posters.
yes theyre good! did McGinnis do any of the ones we've looked at so far? that Forever and a Death does have a composition typical of classic Bond movie posters
when I'm looking for a book and I have the choice of a modern trade paperback where the cover text claims what fine literature it is vs a vintage pocketbook where the exact same story is presented as a sordid thrill, I'll always go for the vintage pocketbook . so its nice theres a modern publisher who caters to my tastes and does a good job of it. The Penguin Bonds from about a decade ago were also good, though not quite so persuasively vintage.
I guess I'm not the only one who prefers the sordid thrill aesthetic of vintage pocketbooks, if Hard Case Crime can find a market. And there's a few local used book stores that have shelves like CoolHand describes, featuring specifically such vintage pulpish editions, If a store has such a shelf I always go to that shelf first.
Napster said:
harhar! considering the types of covers CoolHand keeps coming back to, you might not be wrong! I'd still like to see the real store...
I know we all love these painted covers, but my spies & spying collection is short on those. These two are the US and UK printings of Larry Forrester's A Girl Called Fathom, the novel which the Raquel Welch spy caper movie Fathom was based on. Curiously the book came out some time after the film. I will be honest and say my copies are bit fragile and I've never read the book. Perhaps I should buy a reading copy. Maybe it's on kindle.
@Napoleon Plural 😂😂😂 great picture, but I was in South London, but I know Soho very well, I used to go to an Italian restaurant in adjoining Air Street on a regular basis, as I knew the owners.
@caractacus potts Pulp fiction, or in general terms, sleaze, were the bulk of my stock, fine literature (Dickens etc.) I didn’t stock, renowned fiction (Fleming, Le Carre etc.) sold well, but it was the continuing series and sleaze paperbacks that sold best, and realised the highest prices.
@chrisno1 Please keep posting covers, painted or photos, it doesn’t matter, they all bring back memories.
Does any Columbo fan know the answer to my query in post #103 ?
As promised, some more Greenleaf covers below - these were part of their continuing series collections (the 0008 ones have already been posted earlier) and some of them were reprints of stories from pulp magazines. These more standard covers came at a time when they were being prosecuted for publishing obscene material so were less controversial - controversial covers will resume tomorrow 🙂
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I’m a fan of the Universal Monsters film series (the originals, not the current crop) and this trilogy of books continued the stories in written form. I think they missed the essence of the movies on books 2 and 3, more evocative artwork of the time may have driven sales so that the series continued. Return Of The Wolf Man was scarce and attracted prices of GBP 100+
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Two 60’s books on the Bond novels which are scarcer than most…
got this one, I think it might have been the only paperback copy I've ever seen. don't think I realised it was Kingsley Amis till I got home and did a bit of research But its a PAN cover with the then-standard font and a the image is a prototype of the 1970s "messy desk" editions, so it seemed official and therefor necessary
I once saw the hardcover at a Pulp and Paperback Collectors fair, it was expensive, and a very different design
this one I don't recognise at all, any information as to contents?
heres a picture of the hardcover of the Book of Bond, showing the dustjacket slightly moved aside to reveal the "real" cover underneath (would that be an undercover cover?)
the only copy I ever saw the seller wanted $150-. but that was before I ever met anybody selling first edition Flemings, which make this seem like a bargain in comparison.
(I once entered a bookshop with all the Fleming Cape editions on a shelf behind the counter, minus Casino Royale and one other. Like a fool I asked if I could look, and the shopkeeper let me. I picked up Live and Let Die like it was any other paperback, as usual went to the first endpaper to see if the price was written there, and I think it was $4000-, that sort of range. so I looked no further, very gingerly put it back on the shelf and backed away before I could break anything)
the hardcover of the Book of Bond is a completely different thing from the paperback, its more like a work of Pop Art, close to square shaped, with colourful stylised graphics on every page, and hidden underneath the dust jacket is a completely different title (the Bible Revised to Be Read as Literature), to fool the other spies!
or maybe its a reversible dustjacket? I just found this image in my Archives
and this one, which sure looks to be the "original" of the alternate cover. Was it a real book whose artwork the designers appropriated as part of their gag?
