Monday, September 19, 2016

Paperback 974: Escape to Earth / ed. Ivan Howard (Belmont L92-571)

Paperback 974: Belmont L92-571 (PBO, 1963)

Title: Escape to Earth
Editor: Ivan Howard
Cover artist: Ed Emshwiller ("emsh")
Designed by: Irving Bernstein

Estimated value: $15
Condition: 9/10

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Best things about this cover:
  • Love the "Barbarella" vibe on this one (though "Barbarella" is still several years in the future).
  • This is late Emshwiller. Still great Emshwiller. Beautiful, decorative, intricate space-tech surfaces. Bottom half is not much to look at, but the top is lovely.
  • Novelets! Is that how you spell that? Reminds me of when I first saw "cigaret" (Raymond Carver). Disorientingly defrenchified.
  • Hilariously, Google dictionary flags "novelette" as "derogatory."

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Best things about this back cover:
  • I like the red-bordered spreadsheet look. Very early-80s / "Stranger Things"
  • Hey, look!: credits not just for Emshwiller, but for the *designer* as well!? Why can't all books be this good about crediting the art people!?
  • Manly Banister is the politest porn name.

Page 123~

[from "Temple of Despair" by M.C. Pease]

"You're dressed like a priest," Brandis said; "I don't want to get stoned."

One of the great out-of-context lines in Pop Sensation history.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

2 comments:

Todd Mason said...

One of Howard's "stealth" best-ofs from Robert A. W. Lowndes's magazines at Columbia Publications, a side business for one of the Archie Comics guys. RAWL as editor "discovered"/was first or among the first to publish or regularly publish writers Carol Emshwiller (Ed was her husband, he often used both her and himself as models), Edward Hoch, Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson...Howard, in his turn, a bit of a Man of Mystery...

DemetriosX said...

Looks like an interesting collection. Banister, Loomis, and Pease didn't write that much. Banister was mostly a fan, while Loomis also wrote in other genres, especially westerns. I can't find much of anything about Pease. And James MacCreigh is actually Fred Pohl.