Roger Zelazny paperbacks, Avon
Twentieth Century Ultrabold is set stacked and staggered, with tightly spaced lines and letters and an omitted i dot.
Avon published a number of paperback editions of books by three-time Nebula Award winner Roger Zelazny (1937–1995). The series design features big type in Twentieth Century Ultrabold, tightly spaced and in white against black, with the colored art by Ron Walotsky sandwiched between author name and title. Smaller text is added in all-caps Helvetica. No typographer is credited.
If the info on Internet Speculative Fiction Database is correct, the first books issued in this design were Lord of Light in January 1969 and Creatures of Light and Darkness in August 1970. Additional titles followed after a longer break, starting with the first three books from The Chronicles of Amber: Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, Sign of the Unicorn, all in 1976; then Doorways in the Sand and The Hand of Oberon, both in 1977. The final book in this design was The Courts of Chaos in 1979. It was continued for reprints until 1983. The first four books in the Chronicles of Amber series were also published in a box set titled The Four Amber Novels.
The same lockup was also used on the title page.
Doorways in the Sand is the only book to feature a purple background.
1 Comment on “Roger Zelazny paperbacks, Avon”
I just found one of these in my courtyard a few months back, brought it home and was thinking about posting it here ever since!!