EDIT: aha! see this blog called Include Me Out, that seems to be where I found a couple of those images above. They have a dozen or so hi-rez scans showing examples of the interior design and the text, I encourage folks to follow that link and check them out
These are my softbacks of The Diamond Smugglers. My copy of the 1960 cover, on the left, is a first edit softback, not very rare, but a gem in my collection.
When I started this thread I was hoping that apart from seeing old covers that would bring back memories, that I would also get to see covers that are new to me. This has happened, so thank you all, but none more so than @caractacus potts with your reminiscing of the double cover on The Book Of Bond. I have never seen this and never heard of it - what a find!!!!
The copy of Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation was the only one that I ever had - it turned up in one of the boxes that my associate sent over from the USA, on a regular basis. I only scanned through it briefly, it was a critique of the novels - like Amis did - but not as good. I sold it to one of my regular customers for GBP 100 and probably could have got more.
You have a nice collection of books @chrisno1 and I look forward to seeing more.
”Bad Girls” was a popular theme amongst collectors, and this section of covers are indicative of that:
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The copy of Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation was the only one that I ever had - it turned up in one of the boxes that my associate sent over from the USA, on a regular basis. I only scanned through it briefly, it was a critique of the novels - like Amis did - but not as good. I sold it to one of my regular customers for GBP 100 and probably could have got more.
published 1965, Three Star Books. 128pgs, first 9pg section by Paul Anthony (billed as "Fleming's drinking buddy"), followed by a multi chapter essay called The World Of James Bond, by Jacquelyn Friedman.
anybody have a copy? I know I have the O F Snelling book which is mentioned in that Blog, and a couple of other mid60s quickie cash-in's, but this one doesn't sound familiar.
I had a look at my box full of Fleming PANs, and as well as some continuation authors, found these, I'll look for images later
The James Bond Dossier (PAN, 1965, you should all have this)
the Book of Bond (PAN, 1965, actually does have the interior graphics and text design elements from the hardcover above, but these do not reproduce so effectively in black and white on smaller sized pulpish paper)
Double O Seven James Bond: A Report, by O. F. Snelling (Panther 1964, similar to the Dossier but published earlier. Chapters are: His Predecessors, His Image, His Women, His Adversaries, His Future)
I*n Fl*m*ng Alligator by the Harvard Lampoon (Vanitas, 1962, this is a cool artifact, and preceded the films!)
Ian Fleming Man with the Golden Pen by Eleanor and Dennis Petrine (Swan, 1966, an early biography, I think it preceded Pearson)
For Bond Lovers Only compiled and edited by Sheldon Lane (Dell, 1965, includes 16pgs of Bondgirl photos entitled Bond's Broads(!), cover claims it collects essays by or interviews with... Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, George Simenon, Allen Dulles, Jack Fishman, Chandler, Deighton, and other. I need to look at this one closer)
Good information @caractacus potts and that Torrid Teens cover slipped in accidentally - it should have been saved for a future post about Girls In Danger.
When it comes to pulp fiction, the biggest name was Mickey Spillane. His character, Mike Hammer, private eye, is justly famous, and is ‘film noir’ on the written page. He sold 225 million books - that is some feat.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The Kung-Fu movie craze of the early 1970’s spilled over into publishing and a bunch of series were launched, with the TV tie-in of Kung Fu #1 selling half a million copies. Many more followed but the popularity was short lived and by the end of the 70’s sales were few and I only kept a few on the shelves for nostalgic reasons only. The artwork is formulaic and the general lack of pretty girls on the covers hampered sales.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Three examples of the Earth facing destruction - the first one must have inspired the movie The Day After Tomorrow. End of the world books were popular and these covers are nice.
