It's a bit late but I just thought I'd say (quite) a few
words in defence of Paperback Parade: Firstly, as the name
suggests, it is a magazine devoted to collecting paperbacks
& hence it is not a literary magazine as such.There is a
big emphasis on paperback covers & cover art &
paperbacks as collectable items. Having said that, it does
print, at least on occasion, articles of interest to members
of this list. In particular, #15 has an interview with Arnold
Hano, editor of Lion books, publisher of the early pbo's of
Jim Thompson & David Goodis & other noir classics.
This is the only interview with Hano that I'm aware of &
for me personally it's worth the
(very high) price of a back copy. Issue #33 features a nice
overview of Dick Carroll's editorship of Gold Medal, i.e.,
the classic period of Gold Medal & an interview with his
successor, Knox Burger, by George Tuttle which is very
interesting indeed. These two articles make an excellent
complement to Ed Gorman's ubiquitous Gold Medal article,
which at one stage I had at least 3 or 4 copies of from
different sources. To my mind, this issue is invaluable to
anybody seriously interested in Gold Medal books & the
authors GM published. The second issue is the amateurishness
of the production values. I must admit, I come from a
generation when that sort of thing was considered a virtue -
you don't know how to play music? Just get a guitar, mike,
whatever & go for it, learn in public.Hand produce your
own fanzines, etc.So, basically it hadn't occurred to me that
it would be an issue with some (most, probably) people. The
early issues appear to be photocopied, by issue #33 Lovisi
appears to have caught up with the computer era (it did come
out in 1993). The covers from at least #20 are in colour,
earlier ones in black & white.I haven't seen any more
recent issues than 1993 so it's possible that contemporary
issues are slicker looking. The difference between #15 &
#20 is marked. #33 is similar in quality to #20 but has many
more pages than it does, as #20 has more pages than #15. All
my 3 issues have clear print & I don't recall any
significant problems with typos, etc. It may be that Lovisi
just prints articles as received. He is, I assume, a more or
less one-man show, so to my mind there is some excuse. My
edition of Lawrence Block's "Such Men Are Dangerous" is
harder to excuse. I believe that there are more typos than
pages, literally, in Carroll & Graf's edition. Surely if
either Carroll or Graf was snowed under with work they could
hire a third person to do some proofreading :-). Although
this book is an extreme example it is by no means a rare one
in US paperback publishing. The last issue was price. Yes,
they are expensive but this is a very small operation & I
doubt they could survive if they were a lot cheaper. I don't
profess to know the economics of the situation but common
sense dictates that a small publisher has to charge more.
Again, it's easy to see, at least for me, why "PP" would cost
so much but it's much harder for me to understand why the
trade paperback of the most recent Richard Stark novel sells
here for $38AUS ($19US), at least $15AUS more than another
similarly sized TP which probably is printed on better paper
with more expensively produced covers. & I'm even more
mystified why a re-issue of a Richard Stark novel in a
similar edition goes for $35AUS. Anyhow, it's a shame people
were disappointed with "Paperback Parade". I personally love
all sleazy vintage paperbacks, good girl art & similar
trash & I'd buy all these mags if I had the money but
that's just me. I can't comment on the issues other people
have sighted (& cited) but I really believe anybody who
is serious about noir, particularly the publishing history of
it, & Gold Medal books especially would get their money's
worth from issue #33.Oh, & if anybody is so disappointed
with their copies of "PP" that they want to get rid of them
I'll be happy to send you the price of postage &
packaging.
Rene
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