Thursday, October 9, 2014

Paperback 824: Bullet Proof / Amber Dean (Popular Library SP294)

Paperback 824: Popular Library SP294 (1st ptg, 1964)

Title: Bullet Proof
Author: Amber Dean
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $15

PopSP294

Best things about this cover:

  • Wow, turns out you can do A Lot with a fairly monochromatic palette. This is fantastic.
  • For a simple cover, it's amazingly suspenseful. Great use of light, especially on her face. Her face is the key—the craning around and the look of wide-eyed horror really sell the idea that something terrible is just on its way, just out of view.
  • The creepiness of the bondage is amplified ten-fold by the simple, naked mattress. How can a cover be so elegant and so sleazy at the same time?


PopSP294bc

Best things about this back cover:

  • I still hate this logo. It does not look like "CRIME." It looks a poorly executed fertility statue.
  • "Virginia Kirkus calls it 'non-stop'"—that made me LOL: "Seriously, it wouldn't stop. I as like 'Stop! Why won't this story stop!?' But it just kept going!"
  • "Readable!"—these just get better and better. "… in that it was made out of recognizable words, which were arranged in vaguely grammatical patterns…"

Page 123~

"It was their job, Hallie. Police have to learn how to destroy human dignity, or they'd never break through the really calloused, the hardened."

I'm just gonna leave that there.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

3 comments:

DemetriosX said...

The front cover is basically the forerunner of today's digitally lit movies where everything is orange or teal.

Karl said...

Agree with you on all the great features of this cover. It's also interesting how the rifle both is and isn't pointing at the woman. If it were drawn with correct perspective, it would clearly not be pointing at her, so you have to wonder if the "incorrect" perspective was done deliberately.

And yeah, who the heck would include the word "readable" in isolation in a review-quote? The NYT had several valid words of praise in their review, so why include what looks like a left-handed slap in the face?

Rex Parker said...

Testing.