Friday, November 14, 2014

Paperback 831: April Evil / John D. MacDonald (Gold Medal d1579)

Paperback 831: Gold Medal d1579 (1st thus, 1965)

Title: April Evil
Author: John D. MacDonald
Cover artist: Bill Johnson

Estimated value: $10-$15

GM1579

Best things about this cover:

  • The hot new book that finally answers the question: How many trenchcoated, fedoraed detectives does it take to find a lost contact lens?
  • You know what they say: April Evil brings May Bondage.
  • After looking at this picture, I wonder if it's not the "hold-up gang" that's "sleepy."
  • This is a fine, if weird, painting. Good use of small canvas. Her simple white top and blue skirt, surrounded by the lurking, drab frames of generic menace, make her really pop off the page.


GM1579bc

Best things about this back cover:

  • Ugh.
  • Don't you hate it when women choose the easy sluttish rut? Challenge yourselves, ladies!
  • How can you be "going to flab" while "losing something in the guts department"? Writing 101: don't let your stupid metaphors cancel each other out.


Page 123~

She smiled, and she felt cat-agile, rabbit-soft, mare-ready.

This was a vast improvement from a half hour earlier, when she had felt dog-tired, armadillo-hard, and lemur-unprepared.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

3 comments:

Jean said...

She's a petting zoo!

DemetriosX said...

The front cover is just too wordy. And setting all that text off in a box detracts even further from the art.

I do like the way they highlighted MacDonald's middle initial, though. "Yep, THAT John MacDonald!"

vintagehoarder said...

For a moment there I thought the title was also the name of the protagonist: "April Evil, supervillain!"

Alas, no.