#paperback original

[thepopculturearchivist]

Murder is My Dish (1957) is an early entry in the Chester Drum (aka Drum Beat) by Stephen Marlowe (aka Milton Lesser). Drum is a private eye with an FBI background who often gets involved in foreign intrigue. In this one his pursuit of the killers of a colleague takes him to a fictional country very much based on the Dominican Republic under the rule of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. One of his antagonists is modeled on the once-notorious Porfirio Rubirosa, a gigolo with numerous celebrity wives and ties to shady fixers and killers -- a figure much written of in the men's magazines of the time. Anyway, Drum ends up with the manuscript of an explosive expose of the dictatorship and hopes of avenging his friend by killing the dictator's head goon. His ability to maneuver amidst the local power players seems a little implausible and Marlowe uses the dictator's crazy daughter both to meet an apparent quota of titillation and as a dea ex machina to eliminate Drum's main enemy. This is no masterpiece but I dig this continuation of the hard-boiled genre and especially appreciate the bloat-free narratives of this era. Like most paperback originals of the 1950s, this gets the job done in under 200 pages and doesn't feel like it's missing anything important. Then again, I don't feel the modern urge to know why a protagonist chooses a particular job, chooses to get up in the morning, or simply is who he or she is -- but I'll leave it at that before I sound even more like the old man yelling at the cloud. I like older, terser pop fiction and I'll try to honor them by writing terse reviews going forward.

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage Paperback - Tales From The Crypt #01 (1964)

Cover by Frank Frazetta

Ballantine Books

[tomoleary]

Robert Abbett - Gothic Romance Paperback Novel Cover Painting Original Art (Bantam, c. 1960-70s) Source

[driveintheaterofthemind]

The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer (1971)

Art by Mitchell Hooks

Bantam Books

[vertigoartgore]

2000's Superman: They Saved Luthor's Brain ! tpb cover by penciller Stuart Immonen and inker José Marzan Jr.

[jay5464]

The Branded Hero Volume 1: Baxter the Branded is out on Paperback on Amazon! Please go support the official release

Thousands of years ago in the Realm of Ocaleveth, the Demon King Ira had waged war against all living beings. Chosen by the Council of Chronos, Philip: The Hero of Light used the power of the Holy Sword to seal away the monster and bring peace to the world. But the thousand-year-old seal was undone and the Demon King has returned to Ocaleveth. I bet you're probably wondering who is responsible. Well...that person was me...

[dirtyriver]

Fantastic Four #19, cover by Alex Ross

[driver270]

From miner to poet to gladiator to revolutionary to tyrant to paper to plastic.

[bookwyrminspiration]

my bookstore has a used copy of babel for 10 dollars chat do i do it. chat. chat guide me.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Rom Epic Collection Volume 1: ‘The Original Marvel Years’ by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and more. Cover by Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein. Out in April 2025.

"At last, the classic adventures of Rom in the Marvel Universe are collected in paperback!

Learn how Rom gave his life in service to his home planet, Galador, becoming a Spaceknight sworn to protect it from the evil Dire Wraiths! Rom tracks these vile creatures across the cosmos to Earth, where they have infiltrated the highest levels – including S.H.I.E.L.D. itself! Armed with his energy analyzer, only Rom can see the true form of the Dire Wraiths – and with his neutralizer, he can blast them to Limbo! But what will Earth make of this armored invader? Will his quest be aided or hindered by encounters with the X-Men and Jack of Hearts? And can he survive deadly clashes with super villains like the Mad Thinker and the Space Phantom? Collecting ROM (1979) #1-20."

[alwaysalreadyangry]

rereading sorcery and cecilia for the millionth time and i love it SO MUCH and yet have never read the sequels. i think i love the original one so much that i am too scared to read the sequels in case they ruin the magic.

[mittens-02]

The JoJo inflation is insane…

[kvroii]

The hardcover edition of MYRIOS -Complete Illustrated Series- is now available in many regions! Please enjoy it and welcome it kindly!

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Paperback - Ice by Arnold Federbush

Art by Lou Feck

Bantam Books (1978)

[grandwretch]

im sorry but you cannot attribute every single human behavior to capitalism. yes capitalism has shaped literature for the worst. yes the bookish world would probably be a better place without goodreads or booktok.

however the concepts of bibliomania and tsundoku were created in the 1800s, well before there were thousands of ads for shiny covers and celebrity authors being flung into your face. people were already buying more books than they could ever possibly read when books were still made with manual typesetting. you can't blame this one on amazon.

that's not even touching the fact that bibliomania is sometimes a symptom of ocd, or the existence of hyperlexia.

sometimes, people just like to do something, and it makes them act irrationally. and, yes, capitalism corrupts that. but to pretend that all human excess is because of capitalism is simply erroneous. you need to stop pretending that eradicating capitalism will make us perfect creatures free from hedonism oh my fucking god

[waterkangaroo]

Ace Books picks up books 4-6 in Dungeon Crawler Carl series for publication. Books will release 1st half of 2025.

CONGRATS MATT!!!

Buy those original cover paperbacks now people, cause they're going out of print soon!