Sunday, January 13, 2013

Paperback 591: Cropper's Cabin / Jim Thompson (Black Lizard nn)

Paperback 591: Black Lizard nn (1st ptg, 1987)

Title: Cropper's Cabin
Author: Jim Thompson
Cover artist: Kirwan

Yours for: $12

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Best things about this cover:
  • "Look ma, Sissy done given birth to a gun!"
  • I love these '80s Black Lizards. They have their own unique look, a kind of '80s/'50s hybrid, rather than just looking like imitations / parodies of the vintage style. Lurid, but stylized.
  • Wow, someone's been practicing his action-hand drawing.
  • That lady's hair and dress are both aptly nightmarish.
  • I like when artists signatures are visible, and especially when they are worked into the art itself (Robert Schulz did this quite a bit)

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Best things about this back cover:

  • Sadism, incest, and castration are (for better or worse) three of the most common themes in Thompson's writing.
  • Don't like the design here so much: too texty, and it's all a little too left-justified.
  • Black Lizard (post-Vintage buyout) was my entree into the world of hardboiled crime fiction. Someday I'll tell you the story of the bookstore point-of-purchase display that changed my life (or maybe I've already told that story—blog long enough, and you forget what you have and haven't told...)

Page 123~

I stopped and whuffed my nose out good and dug out my eyes, and it helped a lot. And my hands didn't slip any more. Because ...

Now, this is more like it, I thought. Why didn't I think of this ...

Because I wasn't holding on to anything.

Despite what it apparently means, 'whuffed' is my new favorite word.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

capewood said...

Jim Thompson is Stephen King's favorite crime novelist?

Deniz Bevan said...

I had the same reaction as capewood. Off to Google!

I had so much trouble passing that captcha that I just had to leave a name at the 10th try said...

I didn't know that if you wuffed your nose on your hands it formed an effective stick-em. Wide receivers should take note.

So, Jim Thompson is the result of an 'ungodly' union of Chandler, Hammett & Woolrich. Ok, if you say so, but who would be the reult of a godly union of Chandler, Hammett & Woolrich. Enquiring minds...

Bram said...

… and it's all a little too left-justified.

But at least they're hanging their quotes.