Paperback 1144: Cassidy's Girl / David Goodis (Gold Medal 544)

Paperback 1144: Gold Medal 544 (2nd ptg, 1955)

Title: Cassidy's Girl

Author: David Goodis

Cover artist: Uncredited [Owen Kampen]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $40

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA, Aug. 2025]

Best things about this cover: 

• "Do these pants make my ass look fat?," Cassidy wondered aloud. Cassidy's girl grunted noncommitally, too absorbed in her blank book to care about her boyfriend's sullen insecurity.
• Everyone here is too rounded and ... globular to be sexy. This includes his shoulder blades and her hair. Her arm looks like it contains no bones. That cannot be a comfortable reading position.
• Did the pagans collide head on with life? Is that why they went extinct?

Best things about this back cover: 

• Black on dark green is hard to read. Also, the green makes it look like Cassidy's girl is lying on a billiards table. 
• Why bother to do a completely new sketch that is so close to the cover image? Maybe this was the original sketch that formed the basis for the cover painting. Still, they could've done something different here. Without the bed for context, she just looks like she's taken an awkward fall. On a billiards table.
• "Powerful, salty, elemental." Like mussels, or Cassidy's armpit after a night of fighting and drinking and loving.

Page 123~

    There was the sound of a chair scraping. Cassidy opened his eyes and saw Spann rising and Pauline rising also. Spann aimed the heel of his palm at Pauline's face and Pauline leaned far back to get away, then came in very fast to collect a handful of Spann's hair. She pulled hard, and Spann opened his mouth wide and screamed without making a sound.

Oh, pagan. I get it now. (I don't get it)

~RP

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Paperback 1093: Black Friday / David Goodis (Black Lizard [unnumbered])

Paperback 1093: Black Lizard (unnumbered) (1st ptg, 1987)

Title: Black Friday

Author: David Goodis

Cover artist: Kirwan

Condition: 9 or 10/10 (they don't come any better—looks brand new)

Value: $25

Best things about this cover: 

• Well, sure, if you live in the sewer, every Friday is Black Friday
• A jug of wine, a single boot, a weird ... I'm gonna say 'coin purse' ... and thou ...
• It looks like a hand gun fossilized inside a coin purse, or handbag. Maybe if we could get a little more light in here...
• I love that Kirwan works his name into the objects in his paintings. No way you're gonna cheat him out of an artist credit! (check the neck on the bottle)
• I adore these late-80s, pre-Vintage takeover Black Lizards. They go through a white-spine and then a later black-&-gray spine incarnation. This one is of the white-spine variety:

• I'm so mad at the lack of complete vintage paperback checklists online. My kingdom for a one-stop shop featuring numbered lists of every paperback by ever imprint, including reprint houses like Black Lizard. Sigh. Everything out there is incomplete and/or hard to navigate—though I do like BookScans pretty well

Best things about this back cover: 

• Woof. Pretty bland back here.
• According to backyardchickens.com, pickled eggs are "100% absolutely horrible frozen." In case that Mike Wallington blurb was giving you any ideas.
• Ah, good, they gave Kirwan his artist credit after all. Nice.

Page 123~

"There's the other dog. Over there, Charley. You looking?"

"No," Charley said. "You look."

"Aw, don't, Charley. Don't be that way."

"What way?" Charley asked mildly. "I'm just telling you to look, that's all. I want you to have a good look."

"Jesus," Rizzio said. And then he sobbed it. "Oh Jesus—"

The dog is a Doberman and the Doberman ... seems to have had a mild disagreement with Charley and Rizzio's partner, Mattone. The phrase "there was little of his throat remaining" makes an appearance. I'm usually a "root-for-the-dog" kind of person, and since these guys shot a dog a few pages back, I don't feel so bad for Mattone, frankly.

~RP

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Paperback 1004: The Dark Chase / David Goodis (Lion 133)

Paperback 1004: Lion 133 (PBO, 1953)

Title: The Dark Chase (Nightfall)
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: [Julian Paul]

Condition: 4/10
Estimated value: let's say $50

Best things about this cover:

• My god her radiant disappointment is glorious! He was supposed to take her someplace swell tonight, I bet.
• Fantastic contrast between the tagline and the picture: "100 Savage Hours ... of Johnny Cleancut Polishing His Gun"
• "Ed Harris and Audrey Totter are ... Bored in Peoria!"
• She has what Christa Faust calls "Bitch Eyebrows"—great ones—and I don't know what you call that 1/2 akimbo hipcock of exasperation, but it's working. Truly GGA (Great Girl Art)
• This is the third cover in my collection (so far) with the "Paul" signature. The first one was ... the very first paperback I ever wrote about.

Best things about this back cover:

• Yeah. *That's* the part of the front cover we all want to look at again.
• My name is Jim Vanning / I'm way into canning / You all won't believe / The great ketchup I'm planning.
• I have a gun ... I will use it on them, on the whole gang of them ... and I will use it in a box ... and I will use it on a fox ...
• Real talk: David Goodis is one of the titans of paperback noir and this book is a treasure. It's beat to fuck, but in the most aesthetically perfect and readable way. Quintessential, this one.

Page 123~

He splurged on a brocaded robe.

Ew.

