Sunday, November 4, 2012

Paperback 578: False Witness / Helen Nielsen (Ballantine U2150)

Paperback 578: Ballantine Books U2150 (2nd ptg, 1966)

Title: False Witness
Author: Helen Nielsen
Cover artist: [illegible]

Yours for: $10

BB2150.FalseWitn
Best things about this cover:
  • When Drapery Attacks!
  • I give up; what the hell am I looking at? Looks like a Cirque de Soleil act gone very, very wrong.
  • That dude's like, "Uh ... Can you help me? I think I'm supposed to be on a different cover?"

BB2150bc.FalseWitn

Best things about this back cover:
  • Why would you emphasize words that mean nothing to a potential reader? "'RANDOM NAME!'!? Ooh, this looks good..."
  • This description is very, very confusing. I really lost track of things at "foreigners."
  • Looks like strange photographs of roses were a big thing in late '60s cover design.

Page 123~

I didn't comment. The silence was ominous enough without confusing it with words I couldn't prove. 

Sometimes you just gotta shut up and enjoy the ominousness.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

A said...

This cover is very strange. It looks like some kind of drapery owl attacking some chick and then some random puppet dude pops up to check it out. Kinda creepy.

Marlee Matlin said...

You know, if you comment you eliminate the silence, not confuse it. Well, maybe if you comment in ASL you can both confuse and retain the silence. Yeah, that was probably what the character meant.

Doug Brunell said...

I actually like this cover. Modern noir mystical nonsense that it is.

Paul Chadwick said...

That's Robert Foster, signed r foster.

He had an odd technique; he'd montage photographs, rephotograph the piece and adhere a large flat print to a board. Over this he'd paint with oils.

Some great photo-realistic covers, but often with painterly effects, too.

Somebody has a Foster set on flickr; google him.