These won’t be new to Bond fans, but I only saw these once or twice at most during 40 years of trading.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
@caractacus potts DN is the hardcover US version with the unusual spelling of Doctor instead of Dr. I’m not sure about TMWTGG, I know I’ve seen the cover and I cannot find the link for it now. On reflection, I’m beginning to think that this may be a photoshopped picture with the TMWTGG details being replaced instead of the proper book title - I’m certain that the picture was on a cover that I had at one time - I can only put it down to my ageing brain mistaking it for TMWTGG - if I can find out any more detail I will.
A definite change of pace today - when I was a child I used to spend some of my pocket money at the local secondhand bookshop and Enid Blyton books were high up the list of my favourites. I’m pretty sure that most British kids will have read some of her books at one or another. These are some of my favourites…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
I stand corrected.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
@Gymkata Those two covers are good - I’m presuming they’re recent editions, but they retain the look of the sleaze covers so popular in the 50’s-70’s era.
@The Red Kind / @Napoleon Plural / @caractacus potts Only the 1960’s James Bond Annuals are strictly considered to be ‘annuals’, the others were one-off ‘special editions’. There was one for Octopussy as well. The first double bill I saw was DN/FRWL, in 1965 (I think), and there were many more after that. There was a time when a Bond film doubled with a Clint Eastwood film, I remember seeing FRWL/HANG ‘EM HIGH in the early 70’s. I also remember seeing LALD/TMWTGG during the hitherto unheard gap of three years (74-77) between Bond films ( how we would pray for 3 year gaps, now being the norm!!!!).
The complete James Bond Annuals are here. Also below are three books published before the producers used the titles for Bond movies. (
any good content in those Bond annuals a completist ought to know about?
I don't believe I've ever seen one of them! so you British Bond fans arent so hard done by, you got these annuals we never got over here!
there was a newly published book from James Cain a few years back (2012) called Cocktail Waitress, that looks to be part of the same retro-pulp series @Gymkata showed examples from: i think the logo says Hard Case Books (EDIT: Jellyfish corrects me below, its Hard Case Crime)
Cain died in 1977, and somehow this completed novel was never published before, I'm not sure why. I read some of his later novels, and they were more character studies than crime thrillers, this one's a lot closer to those great Lets-you-and-me-kill-my-husband plots, but updated to what we now call MadMen era. And good use of the Unreliable Narrator and an implied shock ending you have to be paying attention to catch!
EDIT: is Retro-Pulp the right word? Pulp fiction was the magazine format popular mostly before and during WWII. These Hard Case books are in the style of the sordid pocket book covers of the 1950s, a different publishing format and slightly different aesthetic. But i dont know a name for that sort of 1950s pocketbook style so concise as the word Pulp.
@caractacus potts Those 60’s Bond annuals had articles about the movies but all the fiction was about other spies - a bit of a con, really. I had signage in my shop which covered most of subjects - westerns, thrillers etc. One whole wall was devoted to what I called Pulp and then some of that was broken down into more specialised terms such as lesbiana, gangs, bad girls etc. Whether retro-pulp is a term used nowadays I’m not sure but it sounds good to me.
I want to cover a publisher called Greenleaf over the next few days (some Greenleaf covers have already been posted in earlier posts). This was an American company that published lurid pulp paperbacks covering a multitude of subjects. They were prosecuted many times for issuing ‘obscenity’,’ and many booksellers refused to sell them, but they were extremely successful. At their peak they were publishing over 400 titles per year.
One thing that has always puzzled me is that the great Jack Cassidy starred as publisher Riley Greenleaf in the Columbo episode Publish Or Perish. Greenleaf murders a hack writer (played by real life pulp author Mickey Spillane) when he was going to move to another publisher. Whether this was a knowing nod to the real Greenleaf publisher or just one of those amazing coincidences, I have never been able to find out.
