HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR ESP by Susy Smith

Whether instant or persistent, from Edgar Cayce to alpha states to Johann C.F. Zollner, Susy Smith's teaching us HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR ESP! Smith melds practical how-to advice with historical background on ESP in her usual professional treatment. Dig that funky vintage cover!

Booze is not recommended for cultivating psychic ability, as it turns out, though shamanistic drugs trips are successfully utilized by the Mixtecos. Smith references Freud and J.B. Rhine's perspectives on the ESP powers of the "primitive" mind, hitting the same notes as Brad Steiger did in his introduction to Warren Smith's Strange Powers of the Mind from 1968. Australian Aborigines, Maori, and "the Kaffirs of South Africa" are some of those peoples blessed with some atavistic connection to ESP. Smith also name checks Walter McGraw's The World of the Paranormal from 1969.

It's a blockbuster presentation, though Smith's credulity lessens the impact somewhat. Earnest attempts at probing the unknown nestle uneasily alongside scammers like "faith healer" Jose Arigo, promoted alongside other psychic surgeon frauds by the gruesome twosome of spooked up writer John G. Fuller and Dr. Andrija Puharich ... more background on Puharich can be found as part of Tanner F. Boyle's audio series on the Starseed phenomenon, which also touches on that old spoonbender Uri Geller. Geller's thankfully absent from Smith's text, as of publication not yet a titan of the paranormal entertainment field. Other vintage psychics like Peter Hurkos and Gerard Croiset do make appearances.

Smith provides a bibliography and index, not always a given for this field, and another reason her writing was a cut above. Despite some caveats, How to Develop Your ESP is a worthy addition to any library of the vintage paranormal.

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Pinnacle Books, 1973

QUEST OF THE DARK LADY by Quinn Reade

THE TERRIBLE SLIMY ONES! Author Ben Haas (writing as Quinn Reade) throws us into a dark, fractured fantasy world - our world, some 500 years after nuclear war has blasted us back into feudalism and spawned all manner of nuke mutants and hellbeasts. The Iron Lands stand as the last outpost of human civilization against a rising tide of slimy, gibbering death, and now that King Langax has taken ill it seems that this brief sputtering candle may be snuffed out. Unless ...

Unless the King's physician Delius can ferry the traitor Wulf, sprung from the dungeons alongside sexy brigand Reen, across the wastes of the Terrible East, in search of the Dark Lady. Who is she? Who can say, except that King Langmax spoke her name and nothing else before lapsing into coma. Now, the trio of doctor, swordsman, and robber must grope out into the unknown, and survive swarms of Slimy Ones, Formless Things, and the Gibberers (these last an especially nasty almost-human mutant strain). Now, they must survive their unknown, indecipherable QUEST OF THE DARK LADY!

Author Ben Haas (1926-1977)

Author Ben Haas was a steelworker who threw himself into writing, outputting a prodigious amount of titles over a brief career cut short by a heart attack in 1977. He mostly wrote westerns and Southern dramas, churning out genre staples to fund more highbrow work, and this was his only sword and sorcery title - too bad. More information about Haas is available at Lynn Munroe Books, and his canny notes on writing westerns have been posted at James Reasoner's Rough Edges blog.

Haas writes lean, with splashes of description that bring to life such horrors as the Slimy Ones, gigantic slugs that crawl into battle alongside the protoplasmic Formless Things and those freakshow Gibberers. Wulf and company's quest is fraught with tension, sexual and existential. Destiny and loyalty are fine words, but words they are, while Wulf and Reen's blossoming relationship faces challenges from the Dark Lady and her thuggish swordsman Koth. The ending is pleasantly ambiguous, our heroes having conquered in some manner, but with the future uncertain and their personal costs undetermined. Haas' subtlety here is artful, leagues ahead of the clumsy triumphalism that clutters the dregs of this genre.

His postnuke setting is also an example of my favorite subtype in swords and sorcery, with a pedigree ranging from Andre Norton to Thundarr the Barbarian. Only the pacing falters at times, with a little too much buildup at the beginning and then a climax that's over lickety split, though that's nothing new for this genre. His imaginative monster mashing, clean action, and piercing character work more than make up for any other failings, however.

Quest of the Dark Lady was reprinted by Belmont/Tower (with a variant badged as Pinnacle Books) in 1976 with a different cover by Jeffrey Catherine Jones, and the new promise of 16 pages of drawings and illustrations! If you remember Swords of the Barbarians you know what to expect: random medieval and classical bestiary stuff! Fun, cheap, and shameless, as as only Belmont/Tower could deliver!

Both covers by Jones do the job, in her usual strong but delicate style, even if as per usual the artwork is more evocative of genre than specific to details in the text. This title was also reviewed at the Paperback Warrior and the MPorcius Fiction Log, and we all agree it's pretty good stuff! MPorcius also notes Haas' cultured use of a work by Keats and how the author avoids the usual overused giant spiders, snakes, and goblins and trolls in favor of his own imaginative monster roster.

Wulf and company's Quest of the Dark Lady earns a nice 3/4 rating as an imaginative dark fantasy adventure.

Belmont Books, 1969

COVER UPDATES: SIGNS OF LOVE

An updated edition of this astrology love guide from Love Boat lady Jeraldine Saunders. Courtesy Pinnacle Books, 1980 (original pub. 1977).

SMOKE BREAK: Vintage Cigarette Ads

Put down that paperback and have a smoke! Tobacco giant Lorillard spent good money on these ads, inserted into countless vintage paperbacks for their brands Kent, Newport, True, and Max. Whether sandwiched into UFOs and ghosts, smut, or swords and sorcery, we've seen our fair share here at the blog:

A True ad from Tark and the Golden Tide, from Leisure Books

On the bitter cold eve of December, here are some more warm and fuzzy vintage ads culled from the paperbacks:

Lorillard's patented "Kent Micronite" filter was infamously made of crocidolite asbestos between 1952-1956, touted then as a safety measure and taste enhancer. Cigarette plant workers, their families, and smokers all were devastated by exposure to the carcinogenic fibers. The cigarettes in these '70s ads are sporting a replacement cellulose filter, though as multiple cancer/cigarette archives online will tell you, no filter of any kind is going to make smoking any safer, and neither will smoking "low tar" cigarettes such as Lorillard's True, advertised below:

However, smoking could bag you some sweet swag at a discount! For the proof of purchase of just two packs of Kent Menthols, you could get 60% off an ugly utensil set, some hideous "permanent dinner candles," or a cheap camera or radio. You'd be throwing money away not to send for them!

Here's another ad for True, the low tar cigarette marketed to smart fellas who knew smoking wasn't great for you but couldn't quite kick the habit. Meanwhile, Max was Lorillard's cigarette for women, complete with an insulting ad campaign and gimmick as detailed by Stanford's Tobacco Archive:

Ads from the 1970s featured stylish women who explained, “The longer they are, the fewer I smoke.” Because the statement is completely false, the woman goes on to say, “It’s wacky, but it works. Max 120’s take longer to smoke so you don’t light up as often.” The truth of the matter is that the human body will seek a certain amount of nicotine to feed addiction, regardless of the length of the cigarette.

This pair of ads from Stanford's collection illustrate:

"Whadda I know, I'm just a dipshit woman!"

Look sexy as hell while killing yourself

$19.95 plus two pack bottoms doesn't seem like such a steal compared to the knickknacks on offer from Kent, but I dunno, maybe they were really nice body wraps. Smoke 'em if you got 'em!