"A Labor of Lust" or How Her Boyfriend Was Changed Into a Furry, Drooling Creature

I haven't read "A Labor of Lust" but judging from the cover, I'd be damned interested in what's going on. Let's break it down. We've got a naked woman chained at the neck. In the background, we've got a hairy 70's dude being injected by a doctor. Same guy presumably morphs from hairy 70's dude to hairy, drooling creature in cage. Woman looks at hairy, drooling thing with utter horror. If that's not a winning plot formula, I don't know what is. Cover art by Ed Smith

Monkey See, Monkey Do

As I've said, vintage paperback collectors cannot resist a good green gal cover. It's like dangling a banana in a starving monkey's face. Which brings me to my next genre-- paperback collectors cannot ever ever ever ever resist a good ape cover, ESPECIALLY an ape cavorting with a beautiful woman. I'm not sure what it is-- could it be that some collector once somewhere decided to go bananas for ape covers and everyone else followed suit? Could it be as simple as the fact that ape covers are homages to "King Kong"? I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you that I could stare for hours at the caged primates at the zoo. The human qualities they possess fascinate me-- their movements, their self-aware expressions, the way they walk... Could it be that when we see an ape cavorting with a human it reminds us of the beast in all of us? Ah, I don't know. Maybe it's just kind of sexy.

Mistress-at-Large=Cover Art by Ed Smith
The Sin Veldt=Cover Art by Robert Bonfils
Captured=Cover Art by Gene Bilbrew (Eneg)

It's Not Easy Bein' Green

These two 1960's sleaze paperbacks have a lot in common. Both feature Ed Smith covers, women with green-tinted skin, and a good cat-fight. When you see two covers like this, by the same artist, that mirror each other, you wonder if the artist unconsciously did this or was rehashing an old idea. Whatever the case, you can never go wrong when you make green gals. NEVER. It's safe to say that's an unspoken rule of paperback collecting.