Bill wrote :
>
>
> Rene: Speaking of those Phantom Books, do you have a
copy of
Australian
> Vintage Paperback Guide? It's by your fellow
countryman Graeme
Flanagan,
> but it was published in the U.S. by Gary Lovisi's
Gryphon Books. You
can
> find out just about every title by your favorite
authors (both the
American
> and Australian titles), and there are many cover
reproductions. And
by
> the way, those old Phantom Books are selling for Big
Bucks on eBay.
>
Yep, I've got that one, Bill. My copy is WELL worn & as
you imply is indispensable for anyone into vintage Oz pb's
(or vintage pb's in general). I'm aware of the
collecatability of the Phantom (& Star, both published by
Original Novels Foundation) books in the US. They almost make
up for the fact that US pb's (barring the UK ed's of Gold
Medal) of the era are almost non-existent out here due to the
copyright related laws of the time that were designed to
protect the Oz publishing industry. I've mentioned the
downside - the upside is that some (a comparatively
small
& haphazard selection) was reprinted locally in digests
such as those mentioned & a huge industry of local clones
of US hardboiled stuff, such as Carter Brown, Larry Kent, etc
grew up.Whatever the literary quality of the C Browns (yet to
read one myself) the covers of the earlier digests &
later pb's were gloriously sexy (as were the pb's later pub'd
by Signet in the US, art by Bob McGinis) , the earlier
digests unusually for the time featured photos of live
"models" (they weren't professionals, apparently - you
couldn't get professional models to pose in such scanty
clothing in Oz in those days!) & are as sexy, if not more
so, than the more usual painted covers prevalent in the US,
etc at the time.By the way, Graeme Flanagan hosts 2 excellent
websites, one devoted to Oz pb's featuring 100's of scans
& one devoted to Bob McGinis, also 100's of scans. I'm in
a hurry right now, have to go but I'll supply URL's next
time. & if anyone's interested, I'll tell you my Big
Score story, on this topic.
Rene.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Feb 2002 EST