On Jan 20, 2006, at 7:02 AM,
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Might be fun to have some sort of discussion,
rememberances, etc.
> about two
> of the publishers that, in my mind, had more impact
on the type of
> fiction
> we all enjoy...and, in fact, introduced it to many
of us in the first
> place
> (depending on your generation): Gold Medal and Black
Lizard.
And there's the rub. It depends on the generation.
For some of the young 'uns, who knows? It might even be Hard
Case Crime that served as their gateway publisher. And for
some of the older folks here, Knopf might have made all the
difference. And then there are those who may spend way too
much time haunting old bookstores and may have thought the
books that most shaped our reading all had maps on the back
cover and a keyhole on the front or bore the Harlequin
logo
(check out some of the HB writers tiny little Harlequin
published before deciding to focus on romance).
Personally, my intro to HB probably falls somewhere between
Gold Medal and Black Lizard -- it was probably whichever
publisher (or was it different publishers?) that did the
paperback reprints of Ross Macdonald and Chandler in the
seventies. I was a snot-nosed would-be punk/art student but
the retro/pulpy Chandler covers and Mitchell Hooks-painted
montages on the Archer novels probably attracted me as much
-- at least at first -- as the writing.
Black Lizard? For all the tainted-by-nostalgia hoopla, I
thought the cover illustrations were over-rated. A
disappointing number of them seemed rushed to me, and
featured poorly rendered, vaguely simian-looking men and
women and awkward or unimaginative layouts, with no real
sense of style. Although I realize some of you may be quite
fond of them. Sorry.
The over-riding design of the covers, though -- the torn edge
black/grey hook and the bold, italic white sans serif
typography -- was distinctive and quite good.
Kevin
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Jan 2006 EST