* Something of a grab-bag -- the top row includes:
The second row includes:
THE ERECTION SET was included even though it was a photo cover, partly because it was one of the more memorable ones -- OK, it's sleazy, but it does get your attention -- and partly because of the story behind it. Yes, this woman was at one time Mrs. Mickey Spillane. He had divorced his first wife in the early 1960s and ran into Selma AKA Sherri Malinou a few years later when she was posing for a cover picture for one of his novels -- not this one. He bribed the photographer to keep taking pictures of her even after the film ran out and chatted her up.
They got married in 1965. The marriage surprisingly lasted until 1983, crashing in what was said to have been a really ugly divorce, the details of which I remain blissfully ignorant. Apparently the settlement was not very much to her advantage, suggesting that Mickey had the goods on her, or at least superior legal clout. At last notice, she was playing agent for trash celebrities, the kind of folks who get their 15 minutes of fame on reality TV shows and the like.
According to the story, during their divorce Sherri said that Mickey was "an alcoholic, a sexual pervert, and a liar." Mickey nailed her with the heavy return fire on the exchange, however, saying: "She should live to be a hundred. But right away!"
