Realm of The Alien by Chester Delray (Grafton Books, 1945)
Swarthyface by Norman Lazenby (Grafon Books, 1945)
Two wonderful little books from Eire's Grafton publishers (on off shoot of The Monument Press) both published in 1945 and contain a healthy 64 pages a piece. These books are as rare as the Monarchy paying taxes.
Realm of the Alien has perhaps one of the classic 'bad covers' of any era, just look at the little satanic beast and tell me it doesn't put a smile on your face? well the baying alien mob trying to pop a cap in the yellow wearing fashion conscious crews ass, should at least bring out a the rumble of a smirk? no? then bollocks to you Mr and Mrs.
Moving on slowly we have the insanely titled Swarthyface, which means person of colour or dark complexion, hmmmmmmmmm. Well I opened the book at a random page were a dude was yelling at Smarthyface, something about looking like a big black ape with a Spanish accent. So having not delved into the delights of the book as of yet, it sounds like a could be a bit of a 'racey' yarn to say the least.
Reverse of both books, Realm of The Alien has a brief synopsis whilst Smarthyface dons a classic stop smoking add, very common in paperbacks and pulps of the 1940's/50's.
The art on these two books really takes the breath away. I wondered if the artist, probably a comic book artist of the time, could be credited with the Alien piece. The other is pure gold.
ReplyDeleteProbably Mark, but infomation on these books is so scarce. The other Blue Star Adventure series artwork is completely different and more typical of the era. Agreed about Swarthyface, so good. I have some nice stuff to put on in the coming days, thanks for the interest Mark, keeps me going lol.
ReplyDelete