Book Covers

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  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    I’ve never seen the hardback version of Caravan Of Vaccares - an interesting cover - they certainly didn’t make the best of the movie tie-ins - much better to have used the movie posters. How about posting your review of the movie Caravan To Vaccares @chrisno1 it would be interesting reading 🙂

    Harold Robbins was uniformly lambasted by critics but he sold 750 million books so he must have appealed to the book reading public somewhat. His early books were pretty good to be fair, The Carpetbaggers and The Adventurers were huge sellers and movies were made with Alan Ladd and George Peppard in the former and the latter being directed by our own Lewis Gilbert. His novels gained fame by the liberal use of sex and violence, which became more kinky and gratuitous as each book was published. From the mid 70’s onwards the books became parodies of his early work and were basically just scenes of sordid sex. He died in poverty after blowing his 50 million dollar fortune. He is famously referenced in the Waldorf Salad episode of Fawlty Towers which describes his popularity succinctly. When I began selling books as a living, he sold very, very well, but by the mid 80’s the sales became a trickle and I only kept a few of the early novels on the shelves.

    A Stone For Danny Fisher was made into the film King Creole starring Elvis Presley.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,902Chief of Staff

    Here's another flashback to my early reading--specifically, early 1980s--when I read Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars books. These covers, by Michael Whelan, were a big selling point.


    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Those Mars covers are excellent, thanks for posting, @Hardyboy and they remind me of the Thongor series by Lin Carter which were also very popular…Thongor was a Conan inspired character and Carter wrote some continuation books in that series also alongside many others…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,327MI6 Agent

    Puts me in mind of the Fighting Fantasy adventure books. There were some great covers in that series;


    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Those game books were very popular and the covers were always excellent, as per your post above, @The Red Kind

    John Wyndham’s The Day Of The Triffids is one of my favourite novels. He also wrote The Midwich Cuckoo’s which was made into a marvellous movie called Village Of The Damned in 1960 (forget the travesty of the 1995 version). Triffids has been accused of being too cosy, but I don’t agree, it’s a wonderfully paced novel which slowly unravels into a post-apocalyptic masterpiece. It has never been successfully filmed and needs to be faithful to its time period to make it work properly.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,327MI6 Agent

    I agree @CoolHandBond, The Day of The Triffids is worthy of a quality film version, although I do enjoy the 1962 version, and probably if they remade it today it would be a bit like Spielberg's War of The Worlds. Entertaining in parts but falling short in other areas.

    The 1981 TV version of Day of The Triffids scared the hell out of me as a child.

    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Although most of the covers leave something to be desired I’m using today’s post to plug one of my favourite authors, Carl Hiaasen. He writes humorous crime novels, always set in Florida, and frequently involve political corruption, environmental issues and fraudulent crooks. My favourites are Lucky Me, Skinny Dip and Sick Puppy, but they’re all recommended.


    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • JellyfishJellyfish EnglandPosts: 470MI6 Agent
    edited March 2022

    Carl Hiaasen is a cracking author! I just started reading Sick Puppy last night. I couldn't believe my luck when I found nine paperbacks in a second-hand shop for £2 each. Unfortunately for the purposes of this thread, your point about the covers is right; most of the ones I have are the ones from your fourth picture where the cover's a small picture on a coloured background. Given how much goes on in the books, there's plenty of opportunity for something far more exciting.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Enjoy Sick Puppy, @Jellyfish it’s a good one and your purchase sounds brilliant 😁

    Stephen King needs no introduction, I’m a big fan of his work, his description of small town America is unsurpassed, his only failing, in my opinion, is his inability to end novels in a successful way, more often than not they are unsatisfactory.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,196MI6 Agent

    Wouldn't it be great if Stephen King wrote a sequel to "It" and titled the novel "Not it"? 😁

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,832MI6 Agent

    And the final book in the series would of course be This Is It. I'll get my coat. 😀

    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,196MI6 Agent

    🤣🤣

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Some nice femme fatale covers…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,595Chief of Staff

    Lovely stuff, CHB.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,196MI6 Agent

    I can see that women involved in crime always have a deep cleavage. Now I know more about the behaviour of criminals and I'll look out for women with generous cleavages in the future.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Thank you, Barbel, and I don’t think you need much persuasion in looking out for generous cleavages, N24 😁

    John Norman’s Gor series of novels are very popular even though they take a lot of criticism for the portrayal of women in servitude. I can’t comment because I have never read one, but I may get around to reading one at some point. The covers were always good, though.

    Taking inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs, the series depicts a planet which is linearly opposite to Earth and portrays a sword and sorcery existence. There are 36 books so far in the series.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    I’ve said many times before that a cover can sell a book and I often wondered why some publishers took no care to try and increase sales. I have no idea how much they would have to pay an artist to paint a cover but I’m convinced it would be well worth the price. These covers below in my opinion sell the book totally, notwithstanding that some of the authors are already popular.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,421Quartermasters

    That cover for A Grue of Ice certainly sold me on that book. I knew I had wanted to try Geoffrey Jenkins for a while, but that cover illustration absolutely convinced me that Grue would be my first Jenkins.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,536MI6 Agent

    The Freedom Trap looks a bit like Pan's initial LALD

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    I hope you enjoy A Grue Of Ice when you read it @Golrush007 I can’t vouch for it as I haven’t read it.

    Richard Laymon wrote good gory horror novels, these are some of the covers, the books are better than the covers.


    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    The Planet Of The Apes movie was based on a book translated as Monkey Planet. It stated a movie franchise and then a tv series. Several tie-ins were released…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,421Quartermasters

    @CoolHandBond, A Grue of Ice was a good read.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Some more book series less well known outside of the USA…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    A selection of movie tie-ins…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,902Chief of Staff

    I had that movie tie-in copy of LOGAN'S RUN. . .who knows? I may still have it around somewhere!

    Anyway, here are some more high school readings--Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld novels, introduced to me by my dad. Here are the first three novels--which are easily the best, and the original art is awesome.


    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Those are excellent covers @Hardyboy thanks for posting them.

    Some TV tie-ins…very popular, and before the internet came onto the scene, completists were scrabbling to get their hands on missing books from their sets. There were those who left lists of books they wanted, so we would reserve those for them if they came into stock (especially for those customers who lived far away and didn’t ever come into the shop and we would mail them) and there were those who only wanted to buy them if they saw them on the shelves, as reserving books wasn’t the proper way to do things and the magic of finding a wanted book only became real if they found them by browsing the shelves (I’m with the latter group myself, the joy of physically finding a desired book by chance far outweighed an ordered item).



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,060MI6 Agent

    never seen that Addams Family tv show tie-in, but I do have several pocketbooks of Chas Addams' New Yorker cartoons that the show was based on

    and if youve never seen the New Yorker cartoons the the tv show was based on, they looked like this

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,996MI6 Agent

    Those are all new to me @caractacus potts thanks for posting.

    Ricard Stark (Donald E. Westlake) wrote the Parker series. Parker is a crook who is involved in heists, teaming up with other characters who often double-cross him. Several one off films have been made from the books - usually changing the Parker name - but Jason Statham starred in the latest one just named Parker, the first time the actual name was used. Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson, Jim Brown and Robert Duvall have played the other versions.

    Donald E. Westlake wrote under several pen names as well as his own, he honed his craft on soft porn pulps before moving onto hard boiled thrillers.

    High time an Amazon series was made from these books, they are really good.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,595Chief of Staff

    I've never read any of the Parker books, but I did read a few of Westlake's Dortmunder series (eg "The Hot Rock", "Bank Shot"). Very funny in a quirky way.

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