Tuesday 6 December 2011

MASQUE OF A SAVAGE MANDARIN

Panther Science Fiction paperback, 1974. Artist uncredited,
possibly Bob Haberfield.

"Nicholas Coad, the Savage Mandarin: detached, scientific, 'converted' into a state of 'sublime, cosmic indifference'. He is working on a unique project - the 'conversion' and liberation of the soul or higher self from chains of physical bondage. His 'patient' is his good-natured neighbour, Rogers, up-and-coming ad-man. Rogers does not realise that his piercing headaches are caused by the fearsome, hypnotic in coad's flat. But as coad brings him further along the path to liberation, he has no choice. After all, his brain now resembles a chunk of Gruyére cheese..."

Well, you don't see a book cover like that every day (!) the artwork looks familiar but I can't place a name. Haven't read this one yet (like so many others - my 'reading list' is seven feet tall) but judging from the synopsis on the back cover, it's the literary equivalent of taking a few 'shrooms. Thanks to Mark for suggesting the cover artist might be Bob Haberfield, it looks psychedelic enough to be his work to me!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

>>Artist uncredited.

Looks like the work of Bob Haberfield. The style is very much his, and he did many covers during this period for Panther... and quite a few of them disturbed the hell out of me as a child.


Mark

Anonymous said...

Wait ' til you read the book!

Anonymous said...

This is definitely Bob Haberfield. I remember him doing it. The man holding the hatchet is somebody I knew. He was living in Mid-Wales at the time.

Unknown said...

@ Anon / 22 Nov

There's so much more I want to know about this comment!