Today I’m covering those titles that were a play on already famous publications or films - these are all real - no fake covers here, I promise you. Greenleaf published under their own name and several imprints, so the Greenleaf name will not be on all the covers but they were actually published by them.
Whether Eon ever sued, I do not know.
Some more are below.
Another batch of Greenleaf covers will be posted tomorrow - this time covering some of their ‘series’.
Hard Case Crime is a publisher which reprints older, out-of-print crime thrillers as well as publishing new books, including a few by Stephen King. I've collected all of them and have over a hundred, which should keep me occupied for a few years. They did one a few years ago called 'Forever and a Death', which was originally intended to be a James Bond film plot but instead ended up as a book:
I read this a couple of years back. I'll see if I can howk out my review and put it on the Last Book Read thread.
CoolHand sez:
I had signage in my shop which covered most of subjects - westerns, thrillers etc. One whole wall was devoted to what I called Pulp and then some of that was broken down into more specialised terms such as lesbiana, gangs, bad girls etc.
@CoolHandBond do you have any photos of your shop? it just sounds better and better every time you describe it
I hope I'm a character in this exciting adventure! but the ones that made me laff most of the more highly esteemed literary classics like Catch Her in the Raw
@Jellyfish I didnt know about Donald Westlake recycling an unused Bond script, I should look for that one.
Lets post the artwork properly since thats what the threads about and Forever and a Death follows the other Hard Case Crime covers. Folks who dont know how, should be able to do that by copying any image you find (rightclick and Copy) and pasting it directly into the post as you write. (but i think rightclick isnt a thing if you're using a Mac)
Happy to oblige, @caractacus potts 😀
Roger Moore 1927-2017
@Jellyfish "I didnt know about Donald Westlake recycling an unused Bond script, I should look for that one.
Lets post the artwork properly since thats what the threads about and Forever and a Death follows the other Hard Case Crime covers. Folks who dont know how, should be able to do that by copying any image you find (rightclick and Copy) and pasting it directly into the post as you write. (but i think rightclick isnt a thing if you're using a Mac)"
Thank you for posting the picture, Caractacus. All the Hard Case Crime books have painted covers, with a number of them by Robert E. McGinnis, who also painted James Bond film posters.
But .... who will buy the adults?
jellyfish said:
All the Hard Case Crime books have painted covers, with a number of them by Robert E. McGinnis, who also painted James Bond film posters.
yes theyre good! did McGinnis do any of the ones we've looked at so far? that Forever and a Death does have a composition typical of classic Bond movie posters
when I'm looking for a book and I have the choice of a modern trade paperback where the cover text claims what fine literature it is vs a vintage pocketbook where the exact same story is presented as a sordid thrill, I'll always go for the vintage pocketbook . so its nice theres a modern publisher who caters to my tastes and does a good job of it. The Penguin Bonds from about a decade ago were also good, though not quite so persuasively vintage.
I guess I'm not the only one who prefers the sordid thrill aesthetic of vintage pocketbooks, if Hard Case Crime can find a market. And there's a few local used book stores that have shelves like CoolHand describes, featuring specifically such vintage pulpish editions, If a store has such a shelf I always go to that shelf first.
Napster said:
harhar! considering the types of covers CoolHand keeps coming back to, you might not be wrong! I'd still like to see the real store...
twofour said:
But .... who will buy the adults?
and a fine and witty response!
I know we all love these painted covers, but my spies & spying collection is short on those. These two are the US and UK printings of Larry Forrester's A Girl Called Fathom, the novel which the Raquel Welch spy caper movie Fathom was based on. Curiously the book came out some time after the film. I will be honest and say my copies are bit fragile and I've never read the book. Perhaps I should buy a reading copy. Maybe it's on kindle.
@Jellyfish I love those Hard Case Crime covers!
@Napoleon Plural 😂😂😂 great picture, but I was in South London, but I know Soho very well, I used to go to an Italian restaurant in adjoining Air Street on a regular basis, as I knew the owners.
