"H" For Horrific By Sutro Miller (Sentinel Publications, 1947)

"H" For Horrific By Sutro Miller

1. Two Died, One Survived.
2. His Lordships Request.
3. The Man Who Hated Open Windows.
4. The Intruder.
5. The Little Green Man.
6. Ships That Pass.

Classic 1940's Pulp from Sutro Miller, nice blurb on the bottom, Miller For Chillers! Not the most horrific of covers but the fonts are nice enough, 6 stories for 1/6, not a bad return all in all. The good news is it's not that rare so copy's turn up quite frequently which is always nice.

Short and sweet this time, next up is a couple of Detective Pulps from the late 1940's with some serious nipple action.

Ray Theobald Art, Three From the Curtis Warren Stable.

Winged Guns By Ken Ford ( Curtis Warren Books, 1953 )

Six Gun Law By Tex Faro ( Curtis Warren Books, 1953)

Space Men By David Shaw ( Curtis Warren Books, 1951)

A nice trio of Mushroom titles popped through my letter box this week. Two things connect them, they were all published by the prolific Curtis Warren Publishers based in Holbex House London and the cover art is by the wonderful Ray Theobald.

Spanning Aero Fiction, Western and Sci-Fi genres. Pick of the bunch has to be the Space Men cover, unusually this doesn't bare the authors name (he penned a further two books for Curtis) as if stating  "SCIENCE FICTION" is enough of a selling point alone.

 This is the Swedish Pingvin Books edition, utilising similar  artwork as Theobald's, they published a large number of Curtis Warren titles.

Ray Theobald's distinctive signature.

The Alien With A Swarthyface, Two Classic 1940's Pulps From Eire.

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.

Changeover by Duane Davis ( 1968, In Library Books) & Crazy For it by Todd Kingley ( 1968, New Library Books )

Two stunningly sleazy titles from this Las Vegas publisher, Changeover is not a simple tale of woman dumps man, women goes with woman, nope here is a snippet from the back cover including the misspelling of Desirable.

Most Teasing of all was the freak-ish change in a certain delectable, desireble, delicious babe that he was interested in. For He found out that she hadn't always been a woman"

The cover art is marvellous, with everything busting out ( including perspective )  Mr dapper giving it plenty of squeeze on the charm front, as the two (or possibly one) Lady's give him the look that says, well let's do rude things motherfucker. 

Next up is Crazy For it, look at that bastard on the cover, five women all with smiles on there faces, what's his secret? well it could lay in the hands of artist Ed Alexander who crafted this epic I've just banged these five beavers and it was easy type cover art.

Just don't tell my wench about these books stuffed under the bed.

Sexhaven by Richard Pauve (Raven Books, 1964)

Front and back covers.

The story of a lesbian love and queer desire in the gambling casinos of Lake Tahoe.

She risked her life for a "dyke" she created with her own hands.

Classic lesbian Pulp with some of the greatest cover blurbs of all time. Need I say more? OK well yes the artwork is pretty substandard, but the lovely lady on the flip is a real bonus and has a look of Diana Dors circa 1978. This is stamped "international edition" what this means is any ones guess????? One for the top shelf or under the counter good Sir.

Range Stories By Gunne Hutchinson (Date Unknown possibly mid 1940's?)

Another recent western acquisition is this rather obscure Pulp From Eire titled Range Stories by Gunne Hutchinson (gotta be a classic pseudonym?) Now Eire didn't publish that many Pulps, but what they did knock out is rare and highly sort after.

My research has drawn blanks (bit of western innuendo geddit?) the only information I could scrape from the book is a English distributor Fudge & Co. LTD Sardinia House London W.C.2. The cover states Y.J. McCann & Co Ltd Dublin Eire, this one presumes is the publisher? it also has two price tags, one for 20c and another for 1/. this could be a ploy to make buyers think it's an American publication, thus a more authentic Western yarn.

Unusual for the period is the lack of adds in the book, not a single one. So your left with some pretty decent b-grade western material and a fantastic three colour cover, very primitive (that word again) but so evocative and full of life. This is what collecting old mags and books is all about, discovery and adventure for under $5.

Western Shorts: First Selection (Gerald Swan, 1944)

Gunhawk Branded By Clarry Alton

Death in The Quiet Canyon by Dallas Kirby

Dobbie, The Bandit and Dolores By F.W. Murray

The Second Notch by  Wallace Arter

I picked up a nice batch of Pulps for around £3, including some nice Detective/Crime stuff. It also contained some nice Western Pulps, something I don't go looking for but will pick up the nice ones. Anyways they arrived in the post and the guy had put this one in for free (amongst another three) what a gent.

Gerald Swan is a publisher which I collect for it's raw primitive style covers and I didn't have this one as it's quite a rare book from 1944, it's the first in a series of five(they also published many other Western Pulps) 

What's great about these books also is the writers pen names like Dallas Kirby, this was common practise back in the 1940's/50's to make the authors sound 'American'. Take a peak at the Cowboy on the cover, total bad ass who'll slug your grandmother in her butt crack.