The Paperback Show Podcast

  In our second episode of the Paperback Show, host Ricky Lee Grove presents a brief history of the first major paperback publisher - Pocket Books. Next, he looks at the amazing phenomenon of the Vampire Hunter D novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano since 1983 and published in English initially in 2005 by  DH Press  and  Digital Manga Publishing . Dark Horse publishing took over the series in 2014. The original Japanese novel series has reached 35 complete novels. The series was originally published by Asahi Sonorama under the Sonorama Bunko label.  In January 2011, Asahi Sonorama published the first spinoff light novel series set in the Vampire Hunter universe, a prequel series written by Kikuchi titled Another Vampire Hunter: The Noble Greylancer Banpaia Hantā Anazā: Kizoku Gureiransā), illustrated by Ayami Kojima , artist and character designer for the Castlevania series of video games. Only two volumes were published...

 I recently acquired four new Ross MacDonald vintage paperbacks and wanted to share them. Ross MacDonald is one of my favorite American mystery writers. He was the first mystery author to receive a front page review in the New York Times Book Review (Underground Man, reviewed by Eudora Welty) and he was instrumental in taking the mystery genre out of the pulps and into literature. I still think he tops Chandler and Hammett in his writing skills. You will be richly rewarded if you venture into your local used bookstore and pick up one of his Lew Archer novels. You can find more about Ross MacDonald  here