~RP

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Paperback 544: Nightfall / David Goodis (Lion Books 131)

Paperback 544: Lion Books 131 (1st thus, 1956)

Title: Nightfall
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $50

Best things about this cover:

• There are really too many things going on on this cover for it to make any kind of visual sense. It's like I"m watching a stage play about some woman who was hurt in a tragic accident and is now, through the love of one strong man, learning to walk ... but then the soul of the dead body represented by the chalk outline on the ground is so disgusted by the false pathos of the scene that he rises up in horror and flees ... and immediately has a heart attack. Nightfall!
• David Goodis was good at writing. His books are pretty collectible, and this one, despite some bumps and bruises, is clearly unread. Gorgeous. One of my earliest two-figure (i.e. it cost me more than $10) purchases, and probably the first that made me realize "holy shit, you are really collecting these things now."
• I do love the unusual, if creepy, color of this cover, and the bright, nutso font on the title.
• Movie tie-in! Collectible subgenre! Hey, is the ghost of the corpse ... is that ... fear hand?! Behind the "A" and the "L"!? Judges say .... ding ding ding!

Best things about this back cover:

• Bancroft! So early ...
• Aldo Ray sounds like a prog rock band.
• "Taut" ... "swift" ... "searing" ... nope, sorry, no "frank." 

Page 123~

The type he was dealing with was the most dangerous and clever of them all. On the surface a soft-voiced innocence, an unembroidered sincerity. Beneath the surface a chess player who could do amazing things without board and chessman.

"What are you doing?" "Playing chess in my mind." "Amazing."

~RP

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Paperback 302: Behold This Woman / David Goodis (Bantam 407)

Paperback 302: Bantam 407 (1st ptg, 1948)

Title: Behold This Woman
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: William Shoyer

Yours for: $40


Best things about this cover:

• Only four?
• Behold these boobs!
• Love the guy's hand: "... must ... not ... fondle ..."
• Notice how often woman is front and center on pb covers while man is off to side, lopped off, seen from behind, kind of in shadows, etc. Woman is meant to be a very particular dish, while man is usu. a kind of Everyman. Or Anysap, I guess.
• Now that I look more closely at the picture, I think that the guy is an interior decorator who is having a coronary after witnessing the pink rococo orgasm that is this room.

Best things about this back cover:

• I'm going to go with ... the knife jammed into the window sill. Yes, that's the best thing.
• Actually, I'm loving the little blue and pink Yes / Buts.
• Wow, the original cover girl for "Behold This Woman" was all kinds of ugly.

Page 123~

The gray-haired man was annoyed. "What do you mean, help you?" he said. "What do you take me for, an ignoramus?"

~RP

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Paperback 269: Night Squad / David Goodis (Gold Medal s1083)

Paperback 269: Gold Medal s1083 (PBO, 1961)

Title: Night Squad
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $30


Best things about this cover:

• One of the noirest, hardboiliest covers I've got. Iconic. Buncha badass fedora-wearing crime-fighters going to war. Strong light/dark contrast (just like the high contrast B&W of classic film noir). There's architectural detail in the dark parts, but you can barely see it. (actually, you can see it on the scan better than you can see it on the actual book ... weird)
  
• Love the up-shot angle. Gives the guy in the doorway and the whole building a looming, larger-than-life feel. Also like how his descent of the staircase reflects the cover copy: "... and sent him down into the brutal throbbing heart of the slums."
• Love the sickly green pall cast by the lamps. Also love the comically worried face of Fedora #2. Also love the wee policeman poised to billyclub the @#$# out of the next guy who looks at him funny.

Best things about this back cover:

• Blah.
• I thought it said "rocket boys" the first time I read it, and I wondered why the cops and NASA would be fighting over the same guy. "The terrifying story of two agencies bidding to give a man gainful employment!"
• Do you really aim a bullet at someone's head? You aim the gun. Unless your gun is broken and you are reduced to just hurling bullets at some guy's head. I guess that could happen.

Page 123~

"Where you going? McDermott asked.

Corey stopped. He stood with his back to the desk. He waited a few moments, then said, "Second and Addison. I got a date."

"With who?"

"A double gin," Corey said. "Is that all right with you?"

Great dialogue. That last line actually reads "Is that all right you you?" I hope you enjoy my non-silent emendation.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

The Great Paperback Project - Paperback 5: Pocket Books 833

Paperback 5: Pocket Books 833 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Of Missing Persons
Author: David Goodis
Cover artist: Ray App

Yours for: $22

"It's OK, baby. Take my hand. I'm a generic non-threatening white man. You've got nothing to worry about..."

Best things about this cover:

• Preposterously upblown skirt, visible bra, fierce heels - that is one hot ledge-walker. She won't get far in those heels, but who cares?
• That guy's tie is sweet. I want one like that.
• The art here is really dynamic - lots of action - and the situation is strange enough to make it really memorable.
• Is he yelling at her? Trying to help her? Showing her his stigmata?
• This book is by David Goodis, one of the most collectible and revered hard-boiled writers of the 50's.

I was able to afford this book only because of its slightly shabby condition - note the many creases, and the "5¢" scribbled in ink in the upper right corner. Still, the cover is vibrant enough, and the book itself solid enough, that I'm really happy with it. I really admire the cover artists who paint in a hyper-realist style, with lots of great little details. I especially like those who can capture action or movement convincingly. My favorite covers of all time tend to be ones where the depicted figures are caught in the middle of some movement.

David Goodis was both superior to and typical of mid-50s crime writers. His writing is outstanding, but his life ... well, its arc was like that of many others. Become a writer, have some success, get lured out to Hollywood, lose your soul, kill yourself. Actually, I'm not sure if he was a suicide, but he died very young. Nope, not suicide. Not exactly. Cirrhosis - so he was a heavy drinker, which also puts him in Good Company, writer-wise. He wrote Down There, the basis for the Truffaut movie "Shoot the Piano Player."

RP