@caractacus potts Pulp fiction, or in general terms, sleaze, were the bulk of my stock, fine literature (Dickens etc.) I didn’t stock, renowned fiction (Fleming, Le Carre etc.) sold well, but it was the continuing series and sleaze paperbacks that sold best, and realised the highest prices.
@chrisno1 Please keep posting covers, painted or photos, it doesn’t matter, they all bring back memories.
Does any Columbo fan know the answer to my query in post #103 ?
As promised, some more Greenleaf covers below - these were part of their continuing series collections (the 0008 ones have already been posted earlier) and some of them were reprints of stories from pulp magazines. These more standard covers came at a time when they were being prosecuted for publishing obscene material so were less controversial - controversial covers will resume tomorrow 🙂
I will go back to Greenleaf covers another day.
I’m a fan of the Universal Monsters film series (the originals, not the current crop) and this trilogy of books continued the stories in written form. I think they missed the essence of the movies on books 2 and 3, more evocative artwork of the time may have driven sales so that the series continued. Return Of The Wolf Man was scarce and attracted prices of GBP 100+
Two 60’s books on the Bond novels which are scarcer than most…
And 2 covers with basic artwork from the early days of Greenleaf publishing…the artwork was rudimentary but as the saying goes…sex sells…
And then they started to get a bit more detailed…
coolhand said
Two 60’s books on the Bond novels which are scarcer than most…
got this one, I think it might have been the only paperback copy I've ever seen. don't think I realised it was Kingsley Amis till I got home and did a bit of research But its a PAN cover with the then-standard font and a the image is a prototype of the 1970s "messy desk" editions, so it seemed official and therefor necessary
I once saw the hardcover at a Pulp and Paperback Collectors fair, it was expensive, and a very different design
this one I don't recognise at all, any information as to contents?
heres a picture of the hardcover of the Book of Bond, showing the dustjacket slightly moved aside to reveal the "real" cover underneath (would that be an undercover cover?)
the only copy I ever saw the seller wanted $150-. but that was before I ever met anybody selling first edition Flemings, which make this seem like a bargain in comparison.
(I once entered a bookshop with all the Fleming Cape editions on a shelf behind the counter, minus Casino Royale and one other. Like a fool I asked if I could look, and the shopkeeper let me. I picked up Live and Let Die like it was any other paperback, as usual went to the first endpaper to see if the price was written there, and I think it was $4000-, that sort of range. so I looked no further, very gingerly put it back on the shelf and backed away before I could break anything)
the hardcover of the Book of Bond is a completely different thing from the paperback, its more like a work of Pop Art, close to square shaped, with colourful stylised graphics on every page, and hidden underneath the dust jacket is a completely different title (the Bible Revised to Be Read as Literature), to fool the other spies!
or maybe its a reversible dustjacket? I just found this image in my Archives
and this one, which sure looks to be the "original" of the alternate cover. Was it a real book whose artwork the designers appropriated as part of their gag?
EDIT: aha! see this blog called Include Me Out, that seems to be where I found a couple of those images above. They have a dozen or so hi-rez scans showing examples of the interior design and the text, I encourage folks to follow that link and check them out
Wow. Never seen that.
These are my softbacks of The Diamond Smugglers. My copy of the 1960 cover, on the left, is a first edit softback, not very rare, but a gem in my collection.
When I started this thread I was hoping that apart from seeing old covers that would bring back memories, that I would also get to see covers that are new to me. This has happened, so thank you all, but none more so than @caractacus potts with your reminiscing of the double cover on The Book Of Bond. I have never seen this and never heard of it - what a find!!!!
The copy of Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation was the only one that I ever had - it turned up in one of the boxes that my associate sent over from the USA, on a regular basis. I only scanned through it briefly, it was a critique of the novels - like Amis did - but not as good. I sold it to one of my regular customers for GBP 100 and probably could have got more.
You have a nice collection of books @chrisno1 and I look forward to seeing more.
”Bad Girls” was a popular theme amongst collectors, and this section of covers are indicative of that:
most of those Bad Girls look like they know exactly what theyre doing, but the cover to Torrid Teens is really sad, much too close to reality
CoolHand said:
The copy of Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation was the only one that I ever had - it turned up in one of the boxes that my associate sent over from the USA, on a regular basis. I only scanned through it briefly, it was a critique of the novels - like Amis did - but not as good. I sold it to one of my regular customers for GBP 100 and probably could have got more.
I found more info on Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation in the Glorious Trash blog
published 1965, Three Star Books. 128pgs, first 9pg section by Paul Anthony (billed as "Fleming's drinking buddy"), followed by a multi chapter essay called The World Of James Bond, by Jacquelyn Friedman.
anybody have a copy? I know I have the O F Snelling book which is mentioned in that Blog, and a couple of other mid60s quickie cash-in's, but this one doesn't sound familiar.
I had a look at my box full of Fleming PANs, and as well as some continuation authors, found these, I'll look for images later
The James Bond Dossier (PAN, 1965, you should all have this)
the Book of Bond (PAN, 1965, actually does have the interior graphics and text design elements from the hardcover above, but these do not reproduce so effectively in black and white on smaller sized pulpish paper)
Double O Seven James Bond: A Report, by O. F. Snelling (Panther 1964, similar to the Dossier but published earlier. Chapters are: His Predecessors, His Image, His Women, His Adversaries, His Future)
I*n Fl*m*ng Alligator by the Harvard Lampoon (Vanitas, 1962, this is a cool artifact, and preceded the films!)
Ian Fleming Man with the Golden Pen by Eleanor and Dennis Petrine (Swan, 1966, an early biography, I think it preceded Pearson)
For Bond Lovers Only compiled and edited by Sheldon Lane (Dell, 1965, includes 16pgs of Bondgirl photos entitled Bond's Broads(!), cover claims it collects essays by or interviews with... Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, George Simenon, Allen Dulles, Jack Fishman, Chandler, Deighton, and other. I need to look at this one closer)
Good information @caractacus potts and that Torrid Teens cover slipped in accidentally - it should have been saved for a future post about Girls In Danger.
When it comes to pulp fiction, the biggest name was Mickey Spillane. His character, Mike Hammer, private eye, is justly famous, and is ‘film noir’ on the written page. He sold 225 million books - that is some feat.
The Kung-Fu movie craze of the early 1970’s spilled over into publishing and a bunch of series were launched, with the TV tie-in of Kung Fu #1 selling half a million copies. Many more followed but the popularity was short lived and by the end of the 70’s sales were few and I only kept a few on the shelves for nostalgic reasons only. The artwork is formulaic and the general lack of pretty girls on the covers hampered sales.
Three examples of the Earth facing destruction - the first one must have inspired the movie The Day After Tomorrow. End of the world books were popular and these covers are nice.
These won’t be new to Bond fans, but I only saw these once or twice at most during 40 years of trading.
Pleasant memories inspired by the Kung Fu books, thanks CHB.
where are those editions of Doctor No and Man with the Golden Gun from? never seen those two before
@caractacus potts DN is the hardcover US version with the unusual spelling of Doctor instead of Dr. I’m not sure about TMWTGG, I know I’ve seen the cover and I cannot find the link for it now. On reflection, I’m beginning to think that this may be a photoshopped picture with the TMWTGG details being replaced instead of the proper book title - I’m certain that the picture was on a cover that I had at one time - I can only put it down to my ageing brain mistaking it for TMWTGG - if I can find out any more detail I will.
A definite change of pace today - when I was a child I used to spend some of my pocket money at the local secondhand bookshop and Enid Blyton books were high up the list of my favourites. I’m pretty sure that most British kids will have read some of her books at one or another. These are some of my favourites…